Stop the cuts at South Bank: New Term, New Action

Welcome back to all our activist!

The fight against the austerity measures is not over! The tuition fees increase and the loss of EMA were massive blows to education across England. However, our battle is not over.

In the next couple of months we are going to see the fight reignite with demonstrations on the 9th Nov and 30th Nov.

Defend LSBU! Defend our Education! invites you to come and have your say in how south bank should support these demonstrations and how going forward we fight to stop the cuts at south bank.

The meeting is booked for THURSDAY 6TH OCTOBER at 5PM in K205 or check out our facebook event https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=284994441528628

See you all there!

Vote Defend LSBU!

Vote Jonathan Dodds for President!

Voting opens this Monday 28th Feb, until Friday 4th March, and will take place on the SU website.

My name is Jonathan Dodds and I am running for President of the Students’ Union. I am part of the ‘Defend LSBU! Defend our Education!’ campaign which is fighting the cuts on campus, including the closure of the Language Centre, cuts to student support services and the scrapping of the emergency loan system.

University management has shown their commitment to slashing services and the quality of our education, and has recently announced their desire to increase student fees to above £7000 as well as further cuts to services and jobs amounting to £5.3million, which can only serve to add to the destruction of education at LSBU.

We need a strong, campaigning and democratic Students’ Union which will fight on behalf of students. We also demand a new Students’ Union building. We oppose the universities plans for a ‘student centre’, and insist on a fully independent building including a bar, social spaces, sports and societies storage, meeting rooms and advice services.

• No fees, no cuts, no job losses, save our education! Fight for an education for all
• Celebrate and defend diversity – oppose fascism, racism and Islamophobia
• Supporting liberation – end sexism, homophobia, transphobia, disablism and all bigotry

Vote Nicole Lucas for VP Welfare!

Voting opens this Monday 28th Feb, until Friday 4th March, and will take place on the SU website.

Hi I’m Nicole, an undergraduate student, president of the Criminology Society and applying for the role of VP Welfare and Student Rights officer.

Being a single parent, I truly understand the struggles that students are facing, especially as the coalition government is set on attacking the public sector, welfare and education. I am very passionate about our rights as students to democracy and representation. I am part of the ‘Defend LSBU! Defend our Education!’ campaign which is fighting to keep vital services on campus such as the Emergency Loan System, LLU+ and the Language Centre.

My key motivations for applying for the role of VP Welfare officer is to really make a difference to the student experience at South Bank University by ensuring the student union is a fighting democratic body which will fight the cuts on behalf of students especially those with children, disabilities or low incomes.

Manifesto Aims:

1. Defend Education by fighting to retain our widening participation status: Say NO to a two-tiered education system and £7,000+ fees
2. Fight for a student union which represents LSBU students and defending the services the student union provides: Say NO to a student centre.
3. Celebrate the universities diversity and culture: Say NO to all discrimination
4. To empower and represent all LSBU students by developing a greater support network and increasing widening participation: Say NO to marginalisation

LSBU Students’ Union elections!

Two of our members are standing in the upcoming Students’ Union elections. Jonathan Dodds is standing for President, and Nicole Lucas is standing for Vice-President Welfare. You can see their manifestos on Facebook now. Please click ‘like’, and tell all your friends!

Visit the page for Jonathan Dodds here.

Visit the page for Nicole Lucas here.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Defend LSBU! Defend our Education!

We hoped you’re all rested, because it’s going to be a mammoth year in our fight to keep higher and further education for the masses. Most people don’t want this government’s cuts and neither do they believe they are necessary. As the coalition becomes increasingly unpopular, cracks will start to appear. Our determination can fracture this government until it crumbles: we’re all in it together!

We will shortly be launching a new campaign on campus, which we’re very excited about. There’s also plenty of activity behind the scenes in planning for forthcoming demonstrations as part of the wider student movement.

So, while you wait, please make sure you’re aaware of the following:

Wednesday 19th January: March on Parliament to save EMA. Assemble 4pm Piccadilly Circus.

Wednesday 26th January: Day of Action – student strike to Save EMA. Assemble 12pm Trafalgar Square.

Saturday 29th January: National demonstrations in London and Manchester against the education cuts. Details TBC on assembly point.

Also our local anti-cuts group, Southwark Save Our Services, also has some important events coming up: http://southwarksaveourservices.blogspot.com/

Monday 17th January: 11am-8pm, Teach-In at Thomas Calton Adult Learning Centre, Alpha St, Peckham SE15 4NX. See the value of Adult Education and resist the cuts in this area as part of the wider assault on education by the ConDem government.

Tuesday 25th January: From 3pm, lobby outside Southwark Town Hall,  Peckham Road, Peckham SE5 8UB. This is the day our local council votes through the massive cuts imposed by coalition. This is the future of the people of Southwark is sold up the river. We need a decent loud demo outside!

P.S. For those of you requiring reassurance about people power, just look at what’s happening in Tunisia at the moment…

To all south London universities, colleges, schools and workplaces: Rally and march from LSBU on Day X!

First we share excellent news that our near neighbours, Camberwell College of Arts, have gone into occupation in their Wilson Road campus! Merry Christmas Camberwell Anticuts – our solidarity to you! This week will be momentous and we hope the numbers on the street saying no to this government and its ideological austerity will far outstrip those on the original student/lecturer demo of 10^th November.

