Open Meeting at the Camp Against Cuts Wednesday 3rd of June

The Camp Against Cuts is over a week and a half old now, surviving wind, rain and intimidation by the management. It was set up on Thursday 21st of May and will run until the end of term, with two main objectives:
The first is to be a constant visual reminder to management of the widespread opposition to the programme of department closures, cuts, lay-offs and attacks to staff that they are undemocratically and underhandedly trying to push through. Recent examples are the planned closure of the Linguistics department (one of the best in the country) and the new “No-Hours” contracts for tutors, which mean they have no guaranteed working hours but have to be constantly on call and can’t get another job or receive jobseekers allowance!
The second purpose of the camp is to be a free space for students and the rest of the university community to use for whichever educational, recreational and political activities they wish. These can include anything from political discussions about how to take the movement on campus forward in the next academic year to skill-sharing workshops to picnics and musical events!

If you have ideas for workshops or talks that you would like to put on at the camp, ideas for new tactics for the protest movement, or even if you just like the idea of the camp and want to get involved, come along to an open meeting at 1pm Wednesday the 3rd of June. This meeting will be run on an open and participatory basis, and aims to be a safe space where everyone can express themselves free from fear of intimidation of any kind. If you can’t make this meeting but would still like to get involved, don’t worry, just come along anytime to the camp between Sussex House and Falmer House and introduce yourself.

Management step up intimidation campaign

On Friday the 29th May University Management identified seven individuals and targeted them with threats of disciplinary action. The camp remained in place regardless and has gathered much student support in response to the intimidatory and underhanded tactics used by management to make a spectacle of those arbitrarily chosen individuals. The recent communication from management states that all students who have been occupying the land outside Sussex House will face disciplinary action for embarrassing the University with it's peaceful protest.

The campers remain optimistic however, and continue to gather support from staff and the student body through petitions.

It is now vital that people come by to support the camp, whether it is to stay the night or just to relax in the shade and have some food or a drink with us.

MONDAY 1ST JUNE, 1.00p.m: WORKSHOP- MAKING WALLETS FROM TETRA PACK CARTONS, BRING OLD JUICE CARTONS AND GET CREATIVE

THURSDAY 4TH JUNE, 1.00p.m: PICNIC! EVERYONE IS WELCOME, BRING SNACKS, BRING MUSIC, BRING FRIENDS, ARRIVE EARLY FOR FREE CAKE AND CHAI TEA!

Celebration of Defiance Tonight at Camp!

"We are going to inherit the earth . There is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie may blast and burn its own world before it finally leaves the stage of history. We Are not afraid of ruins. We who ploughed the prairies and built the cities can build again, only better next time. We carry a new world, here in our hearts. That world is growing this minute"... at the Camp Against Cuts! (sorry Durutti)
Anyway...
in response to management's threats (see below) we have decided not to comply with their request to dismantle the camp by five pm today.

To celebrate, and to show management that the opposition to their policies is much larger than the individuals at the camp itself, we are asking people to come to the camp at 4.30 or afterwards with their tents, food, music or whatever they like to keep the camp going. Show your opposition to the cuts to staff and departments, and to the intimidation of peaceful protesters and have fun all at the same time!

B.T.W. There is always tent space and spare blankets for anyone who wants to stay but doesn't have a tent. Come along and say hi anytime!
camp against cuts

Threatening Letter from Management recieved:

University Management Threaten Campers with Disciplinary Proceedures

Today the camp received a letter from University delivered by the Security guards.
This letter names 7 individuals who had their IDs checked on one particular morning, Wednesday. The management clearly do not understand the non-hierarchical mode of organisation employed in the camp, as they asked for the letter to be delivered to the "leader", who does not exist. Also they clearly underestimate the strength of our protest by only naming those seven individuals, presumably as they assume that they are the only people at the camp. In fact there are several times more campers than this and our numbers are increasing every day.
The letter claims that disciplinary proceedures "may" be undertaken against students involved in the camp, as we are supposedly breaching the campus ordinances. However the claim that the camp breaks ordinances is very weakly supported by the actual text of the campus regulations. The only way the text can be interpreted to mean that we are actually breaching regulations is if it could be demonstrated that the camp is disrupting students, education, or that we are damaging the "good name" of the university. To these implicit claims we respond that not only are we not disrupting revision for exams (which are the only form of "education" occuring on campus at this point in the year), we are actually assisting it by using the space in the camp to hold revision sessions. Also, rather than damaging the university's reputation, we are aiding it, by trying to preserve, among other things, the linguistics department, which is world reknowned, and also by carrying on Sussex's proud tradition of student activism.
If anyone is damaging the reputation of this univeristy, it is the current university management by eliminating some of the most respected departments our university has and by clamping down on their own students' freedom to protest.
We urge all who are appalled by this intimidatory action by the university management to come and help us defy their order to dismantle the camp by 5pm on Friday. Come along, bring your tent and any other camping equipment you have and let us show management how strong the opposition to their neoliberal restructuting agenda is.

