Disciplined by Birmingham University because I was assaulted…
Last week I took part in a peaceful sit in to try and raise awareness and dialogue about the effects of the white paper. My university responded by unleashing what are essentially hired thugs to harass us and I was assaulted. Because I gave my name to the police for this assault the university have singled me out and brought disciplinary procedures against me.
On the 23rd of November there was a national day of action against the White Paper and the impending privatisation of the Higher Education system. Since then students from around twenty universities have gone into occupation; including students from my own university, Birmingham. At every other university the occupiers’ rights to speech, assembly and access have been tolerated (see the experience of Cambridge or Edinburgh). However the Birmingham university management act with a mafia mentality, not just trying to stop protest but actively trying to intimidate students into being silent.
Last year the university violently forced its way into an occupation and then disciplined several of the students involved. This year we occupied an unused house on campus causing no disruption and the universities overreaction was truly staggering. They employed between six and ten security guards to stand guard around the occupation twenty four hours a day making sure no-one could go in or out; several senior managers and the universities legal team spent huge amounts of time during the day and night co-ordinating the universities response and the university paid for a special sitting of the high court in order to get a possession order against us in only two days (it normally takes around two weeks.)
On the second night of our occupation a few students tried to break the siege and get in. One of the students was almost through the window when a security guard tried to drag them out by their ankles. Luckily they got inside at which point the security guard completely lost control and started punching me repeatedly in the face. He only stopped because he was led away by the other security guards. At that point, far from being apologetic or embarrassed, the university security started a co-ordinated campaign of harassment: ringing our doorbell, knocking on the windows, shouting abuse and pressing their face to the glass of the toilet all through the night.
Instead of shame from their management about their hired thugs the Vice-Chancellor came to the occupation to express his personal gratitude to the security. The fact that I reported an assault to the police has been used to identify me and put me through disciplinary procedures alone.
The occupation was standing up for the principles that a university is supposed to be about but the management reacted with nothing but threats, violence and harassment. They know that students and staff are overwhelmingly against them and their policies and that they have no option but to try and scare people away from taking action. If the university system is to be an institution that promotes social mobility and knowledge for the public good the principle of democracy urgently needs to be re-instated. Power needs to be taken away from the businessmen who don’t care about their students or the quality of the education and put in the hands of students and staff.
The lesson I have learned from my experience is that we need more and stronger action to really start to assert the principle of democracy in the university if nowhere else.
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The amount of outright political successes won through protesting is staggering, including but not limited to universal suffrage and the abolition of clause 28, to significant localised successes, such as stopping job losses, curbing unethical investment in universities, installation of accessible facilities such as gender neutral toilets or wheelchair accessible spaces – the very existence of a politicised students union is thanks to student protests. Saying it doesnt make a difference what government in is the preserve of the privileged middle class who are never really effected by the existence of the very real sets of support measures put in place by socialist governments to ensure some element of quality of life. Since the advent of a Conservative government, I have seen my monthly income drop from £1200 to £700, thanks to a cut in hours in work and the loss of my tax credits, not to mention a pay freeze and now a pension hike. It’s all an easy way to do nothing and be apathetic, by saying “hey nothing changes so why bother?” – I think you’ll find that is the make up of the silent majority, not a bunch of rampant right wing libertarians outraged by the “Pinko Trots” but not enough to vote against them. Even when protests do not win outright, they provide a stabilising force. Good luck Simon, and what happened to you was a disgrace, Edd.
Just to clarify, the opinions above are not those of Seb Power. They are the opinions of this guy (take note of the instructive sign fellow readers):
http://legacy-cdn.smosh.com/smosh-pit/112010/no-troll-feeding.jpg
Personally I think the university’s actions are a disgrace. I hope the protests continue, we have very few other means of expressing our opinions.
It’s a bit silly protesting … How many times have the students won by protesting? not many.. the government is like a casino and the house always wins. The fees went up and there was nothing we could have done to stop it. I’m not saying I like it but the fact is we can’t change it and it won’t make a difference whether the government is left, right or bloody upside down.
Lot of shit about this ‘silent majority’, that apparently doesn’t support the ‘left’ on campus. It is assumed on no evidence that all these non voters support the right. Considering polls that show that 80% of young people support the strike and that 73% show support for peaceful direct action, this is clearly a massively stupid assumption. It is probably reasonable to assume that most of silent majority are actaully in support of the ‘left’ and that the student union is considerable more right wing than the average student.
Simon never smiles?? lol…. and is ‘power hungry’, that fact that he takes personally so many risks convinces me that he cares clearly far more about protecting public education than getting into ‘power’ in the guild, which nobody really gives a damn about anyway.
Ok, so he’s a bit of a cock, but that doesn’t give security guards the right to lose their rag and beat someone up. The guard in question clearly ought to be dismissed as they are unsuitable for the job in hand, just as I, as a teacher, would be very quickly out of the door if I twatted a young miscreant in my charge. And lord knows if being a bit of a cock was grounds enough, there’d be blood on the quad every lesson, pupils’ and fellow teachers’ (who are often even more of an annoyance than the pupils).
