Syria Iran mtg at UCL

After the Bush era who are the forces for stability in the Middle East; Iran, Syria or the U.S? 

With the Bush administration coming to an end, this lecture looks into what the future may hold in the regional political, economic and social stability of the Middle East, and examines whether or not the balance of power will shift to regional states under the new Obama administration, or continue with the current Status Quo.

The lecture will look in particular at the roles Syria and the Islamic Republic of Iran can play in rebuilding stability in the region, and also looks into the potential ideas of how these changes can be executed.

Panelists:

Mr. Jihad Makdissi, Spokesman of the Syrian Embassy in London.

Mr. Shirvin Zeinalzadeh, Director of SZ Intelligence and Specialist in Intelligence and International Security.

Chair: Mr Pól Ó Géibheannaigh, Central Asia and Middle East Analyst.

After the main presentation, there will be an opportunity to present questions to the panel, and the floor will open for discussion.

Christopher Ingold Lecture Theatre,

UCL Chemistry Building

20 Gordon Street

London WC1 6BT 

http://maps.google.com/map

s?f=q&hl=en&q=20+Gordon+St

reet%2C+WC1+6BT%2C+London%

2C+United+Kingdom

Revoke Shimon Peres's honorary doctorate from King's College

Sign the petition here

Shimon Peres, a former Israeli Head of State and a war criminal, was awarded an honorary doctorate, in a completely undemocratic fashion and without serious consultation, by King's College last week for his "efforts" to find a "peaceful solution to conflicts in the Middle East". But how can this be the case when:

• On 18 April 1996, he launched "Operation Grapes of Wrath" causing 400,000 Lebanese to flee their homes, almost 800 fleeing to a UN base in Qana, South Lebanon. 

• The Israeli army then shelled the UN shelter in Qana, killing 102 civilians, mainly women, children and the elderly. Many more were injured.

• Peres is responsible for building illegal colonies on occupied land and endorsing a policy of extra-judicial killings of Palestinians and other Arabs.

• He supported the siege on Gaza, the destruction of its airport, and the elaborate system of checkpoints all across the West Bank.

• He defends the regular demolition of Palestinian homes, and he justified the atrocities of the Israeli army in its recent war on Lebanon in 2006.

It is completely disgraceful that on the very day the "honour" was awarded, the UN human rights official described the blockade of Gaza as a deprivation of "basic human rights" - (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mi

ddle_east/7737243.stm)

Capitalism isn't working-Chris Harman & Hannah Dee

Noam Chomsky to speak at Anti-NATO demo April 4th, 5th. Start building now...

Tens of thousands of anti war protestors will be marching in Strasbourg next year against NATO expansion and the war in Afghanistan. This is the location for the NATO conference on the 60th anniversary of its formation. The anti-war protests will include a counter conference, at which, among many international speakers, will be Noam Chomsky. Stop the War will be building the widest support for these very important protests and is organising coaches to take protestors from Britain. Coach tickets are on sale now. For tickets and more information go to here
DEMONSTRATE AT NATO’S 60TH CONFERENCE
NO TO NATO,
NO TO WAR
APRIL 4TH AND 5TH 2009,
STRASBOURG,
FRANCE

Generation Tehran

Posted from our Campaign Iran blog

Directed by Sara Bavar. Running time 24 min

Synopsis

Women in burkhas and bearded men in turbans–is this what you think when you hear Iran? Or is it uranium enrichment and dictatorship? What if you traveled there and saw young men and women dressed in the latest fashions carrying the latest technology? What if you heard Iranian rap and saw people dancing in the streets? Would you still perceive Iran in the same way? Generation Tehran is a documentary short that will change your mind about Iran, its people, and its future.

As one of the youngest populations in the world (70% are under 30), Iran’s youth are helping to build a new country. The foundations they lay will not only affect the Middle East, but also extend out to the whole world.

Born and raised in the United States, Iranian-American director/producer Sara Bavar wanted to create a platform for Iran’s youth to speak their mind and to let the world know the truth about them–to give them a voice.

This film is that single, unified voice, crying out, demanding freedoms, and dispelling preconceived notions–all of which, we in the west sometimes take for granted. Using interviews and observational footage filmed entirely on location in Tehran over the course of three months in Fall/Winter of 2006, the film will surprise, shock and leave the viewer questioning everything they knew, or thought they knew about Iran.

Seize this opportunity to send the Nazi BNP packing

The leak of the membership list for the fascist British National Party (BNP) is an opportunity for trade unionists and anti-fascists to drive home a blow against Britain’s largest Nazi organisation.

