Public Meeting at Cambridge Student Occupation attended by hundreds.
Cameraboy | 05.12.2010 20:51 | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles | Cambridge
The occupied Combination Room becomes a public meeting space.
Some of the activist artwork on display.
The media were out in force for this meeting.
A full house!
This is what...
...Democracy looks like!
So many voices...
...But one message: Stop the cuts!
A Cambridge University academic takes to the stand.
A Council meeting like no other!
This article would be ten pages long if a transcript of everything that was said was published here (although if anyone does want to add their own meeting notes, please do so as a comment), but suffice to say there was a broad consensus amongst everyone in the room that the current attack on Higher Education students in the form of raising Tuition Fees represents just one aspect of the Tories' overarching policy of attacking the poor under the smokescreen of cutbacks in public funding.
It should be said that all gathered also agreed in principle (and hopefully in practice) to a more concerted activist campaign against the cutbacks, and there are plans in the lead up to the Tution Fees vote on Thursday to a have a week of rolling demonstrations.
The media were also there in force, with numerous camera crews filming the meeting, and I know today's events have already made it onto the Look East evening bulletin.
Consensus voting and the 'silent clap' hand waving agreement gesture was the format of the meeting (see pictures), and this seemed to work quite effectively.
Let's hope that what happened today is the start of something much bigger in 2011, whatever the outcome of the vote on Thursday.
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Demonstration against Tuition Fees tomorrow at 9:00am, meeting in front of Great St. Marys Church.
Cameraboy