We have occupied the top floor of Bramber House, University of Sussex, Brighton. There are 106 of us.
The decision to occupy has been taken after weeks of concerted campaigning during which the university management have repeatedly failed to take away the threat of compulsory redundancies and course cuts.
We recognise that an attack on education workers is an attack on us.
The room we have occupied is not a lecture theatre but a conference centre. As such, we are not disrupting the education of our fellow students; rather, we are disrupting a key part of management’s strategy to run the university as a profitable business.
They’re occupying everywhere in waves across California, New York, Greece, Croatia, Germany and Austria and elsewhere – and not only in the universities. We send greetings of solidarity and cheerful grins to all those occupation movements and everyone else fighting the pay cuts, cuts in services and jobs which will multiply everywhere as bosses and states try and pull out of the crisis.
But we are the crisis.
Profitability means nothing against the livelihoods destroyed, lost homes, austerity measures, green or otherwise. We just heard we’ve increased ‘operational costs’ – they’d set out the building for a meeting and now they’ll have to do it again
We’ll show them “operational costs.”
Occupy again and again and again.
NO CUTS ANYWHERE.
THE UNIVERSITY IS A FACTORY. STRIKE. OCCUPY.
-All the occupiers of the 8th of February.
Building now on lock down. All staff sent home early and shops shut. Security on doors.
[...] can follow the action here. And on [...]
Solidarity greetings from an office in London Bridge.
Here’s hoping more campuses follow your shining example of grassroots, student-led activism.
Solidarity from Cambridge! Wishing you luck.
More solidarity from Cambridge! You guys are an inspiration.
Cambridge here again, let’s hope it’s us next! Good luck!
Solidarity from Sheffield!!
Amazing work! Keep it up! Stay strong!! xx
This is all rather pathetic. There are universities in far worse situations than yours whose student body aren’t living in cloud cuckoo land and think they are some sort of Eastern European revolutionaries.
115 jobs lost isn’t bad considering the size of your university and the cuts in general of funding towards higher education.
Personally, I hope this blows up in your faces. It is no wonder the university bigwigs don’t want to talk to you if this is your attitude. 106 muppets
Solidarity from Warwick. Good luck, keep it up.
No, Randy, we should fight all cuts of higher education. It isn’t about judging each university against the others and feeling envious, we have to oppose the onslaught against education and other public services as a whole. Hopefully Saturday’s conference against fees and cuts, and this occupation, can help build that movement
Solidarity (… from London)!
Solidarity from Edinburgh. Good luck and stay strong!
[...] Find the demands of sussex stop the cuts at http://defendsussex.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/occupation-statement-1/ [...]
Solidarity from Oxford!
Solidarity from Oxford – join our campaign!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=238679268167&ref=ts
Solidarity from Sheffield. Keep on fucking em up.
Solidarity from Ankara. Let’s save higher education everywhere from cuts and market illogic.
Solidarity from Brighton Solfed. Let us know if you need anything from people on the outside.
Solidarity from Queen Mary in London, and solidarity from the entire Autonomous Student Network! Occupy again and again again!
Solidarity from your fellow students at Lancaster University.
Currently things here, protest-wise, are turgid and shitty. You guys are a shining example
Solidarity and cheeky grins and toasting drinks in your honour!
Remember you are in the right, because there will be many people who try to castigate you.
You are all very brave.
Love
Wit
We occupied the admin block for 10 days in 1986, and the University management went to the newspapers saying we’d physically attacked staff and filled their offices with bins full of urine (it was melt-water from snow dripping through the roof)… be aware of how they’re likely to treat you, but have fun and don’t let the SWP f**k everything up
Love from London
Fight Back !!!!!!!!!!!
Good luck and solidarity from Queen Mary Uni!
tahmeena
Well done guys, hopefully this will spark a national movement against the further cuts and redundencies announced today. Your inspiring actions will no doubt trigger students across the UK and even internationally to rise up against the increasing drift towards elitest and privitasised education. Well done everyone and hello Tom, el presidente
x
Solidarity from a council worker
My union has sent a message of support already.