Day ‘X’ – this Thursday, 9^th December.

‘Day X’ – as this Thursday has been christened – is the day when Parliament will vote on increasing tuition fees to £9,000. If approved this will be the final nail in the coffin for the principle that education should be a right not a priviledge.

WE CALL OUT TO ALL south London universities, schools, colleges and workplaces to join us for a rally and feeder march from LSBU.

Assemble at Keyworth Street, 11am, Thursday 9^th December – we have a sound system coming!

 

Before Day ‘X’ – this Wednesday, 8^th December.

1. Event: South London universities, schools and colleges united for Day X!

Location and time: meet Camberwell College of Arts, Wilson Road, Camberwell, 2pm, Wednesday 8^th December

Camberwell College of Arts, LSBU, LCC, Goldsmiths and LSE appeal for south London students to come to the occupied Camberwell Collge Wilson Road campus at 2pm. This is to leaflet local schools and colleges in Southwark! We appeal to LSBU students to go down and help out. This is an opportunity to engage young people in how this government is selling out their future and to build links with the local community.

Please call Bishal for further information (07886 177076).

2. Event:  LSBU Student and Worker anti cuts assembly

Location and time: Borough Road Building B230, LSBU – 4-6pm, Wednesday 8^th December.

The meeting will be chaired by one of the students involved with Defend LSBU! Defend our Education! occupation. We will have guest speakers from the occupying universities (Camberwell College and LSE), a student who been arrested and a school student. It will be a creative meeting where we will create banners and placards for the demo on Thursday. Come and invite as many people as possible because this will be a great occasion to strength the links between the students and workers campaigns.

3. Event: Defend LSBU! Defend our Education! social and fundraiser

Location and time: LSBU Students’ Union, Thomas Doyle Street – 6pm-8pm, Wednesday 8^th December.

Relax before the big day and chip in some much needed money for our campaign (please!)

Occupation over!

After 51 hours of occupation, London South Bank University management agreed to our demands. The occupation of the Language Centre ended with a march to the management building alongside comrades from the NUJ, SWP, Southwark Save our Services, UCU, Unite and others, where we celebrated our victory.

This is by no means the end of the fight back at LSBU. We now need to coordinate to make sure that management stick to their demands, and to ensure that attacks on students and staff end. We will also be organising to fight back within the national movement, against vicious and swingeing cuts to education and public services.

Thank you to all who helped and offered support. We will put out a full statement shortly.

Defend LSBU! Defend our Education!

Defend LSBU! Defend our Education! student & solidarity rally

We will be holding a rally today, outside the Learning Resources Centre, the building which houses the occupied Language Centre today. After the latest response from the University, this is a chance for all students, staff and supporters to meet to celebrate our latest demands being met.

2.15pm, outside the Learning Resources Centre, Borough Road, SE1

We will be joined by trade unionists and local University Anti-Cuts groups.

Latest statment from the university

Response to the ‘Defend LSBU’ Group:

Many thanks for your recent statement, we are pleased that you ‘appreciate the opening of communications between management and Defend LSBU’ and reiterate that we have always been open to such communication.

We are happy to acknowledge that the issues surrounding your meeting on the 17^th November could have been better handled, on both sides. The actions of our security staff were not taken in order to prevent you legitimately discussing your opinions; they were taken because the room you were occupying had been booked by another area of the university (the Centre of Learning Support and Development) and was thus not available for that meeting. If you would please co-ordinate with the University in the future, I assure you that we will do our best to accommodate your needs.

We have already committed to establishing a fund to support students with emergency needs during the beginning of the next academic year. Through the Confucius Institute, we can provide study of Mandarin as an option for all students and we are quite happy to look into identifying alternative opportunities for students for students to engage in second-language studies alongside their degrees.

We would be pleased to arrange a meeting between all interested students of LSBU, the Vice Chancellor and myself, to discuss your concerns and to try and present a straightforward account of our strategic approach to the future issues of funding. Rest assured that we are equally concerned to be able to ‘defend LSBU’ in terms of ensuring that our students receive the best possible experience now, and in the future. We have to achieve this within the constraints placed upon all of us within the current financial climate, but remains our constant wish to drive up the quality of all we do within LSBU.

If we might suggest, it would seem best to arrange a meeting during next week, so that we can find an appropriate venue and enable as many students as wish to attend? (the Vice Chancellor is, in any case, not on site today). Can I suggest we go ahead with the organisation and let you know at time and place as soon as possible; we will, obviously, extend the invitation as widely as possible (including the Students’ Union in our invitation).

In the mean time, an without wishing to exert any undue pressure upon your group, we would be grateful to have some idea of your continuing plans. If your protest is to continue throughout the weekend, then we will need to adjust our security staff levels in other areas (to maintain the security and safety of your location) and this will mean curtailing opening hours in other areas. We do not present this situation to you as any kind of threat, it simply relates the situation that exist. We would appreciate an answer (you should feel free to email me) by 12pm, if possible, as we need to make preparations.

Dr Phil Cardew BA PhD FRSA

Pro Vice Chancellor (Academic)