POSTED BY SUSSEX AGAINST PRIVATIZATION ⋅ ⋅‘After an occupation lasting seven weeks, countless demonstrations, an EDM signed by 25 MP’s, close to 10,000 names on petitions and a campus turned yellow, Management have taken action through the courts to forcibly evict the students and staff occupying Bramber House Conference Centre.
The willingness of management to ignore dialogue with the majority of the campus community, and instead having to no doubt violently drag peaceful students from the University they supposedly run, is sickening.
The campaign to Stop The Privatisation of Sussex Services will continue, as will the fight to restore freedom of expression on our campus. A full statement will be released later today, but please if possible come to campus and support the occupation before it is violently ripped apart by a totalitarian management and heavy handed bailiffs.’
Yesterday was a sad day for public institutions, education and freedom of expression. The High Court declared that property rights prevailed and annulled any possible defense of the occupation on political grounds. A Possession Order was granted to the University, giving them permission to evict the occupiers and reclaim the Conference Centre. Bailiffs came today to Bramber House, but left without evicting, the time of writing being 13.49. Eviction will undoubtedly occur today or this weekend. Any support much appreciated.
For an account of the court proceedings, read this report by Gabriel Webber in the Badger, the University’s website.
This implies that management are considered the sole representatives and proprietors of the university, even when they have been proven to avoid and obstruct dialogue and consultation, as founding and constitutional principles of the university. Thus, their right to manage and make decisions over the property of the university, leading to a ban on any form of protest they do not consent to, has been upheld by the Court in the face of them flouting the principles upon which their position and salaries depend.
Yesterday’s defeat should not take away our right to contest this state of affairs. It also takes nothing away from the fight against outsourcing, which has gained in support, evidence, strength, legitimacy and solidarity. They can take space back, but they can’t evict our power.
Photo: Ole Johannes Kaland
The first of many signs of solidarity has been expressed this morning by the Department of Anthropology, in the letter below. It joins the incredible list of academic statements written since Tuesday 27 March following the Court’s decision to hear a case for the defense; at least one judge in the High Court believes such a case is possible, regardless of the University’s property rights.
A longer statement from the occupation will follow later.
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29 March 2022
Dear students involved in the campaign against outsourcing,
We, individuals associated with the Department of Anthropology of the University of Sussex as faculty, postdoctoral researchers, associate tutors and PhD students, wish to express our continuing support for you in your courageous efforts to stop the outsourcing of university services and in your gestures of support and solidarity with the 235 affected staff. We admire the moral integrity you have demonstrated in defending your values and in standing up for your convictions, peacefully and non-violently; we also admire your commitment to democratic decision-making and cooperative working together in the context of the occupation and your creativity in getting your message across. We share your vision of the University of Sussex as a community, rather than a business consisting of service providers and consumers. We share your scepticism that outsourcing can genuinely provide better quality services, and like you, we deplore the fact that an in-house solution was not even properly explored. The Anthropology Department has endeavoured throughout the term to make appropriate adjustments to teaching schedules in order to allow students who are taking part in the occupation to remain engaged in their course work, and we now reiterate our support for your campaign as you contest the injunction against protest. We join you in condemning the university management’s troubling and disproportionate response of banning until September 2013 all protest actions which have not received the explicit permission of the university authorities.
Sincerely yours,
Maria Abranches
James Barnes
Paul Boyce
Julie Billaud
Andrea Cornwall
Jane Cowan
Dimitris Dalakoglou
Aleksandar Dimitrovski
Geert de Neve
Nigel Eltringham
Katy Gardner
Lauren Greenwood
Elizabeth Harrison
Carolyn Heitmeyer
Lyndsay McLean Hilker
Barbara Holler
Ole Johannes Kaland
Raminder Kaur Kahlon
Nichola Khan
Evan Killick
Mark Leopold
Katie McQuaid
Jon Mitchell
Anneke Newman
Jonathan Newman
Umoloyouvwe Ejiro O. Onomake
Filippo Osella
Ana Porroche-Escudero
Dinah Rajak
Santiago Ripoll
Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner
John Spall
Anna Stewart
Yeyang Su
Maya Unnithan
Dimitra Mari Varvarezou
Hannah Warren
Martin Webb
Ross Wignall
Smita Yadav
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