Lobby of Home Office TMRW 5.30-6.30pm: Our cleaners are not criminals!

Let them stay..

Our cleaners are not criminals!

Staff and students at SOAS are calling for Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for the Home Office, to grant leave to remain with permission to work for Marina Silva and Rosa dePerez, two of the SOAS cleaners picked up in a brutal immigration raid on 12^thJune. Marina, who is 63 and has applied for asylum, following het brutal honour killing of her husband and threats to her own life, and Rosa, who has four children to support in Nicaragua, remain in detention following the raid. Their colleagues, including six months pregnant Luzia, were deported within 48 hours of the raid.

Cleaners at SOAS had demanded and organised for dignity at work with many joining a union. They had succeeded in winning union recognition from the privatised cleaning firm ISS and raising their pay to the London Living Wage—higher than other colleges in the area. It is of grave concern that the raid, organised by ISS, took place shortly after this campaign and on the very day on which UNISON was due to protest in support of an activist who had played a leading role in organising the cleaners at SOAS.

Please support our campaign:

Lobby the Home Office, Tuesday 30^th June, 5.30-6.30pm

2 marsham st, millbank, Sw1

Sign the letter requesting leave to remain is granted to Marina and Rosa

http://freesoascleaners.blogspot.com/2009/06/send-this-letter-to-home-office-now.html

For more information go to: http://freesoascleaners.blogspot.com/

Stop the Deportation of SOAS University Cleaners!

Supported by SOAS SU, UNISON and UCU

SOAS Occupiers host lunchtime filmshowing & food at Marxism

HANDS OFF OUR WORKMATES

Please join the Facebook group if you are coming so we know how much food to prepare.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=96483986237&ref=ts

If you are not on facebook, leave your name and number of people below in the comments on the blog: http://freesoascleaners.blogspot.com/2009/06/soas-occupiers-host-lunchtime.html

Saturday, 4th July. 1-2pm on SOAS grass.

Please join us for an outdoor filmshowing of a number of our videos and photos's. Followed by discussion, Q&A's and Equadorian food.

===================================

On 12th June cleaners at Soas were rounded up by immigration officials at an early morning meeting.

9 people were detained consequently 5 have been deported, one was over 6 months pregnant and one has had a heart attack and received absolutely no medical assistance not even water.

SOAS students, staff and supporters occupied the Directors offices from 10am.

We filmed the whole thing. We want you to show you what we did and will answer questions and discuss where next for the campaign.

Start up your own campaign. If this can happen at SOAS of all places it can happen anywhere. This needs to be stopped. Our fellow workmates should not be living in a state of fear.

HANDS OFF OUR WORKMATES

Including food and discussion.

PLEASE RSVP so we know how much food to prepare.

If it is raining we will transfer to our common room.

This is a truly SOAS affair-we hope you join us.

SOAS UGM makes Indian news

Excellent victory at SOAS general mtg-Israel IS an Apartheid state.

Full motions document can now be found HERE.

Yesterday's packed (although due to essay deadlines not quite as packed as usual) Union General meeting brought surprise victories for ALL the motions submitted. 

Interestingly, in the Make Apartheid History motion, someone proposed to take the 'resolves 3: 3) Affiliate our Union to the “Campaign for Academic Boycott of Israeli Institutions” carried out in the UK by BRICUP and by PACBI in Palestine.' to discuss seperately. 

Which we did and it still passed almost unanimously. So, what this means is that the person didn't want to have the academic boycott bit in the main motion but would have been in favour of the motion if that part was removed. It wasn't so now we have policy on the whole motion.

Motions included:

• Make Apartheid History; Israel is an Apartheid State, affiliate to BRICUP (for academic boycott of Israeli institutions)
  
• Stop the BNP- On the Streets and at the Ballot Box: No Platform for Fascists
  
• No Means No!
  
• No to Commodification of Communism
  
• Solidarity With Gaza
  
• Mobilisation Against the G20 and NATO Conference
  
• Working with FE Colleges on the Future of Education
  
• Save Our Universities: Save London Met
  
• Supporting Student Activism
  

Comrades spoke confidently and passionately. We had hardly any opposition. There is a slight issue with the no Platform for Fascists motion which i am trying to deal with. Will keep you informed.

Candidates who are standing for election passed some very important motions. Katie Boothby was brilliant. Clearly our approach this year has brought people closer to us and we are now planning how to maximise on this.

