Glasgow University (Scotland) is Occupied in Solidarity with Gaza

Glasgow University Student Occupation blog, February 9, 2009 - We have now been occupying for nine hours. The dealings with the security have been inconsistent. We have had varying reports as to whether the entire building will be locked down tomorrow. As it is, we are occupying a non-teaching room on the top floor of the computer science building, and it is unlikely that this will disrupt any classes. Therefore any disruption to University life would be the fault of the University itself.

Morale is good. We have been holding regular occupation meetings, and reaching decisions in a democratic manner. Earlier, however, the security were trying to isolate and intimidate members of the group in order to weaken our solidarity. We held strong.

A general history of the occupation: Over the last week we have been collecting petition signatures (which can be accessed in electronic form at the bottom of this post) which on Thursday we handed to University Management to be in turn handed to the Principal. We received a wholly inadequate response to these petitions, and thus decided to enter into occupation and reassess and reassert our demands.

We decided on initial demands, such as freedom of movement, amnesty from repercussions, and access to amenities. We received no response from these. Then we drafted our occupation demands and sent them in e-mail form to the Principal, the Secretary of Court and the Student Representative Council. We received a generic statement from the University management, although it was not issued on University headed paper, nor was it signed. The statement can be read here.

We remain in occupation as it appears the University is unwilling to negotiate at this stage. We will remain in occupation until our demands are met....