This essay explores the "Esdi Aberta" movement, in which students, alumni, professors, and employees of Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro [Superior School of Industrial Design, State University of Rio de Janeiro] (Esdi/Uerj) were engaged to respond to the profound administrative and financial crisis that drastically affected not only Esdi and Uerj, but all public education in Brazil.

For the first four hours, it went well, until after a meeting in which protestors were asked by members of University management if they even knew what pensions were, Security started to tighten up on the Occupation by blocking the original fire exit through which they’d entered, leaving the protestors to rely on the windows for food and stopping anyone who left from coming back in. The rest of the first 36 hours has been documented in Owain Evans’ report for Exepose; I joined the Occupation at 11am on Thursday the 15th of March, 9 days later, and the photo-journal begins then.

A decade has eclipsed since the global financial crisis—the worst of its kind since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The damage inflicted by a cabal of bankers still festers in the world. Many individuals, families, and communities, simply never recovered. Part of the reason for this is the UK government’s policy of austerity.

While parents, community members, and researchers alike have attested to the negative effect ‘school choice’ policies and the defunding of education has had on schools, students, and teachers in the state, we have begun interrogating ways in which the conditions created by these policies have catalyzed widespread collective action.

As we witness the neoliberal agenda permeate our society, the United Kingdom has seen rising university fees while staff are eviscerated by cuts and deteriorating working conditions.

‘Hostile environment.’ This phrase has circulated widely in light of the Windrush scandal. Rather than an accidental glitch, this case exposes how hostility, fear and unease are in fact the intended ‘ambitions’ of border control.