Following a demonstration at the University of Birmingham on Wednesday 29th January, fourteen students were arrested. Twelve of these were held in custody for at least 24 hours, before being released without charge. Their bail conditions include spending each night at their home address, not congregating in groups of more than ten people and not entering any university campus. Reports indicate that all arrested Birmingham students were suspended by their university without appeal.
This follows the developments of late 2013, which saw mass arrests of protesters, journalists and legal observers present at demonstrations regarding the fate of the University of London Union (ULU). These included the arrest (without charge or prosecution) of the President of ULU, and similarly involved restrictive bail conditions. Reports of violence by the Metropolitan police are manifold, with eyewitnesses reporting police officers “punching people indiscriminately”[1] and “pulling [protesters] hair and clothes”[2].
The Union believes that the use of force to suppress nonviolent protest is unacceptable. We furthermore believe that the violent policing witnessed recently is a threat to not only students’ health and welfare, but also to Imperial College Union and to student unionism as a whole. As such, we condemn the use of violent policing – and internal university disciplinary procedures – to curtail nonviolent protest. We also condemn the use of disproportionate pre-charge bail conditions which prevent students from studying.
The Union will support and defend any ICU member subjected to violent policing or internal disciplinary action for nonviolent protest. We will not be intimidated by these recent events.
If you have been affected by these events, contact Marissa Lewis, Deputy President (Welfare) at dpwelfare@ic.ac.uk.
If you would like to be involved in ICU's continued advocacy against the suppression of non-violent protest, you can join the working group by contacting Andrew Tranter at a.tranter13@ic.ac.uk.
The Union’s policy on the suppression of non-violent protest is available online at https://www.imperialcollegeunion.org/your-union/policies/89/file .
[1] http://www.theguardian.com/uknews/2013/dec/05/threearrestsstudentprotest...
[2] http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/studentspunchedanddraggedtothe...