Please come to the trade unionists fighting for jobs meeting (Brighthelm,7.30,tues9th) if you can. Speakers inc Sussex uni UCU,RMT,FBU & Unite.
Dave
Just heard there’ll be a demo at 12 outside Bramber house, to support the occupiers. Since the occupation is in solidarity with 116 members of staff facing redundancy it would be a good idea for as many staff as possible to come along!
Solidarity from London.
Another Brighton SolFed’er here: have reposted this on our blog. Will also spread the word about the demo tomorrow…
Any practical solidarity we can offer let us know!
Solidarity from Cardiff. Hopefully this is the first in a wave of occupations against the cuts. Don’t let the bastards win comrades, keep up the fight and your actions can be an inspiration to students nationwide.
Solidarity from Dublin
Solidarity from Minneapolis, Minnesota!
Solidarity from San Francisco. Remember everyone, these occupations must be tools to organize for Strike, the most effective tool for the working class in their battle.
Solidarity from Peter Symonds college!
Solidarity from the LSE.
Solidarity from Univ East London.
Solidarity from Goldsmiths Staff, University of London!
On the contrary, Randy, it’s not pathetic at all. University education in this country is being turned over to an entirely consumerist ethos. The government and University management think they can make short-term savings without thinking of long-term effects because students and staff aren’t organising efficiently enough. If no one speaks out, opportunistic management ‘savings’ result in false economies and a lower standard of education on offer and this will have long term effect on our economy. In a modern society which thrives on cognitive industries such as media and research, this will have crushing effects.
These students aren’t throwbacks, they’re some of the few in society who have the energy and enthusiasm to defend their potential futures, as people contributing to society but also as people who recognise the worth of learning for learnings sake, rather than making simple profit/loss equations like the middle-management in the college bureaucracy.
Keep the fight fresh, avoid hierarchies and letting political parties kill your spirit and hopefully we can spread this sort of committed action to any campus nationwide hit by cuts! Too a summer of dissent!
Nice one! More power to you – if I wasn’t a member of staff I’d be right in there too.
Solidarity from Munich. Hope you’ll succeed.
Check this page:
http://emancipating-education-for-all.org/EEC-preparation-meetings
which is about the preparatory meetings for the European Education Congress managed by the International Students Movement. Might be interesting.
During Mai 68 the SI issued a communique to students:
Watch Out for Manipulators!
Watch Out for Bureaucrats!
I would repeat this (especially directed at the SPW – who come under both categories).
I would also add:
Watch Out for Campus Security!
Solidarity!
If we could, we would have an occupation in solidarity with you tomorrow, but unfortunately we are very badly organised and very small in number (not counting those who are not bureaucrats or manipulators)and so would be extemely vulnerable.
I wish we could occupy in solidarity, and I hope other universities across the country will begin such occupations asap.
Love
Wit
Solidarity from Munich!
Be the change you want to see in the world!
Amazing guys, well done. You’d have to do this on the day I couldn’t make it!!
Solidarity from London, keep up the good fight!
Solidarity from Durham!
solidarity from leeds anarchist federation!
long live occupations! long live sabotage!
general strike
Solidarity from UCL! Your struggle is our struggle.
Don’t let fools like Randy above sow any seeds of bullshit, we are all in the firing line. “115 jobs isn’t bad”? I’d like to hear him say that if that was his job, support staff, or lecturers.
Hopefully people from the National Convention (Campaign) Against Fees & Cuts will be with you soon to express our national solidarity!
Solidarity from university of Westminster..Your struggle is our struggle
Stay strong!
More solidarity from Leeds AF. Let’s hope this spreads further and keep up the fight.
More solidarity from Leeds – best of luck, folks!
Solidarity and good wishes from Newcastle Free Education Network! Inspiring stuff, good luck!
Solidarity from Edinburgh University!
Katherine
Solidarity from Warwick, once again Sussex are a shining inspiration!
Solidarity in Struggle from University of Glamorgan Socialist Students. In Uni Glam we are also facing huge cuts possibly of upto 16%. We will take this shining example of a fightback to the Trade Unions to the Students Union and all over campus and fightback.