The BNP membership list, dating from late last year, was posted online last night. BNP leader Nick Griffin admitted today that the leak came from inside the organisation. A disgruntled former senior BNP employee was to blame, he said.

The fascists are in no position to complain about their privacy being invaded. They have long used hate sites such as “Red Watch” to publish personal information about anti-Nazi activists. Now they are turning these same tactics on themselves.

Read more at SW here

© Copyright Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original and leave this notice in place.

If you found this article useful please help us maintain SW by » making a donation.

Birkbeck justice 4 Cleaners campaign demonstration

There was a very good meeting at Birkbeck College on Thursday evening (20 November) with John McDonnell MP and Jose Stalin Bermudez, a cleaner originally from Ecuador and UNISON member, currently victimised at his workplace, on the platform. The event was organised the London Living Wage campaign, which has sprung up at the college with the support of the Students' Union's leadership, and the local branches of UNISON and the lecturers' union, the UCU.

The campaign is seeking to emulate the success of a similar effort at the neighbouring School of Oriental and African Studies (as well as the LSE) and force the college authorities to implement the London Living Wage (currently £7.45 an hour) on all outsourced contracts. Currently, a high proportion of cleaners, for example, are paid on the national minimum of £5.73 an hour - poverty pay by any estimation in the context of contemporary London.

Comrades, especially those in central London, should try and make it along to a protest lobby called to coincide with the meeting of Birkbeck College's governing body

Wednesday 03 December from 5.00 PM onwards.

The rally, which should last 90 minutes to two hours, will take place outside the college's main building in Torrington Sq, WC1 (around the corner from the historic entrance in Malet Street) with speakers from UNISON, the RMT and London Citizens among others. The nearest tube stations are Euston Square, Goodge Street, Russell Square and Warren Street.

There are obvious logistical difficulties, but perhaps there is a possibility of developing links with the ongoing campaign against the AMEY victimisations.

Hitler's BNP membership gets leaked

Asking for it...

One thing that strikes me about the women only Reclaim the Night demonstration that i went on last night was the issue of how and where women face violence.

At the after party I met Alex Brew, a photographer, who has recently published a collection of her photographs questioning this very point. Alex told me how she had submitted her photos to a number of top male magazines but to no avail. Is this only a woman's issue then?

Here is the write up of the exhibition from her website, this is the link to see the photos:

DIVA magazine named the preview of "Asking for it" at Ladyfest London in the Islington Arts Factory as its hot pick. DIVA said: "The artist approaches men in public places – outside offices, pubs, cafes and gentlemen's venues often in London's square mile. She confronts them with her camera and sometimes asks them to fully or partially undress in a more private space – in an alleyway, a car park, or back at their place or hers.

The images illuminate the risks women take everyday in a culture that believes that the stranger is more dangerous than the man by your side in spite of the statistics that show the opposite."

This is about why women don't tend to objectify men and the massive obstacles in a woman's way if she goes after a positive, active sexuality: not least fear - of alienation, disapproval or violence. Not only by individual men but by the legal system.

Socialist planning

Socialist planning, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

Seize this opportunity to send the Nazi BNP packing

Last night I spent hours scouring the lists. I am pleased that there is only one, in my area, one in my previous are and two registered nazi's in Camden where we have been campaigning recently. In Camden where they stood two months ago they only got 29 votes so well done to Camden UAF and all those that campaigned together. United we stand.

Have a look at the lists yourself. There are many links on facebook and on the net. You will be shocked (or not) by how many ex-military and police officers on it. to search, for those of you who are not familiar with Excel, click tools then sort and sort in various ways. Columns J & K are where you can see the occupations. Then hold Ctrl and press 'f'. you can then search by keywords such as 'renew' or 'military' or 'police' fro example and the keep pressing 'next' for the next entry. Fascinating stuff.

In cases where people haven't renewed their memberships, you can also see why-some very illuminating evidence: 'under police investigation' is one of the entries!!

This Is England Filmshowing at SOAS Freshers, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

Read the report at Socialist Worker here.

SOAS Love Music Hate Racism gig TODAY. All welcome

Following a film showing of This Is England SOAS LHMR society was launched in September. Today they host their 3rd event. Please bring all your anti-racist friends and family to what will be yet another brilliant campaigning music event.


Love Music Hate Racism: Free Gig Friday Returns!

This Friday we at the LMHR society are presenting you with our second gig night in the JCR.

This time the bar is open until 1am, and will be accompanied by the 1st SOAS beer festival downstairs.

The live music also lasts until 1am you'll be pleased to hear. The acts are as follows...

