Our temporary occupation here should be considered a warning shot: this campus was always ours, and we will not allow management to terrorise our community any longer.
We call on all staff and students to join us. To reclaim the spaces of our campus. To strike. To occupy.
The introduction of £9,000 a year fees in English universities has inevitably forced the marketization of the educational establishments. They are, contrary to any sensible or moral approach to learning, now opportunities for profit. This is the goal, ultimately, of neo-liberalism; not only to chase 'growth' and profit to further than logically possible, but to undermine and crush any dissent towards it. Neo-liberalism is the fusion of a free market with a strong state - the latter allowing the former to flourish by force.
Universities are cultural and social centres, as well as ones of learning. From the earliest years of education, schools and colleges also operate on this basis. This is further being undermined by the coalition government, as they push for on-line learning to disrupt student movements coalescing and growing on campus.
The recent occupations at Sussex University - one on-going, and two flash occupations - protesting at the privitisation of 235 jobs - those of cooks, cleaning staff, janitors - shows that the student movement is alive and well, despite the best attempts of the NUS to neuter it. Pictures from their Twitter account show speeches and marches to be well attended, and have already attracted the likes of Owen Jones, Laurie Penny, Caroline Lewis and Josie Long.
What is important about Occupy Sussex is that it shows that the student movement can surpass it's pre-occupation with the fees. The initial protests in London, and around the UK, were given a focal point by this, but they melted away when the cap was taken up. As the pillars and foundations of education are attacked, so must the student movement react and fight battles on all fronts.
The rejection of neo-liberalism and marketization within universities, and within education wholesale, must be at the forefront of any struggle which aims to combat these destructive economic systems. Education establishes patterns followed throughout life - results in high school can dictate everything. Similarly, the indoctrination of life as a ruthless hunt for profit begins here.
On a cold, windless New York morning
in August 1974, French street performer Philippe Petit stepped onto a tightrope
and into history books. The rope was stretched between the twin towers of the
World Trade Centre, over one thousand feet in the sky. He spent over forty-five
minutes on the wire, without a security harness or any form of support, taunting
the police officers sent to arrest him, while stunned commuters gazed up at him
from below. One passer-by later referred to him as a 'highwire dancer', because 'walker' simply would not do his flamboyance and confidence justice. Philippe himself stated that he 'wrote with his body in the sky'. Their amazement will come as no surprise to anyone who has seen
pictures of his walk – from a distance the wire becomes almost invisible, as if
he is walking on air. Even without this illusion, the image is still
jaw-dropping, and immediately iconic.
Born in 1949 in Nemours, France, he was less than a
conformist, getting himself expelled from several schools before dropping out
altogether. It took him only a year to train himself to wire walk, doing tricks
like back flips, jumping trough hoops and using a unicycle, and became an
established street performer, and pick pocket, on the streets of Paris. While plying
his trade on a slack wire in Washington Square Park in New York, he came up
with the idea of taking his performance to the next level - traversing the sky
over famous landmarks across the globe. It was in the early seventies that
these walks took place – firstly between the towers of the Notre Dame Cathedral,
and then between the pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. After being
apprehended by the Australian authorities, he pick-pocketed the arresting
officer, and stole his watch. As impressive as these daredevil feats were, they
were only the stepping stones to the walk that would make him famous.
Petit had spent most of his life waiting for his chance to
walk between the towers, ever since he saw a newspaper article about its
construction as a teenager while living in Paris. In interviews he has
constantly spoke of the event as if it is fate, like two lovers destined to meet
–
‘didn't choose it. It chose me. So here I am - a prisoner of something I
love.'
Later, he discussed the operation - planned over the course of six years - as a bank job, a heist, and with all the meticulous research and preparation that it involved. He employed 'inside men', and referred to it as a coup. This reflects an interesting mindset of Petit - his idea of himself as a roguish criminal. He used to pick pockets, and when he met the director James Marsh, when the two collaborated on Oscar-winning documentary Man On Wire, Marsh noted that Petit explained how he could kill a man with a copy of People magazine, and then proceeded to rob him.
