On Wednesday 15th February around 200 people from around the country travelled to Birmingham to take part in a march protesting against the draconian measures put in place by the University of Birmingham to prevent peaceful and legitimate protest on campus. The University of Birmingham is the first university to successfully take out a high court injunction to criminalise occupational style protests.

At 1 pm the crowd had gathered in the Guild and after a number of passionate speeches the march set off, immediately deviating from the Guild’s intended route, effectively dashing their dreams of a photo opportunity on the A to B march. The march was vibrant and the message was clear: drop the injunction and drop the disciplinary of Simon Furse.

Attempts to occupy the security building were made by students early on in the march and they were met with aggression from members of staff: one student being forcefully held against a wall, and many others being violently manhandled.

The march then continued, and a group of about 100 students entered and secured the Aston Webb Conference Centre. The occupation (which saw representation from 15 universities, the NUT and NUS) was brief, but disrupted the day’s events and sent a clear message not only to management at The University of Birmingham but also to campuses around the country: freedom of speech and freedom to peaceful dissent is enshrined in the student movement and it will unite to fight against oppression wherever it is found. The students of The University of Birmingam are prepared to continue to protest and reclaim their campus.

NCAFC offers full support to those in Birmingham and will continue to resist those who stand in the way of the right to protest.

The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts is calling for maximum turnout for the NUS week of action on March 12^th to 16^th – with a national walkout on March 14^th. There is now less than a month to go until we’re on the picket lines!

This strike is an opportunity for students and staff everywhere to take the fight to the government over its programme of cuts and privatisation, and make a stand for publicly funded, accessible education. We need to make a nation-wide impact, and demonstrate to Vice Chancellors and university managements that they must back us in our fight, not collaborate with the government.

Because the walkout and week of action is being called by NUS, students’ unions should be taking a lead on organising it. But we have to be ready to take on the fight if our local unions don’t, and to make sure that the walkout actually happens.

On March 14^th, shut down your university.

• Don’t attend classes or lectures
• Organise picket lines at entrances and ask fellow students not to cross them
• Engage with students and staff: hand them leaflets and hold meetings to discuss the fight against fees and cuts
• If you can, occupy!

In the lead-up to the 14^th, especially during the week of action:

• Hold meetings on your campus about fees, cuts, and the white paper
• Do banner drops and short sit-ins
• Organise city-wide or regional meetings to co-ordinate the strike
• Link up with staff on your campus – especially UCU branches – and get their support
• Help local school students to mobilise

The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts is calling on NUS to organise a national demo for the autumn of 2012. To sign it, click here.

This year, students have shown that they are still willing to resist the government’s plans for education and public services. In November, the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts brought 10,000 students to London under the banner of opposing fees, cuts and privatisation in education; and in March, we will see a National Student Walkout initiated by NUS. Strikes by lecturers and public sector workers are also escalating.

We face one of the worst ever attacks on students and young people. On top of the tripling of tuition fees, the scrapping of EMA, and the worst cut ever to university teaching, the higher education white paper will end education as a public service. Youth unemployment and further cuts to FE are robbing a generation of their future. The dropping of the HE Bill showed that direct action works, but it is not a victory on its own: the Tories will still be free to privatise and cut higher education, with asset stripping, private providers and outsourcing of core activities.

In the face of these attacks, it is vital that the student movement re-mobilises, and keeps up momentum following the summer break. We need a broad strategy that can challenge and defeat the government’s higher education white paper, and articulate serious alternatives for education as a public service. Both local and national level action will be necessary in this task.

In order to seriously challenge the government and save education, we cannot continue to rely on independent networks and campaigns with limited resources. We need our national union, with its cash, profile and staff support, to lead this fight.

We, the undersigned, call on NUS to organise a national demonstration in the autumn term of 2012, with a set of localised walkouts and actions before the winter break.

For background on the Take Back Your Campus demo, click here

Since this statement was released, police intimidated a group of protesters and made a number of apparently arbitrary arrests.

Today we staged a sit-in at the University of Birmingham for the following reasons:

In defiance of the unprecedented injunction banning stationary protests this sit-in took place, stopping access to the main conference centre rooms and disrupting meetings that continue to perpetuate the university as a corporate business rather than an educational institution. We fundamentally disagree with the university’s continual business agenda, which keeps Eastwood on a disproportionately high pay while members of staff face real-term pay cuts and students fees have tripled.

We condemn the actions taken by the university against the freedom to protest on campus. This we believe to be a right, that students and indeed all people should be able to freely express their discontent. The university should be a bastion for free-speech. As it stands, the university does not recognise this human right and actively seeks to curtail it. The University of Birmingham now finds itself condemned by Amnesty International for its repressive conduct.

