Essex

On May 7th 200 students and staff demonstrated against a talk to be given by Dr Inch of Porton Down, the government germ warfare establishment on Salisbury Plain. On the 10th, despite the fact that the demonstration was eventless, the Vice-Chancellor suspended three of us. A mass meeting convened within minutes of the suspension and, aside from a break for the weekend, carried on continuously until the 20th. On Friday 17th, students jubilantly acclaimed a victory because, by a technical device, Pete Archard, Rafi Halberstadt and I were reinstated. But what in fact had we won, and what had we lost?