* Visionary Underground (live drum and bass) www.myspace.com/visionaryunderground

* Coppers for Karma (funk-psychobilly-folk rock) http://www.coppersforkarma.com/

* The Frank Hamilton Band (folk-acoustic-indie) http://www.myspace.com/frankhamiltonband

* Something Simple (funk-jazz-latin) http://www.myspace.com/somethingsimple

Music starts at 18:30, this Friday, SOAS JCR, Everyone is welcome.

Shame on Prof. Hugh Collins Head of Law at LSE

He was quoted as saying it would be 'clearly unfair' for BNP members to be sacked 'just for being a member of a political party'.

From today's Metro:

"Prof Hugh Collins, head of law at the London School of Economic and Political Science, agreed that sacked BNP members could sue for unfair dismissal.

'There is a freedom of association right which is supposed to protect people's rights to join political parties.

'For most workers I would have thought it would be clearly unfair to be dismissed just for being a member of a political party,' Prof Collins said."

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Sacked_BNP_members_%91could_claim_%A310,000%92&in_article_id=410443&in_page_id=34

His email address is:

h.collins@lse.ac.uk

Home Office forces Uni's to act as immigration informers

Outcry from lecturers over plans to make them ’spies’.University of London staff have fiercely denounced new government rules which will force university staff to report international students who fail to turn up to class to border authorities.

An implementation plan for new immigration rules, published on October 30^th, will see universities receive licences from the United Kingdom Border Authority (UKBA) and operate as students’ sponsors, reporting those who do not enrol, miss tutorials or coursework submissions, or who discontinue their studies.

The measures, which will be phased in over a twelve month period starting in March 2009, require universities to acquire licences in order to recruit students from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), and are part of a new Australian-style points based immigration system.

A letter published in the Guardian newspaper and signed by over 200 academics in the 24 hours before it was printed said: “The new immigration rules for overseas students to be introduced in March 2009 by the Border Agency are very worrying”.

“The university is being asked to act as an immigration officer and set up a surveillance unit over these students. This goes far beyond the present monitoring of student progress systems in universities, which has as its basic purpose assisting students to reach their full potential.”

At the time of going to press, the number of signatories had reached around 360, including staff from the LSE, SOAS, UCL and Birkbeck College, the letter’s author Ian Grigg-Spall said.

Speaking to London Student, Mr Grigg-Spall, a lecturer at Kent University Law School and Academic chair of the National Critical Lawyers Group, said: “This is a matter of principle. It breaches academic freedom and universities’ autonomy.”

“Relationships between staff and students rely on trust, this creates mistrust and destroys that relationship”.

“The idea that universities must know where students are at all times is just wrong as a matter of principle,” he added.

Read more at London Student

UCU Prseident Sally Hunt, said: "We have grave concerns that new rules on monitoring foreign students have been pulled together without any consultation with the people who would be tasked with their implementation. We do not believe it is appropriate or effective to task colleges and universities with the policing of immigration."

To read the UCU's response, click here:
http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=3599
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7719476.stm - BBC To read the letter,
click here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/10/immigration-policy-immigratio
n-and-public-services
For more, click here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/nov/10/international-students-migra
nt-scams-crackdown

See facebook campaign from NUS International Students Officer

Breathalising students on campus

OMG, i just received this email on the Students' Union presidents mailing list. I cant tell you where's it from at the mo but PLEASE, please do email ME at revolution@soas.ac.uk and i will pass it on.

"We’ve been alerted to a practice on our acting courses, where lecturers are insisting students take a breathalyser test on a Wednesday morning and denying them access to classes if they “fail”.

Students tell us that this has been brought in across the acting courses to treat students “equally” as there is a perceived need to protect those engaging in Stage combat practicals and training.

Our initial thoughts are:

• Is this an illegal search? Do students have a right to privacy if there is no immediate risk to their self or others?
• Who is administering the tests? How are they certified as competent?
• What processes are in place to prevent “false positives”? How do we resolve such?
• What machinery / equipment is being used? How often is it calibrated? And, again, by certified technicians?
• What redress does a fee-paying student have for being denied contact time with academic personnel?

Any reactions, input, ideas or examples of this occurring elsewhere will be very welcome…

Thanks!"

Lenin & the Party-Tony Cliff part 1

Excellent animated video recording of Tony Cliff, the founding member of SWP from notthe BBC

Why do we need a revolutionary party? Marx said "the emancipation of the working class is the act of the working class". But, at the same time, there exists a contradiction. That is: the ruling ideas are in society are the ideas of the ruling class.

How do we overcome these contradictions? Who are strikers fighting against? What can and should revolutionaries do to intervene?

It's so good it's a repeat...

We are temporarily out-of-order

metanymically rather than metaphorically me thinks although i will stand corrected if you think otherwise...

Ideology and Roses-where's the bread?

