Students and educational workers were yesterday heavily involved in a day of strikes, pickets, occupations and protests in response to Westminster’s proposed pension changes and ideological dismantling of public services.
The day began early, at around 6am, when unknown groups of activists super glued locks and entrances to buildings around Edinburgh University campus. Doors to the David Hume Tower, Crystal Macmillian Building, Main University Library and George Square lecture theatre were, among a number of others, glued shut in an effort to stop the building being opened on a strike day. The University were yet to comment on their response to this action and its effects on building closure, but one source who works for the Uni and wishes to remain anonymous said the lockdown caused ‘maximum disruption’ and security staff ‘went mental’.
Banners were dropped from the medical school and anonymous pro-strike graffiti was found to be on a number of walls around the University.

Around 80 students who had been taking part in the Appleton Tower occupation ended their stay at 6.30am to join pickets and actions around the city – with many meeting more activists from the city to join an open top ‘Battle Bus’ which toured around various pickets from 7am till 9.30am, distributing coffee, hot rolls and support to picketers. This bus, organised by a number of students and activists from the Edinburgh branch of the Coalition Of Resistance, was enthusiastically received at pickets at the Scottish Parliament, the Tollcross Job Centre, Tynecastle High School and Edinburgh College of Art amongst others.

Morning pickets at Kings Buildings, Moray House, Charles Stewart House, Old College, New College, Main Library, Teviot Place and Edinburgh College of Art were well attended by students and lecturers alike, with many potential picket crossers engaging in discussion with those on strike and choosing to turn back in solidarity with the strike throughout the day.
A crowd of lecturers, tutors, library workers and students gathered at 10am outside the main university library to take part in a ‘Teach Out’ with speeches, songs and poems from supportive academics, union workers and students.

This moved to a student feeder rally in Bristo Square, where around 300 students gathered in order to join the main union rally near Edinburgh Castle. This main protest march, as part of the STUC’s ‘Day of Action for Pension Justice’, saw workers, families, students and claimants numbering at least 20,000 march from Edinburgh Castle to Scottish Parliament. Despite an early start for many, the student part of the march was full of life and energy, with sit downs in the road, a constant supply of innovative chanting and a real sense of change in the air.

By the time the march was coming to an end reports were already coming in of an occupation at the Forest Cafe church hall space, which has been empty since the community cafe and social centre which previously resided there was forced out by new owners following the University of Edinburgh Settlement’s fraudulent collapse into bankruptcy.
People from within the occupation tonight released this statement:

‘We are occupying the Forest Café. We need people. There’s free access so far but as soon as the police manage to get in contact with owners they will probably not let anybody in. Please, if you can spend the night come ASAP. with bedding. please bring extra bedding with you so people inside do not need to risk going out and not being let in again.
and if you can’t come, it’d be a massive help if you could drop any type of bedding .’

More info at Indymedia. 

This comes as George Osborne and the Con-Dem coalition declare all-out war on workers; with an extra 310,000 public sector job losses, a new pay cap to follow current wage freezes and the implentation of local rather than national pay rates alongside the current plans to drastically damage public pension provision. All this, as the Government’s decision to implement deep, pro-market spending cuts plunges the nation into the worst economic outlook since the end of the Second World War. Students and workers understand that these measures effectively amount to a right-wing destruction of our public services and yesterday they took action as part of the largest UK strike in decades in a huge show of solidarity, anger and hope.

Edinburgh peeps – help support the picket, help make this strike as successful as possible.

Here is the information for people who want to go and picket tomorrow morning in support of their lecturers, university staff and other fellow students in defending education and attacks on pensions. 

Contact the named people with any questions, to get an idea about numbers or find out what things might be useful to bring along. Pickets officially start at 8.30am, but people need to go down earlier to the Teviot Place picket as this is where the post gets delivered.

Spread the word!

