Is the idea of communism dead? Free entry to conference confirmed.

Today we can safely say that the idea that 'the idea of communism' is old news is indeed old news. The fact that the impending conference On the Idea of Communism being organised by the Birkbeck Institute of Humanities (BIH) sold out within 24hrs, coupled with a return to radical actions in the form of student and workplace occupations, demonstrates a renewed interest in looking for another way to organise the world. Marx's Capital has seen a massive rise in sales and reading groups based around his ideas are back on the agenda. This resurgence has not come from nowhere: it is grounded in material conditions; in the recession beginning to take a firm group on society, in the recent collapse of the banks, and in public services including education being the first places to be hit with cuts.

It is with this in mind that I want to contextualise SOAS's recent activities surrounding the above conference. SOAS and Birkbeck have a relationship that sometimes frustrates students and academics from both institutions including people at the BIH. We have a distinct lack of space at SOAS to hold society meetings and have noticed that an increasing number of our rooms have been given over to Birkbeck for teaching. We are not best pleased with this. Birkbeck management on the other hand are not best pleased with us either. Our recent successful Justice for Cleaners campaign at SOAS has, as Bbk management said at a UL management meeting, 'opened a can of worms' and they are right: Birkbeck students have also initiated their own cleaners campaign.

Further, we are aware of the government's recent withdrawal of funding for ELQ's (Equivalent Level Qualifications) which has meant that roughly 75% of Birkbeck students are no longer eligible for funding. So, financially, Birkbeck as an institution has been hit hard. Although it is the government who are ultimately responsible we are not convinced that Birkbeck management had the political will to fight these cuts on any more than a financial basis. When we heard about an expensive conference being hosted by Birkbeck of course we thought that it was Birkbeck proper, and not BIH (in fact most of us hadn't even heard of the BIH!), attempting to claw back lost revenue. We see plenty of events hosted by Birkbeck promoting right-wing ideas so in our motion we said that the fact that there is an extortionate charge was 'politically motivated'. We are pretty sure that a conference entitled 'On the Idea of Capitalism' would be free-Birkbeck would probably sponsor it personally!

Initially angry SOAS students wanted to storm the stage of the Communism conference. We decided that this would not be the best approach because it would appear that we are attacking the left and we are fully aware there are plenty of people who do this already. So, with only 5 minutes to deadline, we wrote a fairly basic (and not correctly researched) motion. To be honest SOAS UGM's are fairly laid back and we thought that any mistakes would be ironed out in the meeting. No-one challenged the motion and therefore not much more thought was given to the inaccuracies. The person on the exec who was then supposed to carry out the action points went on holiday leaving the issue in the air. So we took the issue up ourselves.

Through a series of meetings and discussions we are now aware that BIH do not get a single penny from Birkbeck or any other sources. The conference was initially planned for a considerably smaller room of just 180. With tickets sold out within 24 hours a larger room was needed. This then expanded a third time to a room with a capacity of 933. With only a skeleton staff to carry out all re-organisation we totally understand how a rapidly snowballing conference places so much pressure on the overworked staff that some things slip through the net. I truly believe that because of this that it was an oversight an offer for 'each according to their means' was not made obvious.

The organisers are 'totally committed to the non-commodification of education', have been involved in student occupations in the 70's and many other activist based projects and are sympathetic with our method of resistance, although disappointed (this is not quite the word I am looking for-any suggestions?) by our not having contacted them first. They would like to organise a series of lectures with us which we will work on once the conferences are over.

It was a stoke of luck that our conference 'The Internet for Activists' is being held on the same day. Many of the confirmed participants, including a large group of Italian students who have also been in occupation of their universities over Gaza, have contacted SOAS to ask what they can do to get involved in the protest; they too could not afford the entrance fees. Partly because of our work in united front campaigns we are confident that we will be able to remove any further antagonism and tension.

Through our taking a stand we have ensured free places in an overflow room with video link-up and are thrilled that our conference will now be launching the Free Our Books campaign in the main hall of the Communism one. This has injected a well needed activism to add political credibility to the theoretical ideas being discussed and gives people from both conferences the opportunity to get together to discuss the best way to put our ideas into action. At the end of the day, as Marx said, the idea of communism can only fight the idea of capitalism. We need concrete actions to fight to change the ideas.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank all those involved, and there has been many, and especially the organisers for listening to our concerns. We have all learnt a great deal from this and hope that we continue to work together to fight for a better world.

Finally, we would like to invite all of you 1) to both conferences! And 2) to the SOAS common room on Friday for our Rhythms of Resistance music for St. Patrick's day and on Saturday for Ugandan food and music.

Read what Alex had to say in today's SW