My witty tutor posted this to the blog of our class 'Myth & Mythmaking'.

Slightly freaked out that Axel is poised as the creating the Greatest Album of all time...although i would possibly agree that they are quite good. Just don't tell anyone that i had a crush on him when younger-yes, i said youngER.

Read more at Ideology&Roses (and the Hope for the Future)

Miss Ogynisity competition-join the fightback

Miss Ogynisity competition, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

Boycott Prada if you can live without your luxuries for just a while...

I doubt if many of you regularly buy leather goods sold by Prada, Louis
Vuitton, Mulberry and Nicole Farhi. These are luxury brands, priced too
high for ordinary working people like us.

But the people who make those products are often low-paid, non-union
workers. When those workers stand up and fight for their rights, it's
our responsibility to stand with them.

Earlier this year, hundreds of workers at the Turkish leather
manufacturer DESA -- which produces for all the luxury brands mentioned
above -- joined a union. The reaction of the company was fierce: 44
union members were sacked, and 50 more compelled to quit the union.

Nevertheless, the workers have stood firm, holding daily protests
outside the factory. Local police have been called in to arrest them,
and bribes offered to union leaders to call off the demonstrations.
Families have been threatened.

Workers at DESA need a union urgently. They complain of poverty wages,
long hours and terrible health and safety conditions.

Please take a moment to send off a message to DESA's customers -- the
luxury fashion brands -- telling them that you support the DESA workers
in their struggle:

http://www.labourstart.org/desa

Tell them that a union is right, not a luxury.

Thanks - and spread the word!

What Muslims can expect from Obama (in his own words)

Record of protests as part of the international day of action so far

http://www.emancipating-education-for-all.org/content/record-protests-part-international-day-action-so-far

Nazi Gangs Attack Protesting Students in Rome, Italy

Protesting students in Italy are attacked by fascist gangs with help from the police.

Reminder of protest today-Tak the rich to fund education

Meet SOAS steps at 2pm. Or at your Uni's usual place of assembly.

Education protest, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

Anti-terror police 'need Muslims' ...

An article in the Times today reports that the police force, in response to the 'increase in terrrorism' needs to recruit more Muslims 'with a cultural, religious or linguistic understanding of the individuals most likely to be involved in these groups'

...oh, perlease. Why? So Muslims can be arrested in their 'own language'? Just as Enoch Powell studied Urdu at SOAS in order to be able to continue the Imperial rule in the Sub-continent, this is nothing more than a false attempt to present the police as a caring force for the community.

Why not teach other police that not all Muslims are the same, or that not all brown people are Muslims (think John Charles de Menezes) . Employing more Muslim police officers will not detract from the fact that the police force is institutionally racist (See the National Black Police Association's call for recruitment boycott ).

why don't they spend more money on arresting the real criminals in society-tax evaders,brutal police, war criminals, State terrorists, exploiters, racist/homophobic/sexist bigots.

I have written this in a rush so please continue my train of thought below...

Possibly the most boring thing in the world: A Beginners Guide to Compositing

Drafting Commission/compositing for NUS Extraordinary Conference 2008.

My very first video coming soon (as soon as i figure out how to upload it)...

Done it-wee hee! Sound quality a bit poor but well done to luddite me anyway. Check out all the fancy effects :-)

News: Ali Baher re-instated

Cross posted from FreeSpeech08: Ali Baher

THS JUST IN: The University returned Ali’s student card, cancelled all disciplinary charges (it’s now pretending that there never were any), and has reinstated him to the dorms!!

A ton of thanks is in order to all the people that made it happen. First and foremost to the 538 signatories of the English petition and 220 of the Hebrew one, discounting the odd anti/pro-semitic troll here and there; the 600 people who joined the campaign’s Facebook group; and very importantly, the many of you who emailed the University. A separate thank-you is in order to the many more that posted the info on their blogs, forwarded our emails, and generally chipped in.

The campaign also received a (somewhat belated) comment from the University. We will be adding it to this post later in the night.

The Freedom of Speech 2008 blog will now formally shut down (unless there are other attacks on students and faculty you want us to report on!), as will the petitions, the Facebook group and our email page. We would also ask you to stop e-mailing the University officials, unless you want to congratulate them on making the right decision - the fight is won, and there’s little point in rubbing it in. However, for those of you who subscribed to our RSS feeds, please don’t cut the links just yet - if there’s another attempt at freedom of speech on Israeli campuses, we will be the first to let you know. Thank you, goodnight, and see you around :)

In solidarity,

Your campaign team

News flash: Batman attacks Workers Power. We need urgent solidarity.

