An emergency protest was held in Glasgow earlier today against a planned mass deportation of Nigerian asylum seekers, set to take place on a specially charted flight overnight tonight. Among those who have been detained by the UK Border Agency over the past week are three Glasgow-based asylum seekers, including one who has been resident in the UK for nearly 30 years, and John Oguchukwu, a Glasgow University student who has been here for nine years, having come to the UK fleeing religious persecution and torture following the murder of his family in Nigeria. Friends and neighbours of John were among those at today’s demonstration.

The move to deports dozens of asylum seekers from across the UK today comes as part of a crackdown over the past few years, with hundreds deported to Nigeria. This is due to the country being given ‘white list’ status for male asylum seekers by the Home Office, meaning applications are automatically dismissed regardless of whatever evidence is provided. And in their bid to rush as many asylum applicants as possible onto one charter flight, human rights go out the window – in the case of John Oguchukwu, he has ended up on the flight due to a  bureaucratic mix-up which has denied him his right to appeal to the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.

Contrary to the image that the right-wing media have managed to popularise, the fact is that the vast majority of asylum seekers are genuinely fleeing from persecution in their home country. Research has shown that most asylum seekers that arrive in Britain did not even set out with it as their planned destination – the idea that masses of refugees are pouring across the UK’s borders in order to ’scrounge off benefits’ is simply a myth.

Those fleeing persecution and violence deserve our support and should be made welcome, not treated like criminals, rounded up and deported to an uncertain future. Refugees are welcome here!

It’s now less than a month until the return of SSY’s annual summer camp, Camp Secret Squirrel. Over the weekend of Friday 5 – Monday 8 August, we’ll be returning to a scenic hidden location in deepest darkest Galloway for three nights and two days of sunshine, socialism, camping and partying. And, if you’re 26 or under, we want you to come along too!

Check out the facebook event page here, and if you’d like to come you can confirm your place by emailling scottishsocialistyouth@gmail.com

All your CSS questions answered:

How much is it? Despite runaway inflation and rising costs everywhere else, we’re keeping the price the same as last year! It’s the best value weekend you’ll get all summer – £10 unwaged, £15 waged. And that covers nearly everything – travel there and back, the camp activities and workshops, and all your meals! It’s a good idea to bring some extra money though.

How are we getting there? Most of us will be getting a coach from Glasgow city centre, leaving at 6pm on Friday, which will then return from the camp at 11.30am on the Monday morning. If you live more locally, we should be able to arrange to pick you up in Castle Douglas and get you to the site.

What’s happening at the camp? Over the course of the weekend, there’ll be lots of different workshops and activities happening on all sorts of topics. Expect workshops on subjects including the situation internationally and the economic crisis, climate change, feminism, football, drugs, direct action and much more! The full itinerary has still to be finalised though, so if there’s something you think should be covered, or even a workshop you’d like to run yourself, then get in touch via the comments below or send us an email. After a day of workshops and hanging about and maybe even swimming, each night we then throw the legendary CSS party. If you’ve ever camped at a music festival it’s a wee bit like that, but with less arseholes, better tunes and a big campfire!

Hopefully reading this has got you as excited as we are for this year’s camp, and by now you’re surely desperate to attend. Keep checking the blog and the CSS facebook event over the next few weeks for further details, and in the meantime keep the 5-8 August free, or live to regret it for a whole year until the next CSS!

Occupied Strathclyde

Crunch decisions over cuts at both Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities over the past week have yielded mixed results for the anti-cuts movement in the city. With, in particular, Humanities subjects under threat at both universities, a huge amount was at stake.

Since February, when course cuts were revealed at Glasgow University, a mass campaign has been mounted across the city in defence of education, coming off the back of the tuition fees protests late last year. A focus of this has been the Free Hetherington at Glasgow Uni, which enters its 150th day of (near) continuous occupation this Thursday, although a large-scale campaign has also been mounted across the city at Strathclyde which has similarly hit national headlines.

