SOAS motions on Msex Phil campaign and Censure of Wes Streeting, NUS president

Two motions at SOAS UGM this Friday.

2. Save Middlesex Philosophy

Proposed by: Alexej Ulbricht
Seconded: Shanti Ulfsbjorninn

This union notes:

    2.1    That on April 26th Middlesex University executive decided to close its Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP), and in the course cut all philosophy programmes, undergraduate, postgraduate, and MPhil/PhD;

    2.2    That CRMEP is one of the most important centres for the study of modern European philosophy in the English-speaking world, and is well known for its social and political engagement;

    2.3    That philosophy is the highest research-rated subject at Middlesex, with the RAE rating 65% of its research as either ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’;

    2.4    That the MA programme in philosophy is the largest of its kind in the country, with 42 students admitted in 2009;

    2.5    That as such, the department also generates a substantial amount of revenue for the University, currently contributing close to half of its total income to the University's central administration;

    2.6    That despite all this the Dean for Arts and Humanities, Edward Esche, has stated that the reasons for closure where simply financial, and that the department made no ‘measurable’ contribution to the university;

    2.7    That a ‘Save Middlesex Philosophy’ campaign has been formed to oppose the closure;

    2.8    That this news follows a whole string of announced cuts around the country: at UCL, at Kings, at Westminster, and elsewhere;
 
 --

This Union Believes:

    2.1    That there is nothing to justify the closure of CRMEP;

    2.2    That this is a foreboding sign of the kind of pressures that are going to hit Arts and Humanities subjects, if even a university’s most prestigious department faces the axe;

    2.3    That taking action against these measures is fundamental to defend the quality of Higher Education not only at Middlesex, but nationwide;

    2.4    That allowing a precedent of this kind paves the way for further cuts to be implemented in other institutions;

    2.5    That the SOAS academic tradition has always been at the forefront in Arts and Humanities, and is as such incompatible with cuts of this kind;
 
 --

This Union Resolves:

    2.1    To formally support the Save Middlesex Philosophy campaign;

    2.2    To support every form of action that students at Middlesex are going to take against the announced measures;

    2.3    To send a letter to Dean Esche, voicing our opposition to these plans;

    2.4    To circulate the petition to save Middlesex philosophy in the next Union email;

2.5 To mandate the Students' Union executive to lobby the School to express its opposition to the damaging measures taken by Middlesex management.

==============
5. Condemn Censure at National NUS Conference

Proposed By: Elly Badcock
Seconded By: Symeon Brown

 --

This Union Notes

5.1  That Durham University Union Society planned, in March 2010, to invite the British National Party to a formal debate.

5.2  That the National Union of Student’s LGBT Officer and Black Student’s Officer wrote a letter to Durham Student Union requesting that they cancel the debate due to both the danger posed by inviting fascists onto campus, especially to black, LGBT, disabled and women students, and the NUS No Platform policy which they are mandated to campaign for within Student Unions. They stated in the letter that if the debate was not cancelled then they would organise a protest alongside Unite Against Fascism

5.3  That Durham Union Society cancelled the debate.

5.4  That Durham Union Society argued that the letter was threatening because of the line “if students are hurt around the event, responsibility will lie with you”.

5.5  That the signatories pointed out that this line was in reference to the statistically proven link between the BNP organising in an area and the rise in hate crime and violence.

5.6  That, subsequently, a campaign was staged at Durham to disaffiliate from the NUS, with a referendum voting narrowly for disaffiliation.

5.7  That at NUS National Conference 2010, a motion of censure was brought against both the Black Student’s Officer and the LGBT Officer, and was passed only against the Black Student’s Officer.

5.8  That Wes Streeting, current NUS President, as well as six other NEC members voted for this censure, and that the censure passed by exactly seven votes.

 --
 
This Union Believes

5.1  That wherever fascists organise in an area, hate crime and violence rises.

5.2  That fascists threaten the very right of black, LGBT and disabled students to exist and are extremely misogynistic.

5.3  That the BNP are a fascist organisation seeking a veneer of respectability, but that their comments belie their true fascist nature. Speaking about the Holocaust, their leader Nick Griffin stated: “I have reached the conclusion that the‘extermination’ tale is a mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie, and latter [day] witch hysteria.” On the subject of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, he said: ““Everyone down there knows he was notorious for taxing kids for their dinner money and he was a drug dealer. According to many people within the Metropolitan police, he was killed by another black – not a white racist attack at all.”

