Westminster occupy over fees and cuts

Read more at my ULU Campaigner blog .

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

Event this Wednesday. What happened to postmodernism and what replaced it?

Title: What happened to postmodernism and what replaced it? 

ALL welcome

Venue: KLT, SOAS main building. 

Date: Wed 13 May

Time: 1pm

Speaker: Johnathon Maunder

Listen to the MP3 of the meeting from Marxism 2009 HERE.

SOAS UGM makes Indian news

Can Spivak speak? Radical philosophy conference this Saturday

Power to the People?

Saturday 9 May 2009, 10.00am–6.00pm

Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1

‘Power to the people!’ was once a revolutionary slogan, but reference to government by the people and for the people has long been an empty cliché of the post-revolutionary status quo. Numerous alternatives have been proposed: the proletariat, the workers, the masses, the soviets, the the nation, the community, the multitude, the commons... And now? How might we assess the different conceptions of political change embodied in these often conflicting ideas? What is the political and philosophical significance of ‘the people’ and related terms today?

Programme

9.30–10.00 Registration

10.00–10.15 Introduction (Peter Hallward, RP)

10.15–11.30 The General Will (chair: Peter Hallward, RP)

'The General Will on the Street: Parisian Activism, Sovereignty and Power, 1789–93'

David Andress (Portsmouth)

'How Do the People Make Themselves Heard?’

Sophie Wahnich (CNRS, Paris)

11.45–1.00 Class, Commons & Multitude (chair: Esther Leslie, RP)

‘Can We (Still) Break the Vicious Circle of Domination?'

Daniel Bensaïd (University of Paris-VIII)

'Crisis, Tragedies and the Commons'

Massimo De Angelis (University of East London)

1.00–2.00

Lunch break

2.00–3.15

Urban Collectivities (chair: David Cunningham, RP)

'Urban Intersections and the Politics of Anticipation'

AbdouMaliq Simone (Goldsmiths)

‘Reflections on the Post-Political City: Reclaiming the Polis?’

Erik Swyngedouw (Manchester)

3.45–5.00 Population & Biopolitics (chair: Stuart Elden, Durham)

'Biopolitics, Diasporas and (Neo)Liberal Political Economy'

Couze Venn (Nottingham Trent)

'Feminist Strategies Revisited – Sexopolitics, Multitude and Biopolitics'

Encarnacion Gutierrez Rodriguez (Manchester)

5.00–6.00 ‘They, the People’ (chair: Peter Osborne, RP)

Gayatri Spivak (Columbia University, NY)

Tickets £10 students £25 waged

Advance registration from: RP conference, Peter Osborne, School of Arts and Education, Middlesex University, Trent Park campus, Bramley Road, London N14 4YZ.

Cheques payable to ‘Radical Philosophy Ltd’. Inquiries: matt.charles@blueyonder.co.uk

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

---

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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

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

Fucking brilliant marking scheme...Markers award students for writing obscenities on GCSE papers

Write ‘f*** off’ on a GCSE paper and you’ll get 7.5%. Add an exclamation mark and it’ll go up to 11%.

"Pupils are being rewarded for writing obscenities in their GCSE English examinations even when it has nothing to do with the question.

One pupil who wrote “f*** off” was given marks for accurate spelling and conveying a meaning successfully."

I should get at least 100% then! How brilliant though-i guess if these are the only words a student writes then we have to refer to not the word itself but what it signifies-a big bugger off to shitty school and their crap examination systems.

My son's class is constantly being put into groups and told to compete with each other to see who can finish the set work the quickest...now they all refuse coz they hate competing against each other. His Maths teacher has promised the highest scoring group a trip to Oxford Uni: "great," they said "take us to a place that we know we will never get into just to rub our noses in it"! Smart kids-smarter than most of the idiots who come out of Oxford anyway...

He is told constantly that if his homework is not up to scratch he will FAIL, if his spelling is incorrect he will FAIL, if his class mates are not up to the standard of the teacher they will all FAIL and be withdrawn from the course. The teahcer has said he will not accept not getting 100% pass marks. In a system where teachers are also on trial, pitted against each other and entered into league tables i guess he is worried that he will FAIL.

A big EFF you to competition and league tables.

Read more here

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

The economic crisis: public meeting

THE ECONOMIC CRISIS—How bad will it get? What can we do about it?

Thursday 16 October, 7pm, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1 (Holborn tube)

SPEAKERS:

• JEREMY CORBYN MP
• LARRY ELLIOTT Economics editor, the Guardian
• MICHELLE STANISTREET Deputy general secretary NUJ
• CHARLIE KIMBER People Before Profit Charter
• PAUL BRANDON Unite union 1/232 Holloway bus garage

CHAIR: Kevin Courtney NUT NEC

All speakers in personal capacity

Hosted by supporters of the People Before Profit Charter

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