Author: Jafar Cain // Editor: Erin Pallott
Photo credit: Qais Attaallah
Anyone who has been on campus within the past month will have inevitably seen the student encampment in the formerly named Brunswick Park area. Whilst similar student-led movements have been met with violent armed opposition by state forces in the USA, the movements across UK campuses, and indeed in Manchester, have a distinctly peaceful atmosphere.
The encampment in Dr Adnan al-Bursh Park, formerly Brunswick Park, has brought together a diverse grouping of students from all the ethnic and religious backgrounds that make our university a great place to work and study. The fact that the encampment exists speaks simultaneously of the failure of the University to provide adequate support to students, and of the resilience and resourcefulness of the student body to support their peers and form their own systems of representation that demand their voice be heard. In fact, the major strength found in such a movement is its inclusivity and acceptance of all people, uniting the student body under a common goal: speaking out for humanity.
Student protest at the University of Manchester has a long and storied history. In current times we are perhaps most strongly reminded of the anti-apartheid movement which took on similar forms of protest in the 1970’s -80’s and is now celebrated in murals across the university campus. Back then, themes of inclusivity and solidarity between students sat undeniably at the core of the protest. The Anti-Apartheid Movement Archive provides concrete records of student publications calling for practical solidarity whereby Manchester students, recognising their own places of privilege, called for the support of disadvantaged students in South Africa. The measures, brought into place by the student movement raised significant funds, started a scholarship programme for South African students to study at the University, and provided books and educational materials for disadvantaged students in South Africa. Records of this movement, in particular the Manchester Connection Newsletter, are available in the University of Manchester Archives and provide strong historical precedent to support the current form of protest taking place on our campus.
Aside from the goals of the ongoing protest, many of which have a large amount of support from within the student and staff body, the encampment succeeds in providing a space for students where the University fails to do so. Neutrality in political matters has been adopted by the University administration as a pious position from which it can attempt to remain un-involved in serious discussions regarding the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In a response to an open letter from the student movement, the University stated:
“As soon as the University steps out of its neutral role and takes a position of its own as an organisation on any particular world event, it steps away from this core value [of fostering healthy debate between opposing voices]. It has the effect of no longer remaining a neutral home for expression of a diversity of views and it effectively marginalises or worse, silences those who may not share those views.”
Arguably, in the absence of adopting a position on the matter of fundamental human rights issues, the University has in fact sided with the status quo. Neutrality in this sense is a political decision and one which only benefits the prolongation of the current state of affairs. Neutrality marginalises students and staff alike. Neutrality in the face of criminal abuses of the most basic of rights is an aggressive position. The encampment, however, presents students with a spirit of comradery and hope in spite of the not-so-neutral position of the University administration.
Walking through Dr Adnan al-Bursh Park today I am met with this unwavering spirit of hope. Students pray together, eat together, sing together. The encampment actively seeks to be inclusive and welcoming. It does not hide behind a guise of passive neutrality, but rather advances boldly and makes concrete steps to provide community for marginalised students.
As PhD students, we may spend our time locked in labs and libraries, feeling as though we have no way to realistically contribute to the movements that surround us on campus. I would encourage all to simply walk through the park, meet people, engage, have discussions, and relish in the community that has erupted to support the most severely marginalised among us. We must reflect on the history of our institution, where we came from and why we are here now. Protest is a core facet of the Manchester Student identity, and the encampment is simply the most recent celebration of what makes our community great.
To end, I am often reminded these days of a poem by Palestinian poet Refaat al-Areer who was martyred in Gaza on December 6th:
If I must die,
“If I Must Die” – Refaat Alareer
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze —
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself —
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above,
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love.
If I must die
let it bring hope,
let it be a story.
The encampment is our hope and our story.
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