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.
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.
During the Q&A with Wes, our 'Anti-Racism' officer Jordan Anderson held up the informational flyer and with a look of contempt on his face proceeded to rip the leaflet into tiny pieces, adding insult to injury, fanning the flames causing a great deal of anger. Students started a petition to get the 75 signatures required to force an Emergency General Meeting to put forward a 'vote of no confidence' to force the anti-racism officer to resign too. These students then went on to speak about this issue in lecture announcements.
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.
The rest is written by Alex Donald, Research and materials by Yelden Sarybay
Angry scenes broke out as protesters stormed the SOAS Junior Common Room (JCR) yesterday during a meeting demanding the immediate resignation of the President of the National Union of Students (NUS) for overseeing “institutional racism”.
Meanwhile Wes Streeting, the President of the NUS, accused the protesters of “bullying”, “intimidating” and “generating a climate of fear”.
While Mr Streeting was talking, the demonstrators, led by SOAS Mature Students Officer Mpegwa Mwakang’ata, chanted “Slavery is no joke, Wes Streeting’s got to go!”
This refers to an incident at an NUS training seminar at the University of York where student officers were acting out role-playing scenarios. One student inappropriately held up a sign which read ‘BRING BACK SLAVERY’ and was subsequently questioned by police.
He was then subject to an NUS enquiry for another incident in which he is alleged to have called black people “undesirables”. His comments were found by the enquiry “not to be motivated by a racist agenda”.
During the scuffles in the JCR, a heated exchange took place between two SU executives. Mr Mwakang’ata accused Nizam Uddin, the Student Union (SU) President of Finance and Communications, of failing to uphold Student Union Policy:
“Our constitution says union policy is decided at the UGM (Union General Meeting). The most recent UGM policy that the SOAS student body has passed democratically states that Wes Streeting should resign immediately…We should not have him here on platform”
However Mr Uddin argued that the decision to invite Mr Streeting took place before the union policy was passed:
“We invited Wes to come down before the UGM. We honoured that.”
In the midst of the chaos, Mr Uddin explained to the protesters, who were surrounded by security guards and voyeuristic students alike, that he was not disagreeing with their cause but was there rather to participate in the meeting that was currently taking place.
“This debate is about free education…I’m supporting the fight for free education.”
Mr Mwakang’ata then went on to accuse Mr Uddin of not organising enough events for Black History Month.
“How many events have you organised, Nizam, for Black History Month?” To which Mr Uddin replied: “I’m Finance and Communication. You are part of SOAS union. What have you done?”
Meanwhile Mr Streeting denied he was going to resign and that his position is untenable: “I think it’s pretty ironic that people are making grievances about the equal opportunities policy whilst engaging in this sort of bullying and intimidation. “I think the NUS has conducted itself reasonably well. There are lessons to learn.
“Generating a climate of fear and intimidation that I’ve never ever seen at a student meeting before is absolutely reprehensible.”
Meanwhile one of the protesters vowed not to give up their campaign against Mr Streeting: “We won’t give a second of rest until he resigns.”