Activist Nora Younis awarded Human Rights Prize-well done Nora

From Nora's site

I was just awarded Human Rights First 2008 award.

I am quoting HRF here: “One of the few well-known women bloggers in Egypt, Younis, 31, represents a growing movement of young activists who use new media technologies -blogs and websites like Flickr and YouTube- to expose and document human rights abuses

Does social networking media curb activism?

Article by Alexandra Sandels

Life After Capitalism-the series...

Life After Capitalism-the series..., originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

Socialist Aotearoa Post Election Debate begins

The NZ Election- Notes to kickstart a Socialist Aotearoa electoral analysis
from Joe C

The mobile's been hopping all day with texts from activists and disillusioned union members- all looking for a post electoral strategy. When the Soft Left was in power, many people saw us socialists as a moral conscience, out fighting the brave fight that might push things a little further to the left- like the $12 an hr minimum wage and youth rates campaign.

But now the Soft Left is in disarray- people are actually looking for some bravery and firm ideas. Who's going to take the battle to Key and Hide? And a lot of rank and file members are calling for a harder fightback than they got from the weak reformist electoral leaders- there is a huge potential anger in a lot of the young Greens, Labour and working class Maori Party voters.

What's going to happen?

Click here for more...

Results breakdown here

Hebrew uni student faces suspension for refusing to shake hands with Shimon Peres

THIS IS A FACEBOOK GROUP DEDICATED TO RESTORING THE STUDENT RIGHTS OF ALI BAHER, A STUDENT OF THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY, WHO HAD BEEN KICKED OUT OF HIS DORMS AND IS PENDING SUSPENSION - ALL FOR REFUSING TO SHAKE HANDS WITH PRESIDENT SHIMON PERES.

*********!!!!!!!!!!!***************

*****
Ali's hearing about his dorm room is tomorrow 8am. We will submit the petition tomorrow at 7am. PLEASE SIGN HERE ASAP: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/freespeech2008
********!!!!!!!!!!!!*******************

Running updates of the campaign here: http://freespeech2008.wordpress.com
Sign English petition here: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/freespeech2008
עצומה בעברית כאן: http://www.atzuma.co.il/petition/freespeech2008/1/
Contact the campaign here: free.speech.huji@gmail.com

To find out what this about and what you can do to help, keep reading..

הסבר בעברית: http://freespeech2008.wordpress.com/עברית/


What is this about?
--------------

According to Haaretz (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1033605.html), Ali Baher, Chairman of the Arab Student Committee at the Hebrew-U, was studying in the university library, when the President walked in and began shaking hands with students. Ali refused to shake hands with Peres, saying that he was a child murderer and reminding him of the Qana massacre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qana_Massacre), which was carried out under Peres's premeirship.

When the president left the library, Ali was assaulted by security guards, who questioned him for three hours before serving him with a demand to appear before the discplinary committee of the university, on suspicion of "inappropriate conduct". This charge can potentially lead to Ali's suspension from the university. The guards also confiscated Ali's student card, which restricts his access to essential university services, such as, indeed, the library.

Later on this week, Ali came home to the dorms to find his room broken into, with political sticker torn off and the door handle vandalized. He submitted a complaint to the security staff, and was visited in the morning by the manager of the dorms, Mr Yitzhak Hofy, and his staff. They made no mention of the break-in, and instead proceded to inform Ali that his halls contract was ended, on the feeble ground that a shisha pipe was found in his room and his walls had posters on it - admittedly an infringement of dorms regulations but a fairly light and common one.

Ali needs to evict the room by Wednesday, November 11. The date for the hearing had not yet been set.


What is our stance?
---------------

We believe that the assault on Ali's freedom and academic future is purely political and has little to do with university regulations. Ali is an elected representative and chairman of the Arab Student Commitee, a legal and registered organization set up to assist Arab students who feel underrepresented by the ordinary Student Union. The University sees the Committee - political and committed as it is - as a threat, and the unprecdented attack on Ali is both a result and a proof of that; and while Ali's comments on Peres's record may sound harsh to some and even innaccurate to others, he was perfectly within his rights to make them. Free speech, even angry speech, should not etch a question mark on a young man's professional and academic future.

What are the demands?
------------------

We demand that Ali's student card be restored, his dorms contract reinstated, and all proceedings against him will be stopped. We also demand that the University apologizes to Ali for this gross impingement of his freedom and dignity, and that the incident be struck off from his disciplinary and academic record.

We also demand that the President of Israel and the Peres Peace Centre - both ostenstibly committed to democratic and liberal values - make clear their position on this outrage.