KB Corner – Ali -07725033485
Just near this - http://www.ed.ac.uk/maps/buildings/ashworth-laboratories

Moray House – Mike W 07917356036
http://g.co/maps/98m33

Charles Stewart House – Max 07793652131
http://www.ed.ac.uk/maps/buildings/charles-stewart-house

Old College (Front and Back) – Innes 07908783366
http://www.ed.ac.uk/maps/buildings/old-college

New College – Aurora 07427177800
http://www.ed.ac.uk/maps/buildings/new-college

Main Library – Kate – 07917858961
http://www.ed.ac.uk/maps/buildings/main-university-library

Teviot Place – Mike S – 07540248868
http://g.co/maps/6sb9u

ECA Front and back – Abi – 07840474721
http://g.co/maps/fdrqe

TONIGHT!

5.30pm Appleton Tower lobby
‘Musical Chairs’ Discussion Groups
Small group chats about: the White Paper, feminism, anarchism, the rights of addicts, radical journalism, the labour movement in Egypt, radical education. We’ll rotate so you can go to a few! (Hence the ‘musical chairs’ title.)

TOMORROW!

7pm ‘An Introduction to the Strikes and Why We Should Support Them!’ Appleton Tower Lecture Theatre 5

WEDNESDAY!

6.45am Coalition of Resistance open top ‘Battle Bus’ going round picket lines leaving at 7am from Appleton Tower – meet at 6.45am outside Appleton

10am Teach Out – outside George Square Library. Speakers will include lecturers, students and local campaigners.

11.30am – Student Feeder for N30 march – Support the Strikes. Starting from Bristo Square.

"Yummy"

At something like an occupation or a picket line, hot food works wonders for morale. The problem is, they usually take place in locations that are a bit short of cooking facilities, but with a bit of planning, it’s actually quite easy to arrange a supply of home-made food. Most people will have all of the necessary equipment sitting around at home anyway, and since you can make a huge pot of soup for less than £5, it works out a lot cheaper than buying everyone a takeaway.

I’ve included recipes for two variations on lentil soup, because it’s very straightforward, the ingredients are cheap, and it doesn’t contain anything which people are likely to be allergic to. In general, soup is a good choice because you only need a mug or a disposable cup to drink it out of, so you don’t have to worry about finding cutlery.

Remember, if you’re planning to take food (or any other supplies) to a picket or occupation, it’s often a good idea to get in touch with them first. Someone else might already have offered to bring them dinner, or maybe they’re up to their eyes in biscuits, but could really use some more cups. Surprises are fun, but they aren’t always useful.

Equipment:

• A really big soup pot with a lid
• Stick blender or potato masher
• Blankets or clean clothes for insulation
• A bag large enough to hold both
• Ladle
• Paper or polystyrene cups

Basic Lentil Soup

A vegetarian version of Mammy Soup Dragon’s old recipe. Makes about 6-7 litres of soup.

Ingredients:

• 500-600g of red lentils
• 2kg of carrots
• 3 onions
• Vegetable stock powder/cubes (dairy and gluten free if possible)
• 2 tbsp dried parsley
• Salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Rinse the lentils and put them in the pot and add water so that the lentils are covered in about 10cm of water. Start bringing the water to the boil – this will take a while because of the quantities involved.
2. Chop the onions and add them to the pot.
3. Peel and chop the carrots, throwing them into the pot as you go. This may take a while, so find some comrades to help you if you can.
4. Add sufficient stock for the volume of soup (this will vary according to the type you’re using).
5. Stir occasionally to stop anything from sticking to the bottom of the pot. The lentils will absorb water as they cook, so you may need to add more.
6. When the carrots are soft, blend the soup until it is smooth. If you don’t have a blender, you could mash it instead.
7. Add the parsley, salt and pepper.

Spicy Tomato Lentil Soup

This one’s a bit more complicated, and it could be expensive if you don’t already have a well-stocked spice rack. Makes 5-6 litres of soup.