Another Education is Possible is a great campaign that can bring together forces on the left to fight for a united position on the 5 key points:

Free Education
Stop the War
Freedom for Palestine
Unite Against Fascism
Stop Climate Chaos.

We occupied the BBC on Portland place today in protest at the BBC's disgraceful decision to not show the DEC appeal....

A short clip on NEWSNIGHT! Go to minute 1.02 or so. I should be receiving more videos and photo's from the outside soon.

Found another short video so far. typically, it shows us at our smallest and quietest but hey, it's better than nothing. Does anyone know who to 'embed' it?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7850407.stm

Article in Indymedia with loads of great photo's by Guy Smallmans.

The trouble with being a 'citizenjournalist' and wanting to involved in the action is that it's hard to record what you're doing when you have your arms locked to someone else's!

We received 2 texts within 3 or 4 minutes of being ejected by people who had seen us on BBC News 24 being kicked out.

More on this soon...

Called within just a few hours and hardly built at all, about 50 or 60 protesters turned up to BBC on Portland place to protest about the disgraceful decision not to air the DEC appeal.

We got there a bit early and decided to storm the entrance leaving the police behind. We immediately sat down, linked arms and started chanting. We had a lot of support from BBC staff entering the building (i hope they can pull of a strike over this) by sort-of sneaky thumbs up when no-one was looking. Loads of press turned up, AP, Morning star and loads of others-I'm just waiting for the reports to stream in!! Please let me know if you see any of them....a comment below is fine.

I was invited onto BBC World Service and had to deal with an idiot Zionist who tried, somehow, to tie in Iran and their supposed nuclear weapons!!

CNN

Indymedia

They, the BBC, said: (italics my own-there is a definite case of contradictory consciousness/reporting here)

Around 20 (i would say there was 12 of us inside!!) campaigners from the Stop the War Coalition (SOAS StW society) walked (actually we stormed) into the lobby of the central London building with a large banner proclaiming Hands off Gaza (the only banner we could find!).

They were removed by police before continuing a (fairly) noisy protest outside, during which some of them set fire to their television licences

But, it's the small things that i find interesting: Once we had finished and a few of us were waiting for my radio slot, a well dressed woman was absent mindedly walking past us, she tripped over the barriers and she shot us an angry look. I thought she was going to shout at us: BLOODY BBC she said and waved her fingers in a 'peace' sign and smiled. She clearly knew why we were there.

Another snippet that made me smile was at a Chinese/Singaporean cafe right opposite the Israeli Embassy. We asked the guy who served us if the protests were bad for business. Absolutely, he said, but it's for a very good cause. We made sure to go back there as often as we could. Serving some of the best food I have ever eaten (and, being in catering for many years I'm very fussy!) at only £4-5 or so a meal i encourage you all to go there and support this small friendly family place: they've had to endure weeks of angry protesters blocking the street outside his place. And the spicy Tiger prawns are to die for.

Military recruiters kicked off campus at SOAS

One of our demands when we occupied the Brunei Suite at SOAS was to get assurance from the school that military propaganda will not be allowed on campus in the future. The school responded by saying that they would not allow any military on campus in the futuree without prior approval from the Students' Union.

Given that we passed a motion on Tuesday that resolved to oppose ALL military propaganda, a policy which will now last for FIVE years, we now have a mandate to say to the school 'NO, not on our campus'.

We claim this as a major result. An action that is part of an international campaign to oppose military recruiters on campuses and places of study.  UCL, a top university in England passed a motion for this last year and caused an uproar in the right-wing media...well done to UCL Stop the War Society.  Read another story here.

SUCCESS!!

So, you're only british if you fight in the British army. Fuming about racist exhibition at SOAS...

So, you're only British if you fight in the British army, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

Note the racist imagery

Fuming about racist exhibition at SOAS...

Last year we were approached by the Ministry of Defence asking us to host an exhibition about the war efforts of Black and Minority Ethnics in the World wars 1 & 2. We discussed it, put it to the union general meeting (UGM) and voted unanimously not to allow military propaganda into our union.

Imagine my reaction when i found out that the school have gone ahead with it regardless of what the students want...there is much more to this story-you will find it very illluminating. I need to write a motion for our UGM tmrw details of the agenda on post below. I will post the full story soon. Please come to the UGM tomorrow to support our emergency motion. Below is the message from the school...

