Like many other camps around the UK, the camp has been experiencing problems with fascist organizations like the EDL threatening camps at night. Occupy Notts requests support in the form of more bodies at the camps overnight to prevent this kind of trouble. Along with them, we ask members of the local and student community to volunteer to visit the camp and especially to stay overnight or during an early morning shift; it would be greatly appreciated.

Tonight, in the 36th day of Occupation, campers and city residents held a candlelight vigil in solidarity with Egyptian civilians in Tahrir Square who were attacked by and are currently engaged in a tense standoff with Egyptian armed forces. In doing so, they stood with people from all major cities in Egypt and other cities around the world against the violent repression being experienced by peaceful protestors from Oakland, Berkeley and Davis, California, to Atlanta, to New York, to Cairo.

During the vigil, campers shared their reflections: an American student noted  that it is the US funding the Egyptian army and mentioned the familiar neo-colonial theme of the military vs. the people, while other campers spoke of the Spanish acampada movement and the more than 3,500 people who have been killed under the repressive regime in Syria. The group rallied around the reminder that it was the courageous and powerful actions of the people of Tunisia, Syria, Egypt, Libya and the events of the Arab Spring which inspired the Occupy Movement sweeping the globe, while their own stories continue to unfold, outcomes yet to be known.

At the start of October, Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) and other activists started a 330 mile march from Jarrow to London. “Why? Because we’ve had enough, and we know that it doesn’t have to be this way.”It is 75 years since the first Jarrow March/Crusade of October 1936, when mass unemployment and extreme poverty in the north-east of England drove 200 men to march in protest from Jarrow to London.

Notts Save Our Services will be welcoming the 2011 march on Saturday October 15th, on a day which is exactly 30 years since Norman Tebbit spoke his infamous words at a Tory party conference after the riots of 1981: “I grew up in the ’30s with an unemployed father. He didn’t riot. He got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking ’til he found it.” Seems like they haven’t learnt much as we have experienced both widespread riots AND major job cuts in 2011.

Notts SOS is to welcome the marchers on the Forest Recreation Ground, and march with them to Market Square, where there will be a joint demonstration against the cuts. The route of the March has been agreed and marchers will approach the Forest from Nottingham Road (Basford) for a brief meeting up on the Forest Recreation Ground, then the march will go down Mansfield Road into the city centre ending up in the Market Square.

This will be a major anti-cuts day for Nottingham and everyone is welcome to join the march and/or rally in the square against austerity, unemployment and education cuts. The march will also be welcomed in Mansfield the day before (see comment to this article for details).

The itinerary for October 15th is as follows:
10.00 Meet at Hucknall Ambulance Station on Annesley Road. Continue down Annesley Road to Hucknall Market Place.
10.15 Rally at Hucknall Market Place (for about 10 mins)
10.30 Leave Market Place and continue down High Street. High Street becomes Portland Street and then Nottingham Road.
11.00 Straight on at roundabout onto Hucknall Lane. Hucknall Lane becomes Main Street.
11.30 Turn left onto Bulwell Market Place for 20 min rally and 10 min break.
12.00 Leave Market place on Highbury Road. Continue as Highbury Road becomes Vernon Road.
12.30 Take left fork onto Nottingham Road. Continue as Nottingham Road becomes Sherwood Rise.
13.00 Cross Gregory Boulevard onto Forest Recreation Ground. Notts SOS demonstration assembles here – around 30 mins.
13.30 Leave Forest, turning right onto Mansfield Road. Right onto Upper Parliament Street. Left onto King Street. Continue on to Old Market Square.
14.30 Rally on Old Market Square.

Marchers will continue the march on Sunday 16th from Nottingham Trent Univ Clifton campus.

