During the Occupation of Bramber House, we received messages of solidarity from all over the world. We are many and they are few!
Solidarity Messages from Netherlands
(i) Dear occupiers of Sussex university,
It is with great joy that we heard the news of your courageous fight against cuts by your university management. Only last week we – for the first time in over 20 years – occupied lecture-halls in our university against major cuts (around 20%) in the budget for higher education. In our fight we joined with the university cleaners who are amongst the people bound to be hit hardest by the cuts. We know how hard it can be to start fighting back. We also know the importance of messages of support and solidarity to counter attempts by the right and the media to belittle our struggles. We are impressed by the way you are organizing solidarity between workers and students at your uni. This solidarity is all the more relevant as our uni’s are increasingly being organized as factories. Around Europe students are facing the same tendency of subjecting the interests of students, teachers and other personnel to the cold dynamic of the market and of profit. Around Europe we have begun to fight back.
We live in dark times of a world in crisis. It’s our task to build movements that can inspire hope in the midst of this. As student-activists from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, we therefore offer you our full, unconditional and enthusiastic support.
On behalf of the EUR action committee,
Jeroen van der Starre
sosrotterdam.wordpress.com
(ii) To the brave occupants of the Sussex University,
How fantastic it is to hear students in Great Britain are now also organizing to make a fist against the cuts in and demolition of education. In Holland there also was a wave of university occupations. Here in Utrecht we occupied the administration management section for 3 days, to make a statement for investments in education and more student participation. In Holland we are only at the beginning of a students movement, and it’s so encouraging to see that throughout the whole of Europe, the whole world students are once again finally stepping up for their rights on quality education.
In a time where the ministry of defense gets a budget of over 20.000.000.000, we’re fighting an unsupported war, billions are invested to “save” banks, it’s hypocrisy to cut on education, health-care and other social acquirements. Education must remain accessible for all people, no matter what financial background.
Yesterday, occupiers from Austria and Germany arrived here, because they heard about the occupations in Holland and wanted to show their direct support. They brought a huge banner, which decorated a lot of universities in Germany and Austria already. In Holland there’s still the brilliant law which allows people to squat buildings that are not used for over a year. We had the honor to drop it from our squatted office building , to symbolize our enthusiastic solidarity to your occupation.
We hereby offer you our full support.
Lots of solidarity, and success we wish for you now and the upcoming struggle.
And last but not least, thanks a lot, for inspiring us and every student that cares.
Occupants, from Utrecht and cities in Germany and Austria.
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Solidarity from Protesting Students in Vienna
Hello Sussex!
We want to send our best wishes to you all!
Go on and keep occupying!
It´s late today, but let´s stay in contact.
Hope to see you soon,
Greetings from Vienna
Protesting students of Vienna
ag_sommer@gmx.at
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Solidarity from Austria, International Students’ Movement
Hi!
What a joy to hear that you have decided to get yourself some working space.
We are, in fact, sad that there is need for such actions, but glad that you took them!
Here in Innsbruck we occupied a lecture hall for nearly two month, before we decided to move to another room (not without pressure from the head of university and other students).Now we are planning our next steps, which will be more and more international – as the problem of educational buyout itself. On this note i hope you will be taking part in the big protest against Bologna – and the 10th celebration.
Never hesitate to ask for anything!
I just want to mention my concern about how little is in the news about all this, especially international. And that there is nothing at all in the German news although there are still several universities occupied. Same thing by the way with our friends in the Netherlands. (http://www.emancipating-education-for-all.org/occupations_netherlands_Feb.01). We clearly need to take care of letting the information flow ourself.
I may recommend you the homepage of the international student movement (ISM): http://www.emancipating-education-for-all.org/ and the newsletter.
Also there is a wiki for international exchange: http://uni.globl.org/index.php?title=Main_Page (in fact, there are more than one…)
Looking forward to hear from you, i wish you all the best for your struggle!
In solidarity,
Erwin (for the UniBrennt movement Innsbruck/Austria – aka sowimax)
vernetzung@sowimax.at
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Solidarity from Academy of Refusal, Austria
Solidarity with the protests in Sussex!
Hope for meeting in march -> http://bolognaburns.org/index.php?id=45&L=0
all best in solidarian!
Squatted Akademie dbk
contact@malen-nach-zahlen.at
www.malen-nach-zahlen.at
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Solidarity from California
Hello Brothers and Sisters,
My name is Angelica and I have been active in Los Angeles CA in the fight against the budget cuts. Your occupation is an inspiration to us all. I would like to express my solidarity and support for your struggle. In California we have also been experiencing historic cuts to our educational system from grade school through graduate school. Last summer 2000 public school teachers were laid off. Over 40,000 students have been shut out from universities and colleges. Our legislature assures us that there are more cuts to come. We have been making efforts to unite student and workers in this struggle and we are planning for a mass mobilization on March 4th. We suspect there will be walk outs, some strikes and occupations.
