Join us or see the government obliterate education!

Dear academics of Goldsmiths College,

As you have perhaps by now heard, we have occupied the College Library.
We have taken the space in protest against the coalition government’s
proposal to obliterate the teaching subsidy (especially in Arts and
Humanities) and to allow (read: structurally require) universities to
charge fees that are plainly unaffordable for most UK citizens. We
believe that the proposals will be woefully damaging and are (in the
truest sense of that banalised term) *historically unprecedented*. That
is to say, in the last sixty years of UK Higher Education, we believe
that no government policy in our “sector” has been even nearly as
exclusionary and retrograde.

In response we. have decided to prevent waged work from occurring in the
occupied spaceWe believe that the political situation we face is quite
singular and that it requires a heightened response. There can be no
‘business as usual’ in the College until the defeat of Coalition
proposals.

The struggle will not be confined to students. Our occupied space will be
a hub for activism, for committed inquiry and for broad political
discussion. Alongside members of the Lewisham community, we encourage
academic and support staff from the College to join us. We write now to
warmly invite academic staff to lead workshops, to give lectures,
seminars, and extemporised talks in the occupation, starting now. Until
our demands are met, we will be scheduling events constantly within the
library space. We cannot overstate how important to us your contributions
would be. To propose an event, please just come down to the library and
speak to us; or alternatively you can write to the occupation at
goldagainstcuts@googlemail.com.

Please feel free to circulate this invitation to any potentially
interested individuals or groups -- whether affiliated with the College or
not.

In gratitude and solidarity,

Goldsmiths Occupation