5.4  That fascists are not welcome in our Student’s Union.

5.5  That the Black Student’s and LGBT officers were right to request the cancellation of the debate, and to organise a protest.

5.6  That censuring a Liberation Officer for anti-fascist work sends out an extremely dangerous message that will be seized by the BNP as evidence that they are a legitimate party.

5.7  That censuring a black woman and not a white man for the same actions is disturbing at best.

5.8  That the censure of the Black Students’ Officer and attempted censure of the LGBT Officer gives the false impression that the NUS and (therefore NEC) does not support our liberation campaigns and their officers.

5.9  That these false impressions, if not corrected, have the potential to damage the organisation further, up to and including discouraging participation from Black and LGBT students and constituent members like ourselves who represent a high proportion of students from these campaigns.

5.10 That the Liberation Campaigns (Black students, Women, LGBT and Disabled students) are autonomous and should be mandated by and answerable to their members.
5.11 That it is shameful for seven NEC members to vote for this censure.

5.12 That the NUS must take a strong, anti-fascist stance and actively defend the case for No Platform.

 --

This Union Resolves

5.1 That we have no confidence in Wes Streeting and the NEC members who voted for the censure.

5.2 To pass a motion of censure from SOAS Union against Wes Streeting and said NEC members.

5.3 To call on the NEC to release a statement which re-affirms its support for the No Platform policy of the NUS

5.4 To call on the NEC to further include in this statement a re-affirmation of its support for both the Black Students’ Campaign, LGBT Campaign and all liberation campaigns

5.5 To affiliate to and continue our work with Unite Against Fascism

5.6 To implement a No Platform for fascists policy in SOAS Union

SOAS debate w Chris Knight, Hillel Ticktin and William Dixon debate: THE (IM)POSSIBILITY OF REVOLUTION

ALL welcome. And a happy bah humbug to you all (this bit is from me, Clare!)

Chris Knight, Hillel Ticktin and William Dixon debate:

THE (IM)POSSIBILITY OF REVOLUTION

Thursday 21 January, 7.15pm, Room B102, Brunei Gallery,

SOAS, University of London, Thornaugh St. WC1 (Russell Sq. tube).

At the next election millions will vote for pro-capitalist political parties that offer little except cutbacks and austerity. Despite economic crisis, climate chaos and disastrous wars, people see no alternative to capitalism - and revolution seems, at best, an impossible dream.

Yet all three speakers at this debate believe this situation cannot last indefinitely. Their differing interpretations of anthropology, economics and history each show that a 21st Century global revolution is a real possibility - not just a dream.

Could they be right? Come and join the debate.

Chris Knight is an anthropology lecturer, sacked for his involvement in the G20 anti-capitalist protests, and author of Blood Relations, Menstruation and the Origins of Culture.

Hillel Ticktin is editor of Critique, a Journal of Socialist Theory.

William Dixon is a Mute magazine contributor.

(The speakers' names link to interesting articles.)

Check the Critique and Radical Anthropology Group websites in 2010 for further meetings in London.

Please publicise widely, thanks.

Sent from my iPhone

http://solomonsmindfield.blogspot.com

http://twitter.com/solomonsmfield

More news from Soas Steph in Copenhagen

Day 3: The Bella Center

the good news: no one from SOAS got arrested or badly hurt.
the bad news: there was a lot of police violence, tear gas, pepper spray and police batons used on everyone. The demonstration did not achieve its aim of getting into the Bella Centre, and the delegates from the NGOs who were planning to walk out to meet the demonstration were prevented by the police from getting out. HOWEVER the demonstrators did manage to carry out a peaceful People's Summit justoutside the Bella Center, a democratic-ish forum for all the
demonstrators from all over the world to get together to exchange ideas and get them heard. As I type this demonstrators have marched peacefully back to the city proper.

