UK Indymedia | Sussex students library occupation

Sussex Occupier | 29.11.2006 01:37 | Education | South Coast

80 students at the university of Sussex have occupied their library in protest against the commodification of education and its provision at their university.

Since 9:30pm in this evening, 80 students from the University of Sussex have occupied their library in support of the SortUSOut campaign, a campus wide campaign for a better provision of welfare and education at the University of Sussex. Their focus is on local problems directly damaging the education of students at Sussex but also the wider issues around the commodification of higher education.

The demands of the occupiers are:

1) The extending of library opening hours until 2am
2) the democratisation of the governance of Sussex University
£) More contact time for students
4) More affordable housing on campus
5) Reinstatement of the Equal Opportunities Unit
6) Decent pay and conditions for all academic and non-academic staff
7) Against the comodification of education and the introduction of tuition fees

University of Sussex senior management have made many assurances over the years, including one tonight about "processes in the process". These assurances have failed to translate into concrete improvements.

Management have also claimed that the University of Sussex is 'about average' in terms of contact hours in comparison to other universities. This is no consolation but rather points to the sorry state of higher edcucation in general. The attempted closure of Chemistry at Sussex, mirrored by the attempted closure of Physics at Reading, are further evidence of these trends. This is no coincidence or one-off event; even the VC here openly acknowledged at an open meeting with students that there will be more department closures in the next 5 years.

We here at Sussex have begun to use direct action as a result of years of dishonesty and systematic disregard for the interests of students on the part of senior management. These issues affect all students and staff at universities across Britain and Europe, and it's only when we see our problems as part of the wider context of running education for profit, that we can start to solve them.

Sussex Occupier

Additions

our perspective

29.11.2006 13:19

The library is ours!
On Tuesday the 28th of November, over 80 students occupied the library of the University of Sussex for the whole night. The students wanted:
- a free and universal education system
- a say in the election of senior management and the stepping down of the VC as the chair of senate
- more contact hours
- the reinstatement of the equal opportunities department which had recently been closed down.
- no more rent rises
- no commodification of education

Last year sympathisers of SortUSOut organised 2 occupations and quite a few demonstrations. After years of letter writing and petitioning, suddenly senior management started to listen. Having learned our lessons from last year, we are determined to continue our actions so that senior management will continue to listen. Thus the protest this year has to be seen as a continuation of the protests of last year, with many demands still being the same. Since last year the Students' Union has managed to negotiate some improvements. Whilst we hope that that these negotiations will continue to be successful, it is vital to recognise that they are only so due to the initial and sustained pressure exerted by students on senior management.

Past experience has shown that management will attempt to divide the student body through the use of their media. We will be hearing about radical minorities, threats of violence and immature actions. We will be hearing about ongoing negotiations. We will be hearing about a willingness to co-operate on the side of management, and an unwillingness on the side of the few extremists...Don't be fooled, this is part of senior management's attempts to divide us and to destroy what we have won last year.

Beyond shitty management.
Whilst we are campaigning for improvements here in Sussex, we have to realise that our protests are not alone: students are occupying and demonstrating in Greece, Germany(1), Italy, Slovakia(2) and all over Europe; workers and students have been protesting and occupying in France last year against the CPE(3) and in Germany against new unemployment regulations(4). Furthermore, students in Cambridge occupied a lecture theatre a month ago. All this points to issues that are bigger than just Sussex or even the UK. We find ourselves in the midst of a new time of crisis for capitalism. In order to secure its survival, it once again needs to expand the borders of its markets so it can secure continuing profits; it once again demands the privatisation of ever more commons and public services.
It is easy to see how we fit into this picture: Universities are to be tied in to the rest of the market; degrees are to be sold as nothing but a commodity. It is also easy to see why we now take to the streets: it is in periods of change, that people directly experience capitalism's true face, its emptiness, its boredom, its loneliness and its exploitative nature... and the possibility for change!

We believe that however useful the improvements will be that SortUSOut can achieve here locally, they will merely constitute improvements in our actual poverty. As long as we remain stuck in demands for more contact hours, or against tuition fees, we will be stuck with an education that is losing all its meaning and which is becoming more and more empty. We acknowledge that local improvements right now are vital to reduce the increasing pressure put on us by modern capitalism, but insist that as long as these changes remain trapped within the logic of capitalism, no real improvements will be gained.

Sussex Autonomous

Footnotes:
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