Petit has, since that day, became a more enigmatic film. He still walks occasionally, such as over the Niagra Falls in 1986, a recreation of Charles Blondin's stunt. The most he has come into the spotlight was after the release of Man On Wire, where he discussed the planning and executing of his coup. He largely dodges the question that he gets the most - why? His stunt, his art, propelled him into that category of performers and artists who are asked constantly why they did what they did. Bill Drummond and Jimmy Caulty will forever be asked why they burnt a million quid. Petit will always be asked why. He once answered
'I see three oranges, I juggle. I see two towers, I walk.'
9/10 Nostalgia For The Light, Patricio Guzmán's latest documentary about his native Chile, is a poetic, phenomenal work of both genius and horror.
Guzmán begins the story describing his childhood love of astronomy. From here he moves to the Atacama Desert, a strip of land which covers over 100,000 square miles, and the preferred destination for professional astronomers because of the clear skies above it. Working around the astronomers on the floor of the desert are archaeologists, who trace the history of the area through fossils and etchings in the rock face. A parallel is drawn between both groups, as they try to peace together the past from the scarce clues left to them. Both also attempt to answer fundamental questions about the purpose and origin of life and of humanity.
From here Nostalgia winds in another group who are seeking answers about the past - relatives of political prisoners who disappeared under the Pinochet, their bodies scattered in the vast desert without markings or a proper burial. Despite the seeming impossibility of the task, they continue their search - a new body is found every once in a while to keep their hopes up. Guzmán conducts heartbreaking interviews with some of the searchers, as they describe how they often find just part of body (the result of corpses being buried and re-buried to make finding them even more difficult) but are still able to find a morsel of closure in a foot, or a jawbone.
No matter what strands of stories Guzmán is following - they intersect each other throughout - the film looks consistently stunning. The images of far off solar systems and constellations, as seen through powerful telescopes, reveal twisting spirals of immense beauty and colour. Even as a harsh contrast to this the never-ending dunes and rocks of the Atacama look beautiful, in their own unforgiving way. At various points throughout the film flecks appear super-imposed over the images, like specks of dust floating in a ray of light. It is never clear what they represent; glistening stars, sand whisked by the wind, or the memories of the lost bodies buried in the desert, floating in an emptiness.
The collage of images and sound, perfectly fitted, recall Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi: A Life Out Of Balance, with the legacy of the Pinochet regimes crimes against humanity that give Guzman's work a drive, and an emotional tie.
It is indeed this legacy, and the reluctance of Chile to confront it, which Nostalgia For The Light aims to tackle. We are enthusiastic when astronomers and archaeologists peer back into the distant past, and pick away at unsolved mysteries, and yet a more recent past, the Chile of the dictatorship, is largely ignored. One woman who is searching for the body of her brother says that her, and the people like her, and referred to as 'Chile's leprosy,' and they are marginalized for literally digging up the past. As Lautaro Núñez, an archaeologist, notes, there are still people alive today who helped to murder the political prisoners, and who helped dispose of the bodies. And yet they do not come forward, and do not help the relatives find the closure they yearn for.
Guzmán's point recalls the old saying "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it". We need an understanding of the past to live in present. Whether in the stars, or the earth, that is what we are searching for.
There is perhaps not a player in the modern era who has attracted as much media attention, good and bad, as Mario Balotelli. At times he seems to court it, matching wacky antics with phenomenal talent - a former manager of his, Roberto Mancini, said he would be as good as Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, if only he could focus his energies into playing.
During his time at Manchester City the British media focused largely on the antics, the laughs - like the time he wandered into a college in Manchester looking for a toilet, or the time he drove around the city high-fiving fans after winning the Manchester derby. They also looked at the two contrasting sides of his playing - the talent, which saw him set up the goal which gave Manchester City their first league title in decades, and the flaws, which saw his almost conspire to lose City the league when he went rogue in a match against Arsenal, getting sent off for a tackle that could have broken an opponents leg and generally causing his team more hassle than good.