I did not take part in the demonstration but I did make it to the People's Summit. I spent most of the night in the kitchen of the school we are staying in helping to get breakfast ready for the 100- odd activists. This involved skipping at the nearby supermarket at 3AM for fruits and bread and making many many pots of coffee. The first few people were up at 5AM. The police showed up around 7AM, and searched people's bags as they left. On the whole, it is still early to come to any conclusions, but I like to think today's action was a success, and the police left people alone after awhile. People were fearing violence from the demonstrators, but almost all of it came from the police.

You can hear the People's assembly on
Indymedia.co.uk. This page has updates: http://indymedia.dk/action_timelines/16th-dec

Any member of the Green Group list can write to the whole list.
Simply send an email to soasgreengroup@lists.riseup.net
To unsubscribe, go to https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/soasgreengroup
and click on unsubcribe.
>

Mother Courage update.

Exciting update: we have an exciting addition to the evening. We have world renowned author, activist, journalist, political commentater Owen Hatherley coming to do a short intro to Brecht and will be available for q&A and discussion afterwards

Looking forward to seeing you all. Call or text if any problems. 07850177637

ciao4now

So, now all 30 tickets have sold out-sorry to those who missed out. Hopefully you come to the next one, Pitmen Painters in January. Again tho, 1st come 1st served.

You can reserve a ticket by joining the Facebook event HERE

Or at our official blog HERE

Or calling me.

Here are the details for the Mother Courage evening:

6pm FREE drinks at the Oxo Tower, South Bank, SE1 9Gy, although feel free to come a bit earlier if ur at a loose end.

We will be leaving the Oxo Tower at 7.15 to go to theatre

7.30pm watch the play!

10.30pm go to boat party on the Thames right opposite the National Theatre


Hometime? Whenever you start feeling old! :-)

Any questions please text or msg us. See u soon. C & M

Iraq enquiry - Bush, Blair & Brown have blood on their hands

Loads of press swamped them as soon as we turned up.

Here's the CNN report: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/11/24/uk.iraq.inquiry/

Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1230507/Brown-MUST-face-Iraq-war-inquiry--agreed-finance-it.html

A Party to Win? Clare Solomon's expulsion from SWP

(written on my iPhone so I can't see the whole post at the same time-sorry if it's too rambling)

Dear comrades, friends & fellow travellers,

Two months ago myself and James M were suspended from the SWP. James has had his suspension lifted and is able to participate in party debates at conference although is not able to sell the paper, attend branch meetings, central London, Soas or otherwise. It is a great shame that the party has enforced restricted membership on such a dedicated revolutionary.

On Saturday, however, I was expelled. (addition to original post) I was expelled for 1) putting on an event called Mutiny which they claim was autonomist 2) for sending 6 friends a private email and 3) I was accused of 'lying', ie for not accepting that this was a factional email or event.

I have been a member for four turbulent years. My sister and I joined the SWP at Marxism 2005, the year of the London bombings which had me penned in my Brunswick Centre flat in Russell sq, a mere 100yds from the bus bomb.

How glad I am that I was amongst people such as you all at this difficult time and that my distress was channelled into becoming a revolutionary. Through learning from and participating in discussions about how to change the world I was won to the idea of having to do this collectively.

The seed of this was sown in my mind in 2003 when the local Stop the War branch used my restaurant (Char Bar in Cromer St) to hold planning meetings. Coming from a military family background (my dad was in the Military Police!) meeting these people and seeing their desire to fight back against the impending war on Iraq was certainly a life changing experience. My first ever demo was the 2m people one on 15 July 2003. I attended with my own homemade banner with the Gandhi quote 'an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind': my, how I have changed.

After joining the SWP in July 2005 I threw myself into activity at SOAS university, central London, with an unquestioning commitment. I was consequently elected as Co-President of the Students' Union on a Student Respect platform in March 2006 having built up a layer of support through our activity. The people in the SWSS group were extremely dedicated, and we regularly had new people attending the weekly planning meetings and engaging in activity.

