Over 100 students have occupied a conference centre at the University of Sussex in Brighton against proposed course cuts and job losses.
106 students occupying the top floor of Bramber House, Sussex University
The occupiers released a statement:
We have occupied the top floor of Bramber House, University of Sussex, Brighton. There are 106 of us.
The decision to occupy has been taken after weeks of concerted campaigning during which the university management have repeatedly failed to take away the threat of compulsory redundancies and course cuts.
We recognise that an attack on education workers is an attack on us.
The room we have occupied is not a lecture theatre but a conference centre. As such, we are not disrupting the education of our fellow students; rather, we are disrupting a key part of management’s strategy to run the university as a profitable business.
They’re occupying everywhere in waves across California, New York, Greece, Croatia, Germany and Austria and elsewhere – and not only in the universities. We send greetings of solidarity and cheerful grins to all those occupation movements and everyone else fighting the pay cuts, cuts in services and jobs which will multiply everywhere as bosses and states try and pull out of the crisis.
But we are the crisis.
Profitability mean nothing against the livelihoods destroyed, lost homes, austerity measures, green or otherwise. We just heard we’ve increased ‘operational costs’ – they’d set out the building for a meeting and now they’ll have to do it again
We’ll show them “operational costs.”
Occupy again and again and again.
NO CUTS ANYWHERE.
THE UNIVERSITY IS A FACTORY. STRIKE. OCCUPY.
-All the occupiers of the 8th of February.
http://defendsussex.wordpress.com
Comments
there's a demo at 12 noon
there's a demo at 12 noon tomorrow outside Bramber House. SolFed will be there, and our members working there are doing their best to get a good turnout from workers whose jobs are at risk...
best of luck to them!
best of luck to them!
Finally, a student communique
Finally, a student communique written in a sensible style!
if it's written by who i
if it's written by who i think they occasionally post here
Solidarity, good luck.
Solidarity, good luck.
Quote: Upper middle class
At least I know what they're referencing.
Tarwater wrote: Quote:
Tarwater
Innit, this is the best first message from a student occupation in this country that ive heard.
"Occupy again and again and again.
NO CUTS ANYWHERE.
THE UNIVERSITY IS A FACTORY. STRIKE. OCCUPY."
Big ups from NYC!
Big ups from NYC!
There'll be a demo to support
There'll be a demo to support the occupiers today:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=481899155226
At Sussex now, there's a demo
At Sussex now, there's a demo in 20 mins to support the occupiers. It's student elections day so apparently the Trots have left the occupation to go electioneering, and I'm hearing the non-student Trots are pissed off that there was direct action during elections. Luckily there's a significant proportion of libertarian and independent students so the Trots electoral priorities haven't damaged the occupation, which is in good voice from a top floor balcony. Pics to follow later.
I wish i could get down there
I wish i could get down there and help you out, sorry.
I'm sure your apologies will
I'm sure your apologies will comfort the 106 occupiers.
"Present: 106 occupiers
Apologies: THE OUTLAW"
short video and a couple of
short video and a couple of pictures here.
There's a new statement that
There's a new statement that makes it clear the occupation is in solidarity with education workers - UCU are balloting for strike action:
http://defendsussex.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/university-of-sussex-occupation-statement-9th-february-2010/
I'll bring it up at the LEWG
I'll bring it up at the LEWG meeting this week how we can support Sussex.
At a further demo tonight,
At a further demo tonight, the students came out of the occupation, to applause from everyone present. They made it clear that this was just the opening salvo and that there's much more to come.
I hope i can get bitches at
I hope i can get bitches at my college to do this, need to show them solidarity.
Well done to all involved,
Well done to all involved, let's hope this sort of solidarity spreads
Martin
What issue are you trying to
What issue are you trying to get the students to take the risk of occupying their college over?
Have you got an issue and specific demands? If it's purely solidarity, while commendable, its unlikely to get support from your fellow students.
courses are getting cut
courses are getting cut (mainly for adult learners) and staff are going to lose their jobs.