Ingredients:

• 2 onions
• 5/6 cloves of garlic
• Vegetable oil
• 3 tins of chopped tomatoes
• Up to 1kg of carrots
• 3 cups lentils
• Stock powder/cubes
• Half a tube of tomato puree
• About 1 tsp each of chilli powder, coriander, cumin, ginger & smoked paprika (or substitute other spices, depending on your own taste and what’s available)
• 1 tbsp parsley
• Salt and pepper

1. Chop the onions and garlic.
2. Fry the onions over a low heat in a generous amount of oil until they’re almost translucent, then add the garlic, and when that’s cooked, add the spices.
3. Add the tomatoes to the pot, and give them a bit of a mash. You don’t want a completely smooth texture, just a smaller tomato chunks.
4. Rinse the lentils and throw them into the pot. Top it up with water, add the stock and tomato puree, the leave it to simmer.
5. Peel and chop the carrots, and add those.
6. Cook until the carrots and lentils are soft.
7. Add parsley, salt, pepper, and maybe a bit more of some of the spices.

Transporting Hot Food:

It takes a long time for a large volume of soup to go cold, but there are a few basic principles you can apply to maximise the length of time it stays really hot, and to make it easier to transport.

Use something to hold the lid in place on top of the pot. The contents will slosh around and knock the lid off if you don’t.
This can be achieved with string, or with with a folded-up tea towel wrapped around the handles.

Affixing the lid with a tea-towel

You need to insulate the bag you’re carrying your food in, so that there is padding around the pot on every side. This keeps the heat in, and it also means that you don’t burn your legs when the bag bounces off them.

Insulating the soup from the cold (and your legs)

Make sure the top of the pot is well covered. This is for camouflage as well as insulation, because some bus drivers don’t like letting people on with hot food, so this disguises what you’re carrying.

Thoroughly disguised as a bag of scrumptious bedding

If it’s not going to be eaten immediately when you reach your destination, throw a few extra blankets or coats over the top of your insulated bag for good measure.

This method will keep your food properly piping hot for at least 2 1/2 hours. It probably lasts even longer, but I’ve never had any reason to test it beyond that point.

Red Pepper has posted this article about unions and strikes in response to anti-strike rhetoric in the press.

If you’ve ever wondered what the point of unions is, why people go on strike, and whether it’s true that people go on strike without negotiating, read it!

Some people involved in the occupation, and some outside, have set up a Meadows Walking Bus so that people who need to walk across the Meadows during the evening and at night have people to walk with.

For more information and updates see the Facebook event.

Also, the Women’s Action Group, among other groups and individuals, is holding an event called ‘Organising a response to the recent Meadows attacks’. It’s at 7pm in DHT room 8.16 *tomorrow night* (Monday 28th).

Of course, these aren’t adequate solutions to sexual assault, but we hope they will help. The blame lies with the rapists, not those who have been assaulted, but if any of these ideas could help even just a little bit, they are well worth doing. Kate x

• Education should be free: funded through higher taxation on corporations and the rich.
• Education is a social, public good: universities should not be run for private profit.
• Universities should be democratically organised: directly controlled by staff and students.

We demand immediately from Edinburgh University:

• No legal or academic repercussions for anyone involved.
• Staff who take strike action on November 30th should have no pay deducted because of their action.
• Staff who refuse to cross picket lines despite not being in a union which is on strike should face no recriminations.
• That an all student email be sent out on the issue of the November 30th strikes outlining the position of management, UCU and EUSA.
• Free tapwater in all university cafes, putting the welfare of staff and students before profit.
• Withdrawal of the proposed 36k fees at Edinburgh University.
• Full and open consultation between management, staff and students concerning fees.
• No privatisation of education and no privately funded courses or research.
• No cuts to courses or compulsory redundancies.
• To guarantee no cuts to library, student support or learning resources.
• A living wage for all workers at Scottish universities including those subcontracted.
• Tutor should be paid for all the work they do; tutors need to be paid for enough time to provide proper feedback.
• University senior management must take the average salary of university staff, or resign.
• A public condemnation of the Westminster Government’s Higher Education White Paper.