And we soon turned the union on it's head. General meetings went from attendence of around 30 people twice yearly to now between 100 and 150 of a student body of only 3,000 on campus every 6 weeks. Election turnouts have become the highest in the country (30-33%) with many candidates standing on highly political manifestos. We did all this not just by handing out tons of leaflets in the rain but by making the links between local issues and national, indeed international, happenings. We also built so successfully by doing a combination of protests, meetings, filmshowings, socials and by getting involved in other societies; by attempting to relate to people on many different levels. This was my first experience of building anything political and this was, I still feel, a very succesful strategy.

Soon after I began my first term I was also elected to the National Council of Respect. Needless to say electoral politics was what I was most familiar with so the transition to revolutionary socialism came about through this process. Although I am not arguing for a 'stageist' approach, it is clear to me that one does not necessarily become a revolutionary overnight: the relationship between activity and theory is continually affected by external influences (and vice versa).

The Respect split of 2007 was very upsetting for me. I remember crying when George left the NC meeting. I had even been on Big Brother's Little Brother as one of his defenders for the upcoming eviction shows. Even as an NC member I was, to be honest, unclear of what had happened in Respect so it is of no suprise to me that many other people have come to lots of different conclusion-it is nigh on impossible to ensure an equal distribution of information. And being remote by either time or space from an event or happening only adds to potential distortions. Luckily the Internet is changing all this, and changing the way we relate to each other. (I am presenting a paper on this topic at HM this weekend-see http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/hm/conference2009.htm for registration details).

Just prior to returning to being a student after my 2 term stint in the SU I was asked to be Central London organiser of the SWP for a month, taking the reigns from the previous person who is well known as being a more-than-fulltime revolutionary! I learnt a hell of a lot in this time. It is an extremely hard job both mentally and physically. I focused on changing the way we did paper sales and we had 11 new people attending branch meetings within 2 weeks. We recruited about 7 or 8 to the party in a space of 3 weeks.

Coming back to Uni I was in the strange and disturbing situation of not having any established comrades from the previous year. Some had left SOAS and those that did return we had not retained. We had a new and very different organiser and a whole new National SWSS office team. The anger at the collapse of the banking sytems helped us rebuild a vibrant swss group; we recruited 8 people and retained 6 of them (which is a very high percentage).

SOAS was the first Uni to go into occupation over Gaza and we were central to a number of other occupations. Whilst on one hand this strengthened our already great relationships with a wide layer of people, on the other it left us behind in our school work and slightly fragmented as a group. None-the-less we learnt a great deal from these actions and are all still dedicated to building the party this year.

The combination of having new organisers, of underlying differences in both the party and on the wider left and of having a wide millieu of anti-capitalists around us proved very diffilcult for me to carry out hard party arguments and turn new students into convinced revolutionaries. The doors were also opened to new activist groups having inspired them into getting active. This has given us even more to contend with.

However 3 more Soas people have joined the party since last year.

In the summer myself and a few friends (including James M), both SWP and others, organised a very successful event called Mutiny-Money on Trial which aimed to play around with culture and politics, blurring the boudaries and looking for new ways to attract young people. As far as we were concerned what we did was exactly what revolutionaries should be doing: we took our cue from the post conference bulletin which encouraged us to take creative initiatives. We spoke to the cc prior to the event and took on board their feedback. As a consequence two people joined the party and Mutiny attendees were central to setting up a new branch. Five people that we know of wanted to get more involved and were only put off from joining once they heard of our suspensions. Just to be clear, far from being told not to be involved, a member of the CC said 'if it goes well come back to the party and we can see how to take it forward'.

And now I have been expelled.

I tell you these things not because I want pity or to win your support but because I think it is important to contextualise my involvement in the movement and hence help understand the trajectory which has landed me where I am today.

Being expelled is upsetting to me not just because of any personal attachment to the party but because I understand the need for a coordinated attack on the ruling class and that this can only come from below. We need a strong organisation to be able to carry this out and we only get a strong organisation through constant debate, discussion, disagreement and, hopefully, democratic decision making. There needs to be debate in a revolutionary party to get clarity. The history of ideas is, afterall, the history of the clash of ideas.

