Photo: Jess Hurd
We’ve been so busy organising the strike, that the blog has been somewhat neglected. To remedy this, there will be a series of catch-up posts of what has been happening since 26 August. 27 August- Mass pickets at Bethnal Green, Arbour Square and Poplar centres.
- University and College Union (UCU) National Office confirmed their full support for all out indefinite strike action.
- Pickets started at 7.30am. As you can imagine, at that time of the morning it’s cold and dark so huge kudos to those hardy folks for coming out at that time.
- Students gave their full support to the strike by refusing to cross the picket line. You may not know this but the majority of students affected by the cuts are socially excluded Muslim women from the Bangladeshi and Somali communities and other second language communities. Many had already lost their places in English classes and hundreds on waiting lists for classes will not receive a place. Many students, who were tired and fasting during Ramadan, chose to show their protest against the cuts by turning back and withholding their enrolment.
- There was some senior management and police interference with legitimate picketing activities at Poplar and Arbour Square, but pickets continued with perfectly lawful activity despite these irritants.
Did you know …
- during the first day of enrolment, senior management drafted people from all areas of the college, including finance department and media department!
- some senior management left their ‘temple’ (Poplar site) to man the main entrance at Arbour Square, essentially locking out teaching staff
- Colin ‘the Hatchet’ Henderson, finance director, deigned to visit Arbour Square and even took a turn manning the Arbour Square entrance!
Posted via email from Defend Jobs and Education