This week SOAS is hosting an exhibition in the Brunei Suite (ground floor, Russell Square end of the Brunei Gallery Building) called the "We were there" exhibition. All students and staff are welcome to go in and have a look around, any time between 9am and 9pm Monday through Friday this week (12-16th Jan). There will also be some school parties visiting and at those times there will be a small number of serving officers in attendance.

The exhibit features the stories of many individuals from ethnic and religious minorities who have worked in or alongside the UK's defensive forces over the past 250 years including pilots, sailors and soldiers but also technicians and engineers, nurses and spies, all sorts of roles. The emphasis is on professionalism and service, rather than the events in which people became involved. 

This exhibition was developed with support from the Commission for Racial Equality and has won awards for bringing to public attention the involvement of people from minority groups. We hope that you will find it of interest.

Public meeting - The Myths of Zionism

The escalating crisis in Palestine has reignited a political debate over the history and nature of Zionism — the ideology of Jewish nationalism that underpins the Israeli state.

In response to the atrocities in Gaza Author and Teacher John rose speaks out.

Wednesday 6pm
Junior Common Room, SOAS students' Union, Thornhaugh St, London, WC1

ALL welcome

Motions for SOAS UGM. Please come to vote for school to issue statement condemning the attacks on Gaza

SOAS Students’ Union

 

Union General Meeting UGM

 

Tuesday 13 January 2009

Room: JCR

3:00pm

 

AGENDA

 

1.    Welcome & Introduction by Frank Dobson MP (Holborn/St Pancras)

2.    Matters arising from previous UGM and update(s)

3.    Students’ Union Officers’ Reports

4.    Q & A for Union Executives

5.  Motions-

a.   Break The Siege of Gaza

b.   SU Environment Policy

c.    Critique of CSC Report

d.   Students’ Union Survey

e.   Making the Black Officer the Ethnic Minorities Officer

f.     Insufficient Music Facilities

g.   Environmental Activism

h.   Global Peaceful Non- Violent Resistance

i.      Oppose the New Immigration Regulations for International Students

6.   Emergency Motions

j. Stop the Celebration of Tel Aviv while Gaza Burns

7.   Any Other Business (AOB) and announcements.

Read full motions 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.

African Students claim historic victory @ SOAS

During a debate on Free education of which I was on the panel, a large group of students interupted the meeting to protest about the NUS's disgraceful decision to find Kings College SU president not guilty of racism.

In my speech on Fighting for Free Education I spoke about the need to fight for your rights; that the ruling classes dont just wake up and think 'what am i going to do today?, erm, maybe i'll give women the right to vote'. NO, women had to fight for this right. And the Black Students Campaign were exactly right to disturb this meeting and fight for their rights.

Wes streeting complained that he felt intimidated and harrased, and one of our own Co-Presidents called security.I'm not suprised that the security guard, who is Nigerian, did not rush or try very hard to remove said protesters.

The Minority Students Campaign forced NUS President Wes Streeting to answer questions which he has for the most part avoided. In all fairness, althhough he spoke like a true politician, typically avoiding the truth, he did issue an apology and admitted that the NUS has handled this case poorly and will oversee changes in procedures to ensure that we do not see a repeat of this event.



Not known for mincing his words Lee Jasper severly reprimands Wes.



Well done to Mpegwa for demonstrating, and demonstrating what can be acheived when you stand up for your rights. Being his very first protest it wass great to see a whole new layer of angry students want to get involved.


Written by Alex Donald
23/10/08

A damning statement, demanding an “immediate apology” and threatening “further action from being taken”, has been released by the SOAS Student Union Executive (SU Exec.).

The joint statement, which was signed by Ben Sellers (President of Sports and Societies), Marya Ahmad (President of Welfare and Education) and Nizam Uddin (President of Finance and Communication) directly accuses the Enuff is Enuff campaign of “false claims, inaccuracies, misrepresentation and slander” regarding their coverage of last Wednesday’s demonstration in the Junior Common Room (JCR) against Wes Streeting, the President of the National Union of Students (NUS).

The statement, which can be read on the SOAS SU website, directly indicts SOAS African-Caribbean Society (ACS), Minority Students UK (MSUK), Afrikan and Afrikan-Caribbean Youth and Student Action group (AA-CYSA) and an unnamed SOAS co-Black Officer.

“The Students’ Union is requesting an immediate retraction and apology from all parties concerned to counter the disrepute that it has placed upon the SOAS Students’ Union and prevent further action from being taken.”

