Authorities attempt "final solution' to radicalism in Lancaster University Dave Douglass, NUM Hatfield (Main Branch) and Editor, The Mineworker 1. Shipley, NUM Hatfield (Main Branch) and In. The Mineworken Intemationale 3 Manch. 1972, the ING demational Socialists tand file mainers paper The ference held in Barley on roximately 20 per cent of the members me of the IMG. However, the lack of in democracy shown by the I.S, at this conwes much that it could seriously endanger damora of establishing a worthwhile rank and fir poper and movement. In particular:
alr conference war supposed to be a rank if for miners conference, then why was there no lemon An id down for admission? A satisr would have been either only meme NUM admitted, or a stated, and strictly amber of observer without voting rights cer edmitted from all political orgonisaporting the conference. Howerer in fact val Committee members such as Chris on and Tony Cliff were admitted while mem of the IMG and others were excluded.
My did the chairman refuse to accept, without Put to me conferencs, any comanm Use to that put forward by the I,S.7 We did the chairman refuse to accept a vote iritution for the paper? • My were no other political groups than IS. conand ahout the conference?
My sithough a preliminary meeting of miners in Savalry had voted to have the subject of workers How the agenda?
D. an the other hand, the IS. attempt to cuede thes Bma by declaring that the conference war an confenace, then we demand to know by what right de they alter the editorial board of a paper posed to be controlled by the rank and i of the NUM at an I.S. conference.
If che 13. continues on this present course, then chators of getting a real rank and file moveend off the ground in the NUM, and it other erica, would be greatly damaged. There is the right wing would like more than a few bandel which they can use to talk hypocriabout lack of democracy: The IS. actions et the Bansley conference completely play into the of the right wirg, and we completely support try, the paper The Mineworker, and other 4 fle members of the NUM which is printed Charles Carter, Quaker Vice-Chancellor of Lancaster University, has explained that the University is to become the largest centre of post-graduate business studies in Britain. The University specialises in departments serving the needs of capitalism- "Financial Control", "Operations Research", "Behaviour in Organisations' - several of which have set up private companies with the encouragement of the University to capitalise on their 'skills. Through Carter the University is intimately linked into the international business community, as a new Lancaster IMG pamphlet carefully documents (Capitalism and the Integration of Higher Education-A Case Study. available Red Books, 5 p).
However, the provision of a screen of liberal arts and social science departments to provide an academic image has brought with it its own problems. A considerable minority of staff and a large majority of students have become uneasy at the trend in the University, as well as generally sympathetic to working class struggles; and the University, following its autocratic-manipulative view of the world, has attributed this unease to a small nucleus of left wing staff and revolutionary students who, they think, pull the strings which bring the passive mass to life.
By eliminating the hard core, and intimidating the remainder, the administration hopes to be able to eliminate the pink taint, which embarrasses them in their search for ever closer integration into the business community. The appropriate bludgeon for this task has been found in the Professor of the English Department, a burly ex-colonial administrator in the Malayan war, well suited to dealing with academic terrorists.
The campaign began in the early summer with the demotion of a left wing English lecturer, David Craig, by his removal from courses he had designed. Craig, a very popular figure among students, fought back, gaining the support of many staff, but repeated protests have failed to secure his reinstatement to his courses. At the same time the university administration forced through a disciplinary code providing them with almost unlimited Feeling that the first round had been won, and still concentrating on the English department, the administration then moved against three staff without tenure and gave them (genteely) the sack. This provoked a much more powerful student response in the shape of a massive boycott of lectures and seminars, which spread department by department before the end of the term until over 2,000 students were involved (out of nearly 3,000 at the University). Many departments organised alternative classes (e.g. Financial Control students organised seminars on "Financial Control in a non-capitalist society'), and the idea of setting up a 'Free University" began to be discussed. This could have been a major weapon in the struggle against the administration, bringing students from all over Britain and even Europe to Lancaster during the vacation and providing the basis for a major defence in the summer term, but a combination of opposition from the student union bureaucracy (led by the C.P.) and confusion among its supporters, many of whom had utopian ideas about a Free University continuing indefinitely in an otherwise capitalist society, led to its defeat at a mass meeting. (On the credit side, the meeting unanimously voted solidarity with 450 strikers against victimisation at the Heysham nuclear power station site, and to link the struggles, a move to which the strike committee at the site responded in like manner.) This defeat, and the total weakness of the Association of University Teachers, which called on the students to end their boycott, gave further confidence to the administration. They next moved actually to dismiss Craig at a Senate meeting at which the Professoriat almost literally bayed for blood, intimating that the removal of up to 20 staff and 200 students might be acceptable in order to ensure "peace' on the campus. The result was a 24-hour occupation by a very large number of students on the last day of term. The struggle is by no means over, and further attempts at victimisation are almost certain The atmosphere on campus is one of intimidation and fear. At the mass meeting calling the occupation, attended by over 1,000 students, there was hardly any discussion because of fears of victimisation of those who spoke. Lancaster is very much a test case. If the administration succeeds in taming this campus we may be sure that the same process will be repeated elsewhere. Support for David Craig and his colleagues in the English department thus involves something much more than the defence of four jobs. One of the forms by which the continuing crisis of British capitalism is expressed is by a more repressive atmosphere. The position of the left in the higher education system is under heavy attack, as a whole series of cases has shown. David Craig is a marxist, but also an academic with a scholarly reputation that puts him well within the traditional liberal image of the bourgeois university. The attempts to remove him indicate the degree to which the remoulding of the University to serve modern industry is destroying that image.
Lancaster IMG members FOOTNOTE: Since this article was prepared, the university authorities have asked the Director of Public Prosecutions to prefer charges of "conspiracy to trespass" against nine randomly selected left wing students. An iron gate has been erected at the foot of the stairs to the Administration building and steel doors are being put on the computer building, where a glass viewing wall is being bricked in. The 1TM01B3021022032800UI0R regard as a 'final solution' to radicalism in Lancaster University.
The Red Mole 17 Antil 1979 Pace 5
Since the previous article on the building industry in The Red Mole, 30, there I demand for £30 for a 35 hour week. The Building Workers' Charter, the rank a new law supposedly against lump labour has come into operation. All these p