We stand united with the brothers and sister of Sussex. Hasta la victoria siempre!
In solidarity
Angelica
Labors Militant Voice
Los Angeles March 4th Committee
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/
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Solidarity from the Really Open University, Leeds
In both Sussex and Leeds as well as across the UK we have seen drastic cuts in education. These threaten the livelihoods of thousands, the quality of education and the possibility of going to University for innumerable amounts.
This crisis in education is not new. We have seen the logic of a system constantly in crisis long at work in the university: everything is now based in terms of profit, the value of ideas is based on their financial viability and the quest for knowledge is lost. By this logic ‘efficiency drives’ and fees are perceived to be inevitable.
The crisis in the university is fundamentally linked to global crises, the same rationale of profit has brought the economy to collapse and the climate dangerously spinning out of control.
In order to fight the latest in a long line of attack on education and the system behind it we must not merely be defensive. We must act to transform education; to open it up, allow people to teach what they want to teach and learn what they want to learn, we need to restore the intrinsic value of the idea and the quest for knowledge. In doing so we can help fight against our oppression more generally. Occupation can be a useful tool in the struggle to achieve this.
Across the world people are resisting attacks on education and going into occupation. This is only part of a wider struggle against the domination of capital, a struggle for a better world.
We are glad to see such resistance in Sussex and stand with you in solidarity,
Strike, Occupy, Transform!
Signed,
The Really Open University
reallyopenuniversity.org
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Solidarity from Cardiff Stop the War Coalition
‘Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many – they are few.’Shelley, The Mask of Anarchy
Dear wonderful friends,
We congratulate you on your direct action and wish you every sucess in your righteous struggle against cuts. Billions can be found for banks and tanks, why not for education and ordinary people? Last year saw the welcome return of an old tactic to the British political scene – the occupation. Student occupied, workers occupied against job cuts, parents, teachers and pupils occupied against school closures. All these little struggles are part of a bigger struggle for a more humane world that puts people before profit: The seeds of the new society are being sewn in the battle with the old . . .
Dare to struggle!
Dare to win!
Love and Rage,
Adam Johannes
Secretary
Cardiff Stop the War Coalition
cardiff_troopsout@hotmail.com
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Solidarity from Green Party, UK
Dear Sussex University occupiers
first can I congratulate you on the occupation. I agree with the bold action you have taken to defend jobs and against the planned closures and given that the university administration has been ignoring you, you may finally have won a bargaining position with it. I salute your actions which are based on the defence of education against the Neolabour sell-off of everything that can be sold.
I helped occupy Sussex University ten years ago when I came from occupying my University- Goldsmiths in London- to support students who were threatened with expulsion because they couldn’t pay their tuition fees. Through the course of helping to occupy Sussex and a number of other universities, we warned then that higher education was set on a highway to privatisation, cuts and the approach of sell to the highest bidder. Little did we know it would have gone quite this far.
Best of luck with the occupation and if you want my opinion, don’t give up the occupation: this is a position of strength from which you can bargain with an administration which isn’t listening. If I can be of any help, just let me know. I intend to be marching proudly with you later today.
Yours fraternally
Phelim Mac Cafferty
International Coordinator, Green Party of England and Wales National Executive
National Chair and National (Male) Spokesperson, LGBTGreens
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Solidarity Messages from Green Party Trade Union Group, UK
(i) The Green Party Trade Union Group fully supports Sussex University staff and students protesting against the swingeing cuts currently threatening Sussex University. Cuts in public sector spending, far from being examples of financial probity, are acts of short sighted and opportunistic folly and cuts in education especially so, when we need organised knowledge more than ever to build a just transition to a new low carbon economy. Our economic crisis is of capitalism and caused by capitalism, why should workers, by hand or mind and students pay for it?
(ii) I totally support your struggle against the cuts at Sussex university and send my support.
Dr Joseph Healy
Green Party Trade Union Group Treasurer and Parliamentary Candidate for Vauxhall
Also UNISON member
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Solidarity Messages from Socialist Students and Socialist Party, UK
(i) Solidarity from all Portsmouth Socialist Party and Socialist Student members. We are all standing with you!