Solidairty in Stuggle
Uni Glam Socialists
fight the good fight.
you got them by the balls now, keep it up!
hopefully this is the start of a new wave of occupations
Solidarity from Cambridge again!
Solidarity from Brisbane, Australia. Glad to see the alma mater still leads the way
Solidarity from London and Berlin!
This is a great action, but it has to be part of a sustained campaign that will force structural change.
I was part of a number of occupations at Sussex, but such spectacular disruptions – whilst a powerful point of leverage – aren’t enough on their own and will not deter the university management from making cuts.
These actions are the norm at sussex, management aren’t surprised by them (but there are invariably annoyed by them). In many ways its easier to kick up a fuss for a few days each year than it is to build up an effective everyday struggle, but occupations alone will not prevent the attack currently being mounted on HE.
My tip would be to work closely with the staff at Sussex, there are many radicals working in the university. Make sure you listen to them, and get them to talk to each other. If Students and staff align their strategies and support each other, then there is a chance you will be able to fight back.
Bun the liberals, bun the trots.
Best of luck.
Further solidarity from Leeds!
Strike, occupy, transform!
Solidarity from UCL!
[...] Find the demands of sussex stop the cuts at defendsussex.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/occupation-statement-1 [...]
Best of luck from Gloucestershire guys!
Solidarity from Oaxaca, Mexico.
Even if all the other uni´s in the country don´t immediatly go in to occupation as well, dont see that as a failure on your part. Towards the end of last year at sussex there was an action that failed due to lack of numbers, but any sign of resistance is worth it. For everyone doing a direct action there are hundreds more who feel the same as them but just never got it together to do anything. If nothing else, you´re helping those people know they arent alone, and maybe that´ll mean more will come out of the woodwork and take action themselves.
keep it going for at least a month so i can come and join you up there!
Safe
Solidarity from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada.
A single spark…
More solidarity from Cambridge. This is just the start!
keep it up! join the global struggles! but don’t take it too seriously. struggles change us more than them. remember to have fun while you’re at it and don’t bureauctratise desire flows or you become like the people you are fighting against.
well done! keep it up people, solidarity from king’s
Solidarity from LCC x
solidarity from berkeley!
& cheeky grins to you! there is a cartoon on the wall at my friends’ anarchist collective house in oakland that shows the following:
MAN: “fighting the system is serious business!”
DOG: “it’s serious business that got us into this mess!”
keep fighting the forces of “serious business”. you are a beacon of hope, sussex.
Solidarity from Hull.
Solidarity from the Class of ’68
Solidarity from the number 1 bus to work!
solidarity from UC Santa Cruz.
We are with you. We are the crisis.
Solidarity from SOAS! What an inspiring example from you guys – occupations are catching, let’s hope this spreads like wildfire
x
This event is historic. It will undoubtedly be the first in a new wave of occupations against the marketisation of University education. They won’t all happen immediately but the question can now be raised on every campus… Do we ask the careerist student reps to save our education or do we follow Sussex and do it ourselves?
Only mass radical student action can win.
Solidarity
P.S. We want to see pictures
Solidarity from the New School in Exile and Dead Labor NYC
STUDENTS AND WORKERS, OCCUPY EVERYTHING.
Jea jea!!!
Very nice!
Keep your head up and organise yourself! Make Video presentation and get help from politicans and other people!
Your need the teachers on your side, this have given us an enormeous plus by our occupation!!!
GREEDINGS FROM AUSTRIA!!!
Greetz from Germany – Halle(Saale). Solidarity from myself and organise yourself. Fight against every kind of authority/governance and make capitalism history!…
I`ll see you at the worldrevolution… -.-
Nasreddin
Per Aspera Ad Astra
[...] Occupation Statement 1 [...]
Best wishes from Cardiff. Sure there is a finite pot of money, but that’s no excuse for slash and burn short-term management of education, or for unceremoniously dumping staff like so much excess ballast.
You will have to be careful….I still have a copy of the Bulletin dated February 3rd 1987 “Occupation Aftermath”.
So much damage was done to Sussex House, that afterwards there was a real sense of shame amongst staff and students, that those in control of the occupation had let them down badly.
