NEXT PROTEST, WEDS 21ST MARCH, 10AM, Great Saint Mary’s Church, Kings Parade, CAMBRIDGE
The University of Cambridge court of discipline ruling to suspend PhD student Owen Holland for two and a half years is an outrageous attack on the right to protest. It is a clear message from the University that it will not tolerate dissent; that it would rather stand with a government who is actively seeking to destroy the higher education system than with their own students and staff. The decision has provoked widespread fury within the University and beyond. Around 7500 people at the time of writing have signed a petition initiated by CUSU and Cambridge University UCU including Liam Burns, NUS president, Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the PCS union, Michael Rosen, poet and former children’s laureate, John McDonnall MP, Tariq Ali, academics from all over the world, and thousands of students.
Owen participated, with many others, in a peaceful protest last November when government minister David Willetts came to speak as part of a series on the ‘idea of the university.’ Staff and students voiced their anger in the form of an epistle addressed to the minister for universities and science, who chose to abandon his talk. The lecture theatre in which the protest took place was then occupied by activists until the magnificent public sector strike on 30th November. Activists used it as an opportunity to agitate around the attacks posed in the higher education white paper as well as to build support for the pensions strikes.
The protest was a collective action, yet the university chose to single out an individual student to victimise. As a response to this 60 students and academics have signed a ‘Spartacus’ letter stating that they played a role in the protest and so the University, in the interests of being ‘fair’ should charge them as well. We reject the notion that an individual should have been victimised in this way, but also that they have charged anyone in the first place.
The University court of discipline can have any motivation for this harsh, unprecedented sentence other than sending a warning shot to activists resisting the government’s attacks. It is an exemplary sentence, designed to stem future activity. In the last 18 months Cambridge University in common with many other institutions has seen an increase in activism related to increase in tuition fees, cuts to HE budgets, and the increasing commodification of education and influence of private companies. This has included large protests in the centre of Cambridge and several occupations.
Undeterred by the University of Cambridge’s attempt to quell activism, students, staff and residents of Cambridge took the streets on Friday to protest against Owen’s suspension. Around 500 people marched through the city chanting “What do we want? Justice!” and “Boris, Boris, hear us shout, we won’t let you kick Owen out!” In a mass meeting at the end of the march there was a unanimous vote of no confidence in the vice-chancellor, the chancellor, the university management, and the university court of discipline. Further protests are planned at the installation of Lord Sainsbury as Chancellor on Wednesday.
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