(ii) Unconditional support and admiration for your occupation on behalf of students from the University of Lincoln. We wish you the best of luck and every hope for success.- Tom Myhill, Lincolc Socialist Students
(iii) Support and solidarity from students at Leicester University- Leicester
Socialist Students
(iv) Solidarity to the occupiers, keep up the struggle against cuts!’- Will,
Bath Uni Socialist Students
(v) Solidarity to the students in occupation at Sussex University from all who work on the Socialist newspaper. We will continue to report your struggles to the socialist and labour movement. Keep us updated -editors of the Socialist
(vi) Greetings of solidarity on behalf of north-west region Socialist Party members. We heard about your occupation through Socialist Students. If you fight, you can win! Let us know anything we can do to help. Good luck. -Hugh Caffrey, Socialist Party NW regional organiser
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Solidarity from Youth Fight for Jobs
Good luck in your demo to fight cuts in higher education, together we can fight these further cuts to our services! – Stuart Thompson, Portsmouth, Youth Fight for Jobs Organiser
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Solidarity Messages from Belfast and Visteon Workers
(i) Keep the fight up. John Maguire – Visteon Belfast (FYI: the Visteon Belfast workers kicked off the occupations of the Visteon factories last year after Ford tried to close them down with no redundancy package)
(ii) Fully support your occupation! Keep up the struggle comrades! Matt, Belfast
(iii) Keep up the struggle comrades. Solidarity from Belfast. Gerry Carroll, VP Jordanstown SU.
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Solidarity Messages from Trade Unions and Union Reps
(i) Hello Comrades
Just a message of support from the local RMT branch for your courageous occupation of the University. It make me proud to feel that you are in the vanguard of the struggle. We should and must oppose all cuts to education and demand it as a right for all with no fees. If it was good enough for Tony Blair why not us. It is only as a result of the complete balls up of the financial system that cuts are being made. We bail out the bankers and they cut our resources to pay for it.
There are cuts all over Sussex jobs going right, left and centre. Its time it stopped. We must oppose all cuts in jobs and resources now. Congratulations on your brave stand Comrades.
Fraternally
Greg Hewitt
Chair: Brighton & Hove RMT
“we have no right to believe that freedom can be won without struggle”
(ii) The idea that we should all have to pay for the crisis created by those still in charge of the banks and the country makes me sick. My kids are about to go to uni – one to Sussex next year (so keep it radical!) But their younger siblings will only get 2yr degrees and even bigger debt if we let them get away with it. Anyone with kids should be out on the streets supporting your fight for our children’s education.
I’m also a nursery nurse and I’m particularly sickened by these well educated overpaid bosses trying to take away the nurseries at brighton uni and Sussex.
Please join FB ggroup for SAVE PHOENIX NURSERY
I sent a text to a load of other local trade unionists earlier, so
hopefully you’re getting other messages of support.
Dave
Unison Rep
(iii) Congratulations and solidarity. Tom Hickey (Brighton Uni and UCU NEC)
(iv) Last nights Executive meeting and Union Council voted to send messages of support and solidarity to students of Sussex University in occupation over Education Cuts. Keep up the struggle!
In Solidarity,
Hull University Union
(v) Solidarity and support to Sussex Uni occupation. Defend education and jobs; don’t pay for their crisis or profits. We will keep watching and pushing the message out. Stay positive everyone. Chris Price (local government worker and Unison rep, Portsmouth)
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Solidarity Messages from UK Students and Lecturers
(i) Huge solidarity from Nottingham – neoliberal education needs to go now. Education is not a commodity, and its end is not profit. If you haven’t already check this out – the Occupation Cookbook from our friends in Croatia – http://slobodnifilozofski.org/?p=1901
Alex Andrews
(ii) Greetings from Dublin. Sussex uni students rock! Mary.
(iii) Solidarity from Hannah (Uni of Portsmouth Against Education Cuts)
(iv) Good luck- Students at Cardiff University
(v) Good luck with the occupation. Students from East 15.
(vi) Please give my solidarity to the occupation. John Molyneux (Lecturer in Fine Art, University of Portsmouth)
(vii) Solidarity from the Really Open University, Leeds
In both Sussex and Leeds as well as across the UK we have seen drastic cuts in education. These threaten the livelihoods of thousands, the quality of education and the possibility of going to University for innumerable amounts.
This crisis in education is not new. We have seen the logic of a system constantly in crisis long at work in the university: everything is now based in terms of profit, the value of ideas is based on their financial viability and the quest for knowledge is lost. By this logic ‘efficiency drives’ and fees are perceived to be inevitable.
The crisis in the university is fundamentally linked to global crises, the same rationale of profit has brought the economy to collapse and the climate dangerously spinning out of control.
