Staff at Goldsmiths and other universities are staging another one day strike next Thursday in the ongoing national pay campaign. The last, two hour, strike on January 28th, was reported in Goldsmiths paper The Leopard:
'As the nation-wide strike began, protesters took the opportunity to address the large mass of students and staff that had gathered on Dixon Road after being evacuated from the Richard Hoggart Building due to internal flooding. With the aid of a megaphone, Goldsmiths’ UCU President Thomas Henri began with a light hearted joke, thanking the plumbers for their solidarity action and recognising that the evacuation had given the protest a larger audience than expected. After an impassioned speech from Henri in which he highlighted the reasoning behind the strike, Henri invited the crowd to join UCU members in the SU for a debate. Within five minutes over 250 people had gathered inside the Students’ Union...
[After the debate] Students and staff then marched down to Deptford Town Hall in protest and urged Goldsmiths’ Warden Pat Loughery to come out of the building and address the crowd. When he did not make an appearance, the protest marched into Deptford Town Hall and spent ten minutes relaying several different chants including “Who’s education – our education” and “They say cut back – we say fight back.”
Another two hour strike took place on January 23rd, with 150 people marching through Goldsmiths in support.
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| Strikers and supporters outside Goldsmiths offices in the old Deptford Town Hall, New Cross Road (January 23 2014) |
Strikes are also planned on the London Underground this week (Thursday and Friday) in protest at plans to close all ticket offices by early 2015, with the loss of 750 jobs.
Meanwhile over at the Harris Boys Academy secondary school in East Dulwich, teachers are threatening to strike on Thursday. Members of the National Union of Teachers and NASUWT have issued notice that 'if there is no progress in negotiations over “the unreasonable frequency of full scale external observations, workload and the failure of the head to meet with unions to try and resolve” then the first day of joint strike action will be on Thursday 6th Feb, with other dates to follow should no progress be made'.
Last Saturday 25th January, around 150 people took part in a march from Peckham Square to Camberwell Green called by Southwark Benefits Justice Campaign to oppose the benefits cuts (particularly the Bedroom Tax) and related evictions. See report at Peckham Peculiar
Last Thursday 30th January there was a protest in Deptford against plans for a tunnel site at Crossfields Green as part of the Thames Water 'Super Sewer' project. As reported at Crosswhatfields?, protestors 'had come to meet the Planning Inspectors charged with making the decision on all the proposed Thames Tunnel sites in London. The Inspectors, accompanied by two Thames Water representatives and a Lewisham Council planner, had been walking around the area to acquaint themselves with the site's environs before they arrived back at the green to face the angry and very vocal residents'. The same blog has done a detailed analysis of the traffic impact of this and other planned local schemes in the Deptford Church Street area.
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