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NUS warns of the campaign against the government if the proposals of the Department of Justice to lead to the criminalization of protest tactics

government proposals to criminalize squatting also illegal occupation style protests and sit-ins, student leaders, trade unionists and lawyers said.

plans to spend a crime appear in a consultation paper recently issued Department of Justice, which aims to make it easier to evict the squatters of vacant commercial and residential buildings. At present, the fault of the owners of a tort and property must have the squatters in the civil courts.

ban offending lawyers fear over the Ministry's proposal will also prohibit peaceful sit-in, a protest tactic is favored by students and workers.

National Union of Students national executive member Michael Chessum said the NUS would be to mount a campaign to be "politically impossible" for the government to introduce legislation.

"It will be an affront fundamental to students' right to protest if the occupation was criminalized," said Chessum.

"I have no doubt that if the government attempts to criminalize the occupation ... we want to mount a campaign to make it politically impossible to stop students occupants occupation." Last fall, thousands of students have occupied dozens of schools in an attempt to stop the tripling of school fees of £ 9,000.

Chessum added that the criminalization of environmental change intrusion on campus and lead to "war" between the administration and the involvement of students in the police and courts.

"The idea that the peaceful occupation of their campus can be taken from you is something that simply are not going to take," he said.

also added that many students crouch and proposals have also resisted the base.

"I talked to other union members about this and if they think the attack on the squatters is just a smoke screen when you think the battles will take place possibly in in the years to come, "he said. In a statement, the Ministry of Justice (Justice) denied that he intended to criminalize the occupation and said that the consultation was specifically designed to s 'squat. On page nine of the consultation suggests that any new law might want to exempt the protest of the occupation of the sentence.

But Giles Peaker, a housing lawyer, said it would be difficult for the legal system to distinguish between the invasions and occupations based policies.
"The consultation indicates that certain types of occupation, possibly, could be excluded, including things like the students occupying university property, he says they are, and the suggestion seem to have the Department of Justice protests -. activated license and can not

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