When 4,000 Cambridge workers came out to support the 1926 General Strike, university undergraduates volunteered as strike breakers on the railways. Well that was a long time ago and the students are on the right side this time reports Jodley from our Cambridge bureau.

All this week, Cambridge university students have been at the forefront of the local resistance to cuts, occupying the Senior Combination Room in the university’s Old Schools. School students from in and around the City have been incredibly important in the demonstrations on the national days of action.

Today the students extended their protest to include a brief occupation of the LibDem controlled City Council Guildhall ‘in opposition to all public sector cuts in order to generalise resistance to the government.’ While Cambridge University management appears to have been trying to bore the students out of occupation by keeping a monastic silence (in keeping with the institution’s origins), the students have consistently developed their protests in fresh and inspiring ways.

Lectures have been held on a host of subjects, including ‘Neoliberalism and privatisation’, ‘Economic Lies and Cuts’, workshops on direct action, experiments in communal living and catering, celebrations with music and tree dressing.

Varsity, not my usual reading matter, has been running an excellent live blog. The response from academics has been excellent, with almost 300 signing in support of the occupation. Under pressure from the occupation, King’s College congregation tacked a little left, formally declaring their “deep concern at the undue haste with which the government is proceeding to enact legislation to change the principle upon which the funding of higher education is based. We believe that these proposed changes have the potential to inflict irreversible damage upon our culture of education, learning and research.”

This morning – under the slogan ‘Uni won’t negotiate, we will escalate’ – saw a blockade of the entire administrative centre of the Old Schools using direct action techniques, that included students perched on step ladders with their necks in D-locks, reminiscent of roads and climate camp protests. This evening, police attempts to evict the occupation were halted by sheer weight of numbers as university academics, students and their supporters in the town came out in force to stand in defence of the occupiers.

The students have been incredibly effective in getting their message out, with Rachel Young putting in a brilliant performance on Newsnight (incidentally exposing David Aaronovitch as a patronising bore – in case there were any doubt). Hapless Tory student James Wakeley voiced the government’s fear that student protestors would link with the wider fight against the cuts.

Key messages of the students came across loud and clear: that the students are in solidarity with all affected by the cuts, and are making links with workers, community and anti-cuts campaigns. On Sunday, occupying students will host a General Assembly for all those who have been inspired by their action against the cuts and the ConDem government. “It is clear that the cuts we are facing go far beyond the student movement and so should the resistance. This large general meeting aims to address the question: “what next?” By bringing together school, sixth form, and university students, academics, workers, trade unionists, pensioners, anti-cuts and community groups we will help to build the movement in Cambridge and beyond.”

And to that list should be added the homeless (Cambridge has one of the highest rates of rough sleeping in UK outside London). The calibre of the student organisation – from direct action, to catering, media work to outreach to other campaigns, political education and debate – has been exceptional. Ambitions are high, and the energy is amazing. It appears that every radical political tradition is being respected, has had something to contribute and a moment to lead. No one owns this movement. “Whose occupation? Our occupation!” “Whose resistance? Our resistance!”