Hetherington occupation ends in victory
by Liam McCombes, Glasgow University student and Free Hetherington participant - 19-08-2011
The Free Hetherington occupation at Glasgow University is ending with a victory, after 7 months of protest. After the university management were forced into giving solid concessions and agreements, the occupation will end on 31 August.
Students and staff at the university, supported by students from other universities and members of the local community, began the occupation on the 1st of February.
Taking place in the former postgraduate club of the university, which had been forced to close, the occupation demanded that the club be reopened, and that the university management cancel their plans for huge course cuts that were due to take place that year.
When the list of courses cuts was announced, the student body was shocked. Courses such as Modern Languages, Nursing, Archeology and many others were due to be axed.
A mass campaign began at the University, involving the Glasgow University Anti-Cuts Action Network, the Free Hetherington occupation, the Student Representative Council, the University and Colleges Union, and many groups from the individual departments facing cuts.
Glasgow University principal Anton Muscatelli was criticised by Alex Salmond. A march called at the university protesting the cuts had over 3000 students and others attending to show their outrage.
When the university management brought police in to violently evict the occupation, this resulted in a huge backfire and more humiliation for the discredited management group.
Dozens of police officers, a dog unit, and a police helicopter were deployed to remove what was an entirely peaceful protest. One occupier received a concussion and was taken to hospital. Hundreds of students, both supporters of the occupation and onlookers angry at what had happened, marched to the university’s main building to stage another occupation as soon as the last students were removed from the first.
Management were forced into giving the Hetherington back in return for the students leaving the main building. The police and university management were widely criticised for the heavy-handed actions of the day, and support for the occupation soared.
Due to the huge pressure from both students and staff at the university and from Scotland as a whole, management were forced to step back on a majority of the proposed cuts, with only the Slavonic Studies degree and the Liberal Arts degree at the university’s Chrichton campus in Dumfries being cut.
It is important that activists don’t forget these – and there are currently campaigns still being run in order to save these important subject areas – but managing to save so many courses was a huge success for all the campaigns, and for the anti-cuts movement in general.
Although before the eviction discussions with the university management lead to no-where, because of the strength of the protest they were forced to again meet with students and this time conceded on a number of important issues.
The occupation received a written agreement that no more courses would be cut, and that a new postgraduate space would be opened.
They promised that no students involved in the occupation would be subject to university disciplinary procedures because of taking part, and that the university would not volunteer any information on students to the police.
They also agreed to hold an open mass meeting with principal Muscatelli, so students can hold him to account over his mismanagement.
This agreement marks a huge success, and shows that when enough resistance is offered to cuts, victories can be won. However, the campaign at Glasgow University is far from over.
University management must be held to their promises, and know that they will not be able to go back on them easily.
The campaigns against the course cuts that look still to happen continue, including a legal challenge over the legitimacy of the decision making process involved in slashing the courses.
The victory must be built on, and used to strengthen the anti-cuts movement, rather than be seen as the end for it.
It also shows the importance of building genuinely mass movements. Most of the students involved in the occupation weren’t members of any left political party, and those that were managed for the most part to overcome the sectarian squabbles that usually drain such campaigns.
By not just relying on the traditional left, but still being willing to use radical tactics when appropriate, the occupation was able to be both extremely successful and have a broad appeal amongst students of almost all political persuasions.
As the anti-cuts struggle grows, we need to focus on building mass campaigns, like the one at Glasgow University, capable of winning genuine victories and protecting from assaults on our standards of living, education, jobs and public services.