Students victimised

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FIVE students at Warwick University have been up before University disciplinary hearings this week for taking part demonstration against Keith Joseph on October 31 last year.

The demonstration, was a sit-down protest by 400 students. Joseph refused to meet us and tried to leave by the back door. We rushed to the main road and blockaded it to prevent him leaving.

The police arrived and starled laying into the students. Despite the violent actions of the police, none of the students present did anything other than defend themselves.

However, the President of the Students Union talked to the local radio and newspaper and condemned "the violence on both sides"

This gave the University the excuse it had been waiting for to have a go at the Student Union. Since the University now has total control of the Student Union's finances (thanks to Rhodes Boyson)

and can do just what it wants to the Student Union budget, the University Committee decided to "fine" the Student By Christmas the centre-right Student Union Executive Committee was running scared. The students were angry and the Executive were sedal me damagine.

with the University establishment. They entered into negotiations with the University over the fine while most students were on holiday.

Meanwhile, the University had managed to identify five students who were on the demonstration.

During the time leading up to the hearing the five received no help in their campaign from the Student Union Executive but were instead often misled or misinformed. Finally, on Friday January 20, four days before the disciplinary hearings were due to start, the Student Union Executive announced that it had reached an agreement with the University. ( This agreement basically said that the University would not fine the Student Union if it would re-write its own constitution to include a commitment that the Student Union would give the University seven days' notice before any demonstration and that no demonstration would be called without a two-thirds majority at the Union General Furthermore, the agreement contained no reference at all to the disciplinary hearings against the five on charges which could have resulted in their expulsion. Nevertheless, the Executive bought it.

The agreement was rejected by a majority of 150 at the Union General Meeting that week, which pledged to continue the campaign against the fine and the disciplinary hearings.

Last Friday, however, by dint of telling the Athletics Union and in particular the Rugby Club that their budgets would be cut if the fine went ahead, the Student Union Executive managed to get the agreement accepted by the UGM. So the Executive abandoned the Warwick 5 to their fate and called off the national demonstration.

Meanwhile the disciplinary hearings have been conducted with a fine disregard for justice. For example, the defendants were told by the By Denise academic registrar that if they called any witness from the demonstration to testify in their defence then those witnesses might be subject to the same disciplinary proceedings.

The cards are stacked against students in the University disciplinary code. The actual panel which decides the verdict and sentence is weighted in favour of the University - three from the Administration and two from the Student Union.

The kangaroo court has been picketed every session by up to 150 students, shouting and banging metal to disrupt the hearings. Three of the five have been acquitted and another fined £20. The remaining two were charged with the same offence, together, and with the same witnesses. One was found not guilty. The other, Keith Spencer, who throughout his hearing was referred to as the ringleader of a political faction on campus was found guilty.

His sentencing was delayed because it appears one of the lecturers on the panel had an attack of scruples at the frame up. The picket resumed as the hearing resumed and an hour later Keith Spencer came out with a £30 fine. As he said to the picket, "It's not a victory, but it could have been worse. " So although the five have got off very lightly, the Union is still bound to the constitutional changes demanded by the University. And the threat of a further fine, at Warwick or any other college, continues so long as Student Unions remain dependent on the authorities for money. A national campaign is needed to demand a return to the previous system of student union funding, where a guaranteed amount per student is paid directly to the Student Union.