Socialist Students was established in the late 1990s by members of the Socialist Party (SP) who had built support for the Save Free Education Campaign amongst students in the battle over the introduction of fees when the Labour Party under Tony Blair was elected in 1997.

Socialist Students describes itself as a politically independent organisation, and has its own national committee meetings and annual conference at which motions are debated and voted on.

It is affiliated with International Socialist Resistance and takes part in campaigns such as Youth Fight for Jobs and "Hands off our Schools" against city academies.

The two organisations have a joint presence on anti-war and anti-G8/climate change demonstrations, which they term the "Red Contingent".

[8][9] So far students from 103 different schools, colleges or universities have signed the Campaign to Defeat Fees petition.