We condemn the disciplinary action taken against Simon Furse. Simon’s disciplinary is an example of the extreme victimisation that this university will deploy in order to crush its student body. Simon was singled out against a backdrop of nationwide occupations of which no other student has been disciplined for; only Simon is being disciplined despite the fifty or so other students also involved. The university is trying to make an example of Simon by attempting to punish him they are trying to intimidate other students. This behaviour is a Draconian response to an otherwise peaceful protest. This is an affront to democracy and puts the University of Birmingham to shame, so much so that David Eastwood has been condemned by the national press from the Guardian to the Daily Mail.

We will continue to take action until the university stops repressing the student voice.

On the 24^th and 25^th of February the Tories are holding their Local Government Conference inLeeds.

The Conference will be attended by Eric Pickles and key players in local government.

A protest has been organised by Leeds Against the Cuts for Saturday the 25^th. It will leave woodhouse moor at 10-30am after a rally and march down through Leeds City Centre to City Square which is in front of the Queen’s hotel; where the conference is being held.

After the demo an anti-cuts counter conference is being held where workshops will be held and discussions will take place on how we can unite all the different campaigns to fight the Tories together.

So book your tickets to Leeds for the 25^th!

Mark March 14th in your diaries: NUS has just called it as a national student walkout against the privatisation and marketisation of education.

We’ll be working on a plan at our national meeting today. Watch this space for updates.

The NCAFC Disabled Campaign is encouraging disabled students at NUS Disabled Students conference to vote re-open nominations, the campaign is about the right to an open and democratic election, and it is the belief of NCAFC Disabled Students Campaign that contested elections raise the profile and the mandate of an officer.

There are two potential candidates for the election of Disabled Students Officer, this campaign isn’t about whether you support one candidate over another, it is about the right to a fair, open and democratic election. The Disabled Students Campaign has not seen a contested election in at least six years, and it is the belief of members of the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts disabled students campaign that a contested election raises the profile of the campaign. Both candidates, Hannah Paterson and Matt Bond have had a large presence on facebook and have drawn attention to the campaign. The contested election will result in better publicity of the NUS Disabled Student campaign.

The election regulations were misleading and inaccessible, which has lead to the nomination of Matt Bond not being accepted.

Matt Bond a student of Sheffield College, due to election rules indicating that he could run using his position as NEC, believed he could run for the position. Shortly before the close of nomination (two days) it was made apparent that Matt would not be able to run as a NEC member as it did not make him eligible and he needed to run as a student from Sheffield College. The college have their own policy on providing evidence of student statuses and followed their procedure meaning that two weeks after requesting the evidence, Matt had still not received it. . In the meantime he sent a copy of his student card which contained an expiry date of July 2012 and the examination documentation to NUS. They ruled it as inconclusive.

The college then said he had been withdrawn from his course despite him receiving examination documentation confirming he would sit an exam shortly before the nomination deadline. Matt should have been eligible to stand by the nomination deadline but a mixture of inaccessible election regulations and college incompetency means he is thus far unable to.

Lea Gebal NUS Committee member 2008/2009 states that “In order to have a democratic vote you have to have a choice, and by enabling RON to win this election that democracy is the real winner of who’ll be NUS Disabled Students Officer 2012-13. For this reason, I will be supporting a vote RON campaign for Disabled Students Officer, I urge you all to do the same.”

Members of the NCAFC Disabled campaign along with other self-defining disabled student’s, believe there are two options:

1) Hannah Paterson as the only other candidate could withdraw her nomination, meaning nominations would be reopened and therefore the election can be contested.

2) A full RON campaign is being launched in the hope that conference will vote to reopen nominations, both candidates can therefore re-nominate themselves.

On November 11th 2011, Eric Jinks, a student at Cardiff & Vale College who at the time was 17 years old, was arrested along with seven others while taking part in the Occupy Cardiff protest at Cardiff Castle, a public green space owned in common by the people of the city of Cardiff.

Cardiff Council was the only council in the UK to try to prevent an Occupy camp from even setting up its tents. South Wales Police deployed horses and tasers against 200 peaceful protesters. We linked arms and stood together in the freezing rain in order to make a stand against the Council, the Assembly, and Parliament, all of whom are making cuts to essential public services. In order to find a pretext for the arrests, Cardiff Council dusted off an 1875 by-law which one Cardiff councillor has described as “not really a law”.

Despite widespread support for Eric and the other arrestees, including a letter signed by prominent trade unionists, activists and politicians which appeared in last week’s Guardian; and despite Eric’s age at the time of his arrest; South Wales Police are going ahead with their charges against Eric and a “case management hearing” has been scheduled for February 8th. Eric faces a potential three months in prison for peaceful protest in a public space.

NCAFC urges its supporters to sign Occupy Cardiff’s e-petition in defence of Eric and the other arrestees and to attend a peaceful protest at the courthouse when Eric is brought before a judge.

Defend the Right to Protest

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Occupy Cardiff members are arrested by South Wales Police. Video by Andy Williams, Cardiff University UCU.