Zakk Brown, Manchester Socialist Students
University of Manchester (UoM) rent strikers took direct action against the university by occupying an accommodation security office for a number of days, after protesters were outrageously carried out by bailiffs from another university building.
This action comes off the back of an occupation called by the group UoM Rent Strike 2023, alongside organising students to cancel their accommodation direct debits by 20 April. The occupation, which began on 9 February, is in solidarity with university workers’ union, UCU, and demands a 30% reduction in rent. Students typically pay 68-74% of their maintenance loan on accommodation costs!
The university has started legal action against the occupiers, using a court order to allow bailiffs to remove the occupiers, resulting in the scenes of students physically lifted out of buildings while singing “solidarity forever”.
Socialist Students supports the actions of the rent strike and condemns the university using bailiffs to remove them. We support demands for a lowering of rent, but you can’t control what you don’t own. We need public ownership of university accommodation to make it affordable and fit for purpose. Students must not be forced to live in mice-infested buildings while landlords profit. This, alongside a mass council house building programme, can meet the housing needs of all.