In order to fight the latest in a long line of attack on education and the system behind it we must not merely be defensive. We must act to transform education; to open it up, allow people to teach what they want to teach and learn what they want to learn, we need to restore the intrinsic value of the idea and the quest for knowledge. In doing so we can help fight against our oppression more generally. Occupation can be a useful tool in the struggle to achieve this.
Across the world people are resisting attacks on education and going into occupation. This is only part of a wider struggle against the domination of capital, a struggle for a better world.
We are glad to see such resistance in Sussex and stand with you in solidarity,
Strike, Occupy, Transform!
Signed,
The Really Open University
reallyopenuniversity.org
Dear comrades and friends,
We are encouraged to hear the news of your occupation, a rightful and just action.
When the lives of ordinary workers and students worldwide have plummeted due to the economic crisis, cuts in universities including dismissals of education workers are another example of ordinary working people paying the cost of the crisis. Your occupation is an inspiration to all those who are fighting against such injustice. We wish you swift victory.
In the last couple of years, we too have occupied, again and again, the main administrative building of our university, Korea University, against tuition hike and the oppressive university management. As a result, we were able to decrease the amounts of tuition rise, secure scholarship for fellow students with financial difficulties, and gain spaces and facilities for student activities. In retaliation against our occupation the university management attempted to discipline us. But we fought back by staging a tent-in in front of the main administrative building for 2 years and won.
We wish you all the best in your struggle.
In solidarity,
Young-man Kang, All Together activists
Beom-jin Seo, All Together activists
Ji-yoon Kim, All Together activists
Byeong-jun Ju, All Together activists
Hyeong-u Ahn, All Together activists
Dear occupiers of Sussex university,
We are glad to hear the resistance against cuts in Europe is spreading. It was only last week that we
occupied a lecture hall at the University of Amsterdam and had another action at the Free University(also in Amsterdam) against planned cuts in the higher education budget. We know how important it
is to know we are not alone in our struggle. Therefore we would to express our solidarity with all of those who resist the current offensive against higher education. As the struggle goes on the fight
may became more difficult and the solidarity between students and workers becomes more important. This is one of the most important tasks and as we heard you are succeeding in this.
Good luck, you have our support!
On behalf of Comité SOS Amsterdam,
Max van Lingen
It is wonderful to see Sussex students leading the way against the short sighted strategy that University managements across the UK have increasingly adopted as their knee jerk response to the government’s draconian plans to cut Higher Education funding. Having already cut higher education to the bone in the last decade, they now seems to be after the marrow.
I was a student at Sussex in the 1980s, and so have fond memories of earlier occupations there, though we are now facing a crisis in Higher Education which makes these earlier struggles pale into much less significance. Nowadays I lecture at the University of Westminster, which is also facing similar draconian cuts to academic and administrative staff [ 10% staff overall to lose their jobs in the next two months see http://fightcutsatuow.blogspot.com/%5D. Therefore it is important for everyone here to see Sussex students are still offering inspiration to our students, as well as staff in our current struggles. Keep up the good work.
The greatest strength lies in unity between staff [academics, administrators and support workers] and students. It is certainly true that the last 25 odd years have seen a sharp deterioration in the quality of higher education, due as much to the ever increasing workloads for staff, as because students having to work almost full time to pay for their education. However, there has also been a deep erosion of the traditional unity and dialogue between academics and their students which has been one of government’s goals. Let’s hope we are at the beginning of what will become a signal reversal to the policies of successive governments that have created such a sorry state of affairs. Congratulations and best wishes to the student activists at the university of Sussex.
I fully support everyone threatened with cuts at Sussex University and it’s great to see students and staff alike doing all they can to prevents cuts to vital areas. I was a firearms officer with Sussex Police and have viewed the videos on You Tube. Can I point out that no taser was waved in students faces on the 3rd March 2010 protest! The only officer in Sussex Police able to carry a taser is a firearms officer (ones who carry a live gun, and is able by-law to discharge a live round if he/she, colleagues or members of the public are at risk), in fact Sussex Police are one of the only police forces in the country who stood by the Met police and went against government’s plans to enable normal officers to carry tasers.
It isn’t as easy as members of the public believe to use batons, spray etc., each can of spray is weighed before being issued, upon use the final weight is taken and given to the CPS as evidence it is they who decide whether reasonable force has been used. As for firearms officers the use of any firearm invokes an immediate investigation by the force, IPCC and a fully sworn in jury (crown court). The officer is immediately suspended from the force and their warrant card removed. The jury, after hearing evidence from both the defence and prosecution will deliver either a guilty or not guilty verdict both will depend upon the actions on the day; whether responsible force was been used, also could any other non-lethal force have been used at the time. If found guilty the officer will face a ‘life sentence’.
