Mutiny presents...Money on Trial

I am very pleased to be involved in this brand new project. My son has been working hard already and is getting all his mates on board. If you too want to climb aboard the ole ship Mutiny get in contact with us HERE and in all the usual ways. TweetTheMutiny, MutinyTV and more coming...

See more about this cultural event HERE

For some reason we can't add a Paypal widget to our Wordpress site so I have added it here on the right. Get your tickets soon as we expect to be very busy. 

Here is a bit of blurb about what we are. Welcome me hearties.

Mutiny presents a series of carnivalesque evenings providing live entertainment and meaningful debates. We are a network of activists who have come together to create an exciting, safe space for discussion, critical theory and alternative media.

We want to change the world. We want to see an end to the carbon economy, to the global dominance of the American military complex and sweatshops abroad and call centres in the UK. At the same time we want to spend an evening with friends, enjoying a drink and the spectacle of alternative films and documentaries, performances and poetry, comedy and art instillations.

We have booked the avant-garde Resistance Gallery hidden away under the railway tracks in London's Bethnal Green for a series of On Trial events. The intimate space will host a stage for live performances, a mezzanine for photography and art and a central table for interviews and contributions from the audience. We have 150 tickets and one of them has your name on it.

We are completely open to new ideas. So if you are a political performer with talent and a message drop us a line now. If you are a gang of mates who want a good night out without being bombarded with naked women, football commentary or half-baked reactionary comedy you know where to come. If you are an activist with a stack of flyers for an up-coming direct action bring them along.

Our debut event, Money on Trial, takes place on Thursday, September 24.

Croatian occupation-Money for Education not for the army

Cross posted from infinite thØught blog. Thanks for the great report.

Invited to give a paper at the occupied Philosophy faculty, we arrived on day 31 of the protest. The first striking thing about the occupation, to protest against the introduction of tuition fees, is its sheer size. Unlike Philosophy departments in the UK, often small addenda to larger Humanities or Social Science schools, here Philosophy is truly the Queen of the Sciences. As such, Philosophy at Zagreb includes all humanities and most social science subjects, and the faculty is made up of somewhere between 6000-7000 students. The occupation is not only huge in terms of the size of the buildings, but also in terms of the number of students still there, even after a month. The protests started after the government proposal was discussed and an occupation was proposed by a Capital reading group (although there is some dispute as to whether this is where the original idea came from - no matter, it happened). The occupation has received widespread media coverage.

Read more HERE

London Met University in occupation-photos and blog here

http://www.thelondonmetcrisis.blogspot.com/

This is the fight back that Wes Streeting and the NUS leadership are too scared to take. I wonder what they are making out of this million pound swindle?

Well done to London Met in the face of adversity.

solidarity from SOAS

French president Nicolas Sarkozy recalls the student uprising in Paris in May 1968. warned his fellow rulers of a “European 1968”.

http://euobserver.com/851/27330

Organised Students are  a vital element of resistance writes Chris Harman

Greece, Italy, Spain, Ireland. The last two months have seen a new upsurge of student struggles, leading French president Nicolas Sarkozy to recall the student uprising in Paris in May 1968. He warned his fellow rulers of a “European 1968”.

In Britain students were central to the huge demonstrations against the Iraq war six years ago and they have been a vital component of the protests against the Israeli slaughter in Gaza.

The role of students will be no less vital in the period ahead. The “war on terror” still means the bombing of peasant villages in Afghanistan and North West Pakistan.

The instability that leads to these wars will only be increased by the development of the most serious economic crisis since the 1930s.

Read the rest HERE

The following should be read alongside this article: 
» Victory to the movement
» Occupations spread across Britain
» Fighting for a better world
» Resist the 'war on terror'

Chris Harman is editor of International Socialism journal» www.isj.org.uk

---

» email article | » comment on article | » printable version

© 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.

Pennie does Pomegranate

...and he tells me that my breasts are getting empty. I mean, I know 6 years is a long time by most peoples standards but what better way of feeding Xena in times of drought than by the most natural thing a woman can give a child, the milk of a mother.

We go together to feed the animals, plough the fields and water the plants: she's very strong--it's a family trait. The rest of the household will do their bit later. I still don't understand why my small breasts are such a big issue.

...and he tells me that he'll pop by again in a few days to repeat the lovely meal he cooked for us all tonight. It's a shame i'm going to have to sacrifice this opportunity to be instead with my favourite lover.

To see her at my breasts was such a shock for him. Did he really think that he was the only one? He got angry and told me he would get me back for this. Since when did he become my keeper? He thinks he's god's gift to women.