Whilst my case has become the source of a lot of distorted tittle tattle for reasons not always clear to people I am pleased that comrades are at least debating the direction of the party and the effect that this will have on the wider movements.

I have great respect for the SWP and do not wish any internal problems to become problematic for building a strong resistance in what looks set to become a period of increasingly deeper recession. The left faces huge challenges for the future both fighting the BNP and organising working class resistance. We need a united fight back and any problems the SWP have will impact on the possibility of this happening.

I reject ALL the accusations against me and I believe thy have made a mistake in expelling me. What concerns me is that it may mark a change in the kind of party the SWP wants to be.

I do reserve the right to appeal to conference in January and I trust comrades to be fair in their assessment of the situation.

Thank you again and I look forward to having these debates in the open.

In solidarity.

Ps. I have obviously been following with great interest the discussions on various blogs and will continue to do so. I would like to thank you all for your lively and lovely contributions (even from you Sacha!) and I welcome any more constructive criticism. Please respect the fact my blog is about building not internal squabling. Some of the analysis you guys have been offering is really rather good-we can all learn so much from each other and these forums have provided a place for us to do this.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iphone ]

did I tell you?...

...me and Mas Naina got elected as Mature Students Officers at SOAS!

We have lots of plans already including a trip to the theatre to see the Brecht play Mother Courage followed by drinks and discussion in the Oxo Tower. And another outing to the Signs of Revolt exhibition this week end.

Full details if you want to join us are on either our new blog http://playschoolrules.wordpress.com

or the facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=165266764793&ref=search&sid=223201164.8294999..1

Feel free to come Play with us :-)

Thx to all those who voted.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iphone ]

National Week of Action for boycott of Israeli goods

***A CALL TO ALL ACTIVISTS IN LONDON***

This action is being called by students, but they would like any many non students to support as possible!

Next week is the National Week of Action for boycott of Israeli goods, and student Palestine societies from across London are calling on all students and non-student activists to descend on four locations in central London during the week.

**Monday 9th - Demonstrate outside Camden Road Sainsbury's at 6pm.

**Wednesday 11th - action at a nearby supermarket: meet outside Russell
Square tube at 5.30pm

**Friday 13th - action at a nearby supermarket: meet outside Marble Arch
tube at 4.30pm

**Saturday 14th - Demonstrate outside Sainsbury's at the bottom of
Tottenham Court Road at 5.30pm

Hope to see as many people as possible there - bring you experience, your materials and your friends!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iphone ]

The case of the missing Blogfather: Soas takes up Hossein Derakhshan's case

Today marks the one year anniversary of the detention and imprisonment by the Iranian authorities of my good friend and fellow Soas student Hossein Derakhshan.

I am very pleased to see that Soas media department has now taken up his campaign and I urge all fellow bloggers to do the same.

He spoke out against wars and brought attention to many attrocities in the world. He is more famously known as 'the blogfather' of Iran for setting up and guiding thousands of blogs in Iran leading Iranians to be at the forefront of the cyberbattle.

You can read more about his activities and the details of his detention at the new Soas blog here: http://www.projectcarousel.org/2009/11/mind-medium-message/

We hope to raise the profile of his campaign so please use these messages to get you started.

I am blogging this from my iPhone so haven't worked out how to link to my previous posts yet but will do so once at a computer. Type his name in the search bar for previous articles.

In solidarity.

=====

UPDATE: coz someone is cybersquatting my .net address it is no longer possible to access my old link-GGGGRRRR

So, here's one that I also posted to my overflow blog

[Posted with iBlogger from my iphone ]

testing iBlogger upload

Yesterdays demo was great. Soas students began the day by marching down Oxford St (see video below). We chanted 'da3man helwa al-hurriya (freedom is always beautiful) and taught passersby how to join in this Arabic chant! We sang 'we all live in a terrorist regime' and handed out leaflets as we did so. We got to know the new students and began planning further activity as we marched. Soas students were lively and highspirited for the whole day.

A woman in her 60's came up to us and said how much she enjoyed marching with us but that she had nothing to compare with since this was her first ever demo. She had come all the way from Cornwall because she 'felt so angry about this war' and felt powerless on her own but coming to the demo had renewed her belief in humanity.