A famous Japanese proverb:
“If you sit by the river long enough, you will see the body of your enemy float by”.
I am a current LifeScience student and offer my full support to you all……
Dear Sussex occupiers and supporters,
We at the Oxford Anti-cuts Campaign fully support your occupation. We extend congratulations to you, and draw inspiration from you. In our universities, colleges and schools we are disgusted by the further moves being taken towards privatisation of our education facilities, and the huge cuts that will damage us all, students and workers.
When the 80 occupiers and their hundreds of supporters outside were met with repression from the police and management, the authorities revealed to us their vulnerability, and showed us that the education cuts are not inevitable. The violent overreaction from both police and management shows that they are worried by our movement and your tactics. We condemn the arbitrary and unfair suspension of six Sussex students, and call for their immediate reinstatement.
In solidarity,
Oxford Anti-cuts Campaign
Dear Sussex,
Solidarity from the Edinburgh Anarchists, both AFed and EUAS. Your occupation and persevering are a model and inspiration to us at EUAS. Your work is brought up in every meeting and conversation we have and continues to renew our hopes and vision for student activism in this age of oppression and apathy. We hope soon to be able to set up a means of national student communication to better publicise and excite students everywhere with the high mark you’re setting for change, initiative and action.
We’ll be joining primary school and workers in Edinburgh on the No Cuts and Cut Trident Not Jobs Marches and hope to start some response groups of our own.
We fully support you and follow your movements avidly through the ASN.
In hope and solidarity,
Edinburgh University Anarchist Society
euas.noflag.org.uk
We occupied Sussex in 1999. Clearly the management are as mad as ever, but also as desperately anxious about their reputation…well done for tarnishing it. Any breach in the prevailing elite’s attempt to brand itself the ‘only’, ‘realistic’ ‘outcome’ is valuable in the current political climate.
No doubt we’ll be calling on your solidarity soon enough at my own university. Til then, you know you have ours.
Selina
Hi All, I was an exchange student from UBCO in British Columbia, the city of Kelowna two years ago for two terms at Sussex.I missed seeing anything like this level of engaged activism during my time…and I have never witnessed anything at all like it in my recent stint of academic studies. Students here have had the Student Union rally at a bureaucratic level and have held rallys, but the level of student involvement has been pretty dismal. The awareness of issues and the power to work toward postive change through civil disobedience and protest is not currently well understood by the bulk of students here in my part of Canada. We are just too darned polite as a culture I suppose.
I do remember this not being the case when back in the late 1960′s there were sit-ins held and occupations of the Dean’s office went on for several days, it was an exciting time then, in Saskatchewan Canada where my father was a professor and involved in social change in other ways….I learned the power of solidarity and social change was possible and exciting…and it warms my heart to learn about the movement to show anger at draconian cutbacks to education. I love the way EU folks think and wish I was there still.
Good on you all and keep up the good fight!
Carol
As one of six students who were suspended from the Middlesex Polytechnic in 1981, after occupying the college in pursuit of a nursery, may I offer my solidarity in your courageous and brilliant stand.
James Heartfield
London
Brothers and sisters
I’ve been watching events at Sussex over the past few months with some interest. I’m a very close friend of Jacken of the now infamous Six. Moreover though, I’m a student at Bristol University, faced by the same threats to my education as you and other students around the country. University of Bristol Union is well know for its inefficacy, and the Bristol student population for its apathy.
However, things are, however slowly, changing. UCU, Unite and other demonstrations have been taking place at the university. While the UBU is currently taking a non-committal stance, it has not opposed the staff actions, nor student action in solidarity, discussions of action in solidarity with the staff unions have taken place for the first time in decades. I’ve been making an effort to publicise as widely as possible the struggle at Sussex, at Bristol and through contacts at other universities, and while none are anywhere near as mobilised as Sussex, the message from Bristol and around the country seems to be simple – you are not alone in this.
If you have any literature etc. that can be distributed at other universities, or if I can help in any way, feel free to contact me.
You are an inspiration.
Love and Solidarity.
