“It’s now 67 hours… and zero minutes,” into the student occupation of the University of Manchester, the protester says. He’s speaking to the M.E.N. at 11am on Saturday (February 11) from inside the John Owens Building.
It’s a building which has featured in the background of countless graduation photos. Located behind the Whitworth Arch, which proudly displays the name of the university on Oxford Road, it’s also where the institution’s top brass work.
On Wednesday (February 8), students from the UoM Rent Strike group entered the John Owens and barricaded themselves in. They used a hodge-podge of filing cabinets, desks, and tables and chairs to prevent security from removing them.
They brought in blankets, sleeping bags, food, and entertainment to prepare for the occupation which they say could last ‘days’. Two other university facilities, the Samuel Alexander humanities building and the engineering centre, have also been taken over, although only certain rooms are occupied.
“It’s quite weird sleeping on the floor of the uni’s senior management committee room,” the protester, who does not give his name for ‘security reasons’, explains. He sounds in good spirits for someone who slept far from his own bed last night.
“I’m sleeping on the floor with a blanket. Most people have sleeping bags, and they have a working shower here, so it’s not ideal — but morale is as high as it can be.
“Everyone is checking in [on one another]. We have been watching films every now and then, people have been able to have leisure time, but we have shifts to watch the barricades.”
The group have also devised a clever pulley system to get more supplies in, and the university says security guards are ‘not preventing deliveries of food or supplies’. It adds that its ‘primary concern is the health and safety of those people who are currently occupying the buildings’.
“We are aware of a small number of individuals gaining unauthorised access to three University-owned buildings,” a statement said. "Our primary concern is the health and safety of those people who are currently occupying the buildings.
“We are aware of some doors and entrances being barricaded and locked and are emphasising our concerns for their safety in the event of an emergency incident.”
The product of that approach from bosses and the preparations by students means the occupation is in a stalemate as it enters its fourth day. But even without an end in sight, the demonstrator is committed to staying.
“I know it’s a risk, everyone does, in being here but this is to demonstrate how important the issue is,” he goes on. “None of us want to be here.”
To understand what led him to join up with the rent strike, and occupation, one must go back a few months. He recalls: “I first got involved in the rent strike because I was struggling financially as a result of the cost-of-living crisis and the uni profiteering from rent.
“I knew the maintenance loan was going down, and I’m already on an increased loan because of my parents’ income. Around December the uni published its finances and it said they were thrilled to make a £120 million profit this academic year and some of that came from increases in accommodation [income].
“That was the point when I went from worried about finances to anger. Obviously there’s a national picture, but the uni is exacerbating that.”
This isn’t the first action the group has taken, either. “We got a lot of people to withhold their rent for three weeks. It must be clear to the uni that students are worried,” the occupier continues.
“As the uni began to ignore our worries, it became clear they would not listen. That’s why we have escalated it.”
In the outside world, the man’s parents ‘know and understand’ why he’s taken the action, he says. Closer to campus, there’s more support.
“My mates are big fans of it. I think one in a hundred students is saying something negative and they are going out of their way to say something. Students are overall very, very supportive,” he explains. “They think it’s quite cool with the flags and banners.”
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