seanmacdiarmada:

Protesters are holding a sit-in at a university over plans to charge future students from across the UK £27,000 in tuition fees.

On Tuesday, the University of Strathclyde said its governing body had approved fees of £9,000 a year for students from England, Northern Ireland and Wales, capped at £27,000 for four-year courses, from the 2012/13 academic year.

The fees do not apply to Scottish-domiciled students.

 

A spokesman for the demonstrators said around 40 students had come from universities across Scotland, including Glasgow, Strathclyde, Glasgow Caledonian, Edinburgh and St Andrews, to stage the sit-in at Strathclyde in Glasgow.

It follows a similar occupation last week at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (formerly the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama) after it announced its intention to introduce £36,000 fees for students from the rest of the UK (RUK), and a 36-hour occupation at the University of Edinburgh in September in protest against its decision to set RUK fees at the same level.

A spokesman for the protesters said: “The introduction of fees and continuing cuts are an attack on the values of free education that Scotland has always prided itself on, we will continue to fight cuts in education and fight wider Government austerity plans.

“Disruption will continue and escalate as long as universities continue to pass on Government cuts. The student movement did not end with the introduction of fees for English students, we will continue to fight and we will win.”

A spokeswoman for the University of Strathclyde said: “A small number of protesters are holding a sit-in in one of the university’s administration buildings. The impact is localised and the university is working to minimise disruption.”

Meanwhile, Edinburgh Napier University has announced that it has set fees of £6,500 a year for RUK students.

It means a full-time four-year honours degree at the university would cost students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland £26,000.

jtem:

“Ok, Irishman here, and fuck off. That’s really all I have to say to you. Going to uni is not an invasion”

—titletocome

Well, anyone can claim to be anything on the internet, so why not stick to the issues and the facts instead of “My opinion means more than anyone elses”?

Besides, my family…

For someone telling him that he shouldn’t be going down the “my opinion overrides yours”, you’re being obscenely condescending in this whole “you clearly don’t get it” path you’ve decided to go down. I appreciate that you have an opinion on the occupation of the six counties and the British imperialism enforced upon Ireland over the last 800 years, but I find you’re entire point past that to be enitrely ridiculous. And I say that as an Irish Republican Socialist.

I’m vehemently against the occupation of our six counties and I’m anti-British state, I’m anti- anybody coming over here as an individual who tries to enforce their culture at the expense of ours or tries to demean or degrade our culture - that’s where you seem to be confused. I’ve come across a fierce amount of arseholes in my time who have been disrespectful of Irish culture and the Irish people and have ignored the Irish struggle or tried to laugh it off as unimportant to counter-productive, I’ll stand against anybody who takes advantage of the history of my country to come over here and tear down the people and what they’ve been through; the fact however is blatant - not every British citizen does this. Most British people are dead on and are more than welcome in any part of this country. And that goes for most British citizens. But you directed this specifically at Isabella. Now, I don’t know Isabella very well personally, but I’ve got an idea of her from interacting with on here and by the way she’s expressed herself and the bottom line here is your opinion is entirely and categorically flawed in saying people like her are not welcome, appreciated or needed in this country. She’s not taking advantage of British imperialism by coming here and using it against the six counties, she’s coming here because she wants to, has an interest and respect for our culture, our history, our politics and is willing to listen to all types of people within our community. That’s just the bonus; people like her should be encouraged to come here because they’re making their own opinions and respecting other people, it shows the strength of relations across different cultures - Ireland is not, and should never be, just for the Irish or just for people traditionally aligned with Ireland - Ireland should be open to different people and different cultures, as long as that is not at the expense and detriment of our own.

Any anybody who thinks differently just because one individual is born in Britain is simply not looking at things from a fair perspective. There’s plenty of Brits I know in Belfast and around the six counties who are brilliant, respectful people - a handful of them are even Republicans.

Republicans are constantly told that they’re rigid and stuck in their ways and that they’re pathetic because of it. This is completely wrong and anybody who thinks this way loses a great amount of respect from me automatically. Your point however lives up to that claim. You’re on the right lines as long as you stick to judging it by circumstance; if someone is coming over and disrespecting people, fuck them, they can goway to fuck - but assuming every Brit should stay out of Ireland because they’re British is a farce and a delusion and it’s counter-productive to Irish Republicanism. When we say ‘Brits Out’ we don’t mean every British person, we mean the British system and it’s imperialistic impacts. One British girl studying in Belfast with Republican Socialist leanings isn’t the rape of the occupied six counties.

socialisimo:

la-vie-est-politiques:

Edinburgh University announced that UK students from outside of Scotland would not benefit from Holyrood’s protection of Scottish fees.