Liam J S Powell, University of Bristol
Hi
My name is Andrew Smith and I’m the President of Dundee University Students Association. I was shocked by the footage of the response to protests I saw on the news and was very surprised to hear about students being suspended for protesting against cuts to education. I wanted to send a message of support from the entire of our Student Representative Council and wish you every success in your campaign. The entire question of funding for Higher Education in Britain is still up in the air but the only way cuts can ever be inevitable is if everyone accepts that they are, in not accepting it you are setting a very good example for Unions and academics across the country and I want to covey our support to you
Thanks
Andrew
From Prof. Esther Leslie, Dept. of English and Humanities, Birkbeck College
I fully support the strike and am so happy to see students taking action in the UK against the horrendous cuts in education. It is wonderful to note that the rejection of the marketisation and ideological instrumentation of education has been happening not just in Britian – Kings, Westminster, Leeds, etc – but also across the world, in California, Vienna, Frankfurt, Athens, and numerous other places, and the protests show no signs of fizzling out. Last year saw brilliant acts of solidarity between students and cleaners at SOAS and other universities. Such are the links that must continue to be built. Over twenty years ago, when I was an undergraduate at Sussex, I took part in an occupation of Sussex House that lasted more than week and we liked to describe it as ‘Ten Days that Shook the University’. At the time I was studying Lukacs with Gillian Rose. Abstruse issues of reification and the compartmentalisations of bourgeois regimes of knowledge suddenly made sense in the context of praxis. That was an education, one that brought all that is crucial in ideas to life. I got caught by the police when they broke in at 6 in the morning through a small door we had forgotten to secure – cocky coppers made jokes about an early morning lecture on Crime and Punishment! The university authorities put me up in front of some sort of kangaroo court and it was frightening at the time. But as far as I know there was never a chance that I would be expelled from the university. I am appalled to hear of the more severe consequences for the recent students and implore all to continue fighting for their reinstatement. Keep up the many struggles!
We are writing to express our solidarity with the six students at Sussex who were suspended for taking action against education cuts, and call on
them to be unconditionally reinstated (i.e. without any conditions barring their participation in life on campus). We also support the campaign to
reinstate the Sussex 6 (including the current occupation of the A2 Arts Building) and the continued campaign against cuts at Sussex.
We also condemn the actions of management at Sussex for singling out and suspending the students, and then making their reinstatement conditional
on their non-involvement in campus activities. We feel this represents the criminalisation of dissent, as well as an obvious attempt to discourage students and staff from taking action against education cuts.
Goldsmiths Campaign Against Cuts
(supported by Goldsmiths UCU)
We have watched in both admiration and alarm as your occupation received the disgusting reaction of the police and, following this, the suspension of six students.
At LSE, we support your actions and have passed a motion at our weekly UGM in solidarity with the students at Sussex. In this climate of education cuts, we cannot sit back and let our education be affected. Education is not a commodity and should not be a privilege – it is a right. You have set an example of how Students’ Unions and others in the country can fight back against these cuts.
We offer you our full support. Thank you for also sending a speaker to our UGM, which hopefully inspired many!
Good luck and in solidarity,
LSE Students’ Union
Well done you guys. It’s about time someone stood up for our right to education. Give them hell. It’s disgusting what the police are doing but be brave. We are all behind you. You’ll be swamped by supporters at the weekend!
I salute your courage and congratulate you on your courageous stand. Only by standing shoulder to shoulder and confronting the wrongs of this world can we put matters right.
In solidarity
Gerry Doherty
General Secretary
Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association
Hello,
This is just a note of solidarity for the folks who are carrying out the occupation and the stop the cuts campaign more generally. I’ve been following what’s been happening closely, been absolutely outraged by the dishonesty and violence of the authorities’ reaction to the first occupation, and inspired by the sustained resistance that’s followed despite it. If everyone who found themselves in the same situation reacted the way you did, this country, and the world, would be a very different place.
What’s more it seems to me we’re at an historical juncture where everything is up for grabs; the entire financial apparatus that has been used for the last thirty years to justify these kind of savage attacks on peoples lives, livelihoods, the very idea that life can or should be about anything other than money, has been revealed to be a sham. It’s utterly meaningless to say “there is no money” now that we know that money is just something they can whisk into existence in whatever quantity they like when something that comes up that really matters to them (like saving banks.) It seems to me this is the real reason for the attack on the educational system at this particular moment. It’s a direct attack on knowledge and understanding itself – by the people who can no longer come up with any plausible justification for their own wealth and privilege, and so are increasingly reduced to falling back on simple violence. It’s basically a confession of complete intellectual bankruptcy. New ideas are going to have to come from somewhere, and historically, it’s been from people like yourselves, who have the courage to be at the forefront of resistance, that are going to end up playing the most important role in determining what the future is actually going to be like.
I’m hoping to come down soon and express my solidarity in person.
David
Apologies for the delay in publishing this one:
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DWP East Sussex Branch
9th March 2010
Support the Sussex 6!
Members of the DWP East Sussex Branch wish to express their support to all of those who took part in last Wednesday’s demonstration against cuts to Higher Education; and to wholeheartedly condemn the actions taken against the 6 students currently suspended by a rattled and reactionary administration.
