This is the blog of the Roscoe Building Occupation, by students of all three Manchester universities, some college students and non-students. We’ve been here since 3pm on Wednesday and intend to stay indefinitely.
Facebook event for Thursday 9th: http://www.tinyurl.com/manchestergoestolondon
Up to the minute updates on our situation.
Email us on manunioccupation2010@gmail.com
roscoe.pycsessions.com is another great resource with pictures of the protests as well as reports of its own.
Roscoe Occupation 
Hey, I’m writing from the Cambridge Occupation, I heard you were having a much tougher time than us (plus you’ve been there 2 days longer…) so just wanted to say WELL DONE! Love, and Solidarity Xxx
Hang in there Manchester! Remember this was the only option.
Yours in struggle.
Ria
Dear friends
As a father of a teenage son facing up to £9,000 in tuition fees if my lad makes it to Uni and a resident of Saddleworth I would be happy to give you assistance in any campaigning you might wish to do on tuition fees during the probable by-election up here in Oldham East & Saddleworth.
Regards
Cllr Ken Hulme
Independent Saddleworth Parish Councillor
28 Sevenacres
Delph OL3 5HU
01457 872859
Solidarity with you all. Your stance makes me proud of the radical spirit still very much alive in Manchester. Long may it continue!
Amir
Big Society Awards Nomination
Wednesday, 1 December, 2010 11:08
From:
“no-reply@cabinetoffice.gov.uk”
Add sender to Contacts
To:
Thank you for your nomination,
The nominations for the Big Society awards are considered on a quarterly basis and the next Panel meeting will be in the week commencing January 10th
You do not need to contact us before that time and, whatever the outcome of the Panel meeting, we will notify you
Over the coming weeks the Awards website will provide further details on the composition of the Awards Panel and the assessment process used
University Education isnt a right. Its a privilige. And those who want this privilige are goign to have to pay for it. In this time of austerity everyone has to be united. Students have to take their share of the burden the last Labour Government left us with. Each department has to take their share too. It may seem unfair, however in reality the only option. The whole debate over tuition fees seems to have been blown up by a massive misreprensentation by the NUS, who seem to think that their is only one side of the coin. Aren’t they supposed to represent ALL their members? It appears their leade Aaron Porter, Labour supporting, is inserting his own personnel manifesto onto the NUS. The fact is this wont affect any students day to day, it is likely that 99% of students never see their tuition fee money. The amount may of gone up but the subsequent loan that comes along with tuition fees is going up too. All these misconecptions that, “I cant afford to go to Unversitiy any more” just dont add up. You may come out with a bigger debt but you dont have to pay it back until your earning a set amount, and if you become unemployed you stop having to pay it back until you find more employment. The interest rate that comes along with this loan is well below your average loan, in fact, I’d say this is the best loan you could ever take.
For me (and, I think, the vast majority of protesters), the real issue is not whether the loan aspect of the deal includes good terms and conditions, but whether the proposed regime will put-off more young people from going into higher education. I know that it would have put me off, and the same applies to all of the other graduates in my family. (We all have working class backgrounds and we’ve all studied at Oxbridge or obtained 1st Class degrees.) In a moment of madness, I believe that Clegg has even admitted that this would be the case for a great many people! Everyone deserves the opportunity to both study what they want to study and study where they want to study. In this respect, the coalition’s plans are not ‘progressive’ (whatever that now means!) and they do not promote equality of opportunity.
I very much hope that the occupation of UofM’s Roscoe Building will continue up until 9 December and even beyond that date, if necessary. ‘Solidarity’ is the word that we must all live by.
University of Bristol has now been occupied as well!
Love and solidarity from all those involved
http://bristoluniresistance.org.
Saying I am proud of you all doesn’t begin to cut it. (ha, untentional pun) You’re all amazing.
Keep Manchester proud!
J
Dear Roscoe-occupiers
We from zurich send you all the best for your
struggle, we know how hard it can be: last
year we kept occupying the biggest hall of our
university during two weeks.
It was a great time, we sampled new forms of
communication and resistance, so will you!
global resistance against global cuts!
everything for everyone!
from zurich with love and rage!
students from zurich
solidarity-action at university of zurich, 1/12/2010
http://postimage.org/image/2ywoiqsec/
I’m a year 10 student, but my mum works at Manchester Uni so she’s told me all about you.
I really rate you for what you’ve been doing for us and I think it’s fantastic. I’m trying to get people at school to do what you did; attend all of our classes but boycott GCSE and A Level tests and exams in protest of the raising of tuition fees. Any advice you could give us?
Once again, thank you so much and don’t lose heart 🙂
xxx
go Manchester students!!
University of Bradford Occupation representing in solidarity with Manchester.
See you on the streets!