EXCLUSIVE
Inside the M60 meets the students who are occupying Lecture Theatre 2 at the University of Manchester’s Roscoe Building in protest at the rise in tuition fees and the spending cuts.
Security guards are patrolling the Roscoe Building constantly and it takes a cloak and dagger operation to get in to meet the students who are occupying the lecture theatre. A couple of private messages to swap phone numbers are exchanged on Twitter and then I have to ring, be met and escorted in by a nameless protester.
Inside, around 25 students are sitting quietly on the benches listening to Lisa Ansell, a single mum and occasional Guardian columnist, talk about how the cuts resulting from the government’s comprehensive spending review will affect the wider society beyond those the students are facing.
The walls of the lecture theatre are adorned with handwritten banners from the students’ anti-cuts demonstration on Wednesday 24 November and piles of food sit in one corner of the stage behind the lecturers’ podium. Everything is neat and tidy and it’s almost impossible to tell that the room has been occupied for a week.
When Ansell finishes speaking, a robust debate ensues in which the occupiers discuss the economy, class struggle, the situation regarding their education and how they can take their protest beyond the university. Despite some differences on the politics, they agree the anticuts movement must be inclusive of everyone whether they are students or unemployed single parents who’ve not had much of an education.
As the debate draws to a close and they prepare to hold a strategy meeting to discuss keeping the occupation going, I take the opportunity to interview some of the students in the lobby about why they are protesting.
Michael a 21-year-old politics student, says: “This wasn’t a completely spontaneous occupation, unlike when we occupied the John Owen Building a few weeks ago when the university’s finance directors were meeting. We semi-planned this about three days beforehand although neither were centrally organised. We have no leaders.”
As Michael is telling me that he was also one of the John Owens occupiers, a security guard spots my tape recorder and asks me who I am. I’m not on “occupied territory”, so the bouncer insists I must go through the university press office if I want to interview the students. I point out I’m a guest of the students, but it’s no go. I have to leave the building so we continue the conversation outside, in the snowy dark with temperatures dipping below freezing.
Dan, 19, who is studying environmental science, adds: “We wanted to do something to keep the pressure on the government and management. Last Wednesday (24 November) we were running around frantically, trying to find a building we could occupy. The university had anticipated there might be a fresh occupation so they’d locked a lot of buildings. We managed to get in here though.
“When we occupied John Owens the other week, the police threatened to arrest us for taking hostages [the students were picketing outside the room where the finance meeting was taking place]. It was ridiculous – all we wanted was for the university to open its books to us so we could see where the cuts were and for that we were nearly criminalised. ”
Will, a history and politics student aged 20, says: “We’ve mostly had a good relationship here at the Roscoe with security, they seem to be on side. There was one altercation when we sneaked in some people because we don’t have full and free access outside office hours, so that led to some tension between us and security. They blocked the back fire door for a while to stop us doing it again.”
The students tell me the access issue is central as they don’t want anyone’s education to be disrupted and the occupiers must be free to attend lectures. They also want supporters to be able to drop by in the evenings or come to the meetings – a number of lecturers have already addressed the occupiers in solidarity but daytime-only access makes it harder for them to welcome supporters to join them.
Will points out that the anti-cuts movement at the university is very organic: “It’s very democratic, regardless of which student political groups are involved. Every decision is voted on at the meetings, meticulously.”
I ask if they hope their protest will spread beyond the university to others worried about their jobs and losing benefits. “It’s one of our goals,” says Will. “We want to try and do more of our demonstrations on weekends, so workers can join us. There does seem to be an enthusiasm for that.”
The students have a rota for sleeping overnight in the lecture theatre, so they can keep the occupation going. Some are braving the snow and sleeping outside in sleeping bags to keep the external doorway open to maintain access to the Roscoe. They have no showers in the building and rely on supporters to bring them food supplies.
“The lack of free access is a real problem,” explains Claire, 23, studying English literature and French. “All the other universities around the UK that are occupied just now have let their students have free access, but not us. We can’t get people in and out during evenings and the weekends. We nearly ran out of food last weekend. Also, all the taps in the building have ‘Do Not Drink’ signs on them, we think because the pipes may have lead in them, so we have water issues too.”
Dan turns the conversation back to the need to spread the word: “We need this movement to be big enough that it can effect real change and for the government to take notice. The students are at the forefront of this and we know a lot of people are being inspired by the students’ protests. We want people to shake off their passivity and know that they can do something about the cuts instead of just taking it. Everyone in Manchester or around the country does have the power to do something.”
Support for the Roscoe group has come from the University College Union (UCU), which is the lecturers’ union. After the recent national meeting in Manchester, 25 of them came over to the Roscoe Building to pledge their support. High-profile people such as musician Billy Bragg and renowned linguistics professor Noam Chomsky have also made public messages of support to the students generally in the UK, although it took longer for the president of the NUS, Aaron Porter, to endorse the occupations which has angered many students.
Both Dan and Claire voted Lib-Dem in the general election last May.
“I feel betrayed, like a bit of an idiot, ” confesses Claire. “I read through their manifesto and I didn’t think they would compromise to this extent. I feel I was led to believe that when they were forming the coalition that they would consider all the compromises and that if something went against their promises too strongly they would figure something else out.”
Dan agrees: “I read all three manifestos and the Lib-Dems seemed too good to be true but I saw two of the party leaders’ debates and that helped persuade me. Clegg seemed very moral and talked a good talk. A lot of people feel betrayed now.”
Claire adds: “I and my friends who voted Lib-Dem had this false sense of optimism, that it wasn’t just a fight between Labour and the Conservatives. The Lib-Dems really seemed like a viable option.”
What next for the students? How long do they think they can keep the occupation going?
“We have such a strong sense of national unity with the other student sit-ins,” says Michael, who adds they sent a delegation to a recent national meeting to coordinate the occupations. “We hope to keep this going over the holidays – maybe students elsewhere who come to Manchester for Christmas could occupy here while we go home to our own families. Our parents are all being supportive and it’s important we take this fight back into our home communities to stop all the cuts.”
We’ve now been outside in plunging temperatures for some 20 minutes – it’s time to let the students return to their occupation to warm up again. But Claire has one last comment to make.
“We want everyone to know we’re organising talks and having teach-ins and the details of all these can be found on our websites. We’re not just sitting around having meetings all the time – we are keeping up our learning.”
Dan adds: “We want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported us, all the solidarity messages we’ve had from the other occupations and the public. But we still need more support. Please come and join us – drop in for a cup of tea and see what’s going on.”
Follow the Roscoe occupation on their blog or on Facebook. You can also tweet them at @mancoccupation or send messages of support to manunioccupation2010@gmail.com
Photos reproduced by kind permission of the Roscoe Occupation.
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Here’s a picture of the colder-than-cold interview taking place…
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