The unnecessary and punitive action by Sussex University Management is out of keeping with the right to peaceful protest and the assertion that students were intimidating members of staff and behaving in an aggressive manner is not borne out by witnesses and photographic evidence of the event. The calling in of Riot Police merely displayed the quite disproportionate reaction to the student’s occupation and the scapegoating of 6 of the 300 student protesters has appalled trade union members throughout the City.
East Sussex Branch will write to Vice-Chancellor Professor Farthing requesting that these random suspensions are lifted. We will also be condemning his heavy handed approach to the understandable action taken by the student body when faced with the prospect of staff redundancies and cuts to services. We will also ensure that this information reaches other PCS Branches in the South East and we will ask them to join us in solidarity with you.
With our best wishes,
Gerry Hyde PCS East Sussex Branch Chair – by email
PCS DWP East Sussex Branch represents over 700 JCP members based in Hastings, Bexhill, Eastbourne, Lewes, Newhaven, Brighton and Hove.
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PS: Strike at the Jobcentre (Edward Street) and several other sites around Brighton on WEDNESDAY 24th MARCH – please visit picket lines, especially early morning to return solidarity for this group of workers.
Dear comrades in struggle,
Greetings of solidarity!
The University of Sussex management’s plan to cut jobs and budget is clearly another attempt to make students and educational workers pay for the current economic crisis. Therefore, the students’ protest was a just and rightful action. The fact that the various protest actions were participated by hundreds of students goes to show that the protest has wide support. Traditionally, occupation is not only an effective way of protest but also a right of students. The university management’s labeling of the occupation as a criminal offense and mobilization of police are clear violations to student’s democratic rights. The university management is currently on a wild witch-hunt to victimize six students in order to attack the students’ struggle.
We strongly condemn the university management’s decision to call in the police into the campus who used excessive force to repress the students’ protest. Not to admit the wrongfulness of the decision is not only a cowardly act but also an international embarrassment. The police who used excessive force on students must also be condemned.
We as students at Korea University were expelled by the university management for participating in an occupation in protest against the university’s decision to limit the rights to vote and candidacy to students in student election in 2006. The disciplinary action was an act of revenge against the students who fought against corporatization of the university. However, we continued our protest by setting up a tent in front of the management building for two years and building wide solidarity until we finally won in court and were reinstated. We strongly believe your just struggle will also end in victory.
Ji-yoon Kim, Hyeong-u Ahn, Young-man Kang, Beom-jin Seo, Byeong-jun Ju
Students who won the struggle against expulsion by the Korean University management
—————-
Letter of Protest
We demand the University of Sussex to stop the disciplinary actions against the six students.
The University of Sussex management’s plan to cut jobs and budget is clearly another attempt to make students and educational workers pay for the current economic crisis. Therefore, the students’ protest was a just and rightful action. The fact that the various protest actions were participated by hundreds of students goes to show that the protest has wide support. Traditionally, occupation is not only an effective way of protest but also a right of students. The university management’s labeling of the occupation as a criminal offense and mobilization of police are clear violations to student’s democratic rights. The university management is currently on a wild witch-hunt to victimize six students in order to attack the students’ struggle.
We strongly condemn the university management’s decision to call in the police into the campus who used excessive force to repress the students’ protest. Not to admit the wrongfulness of the decision is not only a cowardly act but also an international embarrassment. The management of Korea University had to suffer an international embarrassment and a defeat in court when it attempted to attack a progressive student movement by expelling 7 students.
We demand the University of Sussex to apologize to the students and immediately stop the disciplinary actions against the six students. In addition, the university must immediately cancel the plan for cuts.
Lastly, the police who used excessive force on students must be condemned.
Therefore, we demand the following.
The university management must immediately call off the disciplinary actions against the six students.
The university management must apologize for calling in the police to repress students’ action with excessive force and unjustly disciplining the students.
The police must apologize for the use of excessive force on students.
The university management must listen to the demand of the student and withdraw its plan to cut jobs and budget.
Ji-yoon Kim
Hyeong-u Ahn
Young-man Kang
Beom-jin Seo
Byeong-jun Ju
I just wanted to say how great it was to find out that not everywhere is as grim as Stoke. In a city with 9 Nazi BNP councillors it is very easy to feel that the whole world is going mad and turning Nazi. To hear of what you are doing in Sussex has more than made up for this. It has really cheered me up, along with every other socialist and left-winner on campus to hear that you are all keeping the spark of struggle against education cuts alive.
Keep up the good work, keep your chin up and good luck!