Demo at Glasgow Uni last week

At Glasgow, staff, student and external pressure was able to achieve a massive climbdown from management, who had initially proposed slashing nursing, adult education, anthropology and nearly all modern language teaching. All are now saved – or have at least gained reprieves – although last Wednesday’s vote will see Slavonic studies, the Centre for Drug Misuse Research and humanities courses at the university’s Dumfries campus go. Following a decision yesterday, Strathclyde is set to lose music, geography, sociology and community education, in line with Principal Jim McDonald’s vision of transforming the university into a ‘centre of technical excellence’ on par with MIT. In reality, this is of course a neo-liberal realignment of the university towards profitable, business friendly research, being achieved under a smokescreen of austerity savings. At Glasgow, the equally unaccountable, and equally contemptible, Principal Muscatelli has even stated, having last year fear-mongered about the ‘university going bust within four years’, that the cuts are not – after all – about financial necessity, but purely ’strategic’. Which does help explain the huge surplus the university recently announced.

Ahead of the court meeting at Strathclyde, students and anti-cuts activists entered into occupation on Monday morning. Although an attempt to seize the senate suite, in which the actual vote would be taking place the following day, was foiled by security, the soon to be closure-hit Sociology and Geography floor of the Graham Hills building was occupied overnight, with a packed public meeting taking place in the evening, which heard from local trade union activists and community campaigners. Early the following morning a picket was then held as the University Court met, with the occupation coming to an end.

The battle is far from over, and nor will these be the last cuts that Muscatelli, McDonald and their counterparts across the country attempt to force through. Over the past few months, Glasgow Uni in particular has witnessed the emergence of a mass movement against the cuts, with upwards of 2000 joining a march on the uni court in February, and hundreds rallying to the occupation following the well-documented eviction attempt in March. The new term presents real opportunities for continuing to build and strengthen this movement against cuts and fees, as part of the wider fight across society against capitalist austerity.

Next Thursday will see up to 750,000 public sector workers walking out on strike over pension cuts, in perhaps the largest direct confrontation with the government’s austerity agenda seen yet. Nearly 300,000 civil servants who’re members of the PCS will be joined by education workers in the NUT, UCU and ATL unions. It comes at the same time as some of the larger unions, like Unison, the GMB and Unite, are beginning to talk about a serious campaign of co-ordinated strike action later in the year. However, in Scotland the PCS will be striking alone next week, with teachers here having narrowly rejected action after union leaders outrageously urged their members to accept a serious attack on pay and conditions.

So while next Thursday is not going to be a General Strike on the same scale as we’ve seen across Europe over the past year or so, it still represents a key date in building the movement against the Coalition’s attacks, and its success may be crucial in it providing a springboard to wider action later in the year.

There’s lots you can do to support the strike next week – even if you’re not in the PCS and not going on strike!

• JOIN THE PICKET LINES: There will be picket lines in every city in Scotland and many towns as well – with job centres, benefits, passport, customs and excise and tax offices all out. Why not find out where your nearest picket line is and go and offer your solidarity? UK Uncut have made a national call-out for people to take along breakfast to their local pickets – and there’s a list of actions on their website. Join one or make your own! See also j30strike.org
• JOIN THE NATIONAL RALLY: A Scotland-wide rally has been called for George Square, Glasgow at 12 noon.
• TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS: the government and the right-wing media have already started a campaign of slander and lies against the strikes and the unions involved. Today’s Daily Mail frontpage led with a huge attack on the National Union of Teachers, while all the main parties, including the SNP and Labour, have come out and attacked the strikes. It’s all our responsibility to counter this with the real reasons for the strike – which is about protecting jobs, public services and the right to a decent pension.

500,000 marched, but what now?