He's since moved to AC Milan, where, unfortunately, most of the coverage has focused on the racism he has encountered. Most recently fans of Inter Milan (who Balotelli played for before moving to Manchester) abused him during a game against Chievo. This is not the first time that Balotelli has been the target of racist abuse from fans, both at club level and international when playing for Italy, and it is likely that the Inter fans attitude to him has soured since he joined their big rivals (as happens with just about any football player). Although he has not been at the club a month, there is also another controversy concerning his race - Paolo Berlusconi, brother of Silvio and vice-president of AC Milan, referred to Mario as '...' - 'the family's little n-----'. The club released a press photo of Paolo and Mario shaking hands during a training conference, but it is difficult to see how the incredibly offensive remark can be easily glossed over. Not only because of the use of the n word, but also by the connotations of making Balotelli sound as if he is owned in some way by the family, a fact exacerbated by the rumours that AC Milan signed him to give Silvio Berlusconi a boost in the forth-coming Italian election. Not only has he been racially abused in his time at Milan, Balotelli is also being treated as a commodity, a piece of arm candy.
Racism in British football, that we know of, happens, by and large, in isolation. Last season the English Premier League saw two major race-based controversies - Luis Suarez of Liverpool, and John Terry of Chelsea, both found to have racially abused opponents during matches, and both given bans. Subsequently, support was shown by both Liverpool and Chelsea fans to their respective players, although both men are now booed at just about every ground they visit. The media is therefore surprised when this new-found tolerance is not replicated across Europe. Before England were due to travel to Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine the BBC ran a documentary about the level of racism that occurs at club level in these countries, largely due to the prevalence of neo-nazi groups in the Ultras section of each team's support. In Spain, accusations of racist insults by several Barcelona players began to drip out, before, more and more, it became apparent that racist abuse by players in Spain, and especially in El Clasico, was to be expected. It was part of trying to put off your opponent. Again, in Italy, a pre-season game between AC Milan and Pro Patria was distrupted by fans of the latter team racially abused Kevin Prince Boateng.
While often players attempt to shrug off the insults, Boateng took an approach which shocked everyone, and propelled the game from no-mark friendly to one which prompted headlines across Europe - he walked off. After hearing monkey chants whenever he was in possession, Boateng kicked the ball at the fans who had abused him, and walked off. His team followed him in solidarity, leaving players of the Pro Patria to reprimand their owns fans at the touchline.
This is perhaps the most radical and significant step taken by a player to combat racism. Their shirking of tackling the abuse (which is understandable, given the pressure that players are under) leaves it to governing bodies such as Fifa and Uefa to tackle racism, which they are hugely ineffective at. The usual incident pointed to here is that of Nicolas Bentnar, who was given a fine of £80,000 during the Euros for exposing his branded underwear (this article contrasts that incident with other major fines given out by football governing bodies). This is more than any team has ever been fined for racist abuse by their fans. In the eyes of Uefa and Fifa, making monkey chants at players is bad, but advertising a non-sponsor during a match is even worse. For all the claims to want to remove racism from football, their paltry actions undermine them straight away. Fifa seem to maintain that by getting players to wear 'Kick Racism Out of Football' t-shirts before a game will indeed kick racism out of football. It hasn't, and it won't. Sepp Blatter, the comically inept and corrupt head Fifa, also refused to back Boateng in walking off, while maintaining that he against racism, and wanted it removed from football. of The lack of positive action from governing bodies, I believe, means that players who have been racially abused will want to ignore it, and play it down, as they have no one to back them up.
The actions of Boateng and his Milan teammates is incredibly important. It shows the only way in which football can effectively tackle it's racism problem. If the withdrawal of football itself does not stop the fans - and this, unfortunately, is likely, as racist fans have shown time and time again that the docking of points, or issuing of fines to their teams does not stop them - then the withdraw of football from Fifa will. It will disrupt to product, and thus the revenue. The AC Milan game against Pro Patria was an insignificant game in footballing terms - anyone without a keen interest in either team is unlikely to have known it was going ahead - but imagine if it happened in a high profile league game, or even Champions League game. If Balotelli, or Boateng, or any other player, is abused during the up-coming Milan derby and both teams walk off, what will happen then. Perhaps very little, it may lead to more walk-offs, and, at that point, Fifa will have to act. It is shameful that it would take them to that point, but it is better than not reaching there at all.
