Reclaim the Uni! Manchester students storm University building

Manchester Student | 23.04.2008 00:35 | Education | Liverpool

Around 350 students on the 'Reclaim the Uni' demo occupied a new building in protest against cuts in contact hours and the business-led approach to higher education. Police attempted to obstruct the march before the occupation, but students broke their lines and side-skirted their blockades. A conference was held inside the building and a set of demands was issued to the University.

Demo flyer

On mass, in the sunshine

Down the Oxford Road....

Sidestepping....

Mr Officer gets rowdy with his dancing....

Futile attempts to obstruct the march

With tunes pumping out....

We break their lines...

Todays Reclaim the Uni demo saw around 350 students enjoy a sunshine blessed march before dramatically occupying The Arthur Lewis Building.

The march began at 4pm, and aided with a soundsystem, headed down the Oxford Road and around the University campus.

Police attempted to stop the demo, but were quickly side skirted by the student protest as it continued back down Upper Brook Street. Scuffles broke out on Brunswick Street, but students nimbly wrong footed the police and broke through their lines.

The new Artur Lewis building is infamous on campus for it restrictive access to undergraduate students. On occupying the building, the mood was near-euphoric amongst the crowd, before settling down to a debate on higher education.

A list of demands were drawn up, known as 'The Arthur Lewis Declaration', which will be issued to the University management with a follow up demonstration today (Wed 23rd April) at 2pm.

The police were typically heavy handed in throwing people to the floor, and aggressively squaring up to the peaceful crowd. We ignored them and got on with it.

For M-channels video footage, see