Militant mood increases amongst staff and students at Sussex Uni

Mass united campaign needed to stop the cuts

On December 3 an emergency senate meeting called by the university to discuss savage cuts was picketed by over 400 students. Management plan to cut 115 jobs and vital campus services such as subsidised day care for children and the Unisex centre are to close which will affect students at Sussex and Brighton universities.

At the mass protest the UCU trade union warned through a vote of no confidence in the cuts proposal at the meeting that it will ballot its members for strike action. Students and staff have set up a united Stop the Cuts campaign which has been successful in mobilising large protests over the last few weeks.

Students crowded at the entrance to the Bramber house building after marching through campus displaying banners from every academic school affected. Those inside the senate heard the din of chants outside "no ifs, no buts no education cuts!", "if you cut our education, we'll go into occupation" and "Michael Farthing Sussex VC, your the only redundancy we wanna see!". Anger at management is palpable students are asking why low paid staff have to lose their jobs while the VC earns £227,000 a year. The crowd heard speeches from campus trade unions, the student union and students. Claire Laker Mansfield from Socialist Students and Youth Fight for Jobs explained that students across the country were watching the struggle at Sussex, that the outcome of this struggle could decide whether there will be a mass fight back against cuts in universities nationally.

As the senate meeting began students overwhelmed the small number of security who shook hands with students as they rushed into the building, the chanting continued inside as students filled the staircase up to the meeting. Sympathetic catering staff in the café below waved to students. After half an hour police arrived after being called by management, and students took the decision to leave.

More campus protests are planned next week and there is widespread support for the idea of co-ordinated student action in the form of walk outs and occupations with any staff industrial action in the new term. On Wednesday 9 December Brighton and Hove Trades Council and Youth Fight for Jobs have called a public meeting for workers, young people and students fighting job losses at the universities, Lloyds TSB, Borders and Threshers.

Socialist Students activists and Socialist Party members who work at the university are playing a leading role in the campaign. As well as mobilising students we have raised the need for co-ordinated industrial action by all sections of staff and all campus trade unions linking up with struggles against job losses across Brighton. At Brighton University the new Socialist Students society has begun a campaign to fight the closure of the nursery and Unisex which will link up with Stop the Cuts at Sussex. The text of a Socialist Students leaflet distributed at the December 3 demo is below.

Mass united campaign needed to

STOP THE CUTS

Management have announced their plans to wreck our university with savage cuts. They claim that in order to maintain our "competitiveness", 115 staff must lose their jobs from across 7 of the academic schools as well as library, IT, security and catering staff. Vital services like the subsidised child care and Unisex are also to disappear. Students and staff will pay the price! not vice chancellors and managers!

How can standards of education be maintained when some schools are losing a third of their teaching staff? And more importantly, why do some workers have to lose their jobs because of lack of funding when the Vice Chancellor has recently given himself another pay rise meaning he now receives £227,000 a year?

Socialist Students and Youth Fight for Jobs fully support the Stop the Cuts campaign which has been launched to draw together students and staff in the struggle against all these cuts.

Management have shown time and time again that they will not negotiate and have no interest in listening to the opinions of students and staff. So this campaign has to make them listen. It is vital that the angry mood on campus is turned into effective action. The large protests we have mobilised already show the support that exists. The Trade Unions must take co-ordinated action including strike action by all sections of staff. This can be backed up by the student union and the Stop the Cuts campaign mobilising students. A variety of tactics should be considered such as mass demonstrations, boycotts, student strikes and occupations to disrupt managements agenda.

Students and staff are fighting cuts across the country in Manchester, London, Wales and Scotland

While we struggle here, the student union and our campaign should also be making links with others facing the same fight, now or in the future. A national mass movement must be built to show this government and the next that students, when united with workers, are a force that cannot be ignored. Last Saturday Youth Fight for Jobs brought thousands onto the streets of London that's a start!

Join us on March 13 to demonstrate for jobs not racism in Barking.

We say

Stop the cuts now ! Fully fund uni courses and services

Fight for every job, no to redundancies and all attacks on staff

Kick rip off private contractors off campus

Fight for a living wage of at least £8 an hour for all campus workers

Build the Stop the Cuts campaign link up with campaigns and student unions fighting back across the country

No to higher fees, publicly fund free education

Build a mass fight back against attacks on education, job losses and unemployment involving workers, students and the unemployed.

Discuss the way forward, come to our meeting on Fighting Public Sector Cuts with Phil Clarke NUT South East Region Young Teachers Rep (personal capacity) and plenty of time for discussion, questions and debate