Student protestors were forcibly removed from Senate House Library this afternoon amid physical clashes with security.
Around 12 University of London students, including multiple from the LSE, signed up to the postgraduate study event being hosted at the university building.
The students were distributing flyers for the ‘Boycott Senate House’ campaign, which encourages academics and organisations to avoid using the venue for events due to their poor record on workers’ rights.
Whilst discussing the issue with other attendees of the event, the students were followed and intimidated by security staff. After
The participating students have criticised the violent reaction, with one protestor stating that “the event was entirely peaceful and other attendees were interested and responsive, before the heavy-handed and aggressive approach taken by security.
“This highlights the difficulty in getting our message across regarding these basic workers rights.”
Students who did not engage with the banner but had conversations with attendees were also threatened by security after the removal of their peers. Despite admitting that there were no rules against the students discussing the campaign with other attendees, they threatened to carry out more students if they did not leave voluntarily.
In a statement to The Beaver, a University of London spokesperson stated that: “The event organisers gave permission to [distribute flyers] in a peaceful and non-disturbing way.” The protest group disputes this, with students not involved in unfurling the banner or chanting being told directly by security that they would be “carried out” if they continued to flyer.
Senate House outsources many of its workers, including cleaning staff and porters, from recruitment service Cordant, in any agreement which allows the University of London to give considerably fewer days of sick pay and maternity leave.
University of London students are calling for the workers to be brought in-house, in order to grant them parity of rights with other university employees. Over 300 academics and public figures have currently agreed to boycott the venue until these demands are fulfilled.
LSE’s campaign branch, Justice for Cleaners, was recently victorious in reaching the same goal last March. King’s and SOAS have also experienced successes. Students from across the University of London are working to make the same changes at Senate House.
