We would like to thank the thousand peaceful protesters who joined us on the streets of Newcastle today in a demonstration against the proposed cuts to higher education. It was positive to see so many young people coming out to campaign for a better future. It has been our aim since we occupied the Fine Art building at Newcastle University that we are friendly, proactive and peaceful. We have a set of ground rules, which everyone is expected to follow, setting out how we conduct ourselves to each other and the space which we inhabit.
Free education for all. Education for educations sake.
I was at the Coalition of Resistance conference in London on Saturday. This is a group of unions, left wing MPs, the People's Charter, student groups, political and community activists aiming to create a broad movement of active resistance to the government's cuts (including education cuts). Speakers included Bob Crow RMT, Len Mc Closkey Unite, John McDonnell MP, a French trade union leader, Ken Loach and Clare Solomon of NUS (who bested Paxman and Aaron Porter on Newsnight recently) and they all mentioned the importance of the student demonstrations, protests and occupations as being a crucial part of the resistance.
ReplyDeleteI also remember the significance of the occupation of University College Dublin (UCD) in 1969 in creating a generation of political activists.
So keep going...what you are doing is really important. Now's the Time...
Jeremy Kearney
Principal Lecturer in Social Work
UCU Equality Rep, Sunderland Branch
University of Sunderland
Jeremy, this might be too short notice but the Tyne and Wear COR group has its report back meeting tomorrow (Wed 1 Dec), 7pm at Gateshead Civic Centre. I was at the conference and, along with a couple of others, will be feeding back on it. You're very welcome to get along. Email me at alexsnowdonedu@hotmail.com so we can keep in touch about local COR stuff!
ReplyDeleteAlex