One of the most bonkers thing on the demo was the Iranian 'Halal Leather Jackets' theatre group. They said that only 2% of the Muslims own a quality Spanish designer leather jacket! Not quite sure what the subtext was?!! I thought I videoed it but must have only pressed record after thinking I was filming since I then filmed two minutes of my feet and me chatting to Viva about how bonkers the leather jacket thing was!!

Anyway, it pleased me to see that someone had poured red colouring into the fountains-how much more blood will be shed in Afghanistan before these governments start listening to the people?





This lovely man was starting to struggle by the end but he kept going-what a trooper.




A small delegation of us made an impromptu march down to Downing st to attempt to deliver a petition. A woman called Kay persuaded the police to let her in to do so. We don't know her full name so if anyone does please let us know. Well done Kay.

Assed Baig brought loads of new activists from the Uni where he is now President of the Students Union and they said they had a great time.

As did we all.

Well done to everyone who spent time building this great demo. See u at the next one. Keep up to date with Soas Stopthewar activities at http://soasstopthewar.blogspot.com

Mobile Blogging from here.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iphone ]

Manu Chao 2, impromtu at Soas tonight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKZSxKbfyQU

Sent from my iPhone

http://solomonsmindfield.net
http://twitter.com/solomonsmfield

SOAS Stop the War has started with a bang...

Our first meeting 2 weeks ago attracted about 60 people and this was before lessons had even started. From this we organised a planning meeting followed by elections for the committee.

New people to the group came up with some really great ideas: a T-shirt design competition to all wear together on the demo, setting up a blog, Google groups to assist with organisation, banner AND flag making for the demonstration, doing announcements and flyering at other meetings. We want to make a large lively impact on the day of the demonstration.

Sami and Hamza suggested leafletting the upcoming meeting on Egypt. When we arrived there they also wanted to cover the lecture theatre with flyers which they did. We were a bit nervous about doing this because we didnt know whether we were allowed to or not but they did it anyway!

We didnt realise that the meeting was being hosted by comrades and fellow travellers: Rabab alMahdi from Egypt, Anne Alexander and Phil Marfleet amongst others. We asked if we could make an announcement to which they said 'off course you can, this is a very political meeting'!

Hamza and Sami did a bloody stirling job. Alex Callinicos looked clearly impressed. Things like this just confirm the need for young, fresh, new ideas to keep a group refreshed.

We now have regular planning meetings 5pm every Monday in the JCR (Junior Common Room) so please feel free to come along if you like.

Our next event is: Rethink Afghanistan. Read more HERE

Join our mailing and organising group HERE

Hope to see you all on the demo...

London Student Feminist network activist day. Is this a return to Feminism?

It's interesting how many more young women, and men, are becoming once again interested in what has classically been called Feminism. But what does feminism mean today? Are we still fighting for the right to work, for equal pay, for equal position in society? Well, yes, it seems so. Women, although we are now encouraged out of the home, to work for a boss, to be free to wear what we like in reality this is by no means equal. What sort of work are we allowed to do? Who do we want to be equal to? Who are we trying to emulate? Certainly we are not really equal. The media is littered with sexist images and propaganda which encourage women to behave in certainn ways. Fro example, I was astounded by this article on the launch of the new Pole Dancing doll. 

I don't want to here go over the well argued positions in the many feminist strains but to draw your attention to the fact that feminism the word is back on the agenda and is attracting a new layer of activists.


Although as a Marxist I do not see the struggle for womens rights as seperate from the struggle for equality for all I welcome any moves which encourage people to join in the fight. It is through these campaigns that many people become full blown revolutionaries.