Sunday 16th October – Nottingham to Loughborough
10.30am Meet Clifton Lane (outside Nottingham Trent Uni)
10.40 Continue down Clifton Lane
11.00 Take first exit at roundabout and continue down Clifton Lane
12.15 Continue through Nottingham Road to Gotham
1.15 Nottingham Road becomes Leake Road.
Arriving 5.30pm in Loughborough with a Rally

All welcome – see you there!

24 hour occupation of Nottingham Market Square

We aim to occupy the Market Square Area of Nottingham from Saturday 15th October 2011 as part of an ongoing NON-VIOLENT/ PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATION.

This is a leaderless movement for a direct democracy of the people!

EVERYONE’S opinion will be valid and valued.

Part of a global movement in solidarity with other occupations across the globe.

We are the 99%

Contact email: occupynottingham@hotmail.co.uk

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=172700659466128 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Students to march on the City

Tens of thousands of students predicted to march

against fees, cuts and privatisation on November 9th

National demonstration will go to the City, rather than to Parliament

Students plan to derail the government’s HE white paper

Demonstration a key date in the autumn of resistance, ahead of the November 30th strike action

The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts is expecting tens of thousands of students to come to London on November 9th for a national demonstration to defend education from fees, cuts and privatisation.

Following a student assembly on 9th October, the demonstration now has a route. It will march from the University of London Union (ULU) at 12 noon, and will go on to the City. Police negotiations will start later this week.

The demonstration was called by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts and is officially supported by the National Union of Students (NUS).

The government’s higher education white paper, announced this summer, is one of the main targets for the student movement. It has been attacked by academics, students and university heads for its implications for access and marketisation.

In the lead-up to and aftermath of the November 9th demonstration, more walkouts and campus occupations are anticipated.

Michael Chessum, from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts and a member of the NUS national executive, said: “The government’s HE white paper is a threat to the whole idea of education in Britain. Education should be a public service, accessible to all – not a corporate enterprise.”

He added: “In marching on the City, we will be sending a clear message that we will not allow the government to get away with handing over education to the markets. Last year MPs betrayed a generation of people when they voted for a tripling of tuition fees and scrapped EMA.The fight for education is not over, and we are determined to set the tone for the rest of the autumn.”

Edward Bauer, Vice President Education at Birmingham University, said: “City traders speculated with our homes, jobs and public services, causing misery for millions. Now the government is demanding cuts to our education and the privatisation of our universities. The city lies at the heart of the political and economic problem that caused the crisis, and it is there that we will make our voices heard loudest.”

Mark Bergfeld, from the Education Activist Network, said: “Students and lectuers will use the demonstration on November 9 as a building block to the public sector general strike on November 30. This demonstration seeks to bring together all those academics, students and educationalists together who are fighting for a university not tied to the market. Our education is not their business.”

Maev McDaid, President at the Liverpool University Guild, said: “The white paper leaves us with no choice – we have to oppose the intrusion of the market on to our campuses. There is a serious concern that a whole generation of young people will be excluded from higher education.”

Luke Durigan, Education and Campaigns Officer at UCL Union, said: “The White Paper is more than just an attack on public funding for universities; it threatens to completely recast the idea of a public university. The government is carrying out these plans without democratic mandate, students and staff are determined to put a stop to them.”

ENDS

NOTES AND CONTACTS

The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts is a coalition of students and workers fighting against fees and cuts in education. It was one of the main organisations that organised the student movement in the 2010-11 academic year.

For further comment or appearances, please call 07964791663

The NCAFC’s website will be hosting regular updates at: www.anticuts.com

In this spirit, we call for the following:

1.    An independent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mark Duggan

2.    The disbanding of the IPCC and its replacement by a new body, entirely independent of the police, which will have as its first priority the investigation of the 333 deaths in police custody since 1998

3.    A refusal to grant new powers given to police, whose recent history of unlawful killing, corruption and racism demonstrates their unfitness to wield such power

4.    An end to calls to punish those involved in rioting with increased sentences, vengeful violence and even the threat of the loss of social housing and benefits, to be replaced by meaningful attempts to empower those who are marginalised