What can we do?
-------------

1. Spread the word!

2. Sign out petition! http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/freespeech2008

3. Visit our website frequently to learn more and to stay in touch: http://freespeech2008.wordpress.com


We welcome everyone and anyone, of any political persuaison, Left, Right, Centre, Green, religious, secular, atheists agnostics muslims jews christians and anyone at all. Free speech is not a luxury - it's a necessity. Free speech is not a privilege for the "right-thinking" or even the "nice" or "polite" - it's the one tool that any person or group have at their disposal to work for change.

Suppression of one person is the suppression of each and every one of us.

URGENT ALERT (Sunday 9 Nov): Israeli gunboats firing on fishing boat (Update 11am)

Greta Berlin just emailed this from Cyprus. She is on the satellite phone with David Schermerhorn. He is out fishing with Vik, Nicos and the Palestinians. They were attacked from the moment they passed the 6-mile limit. Water cannons and machine gun fire into the water. At 9:29, he called me again. The gunboat has come within 50 feet of the fishing boat and has cut across where the nets are.

Vik is yelling at the Israeli gunboat, telling them that three internationals are on board and they are all unarmed and they just want to go fishing. The pleas were met by water cannon so strong that all of the people on board went into the cabin for protection. David is trying to get water samples to bring back and have analyzed.

The connection is very difficult to understand, but I can hear Vik in the background and hear the machine gun fire and the water hitting the wheelhouse. They are trying to break the windows in the wheelhouse. Another fishing boat about 100 yards off is also being attacked. He then yelled in the phone that the boat was being hit by water from the front, that the Israeli gunboat is trying to actually break up the boat.

The connection just broke. Please put whatever pressure on that you can ...

Update:

At 10:53 an Israeli gunboat is off the port side of the fishing boat getting ready to spray dirty water on the crew and the fish. The crew is trying to raise the nets and the fish inside. The Israeli military on board the gunboat have masks on before they spray the boat, an indication that the water is going to be dirty.

The way point of the boat is .021 as the fishermen frantically try to raise their nets. The larger gunboat with the water cannon mounted on it has gone around to the winward side of the fishing boat, where they always shoot the water cannon. It is 50 yards off and preparing to fire as the nets are being hauled in as fast as the crew can work. As David is talking at 11:05, gunboat started to fire dirty water, attacking the crew and the fish. Nicos has collected the water in a sample jar and will bring it back for analysis. They are trying to ruin the catch.

Update: 11:23 The large gunboat has dropped back after spraying the crew with dirty water. The crew dropped the fish back into the sea to protect them and they were not hit. David said that the military men on the gunboat were wearing hazmat suits an masks, an indication of how dangerous the water must be. Everyone on board was hit, but no fish were ruined.

URGENT ALERT: Israeli gunboats firing on fishing boat (Update 11am)

Date : 11-9-08

Greta Berlin just emailed this from Cyprus. She is on the satellite phone with David Schermerhorn. He is out fishing with Vik, Nicos and the Palestinians. They were attacked from the moment they passed the 6-mile limit. Water cannons and machine gun fire into the water. At 9:29, he called me again. The gunboat has come within 50 feet of the fishing boat and has cut across where the nets are.

Vik is yelling at the Israeli gunboat, telling them that three internationals are on board and they are all unarmed and they just want to go fishing. The pleas were met by water cannon so strong that all of the people on board went into the cabin for protection. David is trying to get water samples to bring back and have analyzed.

The connection is very difficult to understand, but I can hear Vik in the background and hear the machine gun fire and the water hitting the wheelhouse. They are trying to break the windows in the wheelhouse. Another fishing boat about 100 yards off is also being attacked. He then yelled in the phone that the boat was being hit by water from the front, that the Israeli gunboat is trying to actually break up the boat.

The connection just broke. Please put whatever pressure on that you can ...

Update:

At 10:53 an Israeli gunboat is off the port side of the fishing boat getting ready to spray dirty water on the crew and the fish. The crew is trying to raise the nets and the fish inside. The Israeli military on board the gunboat have masks on before they spray the boat, an indication that the water is going to be dirty.

The way point of the boat is .021 as the fishermen frantically try to raise their nets. The larger gunboat with the water cannon mounted on it has gone around to the winward side of the fishing boat, where they always shoot the water cannon. It is 50 yards off and preparing to fire as the nets are being hauled in as fast as the crew can work. As David is talking at 11:05, gunboat started to fire dirty water, attacking the crew and the fish. Nicos has collected the water in a sample jar and will bring it back for analysis. They are trying to ruin the catch.

Update: 11:23 The large gunboat has dropped back after spraying the crew with dirty water. The crew dropped the fish back into the sea to protect them and they were not hit. David said that the military men on the gunboat were wearing hazmat suits an masks, an indication of how dangerous the water must be. Everyone on board was hit, but no fish were ruined.