In 1909 Alexandra Kollontai, a leading revolutionary, wrote a fabulous pamphlet entitled  'The Social Basis of the Woman Question'


Here is a quote which encaputlates the opposition to feminism as seperate from class struggle:

The feminists see men as the main enemy, for men have unjustly seized all rights and privileges for themselves, leaving women only chains and duties. For them a victory is won when a prerogative previously enjoyed exclusively by the male sex is conceded to the “fair sex”. Proletarian women have a different attitude. They do not see men as the enemy and the oppressor; on the contrary, they think of men as their comrades, who share with them the drudgery of the daily round and fight with them for a better future

 and further:

For the majority of women of the proletariat, equal rights with men would mean only an equal share in inequality, but for the “chosen few”, for the bourgeois women, it would indeed open doors to new and unprecedented rights and privileges that until now have been enjoyed by men of the bourgeois class alone.

 It is on this basis that '[a] woman can possess equal rights and be truly free only in a world of socialised labour, of harmony and justice.'  We can only have equality once the conditions from which oppression are founded have been removed. And this means we must continue our struggle, our fight and our campaigns against an unjust system which places profit before people, which places competition at the heart of all movtivations and which justifies class inequality. You should read her whole article; she puts it much better than me!

Anyway, a suuprising development has arisen surrounding the iminent Feminist Activist Day to be hosted at SOAS: MEN are allowed to attend. And a welcome addition this is. The day will be guided by women; all votes and decisions will be made by women but men can come as observers. Great.

I am providing a short introduction to the political uses of the internet and demonstrating some of the tools of internet activism. I welcome any comments and advice on this.

The day will be kicked off by JUDITH ORR- author of Sexism and the System, former editor of the Socialist Review and veteran speaker at SOAS feminist events and rallys. She will be giving the opening speech on the challenges for feminism today and the backlash against feminism.

The full timetable can be found at the London Student Feminists Network blog

Whilst this is a dayschool for student activists, I'm sure non-students can attend as observers. Please email them to request a space.

Also, if you wish to have a stall there feel free to also contact Elly.

I look forward to seing you all.

OPEN PLANNING MEETING for HANDS OFF MY WORKMATES CONFERENCE Wed 9th Sept 2009

Dear friends

SOAS UNISON, SOAS UCU and SOAS Students' Union would like to invite you to take part in an open planning meeting to discuss our campaign to bring back our cleaners in-house, and how to build the teach-in on migrant workers that we are organising for Saturday 17 October 2009 following the brutal UKBA raid on our cleaning staff in June.

Details of the meeting—at which we want to plan how to build the conference—are below.

Please feel free to forward this invitation.

Read the rest of the plans at the Free SOAS Cleaners blog. Provisional agenda included. Plus photos, videos and reports from occupation.

Thank you for all your support. let's try to make this a broad, proactive campaign. If this can happen at SOAS it can happen anywhere.We need to pre-empt moves by the government and management to let them
know we are watching and will fight back

Speak soon.

In solidarity

Right to Work mtg at SOAS. Support occupations and fightback

Caution: this meeting is NOT at our main campus but at the Kings Cross one. Click on the image to enlarge for a map.

Fight for the Right to Work.

6.30pm, Friday 7 August,

Room V211, School of Oriental & African Studies,

Vernon Square, Penton Rise

WC1X 9EW

WWW.RIGHTTOWORK.ORG.UK

SoliDarity with VeStas

Learning from the fightbacks for jobs and justice

Estates dept at Queen Mary make great commitment to LLW and beyond

I cant believe the difference between QM Estates department and SOAS'.

Compare thses two statements.

SOAS: Sharon Page, a Governing Body member said in an Estates meeting that she didn't think the cleaners deserved more pay because 'they don't even do a good job anyway'.

to

Queen Mary: Ray O'Halloran, head of the estates department at Queen Mary [on deciding to pay £8.86 per hour], added: "We were not innocent; we knew that people were doing two or three jobs to survive. We wanted to set a higher standard."

Million miles away. Must be the influence of all those Marxists in the business department (I kid you not!)

Read the full report on London Living Wage and Universities HERE

SOAS beefs up security at graduation ceremony.

Apparently following the disgrace at SOAS graduation last year the school has ordered loads of extra security for this years ceremony. Ha, show they are scared of us!

They were probably also worried that we would show them up over their complicity with deporting 9 cleaners in the immigration raids last month. our occupation drew loads of press coverage and we made a film which we will be showing during freshers week.

