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Uni Teachers & Students Demonstrate Over Pay and Fees

cambridge imc | 28.02.2004 14:36 | Education | Globalisation | Cambridge

With the ongoing controversy over the Labour government's plan to introduce top-up fees for university tuition rumbling away in the background, lecturers represented by the Association of University Teachers (AUT) went on strike this week over pay reductions, working conditions, proposed changes to union representation of lecturers, and differential treatment of staff based on where they work rather than the jobs that they perform. The Cambridge AUT has called upon students to campaign with them for better pay, and have pledged their support for student campaigns against variable top-up fees.

Meanwhile, at Essex University in Colchester, students occupied the boardroom of university boss Ivor Crewe, a high-profile advocate of fees, and called for a protest movement that can "force a shift in society's priorities, away from warfare and greed and towards satisfying human welfare and need." Occupations have also occurred at Oxford University and in Sheffield, where the Town Hall was taken over by students. Direct actions against threatened closures of the chemistry, philosophy, development studies, sociology and anthropology departments at Swansea University are planned for the 10th of March.
[Video: Cambridge AUT & CUSU pickets] [Cambridge AUT Ballot on Industrial Action] [How to Occupy Your University]

Top-up fees and the university system in the UK are usually discussed as if Britain was a lone island of turmoil in a wider ocean of calm worldwide. Within the mainstream press, there has been little recognition that a systematic, consistent set of structural reforms is being implemented around the globe by proponents of what might be called a "neoliberal", "marketized" approach to education. Here is a sampling of what is going on in:
[Argentina] [Australia] [Canada] [Germany] [Pakistan] [Russia]

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cambridge imc
e-mail: imc-cambridge@lists.indymedia.org
Homepage: http://cambridge.indymedia.org.uk

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

Calling to network resistance

29.02.2004 22:29

If we could co-ordinate our resistance to a specific date in every university in the country, they'd have to listen to us wouldn't they? if anyone is up for co-ordinating this in your respective universities, give me a shout. they give us a neoliberal agenda, we throw it back in their face...

Matt
mail e-mail: byronjah@hotmail.com

A Planned Demo!

02.03.2004 19:36

There are plan in the waterwork for a Demo/March on the 10th March althought it's at it early stages. More details will be made available as soon so watch this space.

Samsung

Essex Uni Picture and Story

03.03.2004 22:32

Occupation at Essex University on NUS day of action.

The boardroom in Ivor Crew’s management suite at the University of Essex was occupied today, Wednesday 25th Feb.

Top university boss Crew is also the president of ‘Universities UK’, the consortium that is pushing for the £3,000 a year fees championed by Blair. He is therefore a key player behind the unleashing of market forces on higher education.

At 12 noon the first group of between 15 - 20 Essex students gained initial access to Crews private office suite and occupied his boardroom, placing banners and posters in the windows. More then joined, coming and going throughout the day. This peaceful direct action was part of the National Union of Students day of action against the fees. The occupation shut down the vital reception, registry and senior management offices of the university until the end of the working day.

This was done alongside the solid strike action by AUT members, which shut down all teaching at the University for two days. The AUT (association of university teachers) is fighting against attacks on their pay and conditions that go along with the promotion of a free market in education along with variable tuition fees. United action by education unions and students could win a great victory against this imposition of free market forces.

The action also shut down the registrar’s office, which is part of Ivor Crews management suite. This was our reply to an e-mail from the registrar instructing students to cross their lecturers’ picket lines. We do not agree with being told to scab! Instead, students have stood together with staff in solidarity. Our fight is their fight!

This action was spontaneously initiated by a group of ordinary students, frustrated at the lack of official action from their local student union. However, after the action began, student union officials, including the local union president came and joined the occupation in support. The occupation was also joined by some visiting sixth form students. Blair and Crew’s fees will hit the next generation hardest, and sixth formers are keen to join the fight!

We hope that this is just the start of a protest movement that can stop fees, win decent staff pay and a properly funded education system. We must stop the free market destroying education. Education is not a mere commodity, nor is it a privilege, its is a universal human right. We would like our movement to force a shift in society’s priorities, away from warfare and greed and towards satisfying human welfare and need! Another World Is Possible!

Essex Students Occupation.

Re-Sista!
mail e-mail: Resista@nogm.cjb.net