In the past year I have studied at Cardiff University it has been notable how many strikes and protests have taken place, covering issues such as the course cuts and staff redundancies. Many staff and students alike were affected by the cuts in schools such as music, ancient history, and religion (including myself). In times of such uncertainty and outrage, surely, it’s understandable that we have a right to peacefully fight against what could be Cardiff’s end to an entire area of academia?
The recent implementation of the injunction against unauthorised protest poses a threat to what should be our legal right. Consider the nursing course. What seemed to be a closed course was reinstated following protests, and involvement from both the Welsh Government and the Royal College of Nursing.
This is living proof that protesting peacefully and raising an issue can have an impact and is essential to making important change. The fact that a university would put limitations on such a basic act is cause for concern. Events such as showing support for Palestine have also taken place on campus in peacefully protesting and setting up camp on the university grounds.
Such instances were labelled as causing ‘distress and disruption’. Whilst issues and potential risks to the University’s safety that arise from individual occurrences should be dealt with, placing all protests and strikes under one label of posing ‘distress or disruption’ sets a dangerous narrative. Whilst the University are claiming the injunction was set in place to protect the campus and those on it, it very much can be seen as a suppression in our freedom of speech and our legal right to peaceful protest.
Placing all protests and strikes under one label of posing ‘distress or disruption’ sets a dangerous narrative.
It sets the questions of - who gets to decide what protests will or won’t be authorised? Do some causes get priority over others? I’d argue that these are valid concerns given the current social and political climate of our country, and recent news surrounding the University itself.
Being at university has very much helped me grow enough to develop and express opinions, and it would be an absolute shame if such values were to be deterred in the community through preventative legislation.