p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }

First off, it would be churlish not to show admiration for the emergence of a new student movement in Nottingham. After a quiet time at the end of the last academic year, with established groups like the Nottingham Student Peace Movement struggling to keep going, it is great to see new faces and new energy being injected into student politics. Taking the step of symbolically occupying the Great Hall was a brilliant way of starting a movement amongst students in Nottingham.

p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }

However, I have to ask, what's next? The occupation is doubtless an embarassment for and an irritation to the university managers, but it isn't going to force them to change. Sooner or later numbers at the occupation will dwindle and the university can always call on their goon squad to bundle the protesters out into the snow. The last occupation fizzled out after eviction as some protesters tried, unsuccessfully, to engage with the managers. Without any leverage their overtures were ignored and dissent was neutralised.

The occupiers need to have a long-term strategy. Do they put their efforts into maintaining an occupation that seems, in the absence of a militant attitude, destined to be transient? Do they try to extend the occupation, by taking over more vital parts of the university to force the managers to respond? Do they follow the example of occupiers at UEA who decided to end their occupation on their own terms and save their energies for further action? Most importantly, the occupiers need to think about how they can further the broader anti-cuts movement. We need to think bigger than just making demands of the university's governors. We need to think about how we can defeat the tuition fees legislation, bring down the coalition government and take back control of our lives.

There is no doubt that by opening up a space through occupation is liberatory for those involved. But a small liberated space is not enough. We need to keep opening up free spaces. Networks of free spaces need to grow and spread until the spaces of capital and authority are isolated and weakened enough to be destroyed.

The cuts are provoking a crisis and creating an opportunity for radical change. So far the students have exploited this opportunity well and taken the authorities on the back foot. However, the movement is starting to look anxious about these new found freedoms. I would urge the students and everyone else who is fighting the corrupt political system not to hesitate but to push onwards. The mood in the country hasn't been this favourable to the realisation of our desires for a long time and we need to take the struggle as far as we possibly can.

Keep moving comrades, the future is just around the corner!