From Education Not for Sale and the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts.
4.30pm, Monday 1 March: Students at Westminster University have occupied their Regent Street campus in protest at cuts.
Please get down there (for directions see here), or send messages of solidarity: email defendeducationuow@hotmail.com.
In a number of senses, more to follow!
From Fight Cuts Campaign at Westminster University
STUDENTS CURRENTLY IN OCCUPATION ...
Over 200 staff and students at the University of Westminster have protested, stormed the board of governors meeting and are currently in occupation, vice-chancellors office, in regard to recently proposed tutoring and administrative job cuts.
Management are planning to slash 285 jobs by April and this follows the closures of the ceramics department and the nursery. Recently, over 150 staff and students placed a unanimous vote of no confidence in the vice-chancellor and his management at a rally addressing Westminster's severe proposed job cuts, on February, 17.
The vice-chancellor has openly declared that job cuts are the initiative of the governors, not his. Well, demonstrators asked him for themselves, after storming past security and into the governor’s meeting. They were greeted by a board of governors who were ‘quaking in their boots;’ shortly after students persuaded Geoffrey Petts, the VC, to stick around and answer some questions which he hesitated to on the first instance but then proceed to do with a full bureaucratic and dismissive tone.
Our demands to the vice-chancellor are:
A) Issue a statement on the avoidance of redundancies
B) Make freely available to the unions in the university appropriate financial documents
C) Produce alternative, sustainable plans for addressing the financial gap over the next several years.
Join us, over 40 students are currently occupying at Regents Campus, V-C's office!
Comments
From inside the occupation
A member of the AWL and an activist in the Fight Cuts at Westminster campaign spoke to us from inside the occupation.
"First and foremost, the aim of our occupation is to challenge and, hopefully, stop the 250-plus tutoring and admin job cuts that management have announced for April this year.
"We prepared a statement of intent for our Vice-Chancellor, Geoffrey Petts, to sign. The statement’s demands included a declaration of no compulsory redundancies and a real effort to minimise voluntary ones; making freely available to the unions (UCU, Unison, student union) all documents pertaining to the university’s finances; and a guarantee that no staff or students involved in the actions against cuts will face repercussions or reprisals.
"We gave this to the VC after the occupation began, warning Professor Petts that, unless he concedes our demands, actions will continue now and in the future.
"The campaign began around two months back with four of us. This tiny number was pretty symbolic of Westminster’s up till now under-politicised student population. However, that four speedily became ten, twenty and so on. What’s more a couple of die-hard, legendary Marxist tutors got on board and really helped out with the admin side of things. That was immensely helpful as it allowed us to wage a mass propaganda war (leaflets, posters, the lot) for minimal cost.
"After a successful mass meeting with staff and students, two weeks ago, where a vote of no confidence in the VC and his management was passed, we realised the potential for building a successful protest/day of action on the wave of that momentum.
"We set a date for the protest coinciding with the board of governors meeting, at which job cuts were top of the agenda. At a Fight Cuts campaign caucus, students were almost unanimously in favour of the idea of an occupation.
"From that moment on we planned a military strategy involving leafleting, banner-dropping, postering and speeches in lectures, across all five of Westminster’s campuses.
"Yesterday, on the day of action, a healthy crowd of 200 turned up. After spilling into the lobby and up the stairwell to the first floor – conveniently where the VC’s office and the boardroom are – we humiliated the VC and the board by storming their meeting and forcing them to answer questions about the cuts. Then we decided to occupy the VC’s office.
"Numbers have fluctuated from 100 down to about 40, but bear in mind the office is pretty small! A definite goal for future occupations will be to consider the logistics of space a bit better; this time we got a bit stuck!
"However, we’re all exceptionally happy with the results!
"Management are yet to return our statement of intent with any credible proposals or amendments. The ones they have made previously contradicted our demands in a cynical and bureaucratic fashion.
"One of our goals, by the way, is encouraging tutors who haven’t already joined a union to do so. We want to show solidarity with them and give them the confidence to ballot for a strike.
"We’re planning to leave the occupation tomorrow and march to UCL, where a demo and action are to be held, as part of the wave of anti-cuts action called by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts.
"We leave in the knowledge that management are on their guard and that students, tutors and staff are ready to hold them to account. We are ready for every twist and turn of an anti-cuts movement that is rapidly expanding.
"This is not the end. Far from it!"