Some wise words from wordster Dizzie Rascal

When asked whether he believes in political parties, he sharply replies:

"yeah, they exist-i believe in them, i don't know if I care...Politicians are gonna say what they say...every now and again you get a genuine one. People as a whole make the difference. I don't think one person or party can make a difference".

True say Mr Rascal.

**Dizzie for Prime Minister**

Historical Materialism conference at SOAS this weekend

Historical Materialism is a high level conference with some fabulous speakers right on our dorrsteps at SOAS this weekend.

Sessions on Adorno-Emancipatory praxis and conceptuality in Adorno: Some notes on the time of insurrection. One on "All that is fluid is frozen to stone: sex, individuality, non-identity"

Vygotsky, Gramsci, Zizek, Althusser, Lucaks, Orientalism, Postcolonialism, New left in Palestine and much more.

It suggests a donation for entrance but you could blag it if you bemoan the fact that we are studying at universties in a neo-liberal world; (correct this time? please, please say yes) fees, kids, having to work etc!!

Call me on 07958 034 181 if you want to meet up.

Link to website and full program: http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/hm/

Two sessions to wet (whet?) your whistle eg. Friday 10am:

MARX AND PHILOSOPHY SOCIETY: NORMATIVITY AND ALIENATION
Chair: Martin McIvor
Sean Sayers
Alienation as a critical concept
Gaspar Miklos Tamas
The uniqueness of capitalism and the normative content of a socialist political philosophy
Nicholas Joll
The normativity problem in critical theory: Adorno, Bernstein, Freyenhagen

MARXISMS AND RELIGION
Chair: Peter Thomas
John Roberts
Marx and the "critique of the critique of religion‟ today
Sami Khatib
Capitalism as religion: Re-reading Walter Benjamin‟s Marxism
Alberto Toscano
The mask of apocalypse, the flag of fanaticism: Marxism, religion and revolt

Anyway, hope to see you there...x

Walking tour around Londons capitalist crisis points

A walking tour and talk in the City of London, taking in landmarks of capitalist crisis past and present - organised by Mute magazine

(Writer) Fabian Tompsett and (Historian) Peter Linebaugh will guide a tour around the City relating the contemporary financial crisis to those of previous eras (such as the 1720 South Sea Bubble), using the urban fabric as text.

When: 3-5pm, Wednesday 12th November, 2008
Where: Meet 3pm at front entrance to the Royal Exchange, Threadneedle Street, London EC1
Nearest Tube: Bank
Admission: Free / All welcome

How did YOU vote? Or your next-door neighbours 2nd cousins dog twice removed?

I counted 42 categories before i ran out of time and i was only a third down the page!

A great time filler for students who are supposed to be reading (it's 'Reading' week at SOAS-half term to all you normal people): beats washing the windows.

See for yourself here

And the croud goes wild...

Obama letter to UN about Hamas 'terrorists'

Obama letter, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

Exhibition exposes modern tragedy of Babylon

Apr 14 2008:Robert Booth

• British Museum leads calls to preserve Iraq's heritage after coalition troops accused of destroying historic sites

• Show more details…

Emergency Education Protest-Tax the Rich

Education protest, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

Children's minister voices opposition to 'London living wage'

Once again a rich MPs attack the poor by claiming wage rises fuel inflation. I wonder if they can even comprehend what it is like to live on £5.53 per hour?

"Ed Balls, the children's secretary, and Yvette Cooper, the chief secretary to the Treasury, have launched an attack on the so-called London living wage – the £7.45 an hour recommended minimum for all workers in the capital. They claim it would be "artificial, inflationary" and not "necessary or appropriate." "

"There is nothing artificial about the financial hardship the people who keep this country running face" says Mark Serwotka, Gen Sec of PCS.

Read more here.

Chris Rock about the War on Terror

Stolen from a certain Mr Game:

why (hopefully) the US elections will go like they will. There was a wonderful moment on Newsnight when Paxman, who increasingly represents the most obnoxious face of the British ruling class whimsically pointed out that the war was 'irrelevent' in the US election. He was vociferously contradicted by all Americans on the panel. The reason he was attempting to assert this was because of the elites visceral dislike of any concensus established by popular mobilization. In correctly warning that Obama is not about to change the nature of US capitalism it is absolutely vital that socialists do not resemble the dissolute cynicism of our rulers. You see the erosion of Bush all through Chris Rock's act amongst ordinary people even if he is hardly very radical himself. That erosion has been an excellent thing and the vote tonight is an index of it depth. And that is no bad thing. Hopefully

Report back from Another Education is Possible conference

Over 170 delegates participated throughout the day in the various workshops and debates. The overwhelming feeling of delegates was that we need an urgent response to the crisis in our education system. The NUS is not going to act to mobilise students so we need to fill that gap and start to rebuild the student movement from below. In this spirit the conference passed the founding statement and three amendments focused on action. Below are the initiatives called by the conference and the results of the committee elections.