Kick them out! The silent majority is sick of these socialist lunatics ruining the reputation of our great university. Edd Bauer and Simon Furse you are NOT WANTED here. Why can’t understand this? Simon got exactly what he deserved, breaking into private property is ILLEGAL.
Shut up you haterz
Simon was the last Guild Councillor elected with a very small number of votes. Don’t make out hes the bloody DON. The silent majority despises him.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the occupy stuff and however annoying Mr Furse may be , repeatedly being punched in the face is called assault and I cannot understand why charges have not been brought by Mr Furse?
So contact the police and press charges.
Pete (and all the others), how can you tell the views of a silent majority/minority? Please explain this to me.
Also, with regards to your comment about the turnout for Guild Officer elections, could you explain how apathy is the same as opposition? My understanding is that the majority of people who cared about the issue voted for Edd Bauer and that those who did not vote did so because they did not feel strongly either way.
Daniel lindley, there is a silent majority or at leat a large silent minority who oppose Edd and everything he stands for. The reason people like Edd carry on winning elections is because only left wing type people typically stand in uni elections. For those of use on the right we rarely have anyone in our corner so we give up. Edd got somewhere in the region of 3000 votes at his election. Birmingham has 27,000 students, therefore 24,000 people didnt vote for Edd and last I checked that was a majority.
At Edd’s protests rallies around campus there has never been more then a couple of hunderd people so even less support
Now is OUR winter of discontent. I’m afraid that stories of this nature are going to be increasingly common.
The reactionaries at the University of Birmingham really need to drop this tired and ridiculous ‘Silent Majority’ line. I’m offering a prize to whoever makes the funniest satirical reference to it at Guild Council this year. If the majority of students really ‘hate’ people like Simon Furse and Edd Bauer then why do they keep winning student elections? You’d think, for example, if the Silent Majority so hated Edd Bauer they wouldn’t have elected him to two Guild Officer positions and as an NUS delegate over the last two years? You’d also think the Silent Majority’s self-proclaimed representatives wouldn’t have taken away the ability for students to have a democratic vote on whether he should be removed, instead insisting the decision be made behind closed doors by an unelected almost entirely non-student committee…
But wait, I guess the Silent Majority not only does not speak, but also never votes. How anyone is supposed to know what they think is a mystery…
And on Simon, you know just last month he was elected in a cross-campus ballot as a Guild Councillor? Did you see his election poster? It was a picture of the 1968 occupation of the Great Hall at this university with the caption “THIS is how students got representation at this university. Vote Simon Furse for a strong campaigning union.” Anyone with some respect for democracy ought to be concerned by a student being assaulted by uni security and put before a disciplinary essentially for carrying out his winning election manifesto…
And really Simon Furse “never smiles”. Man… you so obviously have no idea who you’re talking about or you wouldn’t make such a hilarious comment for anyone who knows him. Simon is one of the most smiley people you’re ever likely to meet.
to commenter number 4: we very rarely delete comments here on Bright Green. But we deleted ours for two reasons:
1) your comment had no argument. It was simply low abuse. Even commenter number 5, Mr Smith, provides some kind of vague commentary on the situation. His comment is personal in nature and, in my experience, enturely untrue. But he isn’t using the comments to simply throw abusive words around.
2) you are pretending to be someone who you are not. One easy way to tell that you aren’t Edd Bauer is that you mis-spelt his name.
and, to ‘the silent majority’, what gives you the right to assume you speak for the majority? Have you spoken to all of the students at Birmingham? Or are you just assuming everyone agrees with you?
Adam
We have a message for the left, listen to our views, want we want, we represent the majority, you act in ways which bring shame to our University.
Get a grip and start listening not campaigning the bloody communist manifesto.
Simon Furse deserved it. He is provocative character. He is a power hungry guy who never smiles or knowledges the existence of anyone who disagrees with his views.
He needs to learn how to listen otherwise people are going to hate him just like they hate ed bauer.
Why delete the anti simon furse comment, you guys love democracy but practice censorship!
[just to explain, there were four abusive comments. they have now been deleted.]
The four gentlemen who posted before me do a great job at convincing protesters to carry on with their cause. Thanks for that.
I’m sorry, I don’t think anyone deserves to punched repeatedly in the face, harassed, and then punished for getting hurt by the organisation who hired harasser in the first place.
If you had ever been in a student protest, kettled in like wild animals rather human beings had food and water restricted to you (as The occupation of birmingham uni actually did!!) You would that no-one deserves to be treated like because they decided they were going to get up and try to do something. Other than sit on a sofa and do nothing.
Security and Police are normally the ones geared more for a fight than protesters. I’ve had friends who at Milwall (I was at the peaceful part of the protest outside Westminster) giving First Aid while waiting for ambulances to take people for treatment and have Police beat them, hit them with batons while clearly helping someone.
So, I can believe that something like this can happen. And that no-one should be punished in this incident except the security guard.