Breaking news: Sussex University occupied against cuts

A previous demonstration against cuts at Sussex

There will be a demo at 12 noon tomorrow (Feb 9th) outside Bramber House to support the occupiers – see you there!

Earlier this evening students at Sussex University occupied a conference facility on campus against planned budget and job cuts (background). They have now released the following statement:

Join the Radical Workers Bloc on the March for Jobs

Sat 6/3 :: 12 noon :: the Level :: Brighton

This demonstration, organised by Brighton and Hove Trades Union Council is billed as a “March for Jobs” – but we want more.  Of course, we need to protect jobs.  Every job lost to redundancy means more workload for those who remain.  An injury to one really is an injury to all.  But we also need to stop the cuts that take away vital services, hard-won by generations of struggle.

Brighton Solidarity Federation and others are forming a Radical Workers’ Bloc on the demonstration.  We reject the notion that voting will bring about a solution for us – the cuts will be defeated on the streets and on the picket lines, not the ballot box. We have the recent victory of the bin men to show us how it’s done!

Education workers: Stop the Cuts at Sussex uni

Several of our members are working or studying at Sussex university, where management recently announced massive cuts inclusing 115 redundancies. Below is the text of a leaflet we wrote, targeted at fellow education workers.

Our Jobs under threat

Defending Ourselves Against Cuts

Across the country, education is under attack. In the past month, job losses have been announced in many places, including 200 at the University of Cumbria, 130 in Manchester MMU, £35m cuts at Leeds university, and of course 116 redundancies at Sussex. Politicians from all parties are united in wanting to make ordinary people pay the costs of capitalism in crisis, and they are starting with higher education.

But not only are cuts being made to universities, the very nature of such institutions is being remodelled. The governement are using the economic crisis to press ahead with the marketisation of higher education – which means a view of students as ‘clients’ and teaching staff as ’service providers’, increasing privatisation of services, an infringement on academic freedom, and the rise of managerialism. In this way universities become businesses to be run competitively in opposition to the values which universities are meant to embody.

Anti-cuts momentum builds at Sussex Uni

Up to 400 students and staff gathered at Sussex University this morning to pressure the Senate and Vice Chancellor to drop plans for wide-ranging cuts to staff and courses. A similar demonstration last week drew 150 people, and momentum appears to be building. Amongst the chants from the majority student crowd was a call for university staff to strike – the kind of direct action that might take opposition to the cuts from words to deeds.

Cityclean strike suspended after concessions

From The Argus:

The binmen strike in Brighton and Hove has been suspended for 28 days. Cityclean workers and union bosses today met Brighton and Hove City Council officials at the Hollingdean depot.

Workers told The Argus the two-week strike had been suspended, but they would not comment further. The Argus has been told that the deal will mean that Cityclean workers are classed as skilled, meaning most staff will be on the same wages, with some even possibly getting more.

Cityclean workers’ action begins

In the past month, the prospect of a citywide strike of all refuse collection workers has moved from a possibility on the horizon to imminent. Threats of huge pay cuts have come from the council over the past year, with equally robust responses from the workers stating unequivocally that they would not be willing to accept this. In the name of “equality”, the council want to impose cuts of £6,000-8,000 on a workforce earning up to £19,000 (for more detail, see our previous coverage). Faced with impoverishment, the workers voted almost unanimously (over 94%) for ongoing industrial action last week.

Stop the cuts at Sussex Uni

The British government has announced huge public sector spending cuts, and higher education is no exception with 13-18% budget reductions expected. At the University of Sussex, management plan cuts of £8 million over the next two years. These will be passed onto staff in the form of job losses and benefit cuts, onto students in the form of fee increases and a reduction in student services, and onto schools through departmental and course closures.

Why were the posties striking?

Postal workers have been taking part in a series of strikes this Autumn in a bitter row over jobs and conditions. Workers voted 76% in favour of the strikes – which have now been suspended by union leaders until the new year. So what has got them so angry?

New Catalyst out now!

The new edition of the SolFed freesheet Catalyst is now available in a new-look tabloid newspaper format. Articles include a leader on the recession and workers’ struggles against it, an interview with a striker from Tower Hamlets College in east London, contract cleaners struggles, school occupations, London Underground strikes, Know Your Rights and more!

It is available as a pdf download here or physical copies are available from various points in Brighton, including the Cowley Club on London Road.

A letter from a postman

A Royal Mail worker describes the background to the 2009 national strike vote, including details of how managers have been manipulating the figures to justify cuts.