Today it is so hot we don't have the energy to work the fields so we travel to the city; just the four of us. Pennie is wowed immediately by the energy, so many things going on that she runs off into the bazaar. Aphrodite reassures me that she'll be ok--she's strong, it's a family trait. I sometimes wonder whether being 18 is so different to being 35; the markets here are bursting with colour, the smell is delightful, I want to take all my clothes off and roll around in the many flavours. So many well-to-do people, arms linked in what they call love. Xena is already talking about what a lovely dinner party we're going to have when we get back to the rest of the household. No sight of Pennie so we leave a message at the most obvious place and head back laden with as much food stuffs as we could beg, borrow and steal.

I know Zeus will not be impressed. He keeps lecturing me that I should keep a tighter rein on 'his' daughter; if he was around a bit more often I wouldn't mind so much but to tell me that I'm a bad mother takes the biscuit. Since he left the household and became a fat cat grain keeper he's gone all big-brotherly on me. He's watching everything we do. I know he's just trying to protect us all but jees, I wish he would give it a rest. I daren't say anything though because to do so would open the door to the usual 'you're so outspoken' accusations that he tells women when they don't follow orders. Hades, the so-called Lord of the Underworld due to his womanizing ways, gets like this too. Are they trained at some special women-hating school or something? Must be something to do with the fact that they have that silly extra bit of skin sticking out of them. What makes them think that the world, and indeed sex, revolves around it? I guess they just don't understand what the hell is going on, get a far too noticible growth in their nether region far too often and then proceed to blame it all on us. I'm gonna draw a map for him next time.

Aphrodite doesn't need a map, she knows exactly where everything is.

And she loves my small breasts.

Back at the house we all make up for lost time. I take over feeding Xena's mother. It's such a tragedy; she is only 17 herself, young enough to be my daughter, and from such a strong family. Childbirth can be a traumatic experience enough let alone bringing up a child on your own--I know she wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Her rapist is still out there; they didn't believe that such a beautiful woman didn't want the 'attention he showered on her'. I so want to tell him what he has done to her. Maybe one day I will find the courage to re-live this... We all sit up for hours playing games, sharing our stories; sharing our worries. Xena's mother's mind relaxes enough for her to have a quick cuddle with her daughter before returning once again to convulsions.

...and he sent me a message telling me that Pennie had 'popped in'. Apparently she loved the pomegranate. He says it with such a look on his face that can only signify revenge. My body is shaking with rage–apparently I'm being hysterical. Hysterical? Hysterical; I'll give him fricking hysterical. Now I'm being 'aggressive'. Is this supposed to be an insult? I get blamed for bloody everything--I bet they even blame the weather on me next. He says that instead of feeding Xena I should be feeding the fields. What he means is that I should be feeding him up. I know he's been eyeing up our fields--he wants to nick our land so he can force us to work them then sell off the excess to fund the furnishing of his hideous new homes. I will not let him. These are our fields and I will fight for them till I'm blue in the face.

Hades, jealous of his brothers growing piles of wealth, declares himself god too. I don't care who calls themselves god in order to justify the wicked acts they commit. Zeus and Hades are getting far too big for their boots.

They took our land. They tell the men to start acting like real men. They force us women to work the lands on our own and if we don't all comply they will never return Pennie. Each day we come home exhausted only to have to start all over again tending the house whilst the men are still out learning how to be men. They come home late at night with a new range of weird habits--intentionally farting out loud, rubbing their ever-growing-fat bellies, telling us that the house is not clean enough to make them feel like they want to come home at all. Ok, so some days they bring home a pig but we never needed that many pigs before anyway. We're too tired to argue, we just get on with it. We're so tired from all the extra work that the fields don't get cared for properly.

We become brain dead, docile and weak–-feminine they call it. Xena's mother's condition is getting worse; with no-one to look after her during the day she festers away. The powers-that-be call her lazy and force her out to work too. She can't. They take her away from us. Xena refuses to take my milk.

...and the pain is unbearable. Milk oozes every time I move my arms. And now he's happy coz he thinks he has it all to himself. I'm not sure if it's seeing me in pain or the milk that he loves but none-the-less I wish he would return to just cooking for us in exchange for sex (don't tell him I just said that). I will not let him have another drop - not until he returns Pennie.

Zeus says I'm selfish. That his beloved brother told him I am refusing to do my work (I do hate it when he tells Zeus about our sex life). That if I continue to be on strike that the whole area will starve. Do I want this responsibility on my shoulders? Hades had concocted a whole story which spread through the region like wildfire something about spending too much time running around deliriously looking for my daughter and forgetting about the crops. People now think i'm selfish. I think he truly believes his own lies; that the land is bare because of me. I'm not sure if Zeus really believes it or whether desperate times called for desperate measures.

Pennie finally came home. Hungover and withdrawn from all the pomegranate. Her sheepish look takes me back 18 years; I used to love those little seeds--they last for ages but the come down leaves you drained and careless/free. She is pregnant. 'Oh, Persephone' I cry--I use her full name for emphasis. Hades collapses from the guilt. He declares his undying love for me, trying to be posh. This is exactly the sort of gift I don't want--he'll only expect something in return.