Solidarity to all occupiers! 

Dlúthpháirtíocht!
Agus, they’ve a facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/EdinUniAntiCuts

f-e-r-a-l:

Only days after the new education bill was voted into law, bringing sweeping changes to Greece’s higher education system (immense funding cuts, abolition of the academic asylum etc), students on the ground have been organising their response. So far, more than 45 university departments have been occupied by their students, following General Assemblies in each of them; many more are due to follow in the next few days.

In Athens, all 9 departments of the Polytechnic (NTUA) are now occupied; the entire Panteion (Social Sciences) University is also occupied, along with some departments of the University of Athens. There are also occupations in Patras, Thessaloniki and Chania (Crete), with the list growing by the hour.

A student demonstration has been called in Athens for Thursday, September 1st.

lifeisliterallylimited:

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli authorities in Jerusalem are to build a parking lot on privately-owned Palestinian land in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of the city, a local resident told Ma’an.

The compound is to be built on 4,000 square meters of land owned by Kamal Ubeidat, who told Ma’an that he has a deed from the Ottoman era proving ownership of the land. 

A warrant signed by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat was posted on the property, Ubeidat said.

The warrant said that following a request by the Shimon Hatsadiq association, the Mayor of Jerusalem had agreed to turn land opposite the tomb into “public parking,” noting that the owners of the property had the right to appeal the decision in court within 60 days. 

The municipality’s decision is illegal, Ubeidat said, adding that he would challenge the decision. 

“Why don’t they grant me a permission to build a parking of my own, when they admit the land is mine?’” He told Ma’an.

“The west bank, The gaza strip. Soon to be parking lots, for American tourists and facisist cops, yeah. Fuck zionism.” Propagandhi prophecy.

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

Uncertainty over who controls Libya, or doubts about whether they enjoy broad support, could potentially undermine the stability of the embattled country. Such instability, being addressed by such an incompetent and fractured group, could not only produce a humanitarian disaster, it could lead to the emergence of new authoritarian government.

But the NATO-led intervention shows in and of itself that the U.S. and European powers perceive vital interests in Libya, including oil and gas supplies. This virtually excludes any sort of “hands off” approach. And the impending political vacuum surely concerns those in Washington and the European Union, for a descent into chaos as was seen in Iraq circa 2006 is a political liability and a costly option.

This makes it extremely unlikely that the U.S. and NATO will simply pat the rebels on the back and wish them good luck in their new Gadhafi-free Libya. Actually, it has been known for some time now that NATO ground troops will eventually be necessary. U.S. Army General Carter Ham, who led the military mission until NATO took over, predicted as much back in April. And U.S. AdmiralSamuel Locklear anticipated back in June that ground troops would probably be necessary after Gadhafi’s fall.

The European powers have expressed no desire to lead a nation building occupation in Libya, and their struggling economies are an excuse to take a back seat, which means America, the world’s military hegemon, will be looked at to do the job. Another U.S.-led NATO occupation in yet another Muslim country in the Middle East would be a disaster and would likely prolong a simmering civil war in Libya for a decade or more.

Furthermore, the costly, broken adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan prove that such interventionist, imperial campaigns are not only deadly, but also expensive. And Libyans surely do not want to be run by foreigners. That sentiment has been coming back to bite America for more than a decade now, at terrible cost to blood and treasure and liberty.

The political and military elites in Washington, though, seem to think it a blessing that American troops, bases, and client states be set up in yet another country. Their hubris, if pursued in Libya, will be yet another piece in the puzzle of America’s ruin.

“On the 27/06/11 Strathclyde University went into occupation over the proposed cuts to four departments; community educacation, geography, music and sociology. These annoucements come in the context of other student courses and servives being affected by Jim McDonalds ruthless campaign. These cuts are a clear ideological attack on the students and staff of this university.

Jim McDonald has continually refused to engagae with student and staff in any meaningful capacity. Management have made a back handed attempt to push through cuts when the majority of the student population are on holiday for the summer therefor highlighting the undemocratic procedures and lack of consulation with students and staff.

The board of management are un-elected and un-representative of the student body.

This occupation wished to oppose all cuts and to highlight the undemocratic procedures being pushed through over and over again by Jim McDonald.

No to course closures
No to staff redundancies.
No to cuts.”

Fair play!
Follow them on twitter @StrathOccupied or on Facebook (linked above)