Dear colleagues,
London Met UCU, London Met Unison, and London Met SU have called a London-wide mobilisation and march from ULU (Malet Street) to the Home Office (Marsham Street, Victoria) for Friday 28th Sept. Assembling at Malet Street for 1pm. Under the banner: ‘Amnesty Now – Save London Met – No to Privatisation’. This initiative is supported by London Region UCU. See Facebook Event.
This Friday (21/9) the High Court will consider granting an immediate injunction (an effective ‘stay’) in favour of London Met Uni and against the UK Border Agency (UKBA). Such an injunction should allow for a full Judicial Review of the UKBA’s decision to revoke London Met’s Highly Trusted Sponsor (HTS) Tier-4 licence – an action that has condemned over 2,500 of our students to either forced university transfer or deportation.
However, even if an injunction is granted it will only be a temporary reprieve until the outcome of the Judicial Review itself – which is expected to take at least several months to be heard. Meanwhile, our license to recruit international students is still suspended, our current international students are still be in limbo – particularly if they have more than this academic year to complete, and our courses/jobs still threatened.
If an injunction is not granted then we will be in the fight of our lives – not only for all our international students against an immediate and very real deportation threat but for the very survival of London Met as a public university.
We are refusing to sit on the sidelines and by mere observers of our destiny as others shape it. We are therefore fighting as hard as we can for our students, our university, and for real justice. We will have much more chance of winning that fight with your support and solidarity – as wonderfully expressed during last Friday’s UK-wide solidarity events.
Last week’s TUC Congress in Brighton unanimously supported the call for an immediate amnesty for our students – see details here.
We now need your support once more – particularly, if you are based in London. We want as many trade union banners as possible on next week’s march/demonstration – along with as many colleagues as you can bring. This is not just a fight for London Met – this is a fight for public education as a whole.
Please send messages of support to mark.campbell_home@btopenworld.com
NB: 38 MPs have now signed Jeremy Corbyn’s MPs Early Day motion 437 in the House of Commons – see here – If you have not already done
so please write/email your MP and encourage them to sign it too. To
find out who your local MP is see: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/
In solidarity
Mark Campbell
London Metropolitan University UCU (Chair) UCU National Executive Committee (London and the East HE) SERTUC Public Services Committee (Vice-Chair)