A ‘Coalition of Resistance’ is set to get off the ground in Glasgow over the next few weeks, with a view to bringing together the various strands of the anti-cuts movement in the city. SSY has been involved in initiating the group, as one of the signatories to an open letter, an edited version of which was published in the Sunday Herald this week.

An initial organising meeting is set to be held this Thursday evening, at 7pm in the STUC offices on Woodlands Road. It is hoped that COR will develop into a regular cross-city forum, which can play an important role in organising and mobilising resistance to austerity and cuts over the coming period. If we’re to see anything like the kind of resistance which has swept parts of Europe recently, having such organisations – with a broad base in the workers and students movement – will be vital. With the student movement in the UK, we’ve already seen flashes of this – over November and early December last year, an intense period of struggle saw near weekly mass demonstrations in most cities, and student assemblies springing up across the country.

The time is now ripe for broadening the struggle to unite workers, students, claimants, pensioners and all other suffering the attacks of the ruling class. The government are already running scared: just yesterday, Business Secretary Vince Cable wheeled out threats of making the anti-trade union laws even harsher, in a speech to the GMB union’s conference. Today, the GMB responded by promising “the biggest civil disobedience campaign Cameron and Clegg’s tiny little minds have dreamt of” if any attempt is made to change the strike laws.

Nonetheless, there’s been a lot of frustration recently at the apparent unwillingness of the TUC, and the large public sector unions, to really take on the government. Yes, upwards of 500,000 may have marched on March 26th, but since then, not a great deal has been forthcoming, particularly in the context of the fighting talk at last September’s TUC Congress. Things may begin to change on June 30th, when hundreds of thousands of government workers in the PCS union are set to strike over pensions. In England, teachers from the NUT and ATL unions are expected to join, while the UCU lecturers’ union are currently deliberating on the matter too, meaning up to 700,000 workers could be on strike across the UK on the day. This is an important first step, and there’s talk of further action in the Autumn, when larger unions like Unison, the GMB and Unite may also join in. However, if stopping the austerity programme by toppling the Coalition government is the aim – which it surely must be – then a 24 hour public sector co-ordinated strike sometime in the Autumn will simply not be enough. In Greece, the trade unions confederations have now organised over ten 24 hour general strikes coupled with mass demonstrations, yet the IMF imposed austerity programme continues unabated. In France last year, a series of mass demonstrations and strikes in key sectors of the economy brought the country to a virtual standstill, nearly bringing Sarkozy’s government to its knees. Yet the movement ultimately failed, with the pension reform passing. In Britain, we can’t even get a general strike on the go, so what the hell kind of hope do we have?

The movement needs to broaden out and radicalise. It needs to be embedded in every community and workplace for a mass campaign of defiance and resistance to the cuts. The organisations of the traditional left do have a key role to play in this – the weight of the trade union movement in the UK is still considerable, representing 6.5 million members and the old adage rings true: while 1000 striking students can bring a train to a standstill, a 1000 striking railway workers can bring a whole country to a standstill.  But it would be foolish to rest everything on the ability of the public sector trade unions to bring down the government. The majority of people, and particularly young people, are no longer organised in a union, and ways must be found around this. One notable aspect about the recent mass anti-austerity demonstrations that have swept Spain has been a conscious rejection of the traditional organs of the left. Spontaneous in nature and largely organised online, the mass protests and assemblies have not relied on left political parties nor trade unions, although undoubtedly both have played some role. The labour movement does appear to be increasingly coming to recognise the need for a fight that extends beyond the workplace – indeed, figures like Unite’s Len McLuskey have spoken openly on the need to extend the fight across society.

In Scotland, we’re obviously also in a unique situation when it comes to fighting the cuts, with a pro-independence majority now in Holyrood. The SNP have no real solutions though, and although blaming Westminster for reducations in their block grant, will nonetheless be forced to implement huge cuts. Post-independence, the SNP strategy of slashing corporation tax and reliance on oil revenue is not a sustainable basis on which to build a country in which “the poor won’t be made to pick up the bill for the rich” and where “the profit from the land shall go to all”, as Alex Salmond promised to the Scottish Parliament recently. These contradictions will become more and more exposed over the next couple of years.

