Across Britain, university services are being outsourced to private companies and the conditions of lecturers and staff are under attack, as private investors circle like vultures. However, a fightback is gaining force, having started earlier this year at Sussex University.
Sussex
On 25 March, 2,000 people joined a national demonstration against management’s unilateral decision to sell off most campus services to private investors. The day before the demonstration, students occupied campus cafes in protest at plans to sell off catering services to the private company Sodexo. A management building was occupied and privatisation documents were burned. Management responded by calling in a heavy police presence, whose actions provoked confrontations with students. Some demonstrators were arrested, and the university registrar John Duffy took out an injunction banning protest on campus. Students supporting the occupation faced victimisation and intimidation from police, management and private security personnel and food deliveries to the occupiers were intercepted. The occupation ended on 2 April, when students were evicted by police. Four students were arrested; three face charges of obstruction and the fourth is charged with criminal damage.
More protests followed, and students and staff set up the ‘Pop-Up Union’, open to all faculty members and workers to help with the fight against privatisation, with membership set at 50p. The campaign also pushed the three main unions on campus to hold ballots for industrial action, with votes by UNISON, Sussex UNITE, and UCU supporting the proposal by 85%, 93%, and 75% respectively.
Students are now aiming to broaden the campaign into a fight against the financialisation of higher education. Management plans to increase student numbers by 50%, with the expansion being funded by selling off collateralised student-debt packages to private investors, creating massive profits at the expense of future students. With the plans for the privatisation of services having been pushed back to next January, Sussex still continues to be the frontline in the fight against the privatisation of Higher Education.
Warwick
Students at Warwick occupied the university’s Council Chamber between 14 and 22 June, as a protest against the ongoing privatisation and financialisation of higher education. At a time when fees are being raised, bursaries waived, and jobs outsourced, Vice Chancellor Nigel Thrift’s pay rise of £42,000 to £316,000 was a particular source of anger. Demands included revoking the pay rise and instead using it to provide bursaries for students in the local area, as well as demanding that management pledge not to outsource services, and to provide greater staff and student representation in decision-making, and defend the public university.
Save ULU
In May plans were announced to abolish the University of London Union (ULU) by the summer of 2014 and replace it with a management-run student services centre. Not a single student was involved in the decision, which sets a precedent for arbitrarily shutting down student unions at any college – part and parcel of the ongoing privatisation of education and repression of any dissent against this process.
3Cosas: cleaning staff demand workers’ rights
Over the past six months students having been supporting the demand of outsourced cleaning staff at the University of London for sick pay, holidays, and pensions at the same level as directly-employed workers. Many of these workers are from Latin America and the campaign is known by the Spanish name of ‘3Cosas’ (‘three things’). Together with the University of London Union, and the University of London branch of the Independent Workers of Great Britain, protests and publicity stunts have taken place in the hallway of Senate House to highlight disparities in pay and put pressure on management. A Summer of Action is underway, with many more protests planned.
On 16 July police invaded the ULU building at the request of university staff and assaulted several students, before arresting one on suspicion of causing criminal damage – allegedly for chalking messages of support for the campaign. The next day, cleaners, students and activists protested in solidarity with cleaners at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who are campaigning for the London Living Wage, and against the use of police by the University of London against student activists.
FRFI supports this campaign and condemns the use of police thugs to shut down student solidarity with a grass roots workers’ struggle.
The attacks continue…
In Liverpool, 2,803 staff are to be sacked and rehired on worse contracts or sacked if they refuse. Similar attacks are taking place across the country. The militancy of students and staff at Sussex shows the way forward. Protests and threats of direct action prevented the University of Central Lancashire changing its status to a Company Limited by Guarantee – effectively the full privatisation of the institution – and stopped plans at the University of Birmingham to attack the working conditions of 114 frontline staff. The privatisation and financialisation of education is increasingly preventing working class people from gaining access to university education, whilst opening up new sources of profits for private companies. The fightback must intensify, with a a new student movement developing at a grass roots level in support of staff and against privatisation.
No to privatisation! We want our universities back!
Victoria Smith
Links: Occupy Sussex: Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/khmcjou; Warwick ‘Protect the Public University’ blog http://tinyurl.com/pcaybfm; 3Cosas Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/l4gzqcf
