The role of universities as spaces of creativity, dissent and education is under threat from the government and police
Cambridge Defend Education was set up in late 2010 as part of a huge wave of student activism, occupations, and protests against rises in tuition fees and cuts to education. On 9 December 2010, as the coalition government voted in parliament to raise tuition fees, I was being beaten to the ground by police batons just 200 metres away. For those of us who have experienced first-hand the use of the violent force to suppress student dissent, it comes as no surprise that the state is also willing to resort to the underhand tactic of surveillance.
Indeed, this is not the first time that the police have attempted to recruit spies in Cambridge to inform on fellow activists. In both instances, officers approached someone who had been the victim of an unconnected crime and contacted the police for assistance. They exploited this vulnerability to attempt to coerce these individuals into spying on their friends. In recent years we have seen that the police will go to any lengths to gain intelligence on activist groups, including deceiving women into long-term intimate relationships and stealing the identities of dead children.
It is telling in this case that the police defend their activities as both legal and legitimate. While it is convenient for the police to denounce Mark Kennedy as a rogue officer, it is clear that surveillance of those who dare to dissent is in fact a central and routine part of police work. We know from our own experience of both violent and covert repression that the police have played a critical role in enforcing austerity policies.
All over the UK, we are experiencing the intensification of attempts by police, university management and the government to criminalise and suppress dissent in universities. In Cambridge, university management has colluded with the police to use both legal coercion and violent force against dissenting students. Since 2010, university management has repeatedly invited police onto campus, resulting in the injury of its own students, and has picked out and victimised individual students as ringleaders of protests, using both punitive academic suspensions and legal proceedings. More recently, the university is suspected of engaging in its own surveillance of picket lines in Cambridge during the 31 October strike by lecturers and staff.
The message students and academics have been receiving from Cambridge University management, time and time again, has been: "don't think for yourselves if you know what's good for you". This is strikingly similar to the advice of "Officer Smith" to "John Armstrong" to "try not to think too deeply about it … you'll start tying yourself up in knots". Despite – or perhaps because of – its cosy relationship with the police, Cambridge University has refused to comment on yesterday's surveillance revelations. Conveniently, in this particular instance "the matter is one for police to deal with".
Of course, this situation is not unique to students at Cambridge. Yesterday, the University of London student union president, Michael Chessum, was arrested, apparently for not having gained advance permission for a protest. Students in Sussex have been banned from protesting on campus following a campaign against the outsourcing of university jobs. Indeed, the role of universities as spaces of creativity, dissent and education for all is under threat, not only from cuts to funding and the rise in student debt, but also the repressive tactics of the government, police and university management.
Despite these multifaceted attempts at repression, we are witnessing a resurgence of student activism not seen since 2010. As staff salaries are cut and the government threatens to privatise student loans, students, academics and staff are organising to fight back against the commodification of our education. We refuse to be intimidated by these coercive and underhand tactics, and will continue to resist – in our universities and on the streets. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.
Cambridge Defend Education was set up in late 2010 as part of a huge wave of student activism, occupations, and protests against rises in tuition fees and cuts to education. On 9 December 2010, as the coalition government voted in parliament to raise tuition fees, I was being beaten to the ground by police batons just 200 metres away. For those of us who have experienced first-hand the use of the violent force to suppress student dissent, it comes as no surprise that the state is also willing to resort to the underhand tactic of surveillance.
Indeed, this is not the first time that the police have attempted to recruit spies in Cambridge to inform on fellow activists. In both instances, officers approached someone who had been the victim of an unconnected crime and contacted the police for assistance. They exploited this vulnerability to attempt to coerce these individuals into spying on their friends. In recent years we have seen that the police will go to any lengths to gain intelligence on activist groups, including deceiving women into long-term intimate relationships and stealing the identities of dead children.
It is telling in this case that the police defend their activities as both legal and legitimate. While it is convenient for the police to denounce Mark Kennedy as a rogue officer, it is clear that surveillance of those who dare to dissent is in fact a central and routine part of police work. We know from our own experience of both violent and covert repression that the police have played a critical role in enforcing austerity policies.
All over the UK, we are experiencing the intensification of attempts by police, university management and the government to criminalise and suppress dissent in universities. In Cambridge, university management has colluded with the police to use both legal coercion and violent force against dissenting students. Since 2010, university management has repeatedly invited police onto campus, resulting in the injury of its own students, and has picked out and victimised individual students as ringleaders of protests, using both punitive academic suspensions and legal proceedings. More recently, the university is suspected of engaging in its own surveillance of picket lines in Cambridge during the 31 October strike by lecturers and staff.
The message students and academics have been receiving from Cambridge University management, time and time again, has been: "don't think for yourselves if you know what's good for you". This is strikingly similar to the advice of "Officer Smith" to "John Armstrong" to "try not to think too deeply about it … you'll start tying yourself up in knots". Despite – or perhaps because of – its cosy relationship with the police, Cambridge University has refused to comment on yesterday's surveillance revelations. Conveniently, in this particular instance "the matter is one for police to deal with".
Of course, this situation is not unique to students at Cambridge. Yesterday, the University of London student union president, Michael Chessum, was arrested, apparently for not having gained advance permission for a protest. Students in Sussex have been banned from protesting on campus following a campaign against the outsourcing of university jobs. Indeed, the role of universities as spaces of creativity, dissent and education for all is under threat, not only from cuts to funding and the rise in student debt, but also the repressive tactics of the government, police and university management.
Despite these multifaceted attempts at repression, we are witnessing a resurgence of student activism not seen since 2010. As staff salaries are cut and the government threatens to privatise student loans, students, academics and staff are organising to fight back against the commodification of our education. We refuse to be intimidated by these coercive and underhand tactics, and will continue to resist – in our universities and on the streets. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.