I’m
writing this email inside the Cambridge University Law Faculty at 1am on Wednesday
28th January, after approximately 100 hours of occupation. At the time
of entering the building (last Friday evening) I believe we were the16th
student university to have been occupied in protest of the Gaza situation.
I have been active in the occupation over the last four days,intervening
in every meeting and trying to ensure that we follow a genuinelyMarxist
method in our attempt to have our demands met.
The
group has been varied in its composition, but seems to be down to a fairly
unified group socialists, with some elements of anarchism and very little
reformism. The numbers have varied from over 150 students during the day,
to only 30 people at night, but there is a consistent student presence in
the building. However, there have been ebbs and flows during our occupation,
both in terms of concrete progress and morale. The political consciousness
of the whole group has accelerated greatly during our time here,
and myself and the other Marxists in the group agree that we havelearnt
more in the last 4 days than we have in the last 4 years. All the theory
and history that we learn about through literature and the journals is
finally showing its application, and the tools we have learnt about how to
organise and analyse the class struggle are finally being put to into use.
As a fellow comrade expressed to me, "We’re using skills we’ve been taught,
but never knew we had".
There’s
an obvious difference between those who are members of organised socialist
and Marxist tendencies and those who are either anarchists, reformists,
or just isolated individuals (often green movement hippies). The genuine
Marxists have managed to unite across our partisan boundaries and put
any sectarian differences aside. This has aided the movement greatly, presenting
a unified Marxist perspective in all meetings, which has proved extremely
popular and is well received. Our motions normally pass, and are often
greeted with rapturous applause. However, for the first couple of days the
movement was slowed down by the anarchists and the hippies, who insisted on
full consensus for any motion to pass, instead of the democratic centralist
approach that all the socialists insisted upon. Eventually it was agreed,
after hearing from a comrade at the Sussex Uni occupation, which hasbeen
going on for several days longer and has now been victoriously completed,
that democratic centralism was more productive for formulatingour
demands as a group.
The
first weekend was spent formulating our position as a group on a number of
issues, and what our demands to the university would be. During this period,
although progress was slow, there was definitely a feeling of enthusiasm
and optimism, and there was generally a mood (inspired by thenews
from other university occupations) that we should not dilute our demands
to accommodate the university officials, although some reformist suggests
did creep in every so often.
Security
was instantly installed, but relations were generally amiable, withvery
little hostility in either direction. However, being a weekend, the Law Faculty
was empty, and we had trouble spreading the news of what we had done to
the wider university community. We were visited on Sunday afternoon by the
university officials, who insisted that they would not negotiate and that
we would have to leave by Monday morning. We were buoyed by messages of solidarity,
including a visit from local trade union delegates.
By
Monday morning, security showed their true colours, become considerably unfriendly
and attempting to make the movement unpopular by hassling the passive
students who were using the building for their studies. This tactical
manoeuvre was made even harsher as they began to refuse entry to non-students
and prevented us from carrying food into the building. This damaged
the movement greatly, preventing us from bringing in the support of young
workers who were active in the movement and external speakers who were helping
to raise the political consciousness through their talks. This also increased
the hostility from other students, who started to see us an annoyance
as they were forced to have their bags checked in order to enter the
building. This culminated in a very hostile encounter with the securityguards.
The
last 24 hours have been the hardest, as negotiations with the university officials
have finally began. They initially made no movement and insisted that
all of our demands were unrealistic and unreasonable, which was obviously
just a tactic to demoralise us and begin a war of attrition. After another
meeting they made a few steps, but did not come anywhere near tomeeting
our demands. They now insist that negotiations are over and that we must
leave otherwise disciplinary measures will be taken. Since Cambridge is a
bastion of right-wing conservatism, there has been a particularly strong negative
response to the occupation from a large section of the students, who
accuse us of "supporting Hamas" and of using the "wrong means
for protest
and change" (they fail to see that our student union is a bureaucratic
nightmare that moves at glacial speeds). This has demoralised the
occupation movement even more, and many are tired and hungry and ready to
leave.
However,
the next day or two could prove pivotal. We are in touch with the Guardian
and Independent newspapers who have promised to run supportive articles
of the UK wide student movement, whilst we also have an urgent motion
at the student union to see if they will support our occupation. We are
expecting a large response from Jewish Society and Israel Society, which are
largely made up of Zionists, and it will be hard to achieve a victory.Having
phoned John McDonnell, we have managed to get an early day motion in parliament
concerning the UK student occupations, and we are receiving messages
of support and solidarity from a variety of sources, such asacademics
within the university and the local Stop the War movement.
In
these hard times it has become more difficult to maintain our Marxist perspective
within the group. Many are hungry and tired, and are therefore willing
to accept leaving with minimal acceptance from the university towards
our demands. However, myself and a couple of other Marxists have managed
to persuade the movement that it is essential that we stay longer to show
the university officials that we are not deterred by their tactics, and that
we will not leave without concrete accomplishments.
It
is clear that the reason for the University’s refusal to meet our demands is
not due to them not being able to (they claim that they cannot make "political
statements" because they are a charity). What is clear is that Cambridge
University, and all the other educational institutions, are scared that
if they budge even an inch, that it will be seen as a victory by students
across the country, and will open the floodgates for a new generation
of student activists, who will make demands on all sorts of other issues
such as top-up fees and the lack of graduate employment.
This
is the largest student movement for a generation, and the institutions are
genuinely afraid. Even if we do not get all our demands met, we are stirring
up the political consciousness of thousands of students across the UK,
and it is clear that a socialist system is the only way that these demands
can be met.