November 30th will see the biggest strike this country has even known – more workers out on strike than during the Miners Strike, the Winter of Discontent or even the General Strike of 1926, and contrary to the popular stereotype of macho trade unionists in flatcaps with whippets, it is women who are leading the charge. The government wants to take away the “gold-plated” pensions of public sector workers, but this gold plating is as thin as gold leaf. Women in local government retire on £1,600 on average, hardly an army of Fred the Shreds.

According to the government the people who will be on strike on Wednesday are parasites who contribute nothing to the economy. There are the people who provide our local government services, our healthcare, our education. And they are overwhelmingly female.

This lack of value placed on public services, reflects the lack of value which is placed on women’s labour. Despite the Equal Pay act coming in in 1972, as recently as this September women were awarded compensation for years of discriminatory pay practices. The labour provided by women in the public sector in many cases are roles which women have always done – caring for elderly and disabled people, raising and educating children and nursing the ill were traditionally provided by female family members for free, and with the cuts there is a severe danger that women who provide services as a public good will again be expected to provide them for free in domestic servitude.

Benefit changes also impact disproportionately on women. In addition to the direct effect of the changes around working families tax credit and child benefit which are overwhelmingly claimed by women, cuts to disability benefits are likely to mean that women end up supporting disabled family members financially as well as practically.

The proposed changes to public sector pensions provision is an additional tax on public sector workers. While those who caused this crisis walk off with their golden handshakes huge pension pots, it is public sector workers who are expected to pick up the tab for their mismanagement.

On November 30th, the women will strike back – between two thirds and three quarters of the workers taking action will be female.

As Tyler Durden could have said

Look. The people you are coming after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, take out your trash, look after you when you are young;nurse you when you are sick and wipe your bums when you are old.
DO NOT F*CK WITH US.

This was originally posted here.

Students at the time of the last UCU strike seemed somewhat confused as to what picket lines were, and what supporting a strike means. Here is my short attempt (it’s nearly 3am here in Appleton tower) to explain it.

On the N30 strikes, you should not cross the picket lines. Whoever you are, and whether you work in the building or not, to turn around, or better yet, to join the picket, are signs of solidarity. As students, many of us are as at the mercy of the government’s whims as workers are. Students have had a long tradition of standing with the working class in their fight for better conditions. I hope that fight will carry on until the things workers have built belong to the people who have made them.

All freedoms and concessions to workers were won by hard struggle on the workers’ part, not by the benevolence of politicians, and crossing picket lines is a statement that undermines that fight. We cannot expect politicians to fight for us, in an era where the Labour leader will say “these strikes are wrong” at the drop of a hat, and if we want control of our workplaces, universities, schools and hospitals we must not wait for Labour to break promises for the thousandth time. Individualism, spearheaded in part by the Thatcherism of the 1980s, and continued by the “we’re all middle-class now” rhetoric of Blair, has led to an erosion of class consciousness, that is, the notion that those who have to prostitute themselves to the labour market in order to survive have something in common with one another. Our communities have died, and so the ones with the biggest sticks, bought with the money stolen from the hard graft of the working people, have come to rule. The workers’ first recourse is the withdrawal of that labour.

What this means is that those who break picket lines to go into work are directly taking the bosses’ side in the dispute. You cannot “stay out of it”. By crossing, you pick a side. If the workers are to win their rights over what they produce, be that goods or knowledge, it is the collective action that is useful against the violent machinery of the capitalist state, while they hold all the cards of force and money. Class war is not something started by the workers, it is waged every day by the bosses and politicians, when they drive down wages, reduce holidays and cut funding to the social wage that is not only the workers’ right, but that is bought and paid for in money and time. It is time to fight our corner. Workers will be striking on the 30th and I will be standing with them.