SNEWS has learnt that the President of SOAS ACS, Symeon Brown is currently in direct talks with Mr Uddin about the incident.

The statement released counters claims made by the ethnic minority students campaign group MSUK that the presence of Mr Streeting at SOAS last Wednesday was as a result of an “undemocratic invitation” by the “powers that be within SOAS Union.”

The SOAS Exec argues that it “defends its behaviour in line with its principles”

MSUK also accuses Mr Uddin directly of having “political affiliations” with Mr Streeting, an allegation that the statement dismisses as “false”.

Last Wednesday (15th), protesters stormed the SOAS JCR demanding the immediate resignation of Mr Streeting for failing to act swiftly against “institutional racism” within the NUS.

A heated argument, which can be viewed here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6rbCY50SqQ (Part 1 coming soon!), between Mr Uddin and SOAS Mature Students Officer Mpegwa Mwakang’ata took place, where Mr Mwakang’ata accused Mr Uddin of failing to uphold SU policy by inviting Mr Streeting.

Meanwhile, a source from within some of the groups mentioned, who wishes to remain anonymous, told SNEWS that statements responding to the Exec's statement will be released soon.

SOAS election results for NUS Conference Delegate

NUS Conference Delegate:

M.Naina 17...............LGBT officer and various left slogans.
N. Uddin 93.............SOAS Co-President - No politics on manifesto
J.Angliss 25..............Brilliant lefty Labour (and Another Education is Possible (?)-shame he wasn't allowed to put Free Education on his manifesto)
I.Drummond 20..........Respect Renewal
C.Solomon 88...........Another Education is Possible
R.Roy 7...................New Labour
A.Wootten 8..............New Labour
M.Mwakangata 20...... 'No to Slavery-No to Racist president at Kings'
J.Anderson 18............Tory-esque, defended Kings President, but covered manifesto in 'anti-racism' policies and hence got quite a few of mine and other lefties transfers
Re-Open Nominations 3

Toal votes cast: 312

All-in-all about 175 good Left 1st preferences. 93 centre/centre-left or un-aware/non aligned and about 30 centre-right

Me and Nizam Uddin were elected in the first round. Then after eight rounds of preferential vote allocation, Mas Naina got the third position.

Well done mas, shame John and/or ian didn't get in too-we would have had a full slate. I guess it's always hard beating the president (Nizam) who i would have expected to get a much higher vote.

SWSS update

The fact that loads of SOAS students attended the new members day school on Saturday demonstrates that not only is there a renewed fighting spirit but that it is our politics that can provide answers to the madness that is going on in the world, and students are looking to us for guidance.

We started the term with a variety of events to agitate, educate and organise and our strategy has paid off. We hired the Renoir cinema for a Unite Against Fascism event and over 200 people attended the filmshowing of This is England. We put a call out for immediate action to fight the BNP who were staying in the local area. 30 people stayed behind to start straight away.

They then set up a LMHR society which attracted another 200 sigh-ups at Freshers Fayre. At which, SWSS had a great response.

The following week a Stop the War mtg on Pakistan, Afghanistan & the Spread of War had 55 people followed by plans for a Die-in next Tuesday (tmrw). Jonathon Neal did a brilliant mtg on Climate Change at which we had 65 people.

At a caucus just before our UGM, having already seen us being active on campus, more non-members gathered around us and then clearly followed us when voting. The UGM had about 200 people (our quoracy is only 50) and we passed and opposed some very important motions including unanimous support for both the demonstration at the Bank of England and the People Before Profit Charter, defending staff against job cuts at SOAS, passed a motion condemning the racist persident at Kings and Notthingham colleges, defeated a Disaffiliation from NUS motion, and opposed the upcoming Miss University pageant.

The debate was of a high level and we smashed the right repeatedly getting the loudest cheers. Even though the mtg was 2 1/2 hrs long, and there was plenty of procedural motions and 'taking parts' which confused a lot of new students, we pulled many people with us and we came out buzzing if not bewildered!

We believe the success of the UGM is mainly due to the fact that we have taken student democracy very seriously, have consistently fought to bring back politics into the student movement and shown what can be done when we stand up for the oppressed and exploited.

SOAS SWSS is now raring to go to build for a Die-in on Tuesday and for the direct action against the Bank of England.

Justice 4 Cleaners Celebration-ALL welcome

J4C Celebration, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.