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UNIVERSITY SIT-IN

(the disillusionment of a campus follower)

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boasts the banner

meaning business

in the usual manner

it's not a revolutionary situation

just an exercise in confrontation

concessions are all we can hope to get

there's no place for utopia yet

come back in a couple of centuries

society changes by degrees

please show far more self-restraint

defacing walls with rainbow paint

lacks political perspective

one must try to be objective

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of course we're quite at liberty

to stand for election to the committee

if we want to have a say

democracy will rule O.K.

so much for spontaneity

& good old insurrectionary gaiety

where did the joy go

have you seen it recently

this is no occupation

for someone like me

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stirlingUnivgraffito.gif (20654 bytes) In Autumn 1972, during the notorious visit of the Queen to the University of Stirling in Scotland

drunken students went on the rampage & mobbed Her Royal Highness, (revolting indeed!)

In protest at the expulsions of the worst culprits/scapegoats, a barbarian horde of overzealous undergraduates stormed then occupied the Admin. Building.

Right on! Tomorrow the world!

Revolution was in the air & bliss was it in that dawn....

Unfortunately, all too soon, mundane reality kicked in & the status quo was restored.

The above verses, specifically inspired by this event & written contemporaneously, probably apply more generally, alas.

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[NB to hear embedded sound, enable audio in your browser]

Interesting historical footnote:
John 'Rottweiler'* Reid, now U.K. Home Secretary (2006), was also a student at Stirling Uni during that tumultuous period. As a pretend member of the Communist Party, he was considered right wing compared to hardcore International Socialists & International Marxist Groupies. (Ironic how the label 'international' was applied to the parochial struggles of student politics.) Anyway, John call-me-Doctor Reid, ambitious & politically ruthless even then, became President of the Student Union.

Quasi-Kabouter/ libertarian of the hippy tendency that I was & probably still remain, Yours Truly used to blow bubbles during those very earnest & otherwise humorless Union meetings.

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* This is, of course, unfair to dogs.

Actually, it's a reference to the description of Reid

by Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman

as Labour's 'attack dog' (8 March 2005)