NEW Press release 25/11/2013: The Autonomous Student Network and the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts call for a national demonstration in support of the Senate Chamber occupiers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
University of Birmingham Aston Webb Building, Senate Chamber
25/11/2013
Contact: Birmingham Defend Education
Phone: 07842765067, 07845579768
Email: [email protected]
The occupation of the Senate Chamber at the University of Birmingham has reached a critical stage: as the occupiers are summoned to court – threatened with an injunction and its legal costs, which may exceed £10,000 – the Autonomous Students Network (ASN) and the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) have called for national mobilisation on University of Birmingham campus in the event that the injunction is not dropped and the occupiers are charged.
These calls follow the escalation of the action that began last week and is indicative of the student movement’s perseverance to protect the value of democratic education in the UK.
On the matter, the ASN claimed that “this is the latest in a recent string of attacks on students fighting for democratic control of their institutions and for better conditions of University workers”. In their own statement, NCAFC claimed that “Universities should be democratic. Education should be a public good and should foster critical thinking on campus and in society”, and then went on to urge the University to withdraw the injunction request – demanding “that Hattie Craig and Simon Furse be free of any cost, financial or otherwise, related to this injunction and that the University pay for it out of its own deep pockets”.
Other groups from across the UK have also been invited to participate, including the Revolutionary Socialist/ISN group and the Student Assembly Against Austerity.
In recent history, Occupy Sussex called a national demonstration in March 2013 in defence of their right to protest after having been threatened with an injunction by their own university. As a result, up to 3000 students from all over Britain mobilised in solidarity with the occupation at Sussex – opening a new chapter of struggle for the student movement in Britain.
The ASN and NCAFC statements can be found here:
http://sheffieldautonomousstudents.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/solidarity-with-defend-education-birmingham-call-for-national-mobilisation/
http://anticuts.com/2013/11/24/open-letter-to-university-of-birmingham-management/