Free Education MCR. Fb: Free Education MCR. @freeedmcr FREE EDUCATION MCR. FREE EDUCATION MCR sur Twitter : "PROTESTERS FROM THE SOLIDARITY DEMO HAVE OCCUPIED THE VISITOR'S CENTRE AT UNIVERSITY PLACE! Occupation begins in Harold Hankins building > The Mancunion. The banner announcing the occupation has been displayed on the side of MBS. Photo: Peet Earnshaw @Twitter A group of around 30 protesters representing the Free Education Mcr campaign have begun an occupation of the Harold Hankins building in Manchester Business School, to protest fees and cuts, and what they refer to as the university’s “encroaching neoliberal attitudes.”
The occupation began at 3pm yesterday, with campaigners claiming the fifth floor of the building, which is part of the Manchester Business School. In a statement released on their Facebook page at around midnight, the occupiers said: “The University of Manchester is in occupation. We are occupying because we know what five more years of a Tory government means. It means the hopes of millions of young people and workers shattered by cuts and privatisation.
“We know what the market does to education, and we know we need to fight it. “We intended to practise our vision of this free education with the space. Students occupy University of Manchester over government cuts – replay updates. Students have begun an ‘occupation’ of a building at the University of Manchester in protest against government cuts. The demonstration started inside the Harold Hankins Building at Manchester Business School on Wednesday afternoon and the campaigners are refusing to leave. A group called Free Education MCR have claimed they set up the occupation as a stance against five more years of ‘Tory cuts and privatisation’. A statement on their Facebook page, posted on Wednesday evening, said: “The University of Manchester is in occupation. We are occupying because we know what five more years of a Tory government means. “It means the hopes of millions of young people and workers shattered by cuts and privatisation.
“We know what the market does to education, and we know we need to fight it. Stay with us to watch this demonstration as it unfolds. Students occupy University of Manchester building in protest over government cuts. Students staged a sit-in at a university building in a protest against government cuts and tuition fees. Up to 30 students were yesterday occupying a former accommodation block at the University of Manchester. They vowed to continue the occupation until university chiefs entered negotiations. Other students gathered outside the Harold Hankins Building in Booth Street West as the protesters unfurled a banner saying: “This university has been occupied.”
Security guards could be seen in a stairwell halfway up the building. The students created a barricade using cupboards to block the entrance to the room they were occupying. One student involved in the occupation, speaking to the M.E.N. via mobile phone from one of the building’s upper windows, said: “We are determined and we are going to stay. The students made a series of demands after they gained access to the building. They called for every student to be given a living grant and for the university to make no cuts to its bursary.