UK Indymedia - UK Education Newswire Archive

Analysis of the white paper from the occupation

24-11-2011 16:22

The government’s white paper outlines the proposed changes to the structure of higher education. Currently there is a quota of 406,000 university places. Under the proposed changes, 85,000 of these places will be opened up to competition. Of these 85,000 20,000 places will be competed for by universities charging £7,500, 65,000 will be for students who achieved AAB or above at A-level. This will lead to a two-tiered system, with a small number of elite universities and a lower pool of universities offering poorly funded, badly taught programs. These will be mainly provided by for-profit companies who’ll be given access to government-backed loans.

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Rough night for Birmingham occupiers

24-11-2011 16:18

At 23:30 as the occupiers were settling down for the night, university security began harassing the students. Simon Furse a second year International relations student said “It was disgraceful, I have never seen like it university security are just hired thugs who seem to enjoy violence and causing distress with no regard to the law. I was at the window that we use as an entrance to the occupation. The security guard tried to drag someone out of the window. We peacefully resisted and got the person inside at which point the security guard kept the window open and punched me three times in the face. The security then adopted a policy of open harassment ringing the doorbell for long periods of time, knocking on all the windows, pointing lights and cameras into the toilet and shouting insults and abuse.”

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Response to the University of Birmingham with regards to our Occupation: Reinven

24-11-2011 01:33

Earlier today we were told we are already facing disciplinary action and would have to pay the “substantial” cost of the university’s legal fees for an injunction they will take out against us if we do not leave by 9am tomorrow. The threat to the university and the system of public education is so grave that we are more afraid of the risks posed to society at large than our own immediate future. As such we have resolved to stay. We believe that students nationally must take action to defend education, despite the risks.

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University of Warwick Occupation

23-11-2011 15:09

At 1pm, on Wednesday 23rd November, 100 students at the University of Warwick set up 15-20 tents to occupy in front of the Warwick Arts Centre. The demonstration marks a ‘day of action’ called for by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC), belongs to similar occupations across the UK.

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University of Birmingham re-occupied - building squatted

23-11-2011 01:34

Student activists have just squatted an abandoned former gatehouse of the North Gate of the University of Birmingham as part of the national day of action called by NCAFC

https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/birmingham/2011/11/488808.html

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David Willetts Silenced by Cambridge Fees Protest

23-11-2011 00:02

This evening, on Tuesday November 22nd 2011 in a lecture hall on the Cambridge University Sidgewick campus, battle lines were well and truly drawn, as David Willetts, one of the architects of the demise of our Higher Education system dared to show his face in public at Cambridge University, that, by his own doing has been manoevered into raising it's tuition fees by up to £9,000 per academic year.

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NCAFC Conference 10-11 December

18-11-2011 23:12

Where next for the student fightback?

National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts conference
Time: 10 December at 11:30 - 11 December at 16:00
Location Birmingham (venue tbc)

Facebook event:

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=180710782016143

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National Day of Action – 23 Nov – Defend Education, Fight Privatisation!

18-11-2011 22:46

Time 23 November · 09:00 - 23:30
Location: Your college, your school, your university

Following the national demonstration in London on 9 November, the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts is organising a national Day of Action on 23 November to keep the movement mobilised and step up the pressure.

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Canada Fur Trade In Numbers.. Including Those Caught In Steel Jaw Leghold Traps

18-11-2011 18:14

Canada still allows the brutal steel jaw leghold trap... and allows the murder of
seals,
badger, bear, beaver, cougar, coyote, ermine, fisher,
fox, lyns, marten, mink, muskrat, otter, rabbit, raccoons, skunk, squirrel,
bobcat, wolf, wolverine. Numbers DO NOT include harp seals on Canada's east
coast, or other seal products; Note that provinces and territories vary
enormously in size and amount of suitable habitat).

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St. Andrews in Third Occupation

17-11-2011 12:37

St. Andrews keeps up the tactic of rolling occupations to oppose the fees and cuts in education. Under the banner of '36 Hours Against 36 Thousand' St. Andrews students are focusing discontent on the recent fee hike for Rest of UK students.

P.S. - thanks to NCAFC for promoting us and Birmingham! Well done on recent demo too!

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Defend Education – day of action in Birmingham, Nov 23rd

16-11-2011 14:59

There is a gap that is emerging between universities like Birmingham City University and elite institutions like the University of Birmingham because of targeted government cuts. These targeted cuts are a recipe for a deeply unequal society. A society where the elite who could afford to go private schools get the best that money can buy at universities that most can’t get into.

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Police harass activists traveling by coach to nov9 protests

12-11-2011 17:42

The police were stopping many coaches with students and activists traveling to the November 9 student protest.

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After Nov 9: Where do we go from here?

11-11-2011 10:45

Were the Nov. 9th protests a game changer as we suggested they could be in a previous post? The answer is yes but certainly not in the way that we were hoping events would turn out! The hoped for meeting up of the sparks and students to unite as one protest was shafted by what can best be described as ‘total policing’ tactics from the Met aimed at intimidating and frustrating protesters every step of the way.

From the reports we’ve heard so far, the electrician’s action was pretty lively with roads being blocked for a while but the cops soon moved in with the result that the sparks ended up being kettled. You have to go back a long way to remember the last time plod took action against striking workers in this way. What is happening with the sparks action is having a resonance by word of mouth with other construction workers as doubtless they potentially face the shafting the electricians are confronting. We passed a few construction sites yesterday and the march was definitely getting the thumbs up from the builders watching us pass by. What is frustrating and quite scary is the almost total media blackout of the sparks dispute. The journalists are aware this dispute is going on but it’s hard to escape the suspicion that pressure is being applied from high up to keep this story under wraps.

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SWP Internal Bulletin - How the party thinks about recruitment...

10-11-2011 15:35

Leaked from an internal members-only SWP 92 page post-conference bulletin published in January.

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Authorities panicking over November 9 protest!

07-11-2011 14:10

BRITISH authorities are panicking at the prospect of another massive and angry student protest in London this week.

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Rank and file electricians plan to join education march at 12.30 at ULU

07-11-2011 13:20

According to this interview with one of the sparks, rank and file electricians plan to deviate from the Unite route in order to join the education protest on 9th November. The interview, which gives more details on the electricians' ongoing dispute over contracts and training, is available at Shift Magazine:

http://shiftmag.co.uk/?p=510

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Kingston Crown Court Sentences, Nov 4th Report

06-11-2011 10:44

Friday 4th November saw eleven protesters in Kingston Crown Court for sentencing relating to the Millbank protest of November last year, the Whitehall protest, the final anti-fees protest and from the TUC protest of March this year. Of those that received custodial sentences – all for violent disorder – the length of sentence ranged from 10 months to 18 months, with the majority 12 months or over. When sentencing, the two judges – in the morning Nicholas Price QC and the afternoon Susan Tipping QC – made it clear that even where it was clear that what the protesters had supposedly done was not very serious, the context of the public order situation, combined with the desire to deter and warn future protesters was what was really at stake in the severity of the charges and sentencing.

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