I am frustrated at the moralizing over “disruption” that is bandied about in the press and by extension in the mouths of those who read it uncritically. Try living as a worker, or a benefits claimant, just for a month or so. All those things you would like to do, maybe spend time with your children, go down to the pub with your mates, or even work in a job that interests and stimulates you, you will find somehow mysteriously “disrupted” by the fact that you have very little money and very little time. For one day I ask you to stand with your fellow humans as they simply ask for reform in a system that exploits them, dehumanises them and robs them of their creations. For one day I ask that you think about how fortunate many of us students are to have the opportunities being at university grants us. For one day I ask that we act as a community. For one day I ask that we listen, rather than talk.

Perhaps a little “disruption” is worth it.

This was originally posted here.

1100-1130 Skipping (getting food)/
1100-1130 Communications (organising mailing list, Facebook, Twitter etc)
1200-1300 Safe Space policy write-up
1300-1400 Arts & Crafts (Propaganda)
1400-1600 Demands and aims
1630-1730 Events
2000-2130 Daily round-up, planning for the next day

Life fail?

Maybe, but I hope not.

Occupations are about more than just hummus eating, a coffee intake three times more than the normal and trying to fashion a pillow out of someone else’s corduroy jacket (yes, I did this last night). Earlier I actually wrote my full name on a polystyrene cup so I could re-use it. Grim.

But I’m here because important shit is happening…
Next Wednesday our lecturers and tutors will be on strike because their pensions are being significantly cut – and they are being asked to work longer to earn less.

It’s not only them on strike though – the 30th of November will be the biggest mass strike in a generation. Around *three million* people and 30 unions!

This kind of thing doesn’t happen very often.

Workers and the public sector are under attack – we need to stand up and say how much we value our nurses, teachers, electricians, lecturers…

So we’re spreading the word.
Don’t go to class on the 30th – it weakens the strike if classes go ahead.
People will be outside lecture theatres and libraries to inform people about the strike and ask them not to go in university buildings.

Join us!

As much or as little participation as you would like – from re-posting this to sleeping on the floor and going round picket lines at stupid o-clock in the morning.

Ridiculous hair is not compulsory…
(this is me btw)

Kate x

Following a brief meeting activists decided to re-occupy George Square Lecture Theatre (occupied over the weekend of fresher’s week earlier this year against 9k RUK fees), with the caveat that we would move out in time for lectures to commence at 9 am the next day. The purpose of this occupation was to evaluate our options and decide a plan of action. After a (very) long meeting it was decided that we would go back into occupation in Appleton Tower, after joining the union picket of Council Chambers against the privatisation of £1 billion of public services.

On all fronts we were relatively successful, the council voted to not outsource our city’s environmental services and we are now in Appleton Tower preparing to use it as an organising space in preparation for the N30 Strikes. Tomorrow, a very sleep deprived group of activists will begin the task of planning and outreach, but right now most seem quite happy raging at Question Time being played on a lecture theatre’s screen and eating some of the delicious rice and curry donated in solidarity.

We are now occupying Appleton Tower, in support of the UCU strike on Wednesday November 30, against the moves of the government to privatise higher education and in defence of the principle that education is a public, social good which should be free for all.

We are currently in the middle of the most aggressive attack on the notion of public education in any of our lifetimes. The White Paper being introduced by the government in Westminster will lead to for-profit institutions, a stratification of our university system and the reinforcing of social barriers. The plans are economically illiterate and will have disastrous effects on the system of higher education in the UK.

We stand in solidarity with student occupations across the UK. In Birmingham students have been blockaded without food and water, threatened with legal action and, unbelievably, even physically assaulted by security. We realise that in Scotland we remain sheltered from some of these effects. But as with the introduction of £9000/year tuition fees in England, which have led directly to the rest of UK fees at our university increasing to £36000 for 4 years, changes in the funding and organisation of universities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will affect what happens here. That tuition fees, directly or deferred in the form of a graduate tax, have not been reintroduced for Scottish students is testament to the anger and action shown by students in Scotland last year. If we wish to defend our system and move towards a genuinely egalitarian position – where students are supported through their degrees, courses and staff are properly funded and no one is priced out of education – we must make a stand now.

