UCU and Unison have condemned the police and management attacks on students and staff at the University of London Union (ULU) which is being shut down by the management.
A day of action has been called at ULU today, with a demonstration at 2pm, against the privatisation of education, the treatment of university staff and the brutal and violent attack on students at the hands of the Metropolitan Police.
They forcefully evicted the students from a peaceful occupation of the ULU central offices.
In a joint statement the unions said: ‘Over the past few weeks there have been a number of demonstrations at the University of London.
‘Unison and UCU supports the right of students and workers to demonstrate peacefully and lawfully on campus, and elsewhere, without fear of violence.
‘Both unions condemn any form of violence from police or others.’
Yesterday, ULU president Michael Chessum slammed the police violence against students on the London campus while addressing a mass rally of striking University of Sussex students.
Chessum was speaking to a packed rally of over two hundred students and lecturers and university staff, called in defence of five students who were suspended from campus and threatened with expulsion for occupying Bramber House.
The suspension from campus has been lifted, but the decision to expel the students in January remains.
Chessum said 41 students had been arrested and badly beaten up at ULU, adding: ‘The police have taken a riot situation and transplanted it on our campus to crush this student movement.
‘Wednesday’s demonstration at ULU is not just about cops-on-campus.’
He said: ‘It’s about racist policing and political policing in general, about institutional racist state violence.
‘Also it is not about just policing and about supporting the Sussex five. It is about fighting for a democratic and free education.
‘The reason that this is happening is that university managements across the country are losing the argument that education is a commodity.
‘We must have a national campaign. We are only strong if all the campuses come out together.’
Speakers at the rally included Tom Hickey, the UCU chair at University of Brighton.
He said: ‘The message must be that lectures and classes must not proceed if management endorses disciplinary action against these five students.
‘Lets make no mistake, what is happening in Sussex is happening in other universities such as ULU.
‘We have the right to demonstrate against privatisation.’
Jelena Timotijevic, on the UCU NEC, read out a letter from UCU leader Sally Hunt condemning the University of Sussex management for threatening students with expulsion.
Another speaker, University of Sussex NUS Student Welfare Officer, Sophie Van Der Ham said: ‘I am proud that students and lecturers and the trade unions are joining together.’
She pledged: ‘We are going to fight until the bitter end to get what we want.’
After the rally students then marched around the campus shouting: ‘Students and workers unite to win!’
Adriano, one of the occupiers who is facing expulsion in January, said: ‘Yesterday’s Sussex NUS Emergency Members Meeting backed the Sussex Five.
‘It is heart warming that 650 students attended the meeting to support us in solidarity and a sign that the movement is growing.
‘Management got scared by today’s student strike so we need to keep pushing until they drop all charges against us.
‘We will be attending tomorrow’s demonstration at ULU.
UCU member, psychology lecturer Sanj Choudhury said: ‘I think that the students are doing great work, fighting the management and defending education against privatisation.’