Does anyone have any photos? If so, please contact me and i will put on the blog.

Read last years graduation horror story HERE

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.

Victory for the SOAS Occupiers and the fight continues!

Phew, what a week. I am pleased to have been a part of this campaign and have learnt so much from this process. Despite the management playing hard ball, I genuinely don't think that Paul Webley wanted harm to come to his staff. But I do wish they would stop saying that the cleaners are 'employed by ISS' and hence denouncing responsibility for them. It is about time that they recognise the hard work the cleaners contribute to the running of of our school and stop being treated like criminals.

The manangement now have the perfect opportunity to rectify the damage they have done to the school.

I will write more on this once I have got all my backlog out of the way.

Please continue to be involved or join the campaign if you haven't already done so. You never know when this may happen in your own workplace.

Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=89511288639

Googlegroup: http://groups.google.com/group/freesoascleaners?pli=1

Victory for the campaign-here is a collective statement from the occupiers:

At 12.30pm today, after several rounds of intense and complicated negotiations we have reached an agreement between all parties.

We feel management took our concerns seriously and are confident that the way in which these negotiations were carried out has produced a constructive and positive outcome

We have tried to work so that the demands agreed include the main concerns of the cleaners who were affected by this disgraceful raid and who have provided confidence to this campaign which will have an effect wider than just our school.

These are as follows:

1.SOAS management to write to the Home Secretary requesting exceptional leave to remain for the cleaner who is still being detained and for those who have been forced into hiding, and immediate return of those who have been deported.

2.Open discussions with ISS, UCU, UNISON and the Students' Union to review in detail the events of last Friday.

3.Issue of outsourced cleaning services to be revisited at the next Governing Body.

4.Meet with above unions to discuss health & Safety issues relating to immigration raids.

5.Amnesty for all those involved.

We are pleased that management called for regularisation for non-documented workers and hope that this provides extra and crucial voices to the campaign for papers for all migrant workers.

In the SOAS strategy and Vision document management state that they are

'poised to become the University of the 21st century: it is concerned with
the regions that matter and the issues that matter (such as human rights,
poverty reduction and globalisation).' (“SOAS 2016: A Vision and Strategy for
the Centennial”, p5 )

That the directorate is disturbed by the possible role that ISS played in this raid demonstrates to us that the school are committed to upholding their further Centennial Goals of

“maintain[ing] the highest ethical standards in all of its dealings and foster
the values of openness, honesty, tolerance, fairness and responsibility in all
areas.” (SOAS 2016: A Vision and Strategy for the Centennial, p9)

We will work hard to ensure that this sentiment is translated into concrete action which ensures that cleaning is brought in-house and management never again facilitate an immigration raid on campus.

We are honoured to have been able to stand side by side with the cleaners at SOAS who have inspired us with their fight to organise in a union. The strength they have shown demands solidarity in return in this important struggle.

Our fight to ensure that employers and the Government do not use the threat of deportation to intimidate workers and prevent them from fighting to improve pay and conditions and trade union recognition has brought together people from all backgrounds.

Although these are a important victories so far they are more symbolic than practical. The home secretary has only signed papers to stop the removal or deportation of an individual when 80% of the Isle of Man signed a petition calling him to do so. SOAS now has a common goal, this must be used to further lobby for the cleaners in hiding, those that were already sent back to their countries of origin and those still held in deportation centres.

This campaign is grateful and encouraged by the tremendous response from activists from across the world, from media, politicians, academics, from family and from Palestinian universities who were the focus of the previous round of occupations earlier this year, and is inspired by the solidarity from other cleaner activists across London.

We are strengthened in this struggle for a united cause and urge everybody to start a campaign in their own workplace or institution safe in the knowledge that they are not alone. That united we stand, divided we fall.

Notes:
Statement:http://freesoascleaners.blogspot.com/2009/06/joint-statement-from-soas-and-students.html

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

Academic support: http://freesoascleaners.blogspot.com/2009/06/academic-solidarity-statement-on-soas.html

Write to the Home Office to try to prevvent deportation: http://freesoascleaners.blogspot.com/2009/06/urgent-contact-home-office-now-and.html