Emergency Demonstration - 3pm on Friday the 14^th of November

Assemble outside Westminster Cathedral, Victoria Street (5 minutes from Victoria station)

Tax the rich to fund…

• FREE EDUCATION & LIVING GRANTS FOR ALL
• £200 million “missing” from the governments budget for higher education but Billions in bail outs for the bankers

We have seen year-on-year attacks on our right for an education. The latest are cuts to thousands of student grants after a £200 million short-fall from the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills. This comes only a few weeks after the government promised to bail out bankers with billions of tax payer’s money.

(Publicity will be out in the next few days)

For a National Student Demonstration (25^th of Feburary)

The existing calls for a national demonstration are positive and need to be turned into real activity on the ground. The conference agreed to call the demonstration for Wednesday the 25^th of February assembling at ULU. The demonstration will then be in run up to the government announcing its new budget.

The conference also committed itself to organising an open meeting to discuss the demonstration and take the organisation of it to the next level. The steering committee will meet soon to put together an event where we can both launch the demonstration and draw together as many activists as possible to organise mobilising for it.

A National Tour

The conference noted that many high profile figures support our call to build a student movement for free education. The steering committee will organise contact speakers to organise meetings across the country to discuss what is happening to our education and organise action to defend it.

Election Results:

The following committee was elected:

Chair: Damiani Sourmaidou

Secretary: Yousuf Joondan

Convener: Dominic Kavakeb

Treasurer: Jenny Jones

Communications: Rob Owen

Block of ten:

Tom Wills (Sussex)

Bonolo Woracker (Coventry)

Zakeera Suffee (Essex)

Mpegwa Mwakang'ata (SOAS)

James Norrie (Oxford)

Alison Smith (Plymouth)

Siobhan Brown (Manchester)

James Foley (Glasgow)

Ben Sellers (SOAS)

Matt Vicary (Sheffield Hallam)

Discovering the source of wealth-part 1

In the first part of our new series on the history of economics, Anindya Bhattacharyya examines the theories of Adam Smith and David Ricardo

Adam Smith is considered to be the founder of modern economics. He was a pivotal figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, a period of intellectual and scientific creativity that swept across Scotland in the mid to late 18th century.

Read more here.

© Copyright Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original and leave this notice in place.

Help comrade Hossam unblock his Flickr account

He says: I had noticed that some of my recent pix from Ireland, that included the Palestine and the Republican murals were not viewable to the public unless they were signed in. I emailed the Flickr Gods...

Read more at Flickr censors my account

Also, please send the following short message to this email address:(case982056@support.flickr.com):

Dear Sir/Madam,
I voice my opposition to your decision to censor Hossam el-Hamalawy’s account.

This is what i sent:

Dear Sir/Madam,
I voice my opposition to your decision to censor Hossam el-Hamalawy’s account.

Hossam has worked very hard getting people on to Flickr, including myself.

I have now continued his work and got even my aunty on flickr. We appreciate your service not least because it now means we dont have to force overseas friends and family to join facebook in order to see our pics, but also because flickr is such a great facility which is easy to use for us luddites.

Many thanks, but in protest

Security thugs assault Helwan U Socialists

Cross posted from Arabawy

Plainclothes thugs, with the help of the police, assaulted yesterday some members of the Resistance Students on Helwan University campus…

SOAS dancing on the grave of capitalism

See more pics at my fickr account

Canary Wharf Station, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

We wont bail out the bankers-Halloween special, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

SANY0057, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

Copy of SANY0025, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

Very ghostly pic...

A real ghostly pic, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

They followed a group of about 25 of us all the way to the Stop the War party. They were actually quite friendly (I'm not sure what their plan was) and even stopped the traffic to allow us to cross!

Me and Malaika looking oooh ever so scary! Suzie and I won a competition for scariest outfits, well, we came second but it was fixed! i also won the champagne in the raffle which was much more exciting...

New services good for bloggers...

12 Second TV-works a bit like Twitter/Jaiku and allows you to post 12 second video clips. Although, i haven't worked out how yo use it properly-i'll keep you posted.

And another one called Qik.com

Current/12 Election Challenge: Sing a campaign song for Obama or McCain. on 12seconds.tv


Current/12 Election Challenge: Sing a campaign song for Obama or McCain. on 12seconds.tv

US attack on Syria