Politics is a real dirty business.
Good luck in your endeavours.
Mick Henry
Hey Guys!
You’re great! I am one of the (former) occupants of LMU-Munich in Germany i hope you guys have a great time with lots of good and prosper work, discussions and thoughts.
Solidarity from Munich
Muriel
Solidarity from Ulm, Germany
Great work everybody! Keep the fire burning!
This movement is growing stronger every day! I really like your point “We’ll show the operational costs”
We are with you. Together we’re strong and we can make a difference! Like Muriel said, we wish you a lot of prosper discussions, thoughts and a successful occupation!
Best regards and solidarity from Munich, Germany (LMU)
Peter
Solidarity from Hull University Union. No to Education cuts!
S o l i d a r i y o t !… from Jerusalem, Israel.
Solidarity from Mannheim.
Stand strong!
Solidarity from Cambridge! Good luck and seriously well done in organising on this guys!
Solidarity from Nottingham. Stay strong, organise.
Solidarity from Oxford for this defence of academic integrity. Sussex has always been a flagship for new and important directions in the study of history. Great to see university occupations back after a long lull since 1968.
Solidarity from New York
More love from NYC!
Solidarity from Leeds!
Stick at it, refuse to compromise, never stop pressuring the fat cats who see your education as a cash cow.
Solidarity from Aberdeen
massive solidarity from Cambridge!
we need education not ‘market logic’.
with the government cutting higher education funding, lets hope that this is the first of many occupations and that lecturers, cleaners, administrative staff and others will be joining with students to protest at this attack on both individual livelihoods and our collective education.
Keep up the fight! The cuts to education need to stop! Solidarity from Aberdeen!
Right on, Sussex! 106 of you? You f’in rock!
Solidarity from Berkeley!
[...] students in occupation! 9 02 2010 The decision to occupy has been taken after weeks of concerted campaigning during which the university management have [...]
Solidarity from Santa Cruz!
socialism and or barbarism is the best blog ever
[...] Statement of the occupiers 8th Feb [...]
Solidarity from Potsdam!
As we share the same political goals and fight the same struggle for free education we all should exchange contacts: twitter: potsdambrennt; facebook:Uni Potsdam Brennt!; email:potsdambrennt]ät[gmx.de
[...] Statement from the University of Sussex Occupation Occupation Statement 1 [...]
Solidarity from Anti-Capital Projects and Occupation Maintenance Council, University of California!
Solidarity from the Education For All Coalition in San Diego, and Solidarity from the US Student/teacher/worker movement!
In solidarity from NYC (and everywhere else in the U.S. for that matter)
Solidarity from San Francisco.
[...] From the Occupation at the University of Sussex Jump to Comments http://defendsussex.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/occupation-statement-1/ [...]
Solidarity from Berkeley!!! You guys are amazing, keep it up and watch for more news from Cali in March.
solidarity from the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. We are about to go into a student strike on March 4th and are inspired by your actions
http://nobudgetcutsuw.blogspot.com/
http://www.democracyinsurgent.org/
greetings from Zurich
One of the coolest texts! I like it!
Cheers
Solidarity from Mt.San Antonio College!!!!!
Solidarity from University of California Davis!
Solidarity from the University of york! If there are ways we can help let us know.
Cheers from Los Angeles! UCLA is with you
Solidarity comin’ from UC Davis
In Solidarity…Kansas City
“Bun the liberals, bun the trots”
“Watch Out for Manipulators”
Watch Out for Bureaucrats!
(I would repeat this – especially directed at the SPW – who come under both categories).”
“and don’t let the SWP f**k everything up.”
… Funny to see how the SWP have been such arrogant domineering arseholes throughout Sussex’s political history.
Solidarity from Barcelona!
Great statement, keep in touch and let us know what the current situation is.
- And watch out for the unions!
Contact:
comisioninternacional@gmail.com
http://interuni-bcn.blogspot.com/
Rosa
Good points within your post, you’ve a fascinating blog here. Thanks for the ideas.
[...] Find the demands of sussex stop the cuts at http://defendsussex.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/occupation-statement-1/ [...]
Solidarity from Glasgow!