Oxford University Student Union - Protests and Occupations

Protests and Occupations

Shortly before the formation of OUSU in 1974, agitation commenced within certain sections of the student body for a Central Students Union building by the Student Representative Council, forerunner of OUSU. The University feared that the existence of such facilities would be used for the promotion of student activism. In 1972, during the miners strike, students had offered their rooms to miners picketing Didcot Power Station and had supported staff who went on strike at St Anne's College.

On 5 November 1973, an open meeting called for direct action against the University on the issue of a Central Students Union building. Later that day 350 students marched to the Examination Schools and commenced a sit in, which lasted seven days. The University Registrar, Geoffrey Caston, sent an open letter to all Junior Members threatening proceedings in the High Court and disciplinary action against those who could be identified. The occupation was ended by students themselves after the University obtained a writ of possession.

OUSU was recognised by the University in early January 1974, and a meeting was held on 29 January with the Vice Chancellor and others. The Vice Chancellor, John Habakkuk, made it clear that the University was facing deep cuts and there was no money for a CSU project. OUSU asked for a general statement that the University was not opposed in principle to central student facilities. The University refused on the grounds that Congregation was not favourably disposed to making general statements of intent.

The University was expecting a second occupation and contingency plans were drawn up. The Bursar of St Johns College wrote to the President of the Junior Common Room on 11 February noting, 'all the talk that is going on at the present time about occupation'., and stating that in future the Bursary would be kept locked. It was reported that over £9,000 worth of damage had ben done to the Examination Schools during the occupation the previous November. On 7 February An Extraordinary OUSU Council Meeting was held. Sue Lukes, David Aaronovitch and others attempted to defeat a motion stating that it was the position of OUSU not to support any occupation of University premises in furtherance of the CSU campaign. When this motion was put, Lukes and Aaronovitch resigned, the former making a speech condemning Council in its entirety. "Pushing and shoving' began, with Mike Sullivan pointing out to Lukes that there was such a thing as left wing fascism. The meeting broke up in a shambles.

The following day, an anonymous flyer was circulated, headed 'Remember the 5th of November', it gave warning to the University that 'You have had three months and your time is up. Negotiations have failed, talking has failed, OUSU has failed. Come to the Open Meeting on Monday night in the Union Hall. And don't forget your sleeping bag!'

At 9.15am on Wednesday 13 February approximately 50 or 60 students entered the Indian Institute building in Catte Street shouting that they were occupying it and demanding that the people working there should leave. The 22 staff inside stayed at their desks while the students milled around after first closing the doors. What happened next was the subject of bitter dispute. The University claimed that at around 11.30am, about 50 volunteers, 'relatively elderly gentlemen' working in the Clarendon Building decided out of concern for their colleagues to enter the building. A secretary let them in through a rear window, and once inside they confronted the intruders, who having made a show of resisting, left in groups through the front door. The spokesman for the University insisted there was no violence, although it was conceded that there was some scrummaging and, 'ears may have been twisted'.

Those supporting the occupiers claimed that the University had set the Oxford University Police upon them who, goaded on by the Proctors, perpetrated acts of violence against the students, and encouraged the police, who were outside, to wade in also. The supporters of the occupiers asserted it was a 'pre-planned and ugly piece of violence'. It was alleged that at least one of the 'relatively elderly gentlemen' was in fact a serving police officer out of uniform, who was identified at a subsequent demonstration.

The University identified those it believed to have been the ringleaders and moved swiftly against them. Eighteen students were charged with an offence under the University Statutes and were required to attend at the Proctor's Office in cap and gown on 21 February under threat of being rusticated if they did not appear. The eighteen included Sue Lukes and another student from Somerville College, three from Magdalen and two each from Pembroke, St Johns and Balliol They were committed for trial at a Disciplinary Court on 11 March, during the Easter vacation. The chairman of the Court was Barry Nicholas, a Professor of Comparative Law. All who attended agreed that the trial was a travesty of justice. Mike Sullivan wrote an open letter describing how the Court decided every procedural point against the defendants; several were expelled for making objections, including Tariq Ali who was acting as a McKenzie friend to some of the defendants. Gordon Day, President of St John's Junior Common Room reported that even Andrew Turek, an ex President of the University Monday Club and a virulent supporter of disciplinary action being taken against those who occupied University buildings, described the proceedings as a 'farce' and labelled the University Marshall, Mr Skinner, as 'a maniac who should not be allowed on University property'.

On the testimony, mainly, of a University Police Officer, Philip Berry, all of the defendants were convicted of being present at the occupation. It was admitted in Court that the Proctors were present together with other 'employees' of the University and an 'independent contractor' with two of his men. It was conceded that the 'occupation' amounted to nothing more than possession of the stairs and corridors and no violence was at any time offered to University staff. Nevertheless, the eighteen defendants were all sent down with the sentence suspended for one year. A subsequent appeal by thirteen of the defendants failed.

The CSU campaign continued with declining support through the latter half of the 1970s. Direct action was mooted by those leading the campaign, but there was never any serious propect of another occupation.