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Was Yesterday the Start of a Summer of Student Fury?

I went along to Sussex University to watch people smash and burn things and clash with police.

Yesterday, in scenes which evoked memories of the demolition of Tory HQ by angry students in 2010, over 1,500 demonstrators marched at Sussex University to protest against large-scale privatisation at the campus. The management at Sussex plans to outsource 235 campus jobs to the private sector, which the demonstrators argue risks damaging pension schemes, job security and pay and work conditions.

Busloads of students, political activists and members of various anti-cuts organisations made their way along to the campus from all over the UK to support a protest that had been billed on Facebook and posters in SUs nationwide as the "National Demo at Sussex". They joined with Sussex students and staff, some of whom have been occupying a building since February 7th to protest against the university management’s unilateral decision to outsource almost 100 percent of non-teaching services.

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The atmosphere were pretty tense across the campus from the start. Everyone was talking in rather grand terms about launching something called "Operation Tarantula". What does an Operation Tarantula look like? Well, a bunch of student demonstrators sitting around in cafes and shops, which doesn't sound too different to Operation Every Other Day On Campus, but their occupations prompted the university management to shut down every other retail outlet on the site. The protesters celebrated this success by scaling buildings, from which they unfurled banners and brandished smoke bombs and lit flares at the sky in what looked like an urban guerrilla training exercise, just one that was happening on a cold Monday morning in Sussex.

At 1PM, people amassed in the central square of the University for a rally before marching. The all too familiar line-up of old school Trade Unionists, student activists and members of national and local campaigns spoke to a crowd who seemed like they would have preferred to just get moving. Katy Clark, Labour MP for North Ayrshire and Arran, was booed as she spoke by sections of the crowd who didn’t seem to care too much for Labour MPs coming down to complain about privatisation.

But perhaps most notably, the establishment of a Pop-Up Union was announced by Greg Paterson, one worker set to be affected by the planned privatisation. Tired by the inaction of established trade unions and limited by the fact that many are non-unionised, workers have found a loophole in UK labour law and established a new type of trade union specifically to oppose privatisation on the Sussex campus. It might not sound like much to you now, but if the format of the pop-up union can be replicated, it could be rolled out by striking workers across all sectors, and you might end up hearing people saying the phrase on the news all the time, like "kettling".

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Once the speeches were over with, the Sussex campus was transformed into the site of a huge moving demo. Sound systems blared, people chanted, fireworks went off and the crowd surged through the narrow passes, being careful not to tread on the daffodils. An Italian-style "book bloc" was on hand, which involved shields made out of wood, with covers of intellectual tomes drawn on the front, reinforcing the idea that, as many had expected, we were due a confrontation with the police.

As the demonstration meandered through the university, it gradually approached Sussex House, the administrative hub of the university. Sussex’s Millbank moment was fast approaching, but rather than Tory HQ, this was Management’s HQ.

The crowd grew outside and rolled out angry anti-management chants like "The only redundancy we want to see, is Michael Farthing, Sussex VC!" Locked doors hindered efforts to occupy the building for about 15 minutes until the doors were smashed down and a swell of people rushed in.

Riot police were quick to respond. A line of police tried to make their way into the building but the crowd pushed them back out after about half an hour of struggle. Industrial bins and furniture were used to barricade exits, preventing security and police making their way in from the back, and folders burned outside containing managerial documents. I'm not sure if burning documents is a great look for protesting students, but it's fair to say it shows just how pissed off some people are.

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After an hour or so of people being slightly unsure of what to do next, the protest decided to abandon its spoils; seemingly happy with the symbolic victory their day's work had brought them.

Everyone made their way to the other side of the campus, occupying another building. By that point, the adrenalin rush was wearing thin. The day slowed to a weary finish with hundreds slumped in a newly occupied conference hall listening to delegates from over 20 different universities report on local campaigns around the UK while trying to agree on future days of national protest.

One undergraduate student from Manchester University hailed the day’s events as "the rebirth of the student movement", calling for more large-scale demonstrations. However, some were sceptical, speaking of how the huge tuition-fee student demonstrations did not achieve their set aims. “Local, gritty and often unromantic community organisation rather than media-grabbing battles in Whitehall is the way to go,” said one International Relations student from UCL, who asked not to be named.

Other times students have protested about stuff:

WATCH - Teenage Riot

London's 2012 Student Demo Was a Washout

Total Policing Makes Student Protests Totally Boring

A Day at the Riots - Gatecrashing Tory HQ

More Student Protests