In the meantime, we need to build the kind of organisations that people will look to as the cuts begin to bite. SSY is hopeful that a Coalition of Resistance group in Glasgow can be a useful tool in aiding this struggle, in uniting organised workers with students, the unemployed and the unorganised, and we urge people to get along to the open planning meeting this Thursday, with the aims of immediately building solidarity with those striking on June 30th, and building the resistance from there.

Today saw around 200 mostly young people take to the streets of Glasgow against victim blaming and recent political discourse surrounding the issue of rape, as Slutwalk arrived in Scotland for the first time. The Slutwalk phenomenon began in April this year in Toronto, following remarks made by a senior police officer that women should ‘avoid dressing like sluts’ in order not to be sexually harassed or assaulted. The movement rapidly went global, as women across the world began organising marches both in solidarity with those in Canada, and against a culture of victim blaming which is far from a problem confined to one police officer or one city.

Organised largely via facebook, the march gathered in George Square and took a route to Glasgow Green. Unfortunately, the police had denied the organisers their planned route through the city centre, but given the short notice at which the march had been organised, it was felt necessary to go along with the police’s instructions.

Despite this minor hiccup, the march was a great success, attracting a huge amount of media attention and providing a vital reminder that – as the chant rang out – however we dress, wherever we go, yes means yes and no means no.

The occupied senate building

**EDIT** As of last night, the Hetherington occupation is back on as senior management offered us back the building in exchange for giving them back their beloved senate headquarters! This rendered the whole police and security operation yesterday entirely useless! As of this morning, people are being targetted by the police and re-arrested, information here **END OF EDIT**

At 10.30 this morning, university security entered the Free Hetherington at Glasgow University, just two hours before it celebrated its 7 week anniversary of being in occupation. What should’ve been a quiet morning at the space – with students and staff dropping in for cups of tea, coffee and lunch between lectures – rapidly turned into a mass confrontation between security, the police and hundreds of students and supporters,  as plans to evict the occupation became clear.

Entering the building under false pretences of  a health and safety check-up (as they’ve been allowed to before, given that relations with campus security have generally been very positive up until today), more security quickly entered and police back-up was called in, with a helicopter scrambled to the scene. As more students began to arrive to show support, the front  steps were taken – with the police then resorting to handcuffing students in an attempt to remove them from the doorway. More supporters and onlookers continued to arrive, as did the police – in the end over 80 officers and 20 vehicles attended, alongside the constantly circling helicopter.

With just a handful of occupiers in the building at the time, people on the outside made an attempt to gain access through a fire exit from an adjacent building. They were stopped by uni security, who assaulted a number of students – including one who later had to leave in an ambulance after suffering concussion from a head injury. The police then intervened and arrested a number of people. However, with hundreds now gathered outside, they refused to let anyone leave the building and those arrested were held inside, including the person suffering concussion. This also had the effect of holding entire classes of students hostage, as well as those in offices and computer labs.

Around 1pm, the police entered the Free Hetherington in numbers and dragged the remaining occupiers out by force. Hundreds remained outside, with the stand-off next door, at 11 University Gardens, continuing. This came to an end around an hour later – with those who’d been arrested, with the exception of the person who had already left in an ambulance, now being told that they were apparently not arrested after all! Clearly the police were trying to diffuse an increasingly volatile situation.

Both this, and the eviction in general, spectacularly backfired. Students and supporters outside the Free Hetherington then blocked the road, preventing two police vans from  passing by. To chants of ‘who’s kettled now?’, two police vans were forced to reverse out of University Gardens. Around 300 students then broke off and marched to the university main building.  From here, the doors to uni’s head offices were broken down and several of the key rooms at the uni – including the Senate – occupied. This is currently ongoing, with freedom of access.