So it seems the same shit the Sussex comrades are occupying over are the same shit my college is facing.
Have you spoken to staff
Have you spoken to staff about this?
Also, in the previous thread someone suggested reading about the Tower Hamlets stuff too, worth doing.
hang on is that the info you claimed to be privvy to but kept to yourself cos you want to be the REVOLUTION LEADER?
We need to see a lot more of
We need to see a lot more of this and other stuff, if these cuts in education are to be resisted. Good start to Feb.
Quote: I hope i can get
no comment
to be fair i think he meant
to be fair i think he meant it as in 'wusses' rather than females
The revolution should have no
The revolution should have no leader.
The occupation ended after 28
The occupation ended after 28 hours:
Management
The bolded bit is interesting as it underlines the most positive aspect of the occupation: there was no shopping list of leftist demands, rather the action was aimed at encouraging university workers to strike. despite the influence of the SWP the two statements clearly show the influence of ultra-leftists/anarchists/anarcho-syndicalists (who i think largely wrote them, although they were adopted by all the occupiers).
This is planned to be the opening salvo from the student side of things. there's a UCU strike ballot on friday i think, and agitation afoot to encourage Unite and Unison workers to strike too.
The UCU ballot will start on
The UCU ballot will start on Friday 12. and run until Wednesday 3. March.
Quote: The bolded bit is
Interesting point. As occupation has become such a popular tactic again would you say that its key use-value is encouraging further action more than achieving concessions? I know the Visteon occupation had specific demands that had to be met but subsequent occupations seem to have this character of 'occupation for occupation's sake' which seems to have a lot of symbolic power.
What is the "university is a factory" bit referencing, btw?
fkschulze wrote: As
fkschulze
well i think workers occupying their workplace if they're laid off can demand specific concessions, and the 'power of example' is secondary. but students are a lot less structurally powerful, so i think it's a pretty class concsious approach taken at Sussex: 'we're students, we're consumers of education, we can't beat the cuts alone. But if you strike we'll do everything we can to support you.'
that's much more positive that the soundings from union officials, who at a mass meeting before christmas were urging the students to stop the cuts, and it was left to the students, including an SWPer to be fair, to argue that industrial action is needed with student occupations in support. this now seems to be partially happening, and we're discussing ways we can help develop things further in this direction.
fkshulze
i assume it's a Mai '68 slogan, probably from 'The Poverty of Student Life', but i couldn't tell you for sure. sounds pretty Situationist.
Quote: i assume it's a Mai
It sounds post-Autonomist to me, but you could be right.
yes, I think you're right,
yes, I think you're right, more referencing either the University being part of the social factory, or just the general idea of it being a factory producing future workers
There is something called the
There is something called the edu-factory collective and they're definitively influenced by post-operaismo (specifically around concept like social factory, cognitive capitalism). The Sussex occupations are on their front page so there might be a connection between the Sussex occupants and the collective.
Quote: It's student elections
That's just horrendous btw.
it was a Foucault-referencing
it was a Foucault-referencing art exhbit in 2004...
BigLittleJ
BigLittleJ
this is what i was told, although when i got there i did recognise some SP/SWP on the balcony so i'm not sure if they all left. the local branches were apparently annoyed that the occupation clashed with the SU elections though.
The Leeds SWP contribution to
The Leeds SWP contribution to the Leeds uni occupation last year is legendary: one dedicated activist got really involved in it, but the rest stayed away until the occupiers found a photocopier and worked out how to use it for free, at which point they turned up, copied loads of SWP material and buggered off again. There was also the incident when they sent a delegate (who was in Workers' Power) to speak at an anti-war demo in town, and when he turned up the SWPers leading the demo attempted to tell him that he shouldn't speak and the one SWP member involved in the occupation was actually the real legitimate representative of the occupation...ahem.
to be honest it's all
to be honest it's all perfectly consistent with Leninist vangiardism, so we shouldn't be surprised. as long as libertarians are disorganised they'll continue to dominate.