Camp Against Cuts Statement #1

We, the students of Sussex University, have established our "Camp Against Cuts" outside Sussex House and we declare our right to remain in this space. We are here as a visual representation to staff and students of the opposition to the recent cuts, closures and restructuring of the University, principally the decision to close the Linguistics courses, which was made without the consultation of staff and students and evaded the usual decision making committees.

We declare the reclaimed space to be:

A welcoming, creative, respectful and non-disruptive place
A platform for uniting existing campaigns on campus
A forum for information sharing
A free and open space to be utilised however the staff and students involved see as appropriate
Beyong the jurisdiction of the managing body

Most of all, we maintain our right and intent to stay, as a direct and indefinite protest.

Students will be camping in plain view of the management as a constant visual reminder of the opposition that exists within the hearts and minds of staff and students.

We wish to reassure all concerned that this space is and will continue to be kept clean, tidy and open to all.
we treat this space with respect and are causing no disruption as we make our protest.

We shall at all times treat our reclaimed space with the care and respect befitting it's public nature. We do not however respect the authority of any exterior body to impose upon us sanctions or ordinances as to the land which we regard as a collectively owned space.

Camp Against Cuts: Blogger's report

Set amidst tall trees and long grass, the protest’s relaxed attitude befits its pleasant surrounds. ‘This isn’t about pushing for specific demands’, said Raz Meldau, one of the protesters and an officer in the Student’s Union. ‘It’s about letting management know that there is still opposition to their rash decisions, even in the middle of exam season.’

Read more of Josh's blog.

Camp Against Cuts established 21st May 2009

History of the Camp so far:

Camp Against Cuts was set up on Thursday the 21st if May 2009 in response to a series of greivances against the University of Sussex management.

Background:
In 2006 a new Vice-Chancellors Executive group were appointed at Sussex, and in 2007, a new Vice-Chancellor, Michael Farthing came into office. This administration, since Farthing came in, has been dedicated to a complete restructuring of the university along pro-market, pro-militarist lines. They have used underhanded methods to subvert the long established democratic proceedures at the university, and have put the future of the institution at serious risk.
Sussex has long been known for its reputation for ground breaking research and critical analysis, and the politically and socially engaged culture that this generates amongst the student body.
But all these features of our university are under threat from a management team that cares nothing for university democracy, and only for the interests of corporate power.
2007-8 saw the Sussex Not For Sale campaign, an explicitly anti-marketisation campaign that held the largest demonstrations and mass meetings on campus for twenty years. Though the campaign did a lot to educate students as to what was happening to their university, and to lobby members of university Senate to stop the restructuring proposals from being adopted, this campaign was not backed up by any form of direct action, and failed to present a serious challange to the management.
The restructuring proposal was adopted at the end of the 2007/8 academic year, and the 2008/9 year has seen many of the fears of the Sussex not for Sale campaign realised. Support Staff have had their pension schemes altered, Associate tutors have had their labour contracts downgraded and made much less secure, and whole departments are facing closure, such as Linguistics, one of the best such departments in the world.
There have been many demonstrations throughout the year in response to each of these crises. But no mass movement on the scale of Sussex not for Sale in 2007/8 has emerged to tackle all these issues head on.

Why Camp?

The 2008/9 Academic year is now drawing to a close. The exam period has begun and it is no longer realistic to expect the tactics of mass demonstrations, occupations or petitions to be effective in this context. Hopefully in the 2009/10 year there will be more oppertunity to re-build a large scale movement on campus, but in part this depends on the preparations that are made now. The Camp provides a physical location for politically active students, and any others concerned with the direction the university is headed to come together and communicate on. Unfortunate as it may be, this year has been marked by a sectarian feuding between different political tendencies which has seriously weakened the anti-capitalist movement on campus. We hope that the camp enable communication between all activists and their coming together behind clear objectives.
It is also vital that activists reach out beyond their normal support bases to new students whom they can engage with and allow them to help shape the struggle as it evolves. Therefore the camp is also being used as a space for creative, recreational and educational activities. After all - if we believe in free education, why not start educating people (and ourselves) for free? Since the camp is being held throughout the exam period, it provides a useful space for students to use to help each other with their revision, in a much more pleasant environment than the Library.
The main purpose of the camp though, regardless of how well it performs in the tasks outlined above, is to provide a visible show of opposition to the management. It is set up outside Sussex house, where the management offices are located. The camp is to last the entire length of the exam period, a time when management usually are free from the attention of protesters. Thus, the widespread opposition to management, that is expressed so often in political discussions, private grumblings and unspoken thoughts by so many at our university, will at least have some form of tangible expression.
So whether you are an experianced activist, a recently concerned student, or member of staff worried about the future of you job here, come and play a part in the Camp Against Cuts and help build a new movement to reclaim our univerisity.