Students in Warwick Occupied their University Last Night
2014
Words: Charlotte England
Last night student protesters occupied their Warwick University after a protest to demand "cops off campus". This was a response to the police's use of CS spray and the threat of a taser on students holding who were sitting around in a circle chatting about free education on Wednesday afternoon. As solidarity actions kicked off around the country, angry Warwick students took their demonstration indoors, occupying a university building and – rumour has it – forcing Vice Chancellor Nigel Swift to cancel the gala dinner he had planned for the evening.
The protest began late on a cold, soggy day, on the notoriously apathetic Warwick campus – I wondered if it would be a non-event. But as often happens when the police go HAM on some peaceful protesters, their brutality managed to achieve the precise opposite of what they were hoping – by pissing people off and bringing greater numbers out in anger. By cracking down on thirty protesters, the police had provoked nearly a thousand more.
CONTINUE READING....
