Bethune Polytechnic University Occupation

Students at Bethune Polytechnic University during the occupation.

The Bethune Polytechnic University Occupation was a protest campaign by students at Bethune Polytechnic University in April and May 1960, in which a contingent of radical students occupied campus buildings in support of Peninsular autonomy and opposition to university austerity measures. The occupation involved an estimated 11,000 students and community members and lasted for 27 days before being dispersed by police and Federal Marshals. The occupation is considered a turning point in the Xianhai autonomy movement, as it brought considerable national attention to the movement and inspired further activism.

Background

Bethune Polytechnic University, located in the city of Lyrene, was established in 1942 as the first polytechnic university of any size in the Xianhai Peninsula, and the peninsula's largest university. By 1960, it had a student body of nearly 20,000, almost all of whom hailed from the peninsular provinces.

The Xianhai Peninsula is a noncontiguous portion of Laeral bordering Libertas Omnium Maximus and separated from continental Laeral by the Xianhai Strait. Its antipathies towards continental Laeral extend to the premodern period, when Xianhai's Hoon Kingdom was a rival of the Zhao Kingdom of modern-day southwest Laeral. The peninsula's Arrivée settler population similarly harbored resentment towards Laeralsford dating to the War of the Seven Provinces, which they understood as Xianhai settler interests having been sold out by the Laeralian metropole. As Laeral's poorest and least-educated region, many Xianhaians harbored economic resentments towards continental Laeral over a perceived lack of investment, particularly after oil extraction in Brissac from the 1930s onward provided massive benefits to the national economy yet saw few profits reinvested in Xianhai.

Bethune Polytechnic University had been a center of political activism since its creation. As the Republican regime liberalized in the 1940s and 50s, Bethune Polytechnic hosted an active wing of the Laeralian National Congress, and had been crucial in that party's surprise victory in the Lyrene mayoral election of 1946. Students also had a history of organizing around material issues such as tuition fees, housing allocation, and the university's strict honor code.

The liberalized political climate following the enactment of the 1954 Laeralian constitution meant that the Xianhai autonomy movement had become more vocal. Disappointment with President François Guirard's apparent unwillingness to invest in the peninsula and frustration with high unemployment had led protesters to block and otherwise interfere with the transshipment of Xianhai oil beginning in 1959. One undergraduate student, François Rabbath, was arrested in February 1960 for his role in a human chain protest blocking oil tankers en route to the port of Granville.

Due to budget cuts amidst the nationwide recession, university leadership in spring 1960 announced plans to reduce costs across the university by cutting courses, halting planned construction of new dormitories, restricting library hours, and limiting dining hall hours and menus. The announcement of these plans on April 12th prompted widespread indignation from students.

Occupation

Student leaders of the nascent provincial autonomy movement intended to stage a demonstration on the university campus on the opening date of François Rabbath's trial: April 25th, 1960. This coincided with plans for a protest against the university's austerity measures, and the two demonstrations agreed to coordinate by occupying the university president's office. Protest leaders of the provincial autonomist movement intended to use student outrage over changes in university policies to magnify the impact of the pro-autonomy demonstration. When the protest kicked off on April 25th, the autonomists had established themselves as protest leaders and dominated the protest's interactions with the media.

On the afternoon of the 25th, several hundred students quickly occupied the near-deserted university administration offices and the adjoining chemistry building. Protest leaders' rhetoric emphasized that the the university's austerity measures were tied to the issue of Xianhai autonomy: that if the peninsula received its rightful share of oil exports, the unpopular cuts would be unnecessary. Over the following day, the occupation quickly spread to include the campus radio station, the central quad, the central cafeteria, and neighboring dormitories and classroom buildings.

