Police and Glasgow University management were left embarassed yesterday by a remarkable turn of events. After bosses called in the police to forcibly evict students from a seven week long occupation, the evictees marched a few hundred metres up the road, took over the university’s main building and, after refusing to back down in negotiations, forced management to let them return.

It was the culmination of a dramatic day which initially saw the university’s own security attempting to evict the handful of demonstrators inside the Hetherington Research Club, re-dubbed the Free Hetherington, in the morning. Both sides then called for back-up – the students via Twitter and Facebook for other students, the security via phoning the police.

The scenes which ensued lasted until the mid-afternoon, with police manhandling occupiers out of the building on to the street as a crowd of about 400 – some demonstrating in solidarity, some just watching – looked on.

The last occupiers had barely been shoved out the door before they and a crowd who had gathered to show their support during the eviction turned the tables on an apparently unsuspecting police and forced their way into the senate offices of the Gilbert Scott building, smashing door windows to gain access.

University Principal and chief architect of cutbacks Anton Muscatelli was nowhere to be seen. But finding themselves in the symbolic and administrative heart of the campus, the crowd of at least 50 demonstrators, to be joined by more later, opted unambigiously to set themselves up for another occupation, demanding Muscatelli’s resignation.

University management, who had communicated facelessly for the previous seven weeks, suddenly discovered a desire to talk and the occupiers were joined by three senior representatives. After about four hours of negotiations, management performed a remarkable capitulation and offered to give the students back the Hetherington on the condition that everyone left the senate.

The offer was followed by a heated and at times noisy discussion by the occupiers, some arguing the occupation was in a better position at the administrative and symbolic heart of the the university and should continue to force Muscatelli’s resignation, others arguing for a return to the Hetherington. A sharply split vote followed but the decision was made to go back to their previous premises.

Whatever the merits of the decision, there is no doubt the turnaround is a massive embarassment to the top brass at the university. The broad daylight scenes of police mobhandedness were reported on far and wide in the media – even the BBC led with the headline “Glasgow University eviction of students ‘heavy handed.’ ” To have forced this U-turn is a great testament to the conviction of the occupiers.

In its seven week history the Hetherington has served as a hub of political debate and discussion, a forum for ideas, an organising centre, a cinema, a cultural centre and a provider of vegan food (okay, so nothing’s perfect.) It has served to focus the far left, attracted and deepened support among students, and engendered a rare level of unity around the cause it represents. It is a beacon both for the student and anti-cuts movement. The Free Hetherington is dead – Long live the Free Hetherington!

Pat Bateman

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FreeHetherington?ref=ts
Twitter: http://twitter.com/glasgowoccupied