We aim to  persuade staff and students that education does not have to be considered as a commodity to be traded for profit but is instead a public good which benefits all of society. That education is not simply a means to future employment but has intrinsic worth in itself. That universities do not have to be run as if they were a private business, but can be democratically controlled by their staff and students.

Next week lecturers, librarians, IT staff and others will be on strike as part of the largest coordinated action undertaken in generations.  We will be standing with them on their picket lines, supporting them in their struggle for a decent pension and the ability to retire in dignity. Their struggle is ours. If unions lose their fight, we will suffer when we come to start pensions of our own on leaving university.

We call on all students to support their staff, to refuse to cross picket lines and work from home or join us on the pickets. Pickets are not just for show; they are not symbolic nor are they just another way to express your unhappiness. They are a weapon – the only weapon workers often have to balance the relation of power between themselves and their employers. To cross a picket line is to undermine a strike. If you support the aims of the staff you must refuse to cross.

Our occupation is to defend education and our university. We do not intend or expect to disrupt teaching and hope that the university will not choose to cancel or move lectures or events happening in Appleton.

We invite all students and staff at Edinburgh University to visit our occupation and to join us. We hope that you will.

The Edinburgh Anti-Cuts Coalition believes that education should be free and publicly funded, that students should have enough money to live on, and that universities should be run for the good of society and not for private profit.

The University of Edinburgh’s recent decision to make Princess Anne our Chancellor, to represent the university to the rest of the world, stands completely at odds with these values.

Princess Anne has no connection to education. She is a symbol of unelected, unaccountable power. She is a relic of an age where education was the domain of a privileged elite.
Further to this, the decision was made entirely undemocratically. The Chancellor is supposed to be elected by former students but the University management rigged the election to ensure that she was unopposed.

At a time when students are being hit with colossal fees, the University has chosen to spend thousands of pounds on a celebration of privilege.

The Edinburgh Anti-Cuts Coalition call on students, lecturers, workers, jugglers, dancers, cyclists and clowns to join us in a Party Against Privilege.

While the University celebrate the out-dated values of a wealthy elite we will reclaim the streets and party in the name of democracy, equality and solidarity.

There will be:
Food Not Bombs
Live Music
Dancing
Soundsystems
Juggling
Clowns
Drummers
Theatre
Reclaim The Streets

Print off flyers and get the word out:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B78IvcCwU8EeZTQ1M2ZjMWUtM2U4MS00M2U4LTliZWEtODExN2ZkMmRiNDBi&hl=en

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B78IvcCwU8EeN2Y4ZGQ2YTAtMzJkMy00MDE3LWE5MTAtNzkwZTI4NzE1MjI3&hl=en

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B78IvcCwU8EeZWJjMGI1YWYtYzg3OC00MGU0LThjMjYtMzhiZTNiMzc1MGRm&hl=en_GB

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=249751498402951

Join us!

Party Against Privilege!

About 100 students [1] from across Scotland occupying an Edinburgh University lecture theatre this weekend promise to disrupt management at Scottish universities with an ongoing campaign of targeted 36 hour occupations. Edinburgh is one of two institutions set to fix fees at the most expensive rate in the UK for students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Robin Parker, NUS Scotland President in supporting the occupation said “It’s absolutely no surprise that Edinburgh University students are incredibly angry about their university’s decision to cash in on English, Welsh and Northern Irish students. We stand shoulder to shoulder with those opposing £36,000 fees for students from the rest of the UK.” [2]

The University is still refusing to provide occupiers freedom of access. With supplies, including a large donation of curry from the Edinburgh Central Mosque, being hoisted into the building with ropes.

