“TODAY*** *** NO TO POLICE VIOLENCE IN UNIVERSITIES**** ***SOLIDARITY WITH WARWICK STUDENT PROTESTORS*** 5pm, Parkinson Steps, University of Leeds ---------- Yesterday (3rd Dec) was a day of action, organised by National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) calling for free education. Demonstrations and occupations were held in universities including UCL, KCL, Cambridge, Birmingham and Warwick, where the following incident occurred. Several police cars turned up and a police riot van as well as a police dog. We formed a human chain but they broke through using CS spray (active agent in tear gas) on many activists at close quarters, a taser gun was held up and threatened, it was also suspected to be used. Activists were punched, pushed onto the floor, dragged, rammed by their throat into the wall and kneed in the face. We were staging a peaceful protest and it was totally unprecedented; we were sitting in a circle talking in university space. (statement by Warwick For Free Education) This is unacceptable behaviour by Warwick University and West Midlands Police. Repression of student protest is, as we know from history, the sign of an authoritarian regime. This incident reflects a wider intensification of surveillance of ‘troublesome’ students and staff and political activists more widely. It is necessary for us to defend the right to protest, to question and to challenge the way our educational institutions are organised and governed, and also our society in general. As we’ve seen from Greece to Egypt to Hong Kong and the USA, police brutality is endemic in democratic states in crisis. Poor people and people of colour experience this violence more consistently and with greater impunity. Nevertheless, we believe that it is our right and duty to defend all those who are victims of state repression. We demand cops off campus and the freedom to speak and assemble in our universities. 5pm, Parkinson Building steps, University of Leeds #copsoffcampus #freeeducation More info anticuts/ warwick4freeducation.wordpress/ [This demo has been called and organised by a group of staff and students from Leeds Beckett / Leeds Met University and Leeds University and not by any political group or trade union]”
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 16:22:22 +0000
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