LSE's rebels were in good company. Flickr/Laurence Horton. Some rights reserved.
Universities are winding down for the summer break after a year of growing student activism which holds the promise of much more dramatic developments in the year ahead. Below the radar of the mass media there has been a little noticed explosion of occupations this past year. In London alone there were five occupations going on during April, inspired by a full scale take-over of university space on campuses across Holland and rumblings in Chile, Canada and the U.S.
Bottom up student activism has been steadily increasing on a wide range of fronts against the ever advancing juggernaut of the neo-liberalisation “reform” of the university system – whether that be growing inequality of pay, rising fees, causalisation, or monitoring and surveillance. All these developments have been incrementally edging forward for a number of years and are expected to continue apace under the new Tory government. What is less acknowledged is that a tipping point of mass resistance is being approached within the university sector.