5.    A united repudiation of the attempts of far-right and fascist groups, such as the EDL, to hijack social unrest for their own purposes

6.    The immediate reinstatement of the EMA and the scrapping of university tuition fees

7.    The reversal of the punitive programme of cuts that is targeting most heavily areas of deprivation and marginalised groups, including young people, to be replaced by a policy of positive investment and wealth re-distribution

8.    The support of those involved in community and campaigning groups, including trades unions, who must refuse to condemn and disown those involved in riots and instead must do everything possible to engage with them, recognising their actions as part of the broad range of responses to the neoliberal cuts programme 

9.    A far-reaching re-evaluation of our failing economic system that, even and especially in crisis, protects the interest of the wealthy against that of the people, promotes a socially and environmentally unsustainable model of growth and acquisitiveness, and allows the exclusion of huge sections of society from meaningful participation and a decent quality of life.

SIGNED

Nottingham Students Against Fees and Cuts

Notts Uncut – Part of UK Uncut

Housing Solidarity

Sisters of Resistance

Mums Against the Cuts

Trev Farminer

Rosi Smith

Malte Ringer

Damien Smyth

Peter Ely

Hannah Byrne

Mike Miller

Stuart Neyton

Joseph Clough

Rana Khadra

Tasha McDowell

Saralou Alphonso

Please add your/your organisation’s signature in the comments below. We will update this post as signatures are added.

This time we’re gonna change things up and combine the music with delicious vegan goodness. Home-cooked vegan food will be served from 7pm.

Featuring acoustic sets by fantastic local musical acts, including:

* Sideways Falling*
* Louis Cypher*
* Kaben*
* Motormouf*
* El Dia*

We will have soft drinks but we won’t have any alcohol, so feel free to bring your own. There will also be a stall where you can buy one of our t-shirts featuring artwork by Sam.

MAKE MUSIC, NOT CUTS II

Wednesday June 15, 2011
6:30pm – 10:00pm
Crocus Cafe
2 Church Square Lenton
Lenton, NG7 1SL

Suggested donation £5

]]> http://nsafc.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/make-music-not-cuts-ii/feed/ 0 uninottagainstcutsfees fightcuts2 http://nsafc.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/march-on-the-aua-and-camp-for-the-radical-alternative/ http://nsafc.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/march-on-the-aua-and-camp-for-the-radical-alternative/#comments Tue, 19 Apr 2011 21:05:24 +0000 NSAFC http://nsafc.wordpress.com/?p=424 Continue reading →]]> Nottingham Students Against Fees and Cuts enjoyed a sunny and noisy march to the East Midlands Conference Centre where their chants (what do we want? Free education! How do we get it? Occupation!) were met with some bemused looks, some nods and even some applause from the Association of University Administrators (AUA), at least one member of which crossed the line of security guards outside the conference centre to join the demonstration.

While infamous sexist Willets cancelled his keynote address to the AUA, NSAFC went ahead with their camp for the radical alternative holding anti-oppression workshops and engaging discussions in an open space on the University of Nottingham campus visible to passers-by.  Formal invitations were extended to AUA delegates to attend, which stated:  “We believe that increased fees and draconian cuts to education are not the only options. To that end, we are creating an open space for discussion whereby we are collectively exploring alternatives.”

The cuts to and privatisation of education were discussed by a representative from the Campaign for the Public University and a PhD student explained the unequal effect of the cuts to public services on women.  It was noted that unemployment among young women was rising and that women were more affected by cuts to Arts and Humanities. It was suggested that women would be disproportionately taking on more unpaid work to cover the effects of the cuts to childcare, care for people with disabilities and services for the elderly. The news that women’s refugee centres across Nottingham were facing closure was met with anger as it was agreed women will face more violence and serious danger as a direct result.  

