Cambridge student occupation comes to an end.
Cameraboy | 06.12.2010 21:55 | Education | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles | Cambridge
However, what a rather dry (albeit accurate) press release can't do quite as well is convey an idea of what it was like to be there witnessing history being made.
Hopefully my photos will go some way towards doing this.
Combination Room - as if nothing had happened...
Time to go!
The last hurrah on Kings Parade.
Reclaim Cambridge..? Why not?
Marching up Kings Parade, towards the Pitt Building.
Dancing in the streets!
Reading out demands in front of the Pitt Building.
Lining the entrance to meeting room at the Pitt Building.
Symbolically silenced.
Rpresenting the way Cambridge Uni managed has ignored the wishes of students.
Don't starve us!
Gathered en masse in front of Pitt Building.
Even Santa Claus put in an apperance!
What does the press say..?
Wrapped up in the issues...
The VC says 'Later'.
Putting it to the vote in front of Kings College.
Blind selection technique...
The Law was ever present...
Two different worlds, one University.
Defend Education - CDE) decided that rather than wait for Bailiffs and/or police to remove them, they would voluntarily give up the Combination Room in the Old
Schools building, leaving it moreorless as they found it.
Everyone left the Senate House site by clambering over the railings onto the lawn of Kings College, then over the low wall onto Kings Parade. Once this was done, there was a very emotionally charged moment where all gathered paused for a while to decide what to do next.
This was not the end of it though, as a meeting was being held in The Pitt
Building and the Vice chancellor was present. They were there to decide whether or not to support the government's stance on raising Tuition Fees.
CDE activists decided to march en masse up Kings Parade and surround the building to await the outcome of the meeting. There was much singing and chanting, and a bit of dancing to pass the time and spread the word in musical form, some refrains like "The Bell will toll when it's time to go" were sung, for which an activist dressed as Santa rang a bell he'd brought along!
Eventually, after a long wait (including some time spent in the warmth of the
Cambridge Graduate Union's lounge in another part of the building), him and the rest of the committee emerged, although, after being surrounded by a scrum of media and activists, he insisted on only revealing the decision either in a press release later, or if two 'delegates' from the group were sent to see him. Even after being pressed to reveal his decision to all gathered, he was adamant that he wouldn't.
Next, surrounded by security gaurds (with police not far behind), he was pursued by the noisy throng back up Kings Parade towards Kings College, where his office is.
Then, as everyone approached the front gates to Kings, they were slammed shut by the Porters, marooning half of the crowd on the cobbles in front of the college, with the rest continuing their pursuit across the Kings Campus and onto Old Schools, where by all accounts (I was still outside), a security gaurd got a little too enthusiastic towards the peacefully protesting students (if anyone can fill in details here, please do.
A few minutes later, those that made it past the gate onto Kings Campus emerged again, then a lengthy meeting took place in front of the gate house to decide how to respond to the Vice Chancellor's demands, including a blind voting method (see picture) for selecting the delegates who would go and see him.
After this, there was an emotional farewell as everyone went their separate ways after a long but very successful eleven days of activism, the pinnacle of which has to be gathering togathering many hundreds of likeminded people to discuss where the Cambridge anti cuts movement should go next.
Not only were these guys truly amazing in doing so much in so little time, but it's fair to say that they have made history, the like of which the following generations of activists in Cambridge will look back upon with great admiration.
But, this is just the end of the first chapter, as David Cameron is not finished
with us yet, so neither shall we be finished with him until he realises that we are not fooled by his mutterings of Big Society and We're All In This Together.
Yes, we are all in this together Mr. Cameron, but only in our collective fight against the Tories' idealogically driven cuts.
Cameraboy
Homepage:
http://www.defendeducation.co.uk/