The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, who organised the student protests outside the Houses of Parliament in December, is planning similar actions across the UK in the coming months, building up to a demonstration in Westminster on the 9th of November. [3]

Naomi Beecroft, a University of Edinburgh second year Linguistics student said “We aim as much as possible to disrupt management. They have refused to undertake an adequately broad student consultation on a decision that could prove to have disastrous consequences for our university. We aim to avoid any disruption to teaching.”

Patrick O’Hare, President of St Andrews University Students’ Association who was taking part in the occupation said: “The occupation is a courageous move in solidarity with future generations of RUK students who will be priced out the market or saddled with tremendous debts.”

“The increases at St Andrews and Edinburgh are especially abhorrent and not justified by the bursaries packages which will reach a comparatively small number of students. In St Andrews, the amount cut from the RUK teaching grant was around £3,323 per student, so fees of £9,000 are more than an attempt to cover that loss. Both Principals and the Scottish Government should take their share of the blame; Principals for charging above the advised rate, and the Scottish Government for introducing Tory policies for RUK students. These fees are a betrayal of future generations of RUK students, and students and their representatives will continue to oppose them” [4]

Amy Westwell, a Glasgow University student, said: “In Scotland, we take great pride in our universities, for their excellence and accessibility.” “The extent to which fees have been raised is disproportionate to the financial needs of universities, this move undermines the values of the Scottish education system.”

A University of Edinburgh spokesman said: “The university attaches great importance to freedom of speech as long as points of view are put across in a safe and lawful way.” [5]

The university is still refusing to turn on the heating.

[1] BBC News – Protest students occupy Edinburgh University hall – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-14950251

[2] NUS Scotland supports Edinburgh University occupation – http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/news/article/33782/2671/

[3] The Guardian – Students plan fresh wave of protests in November – http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/sep/16/students-plan-fresh-protests

[4] University of St Andrews Students’ Association Support for Edinburgh University Fees Occupation – http://www.yourunion.net/studentvoice/news/index.php?page=article&news_id=272453

[5] The Scotsman – Student protesters demand action in tuition fees sit-in – http://www.scotsman.com/news/Student-protesters-demand-action-in.6837981.jp

See also:

The Scotsman – The Siege of Edinburgh University – http://www.scotsman.com/news/The-siege-of-Edinburgh-University.6837804.jp?articlepage=2

STV Edinburgh – Students take over lecture theatre in protest over fees – http://local.stv.tv/edinburgh/news/270538-students-take-over-lecture-theatre-in-protest-over-fees/

• Freedom of access
• No legal or academic repercussions for anyone involved

We demand of the Scottish government and Scottish Universities:

• Withdrawal of the proposed 36k fees at Edinburgh University
• Withdrawal of all fee rises at other Scottish Universities, and no future proposals without meaningful student consultation.
• That they uphold the basic principle, inherent in the Scottish education system, of free education for all.
• Scotland should actively oppose Westminster policies challenging that principle.
• An explicit rejection of any future proposals that seek to change the status of Scottish Universities from public educational institutions to privately funded enterprises.
• No privatisation of education and no privately funded courses.
• No cuts to courses or compulsory redundancies in Scottish universities.
• Full and open consultation between management, staff and students concerning fees.
• A living wage for all workers at Scottish universities including those subcontracted.
• University senior management must take the average salary of university staff, or resign.

We are currently (2pm) meeting with a head of the Human Resources department.

Please see the previous blog post for more info on the UCU pensions dispute, and our position.

Edinburgh students occupy to support striking lecturers

Image below from article abov, courtesy of Ben Wray.

We have presented these demands to the HR department:

We , the concerned students currently occupying Charles Stewart Building, call on the HR department to do the following:

1. Issue a public statement calling on employers to reenter into negotiations with UCU, through ACAS.
2. Lobby Universities Scotland to do the same as the above.
3. Allow UCU to send an unedited email to all students and staff, in relation to the industrial action.
4. Stop using the rhetoric of students’ interests to attempt to create divisions inside the University over the issue.

In solidarity,

Concerned students of Edinburgh