Birmingham University Corporate Conference Centre Occupation

On November 2nd 100 University of Birmingham students took part in a campus rally against the Higher Education White Paper.

They went on to march into University of Birmingham Corporate Conference Centre; an area which serves no academic role but rather is for hosting meetings between university managers and big business directors (such as representatives of BP, BAE and RBS just this week) where they negotiate contracts for a slice of our public education system.

We believe universities should be run for the public good, not as a business existing just to make a profit.

This action is also part of building momentum for the national movement for public education. In less than a week thousands of students will converge on central London to fight back, make sure you join them on November 9th

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• University
• Birmingham
• Occupation
• Stop
• Fees
• Cuts
• Student
• Protests
• NCAFC
• Nov9
• Nov9th
• Guild
• RBS
• Corporate
• David
• Eastwood

[vodaphoneprotest]

4:08-38 Brendan Casey (Director of Academic Services): Now if you try and get them out of the building, we will have you arrested. We're happy to do it again.

Protester: Arrested?

Casey: Yep

Protestor: How is there any law, what's the crime?

Casey: The law is very clear. Hire a solicitor, we've got ours.

The university locked some of us in the conference room and threatened arrests if they tried to leave with the larger group, who stayed until the door was opened lest the others be victimised.

[kassarock]

@Gracie1311

As student of the future I you like to thank you for happily damn me to £50,000 worth of debt before I even have a chance to start working. Debt and financial worry is one of the leading contributors to suicide, in some small way you could be responsible for someone's death in a few years. But then again, why should you care? They're not you, this rise in fees won't be affecting YOU so it's all perfectly fine. It's not like there are other people in the world.

[kadaveri12321]

Great action, shame I couldn't be there this time. Keep struggling and don't let the lovers of consumerism get you down.

[kadaveri]

@JavioUK Ah so they don't have 'conferences' there but 'meetings' and 'get togethers.' Thanks for letting us know the proper terminology, such a critical distinction cannot go unnoted. So, the day after this action two university directors and representatives from the Royal Bank of Scotland were in there negotiating contracts, we referred to this as a 'conference', however it would appear that this was incorrect. Could you let us know if this was a 'meeting'? Or was it a 'get together'? Thanks.

[tomtblack]

We want liberty, equality, fraternity!

Liberté, Liberté chérie

Combats avec tes défenseurs!

[JavioUK]

Again, it's not the conference centre. It's intact a room where meetings, get togethers, alumni get together.

[eddbauer1]

The attempts by some to portray the 55 students who occupied the corporate conference centre as a minority are massively disingenuous. little criticism has come from any students about the occupation quite the opposite it has received a lot of praise. For every student who attended I think the guild elections show that that are dozens who support them.

[ElFisho99]

@Gracie1311 Many staff/PHDs are very angry about this white paper. Look up the Oxford and Cambridge responses to the consultation if you don't believe me. If you read up the HE white paper, it has many implications for the money available for research, and interference of private capital in academia. Leaving that aside though, funding follows the student now remember. Removal of the AAB cap will hit mid-range red bricks like Birmingham especially hard in the pocket.

[realbadbav]

@Gracie1311 Well young lady, I'm actually well out of Uni and my 20's are long gone....And I define it as unacceptable. You do not force the young into debt to pay for the mistakes of business, no matter what.

[Eryin]

solidarity from kcl working everyday to organise for the 9th