Glasgow University is at the forefront of a battle over the future of education. Management have consistently ignored the university’s own democratic bodies, including the Senate, pressing ahead with their corporate, business-oriented vision of what education should be. Principal Muscatelli and his senior management team must go. The battle continues.

'Students support UCU strike'

Academic staff at over 60 universities across the UK are set to take strike action over the next two weeks. Next Thursday 17 March will see the first day of action, with members of the UCU union at seven Scottish universities walking out. This will be followed by consecutive days of action in Wales, Northern Ireland and England, before a national strike on Thursday 24 March. The action is being taken over proposed changes to pensions, and comes after universities refused to engage in negotiations with the union.

The ballot comes at a key time for the wider trade union movement, coinciding with both the latest round of cuts in the budget on 23 March, and the national anti-cuts demonstration on Saturday 26 March, which will see hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets in London, in the largest display of opposition to the government’s austerity programme so far. Just this week, it was revealed that public sector unions are looking at the possibility of co-ordinated strike action over the summer, again over pensions.

Pensions are in reality one of the few issues that co-ordinated industrial action can be taken around; political strikes are banned under the anti-trade union laws, meaning that strikes against government policy in general are effectively illegal. However, by taking co-ordinated action around specific workplace issues – in this public sector pensions –  it’s basically the closest thing we can have to a general strike, without getting into the realm of illegality.

At Glasgow University, the strike has taken on added significance, with the university emerging over the past month at the forefront of the struggle over the future of education itself, pitting a dictatorial, business-minded senior management against both academics and the student body. At the beginning of February, management revealed £3 million of cuts, including proposals to scrap a number of courses entirely, including nursing, social work, several modern languages and the whole Department of Adult and Continuing Education. Under the cover of ‘budget restraint’ and an ‘unsustainable deficit’, it represents a wholesale neo-liberal restructuring of the university, spearheaded by free market zealot Principal Muscatelli and his henchmen: head of finance Bob ‘the eraser’ Fraser and master of intrigue David Newall (collectively known as the Three Muscatellis. Hohoho). All receive six figure salaries; Muscatelli earns £280k per annum.

The war against unaccountable managerialism is being waged on several fronts: The Herald runs near-daily stories detailing the ‘despair and demoralisation’ at the university, huge protest marches have been held, and staff have called an emergency meeting of the university senate – the first in over a century – in order to present their concerns to management. The occupation of the Free Hetherington is also going strong after over five weeks, and continues to be at the heart of the anti-cuts struggle on campus. Next week, the battle will enter a new phase with UCU strike action.

Onwards to the spring of discontent.

The occupation of the Hetherington Research Club at Glasgow University entered its third day today, and continues to go from strength to strength.

The club is now a fully functioning social and educational space, with an ever-expanding schedule of meetings, film showings, discussion groups, workshops and more.

Yesterday, the occupation was privileged to get a visit from Iraq veteran and US anti-war activist Mike Prysner, who packed out the top floor of the building in the afternoon for his talk. Mike spoke about how he’d joined the army believing it to a force for good, but how his experiences in Iraq had rapidly led him to realise the true role of the military in the country, with his unit despatched to protect oil wells and corporate interests, much less help the Iraqi people. Now an organiser with March Forward!, Mike agitates and organises among US soldiers. We also heard from Hasan Nowarah, a Palestinian human rights activist who was on board the aid-ship convoy attacked by Israeli commandos last May.

Today the occupation really came into its own. As word spreads around campus, and across the city, that the Hetherington is re-open, more and more people, staff, students and well-wishers, are dropping by. Some are just curious, some are after the free tea and coffee we’re offering, others are keen to find a quiet place to study. The Free Hetherington has already become an important part of the uni, and long may it thrive!

A full list of events is available on a calendar here, and check out the facebook page for regular updates of what’s happening.