In solidarity,
Gary McNally,
Chair of Student Union Council at Staffordshire University,
Stoke-on-Trent
Solidarity from the Isle of Wight. The Ryde and East Wight trades Council follows with interest the struggles of our students. The Isle of Wight was the home of the Vestas Occupation, where workers took action for the future of sustainable energy and production of wind turbines. the actions of students and workers at Sussex and here at Vestas are in the finest traditions of our joint movements. The Sussex students have a history of progressive thought and action upholding democratic rights. We join in condemning state actions against you all.
http://rtuc.wordpress.com/
I write to offer my great support for student efforts to right the wrong of proposed cuts to programmes and staffing at Sussex University.
I also support the student witnesses who have bravely contradicted the reports by administrators of intimidation and hostage taking. Knowing what I know from personal experience about the way in which administrators engage in misrepresentations to the police, alleging criminal behavior by academic dissenters, I am heartened to see that students are standing together to oppose the lies.
You may be interested to know that Michael Farthing is the former Principal at SGUL, whose medical training programme is validated by Kingston University, and who served as Board Member at Kingston University. This should be informative in terms of the strategy employed by Prof Farthing in dealing with dissent.
In solidarity,
Dr Howard Fredrics
This country needs more people like you. Stand up against the Privatisation of Everything! Next week you will be joined by many more, as students from across the city of Brighton & Hove and the rest of the UK rise up to resist the plans of the collation government to lay waste to the future of this country. Together we can defeat them, as last week’s protest at Millbank showed, the ruling classes are terrified of students and workers united against them.
I support you in solidarity with Suffragettes, Mandela and Jews during the 2nd World War……. but let’s be honest, their plight pales into the background compared to the evil currently facing students in Sussex.
It is WRONG that low earning butchers, bakers and candle stick makers should stop paying the tax required to fund the students of Sussex 3 year party by the sea.
What is worse, is that the EU are taking money from students and bailing out Greeks so they can retire early.
What is the point in using public funds to let Greeks enjoy the sun, when there are perfectly lazy students at home in the prime of their lives ready to frolic for Britain?!
Well done Sussex… We are not far behind you.. hang in there!.. more will join before the end of the week.. GOOD WORK! M@ (SOAS)
Nice one folks! Keep up the occupation! Just the news I needed today rather than the royal wedding nonsense! Many good wishes going to you.
Dear friends, greetings from University of Kent. Keep up the struggle. I am Greek and nt ehews about your occupation have allready crossed the borders (‘ive learned about it from Greek indymedia).We need to escalate and I hope the 24th of November will be a good step!
As a past student of Sussex up till 2006 I wish you all my solidarity in your occupation. The premonitions of this attack have been apparent for a number of years now (I’d argue they have their roots in the EU’s Bologna Protocol, and neo-liberalism as an ideology behind that) and it’s inspiring to know that Sussex is again straight off the block in its defence.
We occupied the Library, the Library cafe and Innovation house (or whatever it’s called) back then. If you feel like delving into the romantic history of occupations at Sussex ask the library to show you their archives of photos and posters of occupations from the 1970s.
Solidarity from Kingston University.
D
Dear comrades,
Congratulations for your action, and good luck in your struggle. Until the final victory! Solidarity and revolutionary salutes!
Students from the Anarchist Union – Cyprus
The North London local of the Solidarity Federation (IWA) would like to express our fullest solidarity with the Sussex occupation. We can only hope that your struggle will inspire others—students, workers, the unemployed, and the retired alike—to follow your example. Only by using direct action will we be able to beat the cuts and, ultimately, build a world in which education ceases to be a commodity. Although this struggle has come to an end, we salute your dedication.
Solidarity between the Working Class and Students from the workers on the Isle of Wight.
AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL!!!
UNITY IS STRENGTH!!!
RTUC
Solidarity from the Isle of Wight Communist Movement.
Britain’s students are leading the way – whilst the government is walking backwards. Good luck to you all, and thank you.
Well done guys and girls for not only occupying the building, but being extroadinarily friendly for us college students who have attended your meetings to get inspiration from you all! Thank you all for the direct action meeting/training, us guys at the Varndean Stop the cuts group.
Regards,
Ross – Varndean College Stop the Cuts.
http://www.fitwatch.org.uk/2010/12/13/students-should-not-be-panicked-by-mets-published-pictures/
Just a link for SOLIDARITY – don’t be scared of the big bad wolf, open your eyes and our numbers will never fail.
Stick together, and remember – black bloooooc.
Why cut spending while we give the banks £130bn a year? Plan B: CUT THE BENEFITS TO BANKERS: http://bit.ly/eaF46g