...come and join in! Bring your student/staff I.D. in order to get in. Call 07941371477 if you've got any problems.
5 o' clock start - come in, see the space, get settled, get comfy!
5:30pm - BIG meeting in the Lecture Theatre (the heating's being fixed as we speak!)on why we're here, what we plan to do in the occupation tomorrow and the weekend, plans for the National Day of Action next Tuesday.
7.30pm - 8.30pm - Free time: break off workshops/talks/chilling out.
9.00pm - HOT food, probably pizza!
9:30pm onwards - gigs, music, food, chatting, film showing, quiet space, sleep...
ALL WELCOME! Bring your student/staff identification in order to get in.
Hey, we're occupying the Roscoe Building in Manchester. Would having a forum where we can all talk together be useful? I've got hosting and a domain name and would be happy to set it up...
ReplyDeleteSolidarity from Durham. Nothing quite as inspiring has manifested here. I'd come to Newcy, if only I didn't need a student ID
ReplyDeleteOmid, that sounds very good - it seems necessary to set up a central point of discussion between all ongoing occupations.
ReplyDeleteI'll get on it ASAP!
ReplyDeleteMessage from an old protest hack:
ReplyDeleteYou have a chance - right now this very minute - to LEAD the national debate, not only on the cuts themselves, but on the validity of arts and humanities education, on whether "free" education should be a right, etc -
You could be using your rapidly growing (but fleeting and temporary) online profile to actually influence people - and quite frankly you're blowing it, big time!
Here's just one example of hundreds of promotional opportunities available to you right now if you stop tweeting each other congratulatory messages and start writing whole sentences and paragraphs to people outside your own narrow social and political circles!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urxQVLqXr5A
short video put up by the Journal.found it simply by typing the single word "Newcastle" into Google's search box. high profile stuff!
But not the video that's important, it's the comments. half negative, half students defending themselves and everyone calling everyone else a fuckwit, etc.
You need to bombard this page (and all the others like it) RIGHT NOW THIS VERY MINUTE with 50 -100 -200 comments - intelligent and LENGTHY ones...carry the debate forward. You have a long night ahead of you and if you actually WORK THROUGH THE NIGHT at this instead of entertaining each other you might find that in the morning the world is a better place!
why is arts and humanities education worthwhile
why are you at college in the first place
How does society benefit by you being there
Write lengthy and intelligent pieces on each of these three subjects and any others which take your fancy and post them as comments "...live from the occupation..."
A video with lots of short "tweety" comments might go viral and will be stumbled, trended on twitter, etc etc ad nauseum. But will get lost in the cacophoony of similar non-entities and will be viewed ONCE by people who quite frankly spend far too much of their sorry half-lives stumbling and twittering. Wow, Rah, Rah! Hey, look Mom, I'm on YouTube, isn't that cool!
A video with lots of INTELLIGENT and LENGTHY comments will be shown repeatedly in publications and sites that actually matter! ((Yes I do this for a living, sort of))
Anyway, enough preaching for now, although it might not sound like it, I'm a big fan of what you're doing, I think your demands are sensible, you're going about it in the right way as far as occupying the actual building goes but PLEEEEEEASE! stop dwaffling with each other and start engaging with the rest of us!
http://www.roscoe.pycsessions.com/forum/
ReplyDeleteIt's active so feel free to register and let people know about it. :)
Thank you everyone for your warm welcome last night. Just to let you know:
ReplyDeleteColleagues in the Northern Region of ICU (University and College Union) are circulating details both of this blog and of the forum set up for all occupations nationally.
I believe a cash donation should reach you shortly from the UCU Regional Committee.
Yesterday at a Higher Education Sector Committee meeting the following motion was overwhelmingly carried.
"Conference congratulates and celebrates the magnificent occupations, rallies, marches and other protests by students, school students and staff yesterday. They are an inspiration not just to us in the UCU but to the whole of the trade union movement.
Conference resolves that the NEC should now build on the platform that has been provided by 10th and 24th by organising a national mobilisation for a London demonstration and lobby of Parliament on the day that the fee rises are debated. It resolves to urge branches to support, however possible, the protests of staff and the walkouts of students on that day, and 30th November.
Conference suggests that NEC decide that UCU approach the NUS and all the public sector unions to seek a joint mobilisation on that day.
Conference demands that the TUC organise regional demonstrations in the three months between now and the TUC national demonstration in March."
Congratulations to everyone taking part. Hope the heating is now back on. Hope you all slept well.
David O'Toole, UCU Secretary, Newcastle College Branch, NEC