...and he helped wash the dishes which is normally the job of the people who don't cook.

The map helped. He won't admit that he ever needed directions though.

And they all live

Beauty is not a contest goes to Kings. And more press coverage...

Does "Miss King's" Belong at King's?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/02/gender.uk

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/janice_turner/article5295125.ece

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1092319/Feminism-rules-Now-8217-s-swimsuit-DEBORAH-ROSS-reflects-Miss-University-London-beauty-pageant.html

Emergency Education Protest-Tax the Rich

Education protest, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

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)

Coming soon to a SWSS group near you-Life after Capitalism...

...the series.

Watch this space.

Suggestions for titles welcome-comment below please.

Can Obama bring the change Black America needs?

Obama, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

Another Education is Possible conference-sign up now

Italian Students have led a wave of occupations and protests against the neoliberal cuts in the face of the economic crisis. Students and lecturers have united with such force that the government is debating sending in the state to break up the occupations. Student strike waves are shaking Greece and Ireland as we write this. Governments are reshaping our universities to fit the needs of capital and we need to be part of the fight back; we need to start to pull together the nucleus of a movement at home that can replicate the same sort of action at home.

The crisis of capitalism is ripping through all areas of the welfare state and working class life. We need to fight on every front in solidarity with workers while remembering the main fight is where we are.

Our starting point is rally our forces nationally at the Another Education is Possible Conference on Saturday 1st.

Martin Smith: Socialists and the crisis - A Call to Action

SOAS Die-in

SOAS Stop the War Society held a die-in to mark the 7th year since the invasion of Afghanistan. The Iranian channel Press TV covered the story as did the London Student and Socialist worker. We received a very positive response from SOAS staff and students with people whistling and shouting from the windows in support.

Here is a link to the SW report

Socialists, the crisis - a call to action

SWP LONDON-WIDE PUBLIC MEETING

"Socialists, the crisis - a call to action"

Wednesday 8th October, 7pm
ULU, Room 3 C/D, Malet Street, WC1(Nearest tubes Goodge St, Warren St or Euston)

The financial crisis shows no sign of ending. Bosses' organisation British Chambers of Commerce stated today that the UK economy is already inrecession. Banks are being nationalised across Europe. European governmentsare squabbling over how to respond.

All this affects working people. British Chambers of Commerce predicts over 300,000 people will be made unemployed in the next year or so. Already lay-offs have begun - ITN are sacking 1000 staff out of 5000; MFI are closing 100 out of 190 stores; Fords Southampton have put the staff on a four day week and in the last six weeks nearly 50,000 jobs have gone in the finance sector.

This is a disaster for the bosses and the mainstream pro-market political parties. We have a huge opportunity to win people to an alternative. But thecrisis is so big we can feel paralysed by it. We need to start arguing thatworkers won't pay for the bosses' crisis. And we need to take action to show that capitalism is to blame, and an alternative is possible.

Please come along and bring with you friends, workmates and local campaigners.

Stop the War Die in to mark 7 yrs since the invasion of Afghanistan

Capitalist bankers-agitate, educate, demonstrate

With the world economy in melt down, it's time to take action.

Make lecture announcements, stand on tables in common rooms, shout from the roof tops :WE WON'T PAY FOR YOUR CRISIS.

Meet SOAS steps at 3pm with banners, whistles and other props.

Call Clare on 07958 034 181 for more details.

Afghanistan, Pakistan & the Spread of War-Stop the War public meeting

Afghanistan, Pakistan & the Spread of War poster, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

Chris Nineham from the Stop the War Coalition will speak on the recent events in the Afghan conflict, the current political turmoil in Pakistan and the role of the Stop the War movement in combating the imperialist policies of western governments.

Public Meeting.

Venue: SOAS JCR
Date: Sept 30
Time: 5pm

All welcome

SOAS anti-fascist filmshowing agitates 30 new UAF/LMHR activists

This is the very begininning of what was a 50 strong rally at midnight at Camden Town Hall where the votes were being counted. A couple of BNP supporters turned up but soon showed their true fascist colours and were dragged away before they really started putting the boot in.

200 SOAS students attended our filmshowing of the brilliant Shane Meadows film 'This is England'. Inspired by both the film and the Q&A with Alison from Love Music Hate Racism,(LMHR), 30 stayed behind to organise leafletting and a demonstration outside Camden Town Hall.

At our Freshers Fayre yesterday they set up a LMHR society and gathered another 200 members. They will now put on music events at SOAS and will help with national music events.

SOAS LMHR society member Jimmy, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

SOAS Freshers 2008 begins...

Thanks to comrade Ady for yet another fabulous poster.