On April 27th, the protester organizing committee released its demands to end the occupation. These included the rollback of the cost-cutting package, the release of François Rabbath and other autonomist protesters, amnesty from disciplinary consequences for students involved in the occupation, a required course on Xianhai history and culture for all undergraduates, and a new certificate program in Xianhai Studies at the university. Demands addressed at the federal government included those of previous autonomist protests, including a commitment that 30% of oil revenues be funneled to Xianhai provincial governments, inclusion of Xianhai words within the Laeralian Dictionary, and that more Xianhaians be admitted to managerial roles at Laeralian Oil.

University leadership refused to meet with the protesters, yet the sheer number of student protesters meant that local police were unwilling to respond forcefully, particularly as the provincial government urged conciliation. Within the occupied buildings, protest leaders organized teach-ins on Xianhaian history and language, and the students were joined by a small number of townsfolk and professors. Although a faction of students were familiar with street violence from the Bloody Summer and erected barricades, the police largely took a nonconfrontational approach, and Bethune Chief Minister Roger Truffaut announced his openness to dialogue with the protesters.

Street barricades at Bethune Polytechnic

On May 1st, the national holiday of Worker's Day, workers at Laeralian Oil began a strike over the issue of profit-sharing which would last 16 days, further diverting police attention while lending momentum to the university occupation. The number of students involved in the occupation swelled to an estimated 11,000 students and community members, supported by contributions of food by the local populace, including local Catholic and Minjian temples. A large banner reading "Justice for Mistreated Xianhai" was unveiled from Simonne Tower, the highest point on campus.

Even as the Petroleum Minister met with the Laeralian Oil strike leaders, the federal government refused to meet with the student occupation leaders, instead setting a deadline of May 6th for the protesters to disperse. The deadline passed, and, under pressure from Laeralsford, Chief Minister Truffaut broke off talks with the protest leaders and order police to force their way through the barricades and disperse the occupation. On May 7th, an early morning attempt by police to force through the barricades on Solange Way was forced back by students carrying garbage can lids, paving stones, flagpoles, and other improvised weapons. After another attempt on May 8th failed, Chief Minister Truffaut ordered police to starve out the occupation by restricting the flow of food and sanitary supplies into the campus, hoping to avoid violence.

Due to the siege, the student occupiers gradually dispersed, but a determined core of around 2,000 students remained by the time that Laeralian Oil workers returned to work on May 17th. On May 15th, the Ministry of Education had warned that students continuing to participate in the occupation were risking expulsion. On May 18th, President Guirard held a press conference alleging that student radicals advocating secessionism had stockpiled arms and ammunition, in addition to partaking in illegal narcotics and other vices, and federalized the Bethune and Lematre Gendarmerie. 1,400 gendarmes from those two provinces arrived on campus on May 20th and issued a final warning for students to vacate.

On the morning of Sunday, May 22nd, the gendarmes advanced into campus, clashing with students in a series of brawls as they cleared the barricades on Solange Way and broke through into the central quadrangle. By 3 pm, dozens of students had been arrested and the majority of others had fled, and the banner was removed from Simonne Tower. Eleven students and one professor were hospitalized due to injuries from gendarme batons.

Aftermath

Classes resumed at Bethune Polytechnic on Thursday, May 26th. Due to the large number of students who had participated in the occupation, the vast majority received no disciplinary consequences. 42 students were expelled for their role in the occupation, and many of the arrested students were convicted of misdemeanor crimes and sentenced to up to four months in jail. Many protesters alleged rough treatment by gendarmes, including beatings and cramped confinement after their arrest, but were barred from pursuing legal action. University administration, meanwhile, scrapped their plans for a tuition hike and cuts to dining services, although course cancellations, faculty layoffs, and cancellation of construction went ahead.

An opinion poll conducted in Lyrene the following month found that 58% of respondents expressed that their sympathies were primarily with the protesters, while 31% expressed that their sympathies were primarily with the federal government.

Subsequent protest actions around university policies and Xianhai autonomy continued through the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. In 1972, Bethune Polytechnic University instituted the Xianhai Studies certificate, which was elevated to major status in 1989. The university today hosts a permanent exhibit at the university library about the occupation, including the "Justice for Mistreated Xianhai" banner.