It was a space in which radical alternatives to neo-liberal cuts were envisaged as NSAFC and the assembled campers agreed upon the necessity of taking action against the cuts and building community solutions to them. Upcoming demonstrations, such as the May Day Rally and the next Notts Uncut action were promoted. Local young people from colleges and secondary schools across Nottingham, students from both of the city’s universities and members of Notts SOS and Notts Uncut came together to enjoy food provided by local vegan catering co-operative Veggies as NSAFC built ever stronger links with the local community and became ever more determined to fight on.

Indymedia report and more pics here.

Click to view slideshow.

We see through your euphemisms Mr Greenway!

Condemning future generations to a life time of debt is an economically disastrous and socially unfair policy that NSAFC is dedicated to resisting.

We believe that free education is a right and that the attacks on education are ideologically-motivated. We reject the con-demned coalition’s disingenuous justifications for slashing public services and commodifying education while also cutting tax for the super rich and turning a blind eye to corporate tax avoidance. We do not believe politicians who tell us we cannot afford to keep libraries and hospitals open but who continue to find billions of pounds to fund Trident nuclear weapons programme and wars for oil.

The students of today will not be lied to, we will not be tricked. With the global financial recession, we see the cracks in this unsustainable system and as it crumbles this generation has decided to build a fairer, more just society for all.

No cuts! No fees!

See you at our next event!

NSAFC

On April the 18^th -20^th the Association of University Administrators will be meeting in Nottingham to discuss the future of Higher Education in the UK. As the government’s plans to lift the cap on tuition fees to £9000 is exploited by a cartel of administrations to monopolise high-end university education, the minister for universities, David Willetts, keynote speaker at the AUA conference, reassures us that the cuts in funding and the raises in fees will be ‘progressive’. The same ‘Honourable Gentleman’ tries to divide us by blaming women’s struggle for equality for the problems that big business and career politicians have created for working-class men. In order to defend and advance the cause of education in this country over business managers and privilege, and to show that we won’t be divided by patriarchal logic, we invite you to the following:

1. MARCH FOR EDUCATION AND SOLIDARITY

Meet at the Lakeside Arts Centre, University Of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD at 12:00 on the 19^th of April.

We will march on the conference to challenge David Willetts’ destructive policies and patriarchal logic, and those who enable the savage cuts and fees he promotes. There will be a feminist bloc.

Bring placards, banners, and the noise. Speakers from anti-cuts campaigns across the country and Women Against Cuts TBA

1. CAMP FOR THE EDUCATION ALTERNATIVE

As a response to a conference which charges at minimum £99 for one day’s access, we will be hosting a free camp at a location (to be disclosed nearer the time) near the conference in Nottingham. Join us in camping over- bring a tent and camping equipment with you!

The camp will last from the 19^th-20^th and hold workshops and discussions with activists and academics on the topics including:

Anti-Oppression

Gender and The Cuts

Zombie Universities

Protest Tactics, Strategies, and Direct Action

Capitalism and Beyond

There will also be food, a kids space, music, performance, and art!

At the AUA conference, Willetts will speak to an audience of Vice-Chancellors, Registrars and other administrative staff and encourage them to support his policies. These are the same staff who blithely cut departments, intimidate lower-paid academic staff, and exploit support workers in the name of the cuts. Yet vice-chancellors and management refuse to take a cut in salary, despite earning well over £150,000 a year. It is not a question of whether one or many wolves tear apart education, whether the government or the university administrations promote cuts and commercialization, it is a matter of us building alternatives and taking action.

If you have any queries, need a place to stay beforehand, or other support, please contact Nottingham Students against Fees and Cuts:

nsafac[@]gmail.com

http://twitter.com/nsafc

(#adminthis #april19)

http://nsafc.wordpress.com/

Facebook Event: http://on.fb.me/gmne8P

NO IFS, NO BUTS, NO EDUCATION CUTS!

See you there,

Nottingham Students against Fees and Cuts