I cant believe i haven't put this up before today-sorry ladies (and guys). Also sorry i haven't got time to comment either so please make do with the bare bones and see you at the protest.
PROTEST TONIGHT.
This event is being followed by BBC, the Independent, the Guardian, Socialist Worker, Indymedia and many more.
Now Miss Heythrop has been banned. Read Independent article HERE
SOAS from 7pm we have art exhibition, speakers and a final push to bring people to protest.
Protest from 10pm outside Crystal Club, Wells St, Just off Oxford St, London, W1.
Call 07958 034 181 if lost.
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Monday, 9 March 2009
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Egypt announced expected Israeli F16. Check out this report from Gaza
Good luck Stewart and Patrick-hope you are ok.
Solidarity from SOAS
On the Practice of Communism: we have an idea...
The On the Idea of Communism conference being hosted by Zizek's department and Birkbeck college has attracted more that a murmur of criticism over the £100 (£45 if you are a Birkbeck student) entrance fee.
I couldn't believe we didn't get a single vote against-not even a snigger from the Tories about 1) communism, 2) education not being for the masses or 3) educational institutions needing to cover their costs by charging.
The motion resolved to challenge Birkbeck and for the SU exec to back any action that may result if the mass intellect is not listened to.
As far as I know none of the speakers are getting paid. Having organised fundraisers in the Logan Hall before and only charging £7 entrance I am fully aware of the cost of hiring said hall. If we say that 50% of the 933 attendees are paying £45, and allocate £1,000 speaker expenses per speaker, by my generous calculations Bbk will be making around £45,000. And that's without even taking into consideration the money made from undoubtable postconference book deal.
We understand that goverment cutbacks have left these institutions with massive financial holes but it should not be us who are paying for their crisis. They could at least offer some concessions to those who really cant afford it.
Rejoicing in our smoking area I was talking about peoples plans to disrupt the conference. It turned out that I was chatting to someone from the Zizek department. Ooops!
Whilst I am totally in favour of direct action under most circumstances (being the first uni to occupy and having a hand in the Queen Mary occupation, occupying NUS stage at conference and BBC HQ's), I am not in favour of storming the stage at this prestigious 'left-wing' conference. Not only is it not a good idea to attack the left, which, even though we would be critising Birkbeck, is how it would appear, but I would prefer positive action to come out of our protests.
So, it is on this basis that we are proposing for academics to take affirmitive action. We call all academics to commit to allowing their publications to be available online for free.
We would like to invite participants of the Communism conference to attend our Internet for Activists conference where we will be launching the Free Our Books Campaign.
Saturday, 7 March 2009
BREAKING NEWS: Our first speaker Hicham Yezza has been charged and sentenced to 9 months.
Our first speaker for our Internet for our Internet for Activists conference has been sentenced to nine months
This is an absolute outrage. What sort of civil liberties do we have when a well known activist and columnist is charged with this farce of an excuse.
His blog will be updated soon.
We would like to send a message of solidarity to him and thank him so much for going out of his way to find time for us for our conference.
Please also send messages to: emailaprisoner.com
Free Our Books launch at Internet For Activists conference March 14
Speaker: Toni Prug
Date: March 14
Time: 1.30pm
Venue: G2 or tbc...
Once upon a time, the only way to read someone's writing was through the physical medium of books. That is no more.
Yet, new forms of electronic text distribution and use have not benefited those who fund majority of academic production. On the contrary, private companies have captured this largely publicly funded production. In the case of journals, vast sums of money are being acquired by these private companies, paid for once more, by the state funded universities, to enable its students and academics to have access to them. We, the citizens, through the state, pay for the academic books and research papers production twice, through academic salaries and through universities' subscriptions. This is how the the most fundamental principles of academia, to study and to share its findings, is hindered, and its operation is made far more expensive and cumbersome.
Read more HERE
See I4A Blog HERE
More exciting info on the launch very soon...keep watching this space
Police WILL be on Campus-join the protest.
I cannot believe what the school have done. A couple of months ago the City of London Police, working through the CEMS department, approached the Students' Union to co-host an event with them.
In further proposals they said they wanted to establish "lasting partnerships" with "senior members of counter-terrorism operations" for "future collaboration" with SOAS students through the Home Office's PREVENT programme and SOAS's CEMS.
Date: 9th March 2009
Time: 7.15-9pm
Where: G52
They posed it like this:
The SOAS Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies (CEMS) is hosting a chance for students to ask these questions and discuss contemporary policing with experienced and senior police from the Metropolitan and City Police.We didnt believe that it was this innocent so asked for more information.
The SU exec saw this as an attempt to introduce undercover and not-so-undercover police informants on campus as they have done in many other universities. So they voted against it.
The Police and Paul Webley took one of the Presidents out to a posh lunch to try to win them over.
I submitted a motion to UGM but unfortunatley due to bureaucratic reasons it didn't make it on the agenda. Read it HERE.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY DID WITH THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE EXHIBITION THAT WE OCCUPIED THE BRUNEI GALLERY OVER. See initial blog post HERE
We invite you to join us in a protest outside the room.
Time: 7.15-9pm
Where: G52
SOAS activist disgracefully sacked. Other staff threatened with dismissal if they take industrial action
I don't have any more information about the threats to dismiss staff for taking action but will update this post once i do.
When Paul Webley was appointed to SOAS most people were pleased. I could not help but see his expertise title as a bit of a give away: 'Economic Psychologist'. He knows how to fuck over the finances without you noticing. He gives £50 in one hand to do a little party or something whilst slashing thousands from somewhere you are not looking. at his previous college, Exeter, he closed entire departments against the wishes of the staff.
Well, Paul Webley-we ARE looking and we will not be intimidated by your threats. This is completely outrageous. Strike action is a wholey legitimate form of protest and we will use it at the request of the majority of union members.
One further thing that concerns us is that Sharon Page, second in charge of SOAS, has resigned YET she was chairing the panel which dismissed Stalin. Now, no-one can be held to account.
Please send messages of complaint to Paul Webley, Director and Principal of SOAS, at pw2@soas.ac.uk
Julia Rapkin, Birkbeck Unison
Liam Taylor, Institute of Education student
Johnny Darlington, SOAS UCU
Ben Sellers, co-president, SOAS SU
Janet Lucitt, Birkbeck law student and London teacher
Dermot Bryers, English for Action
Luke Stobart, campaigns officer, Birkbeck Students Union
Katie Boothby, SOAS student
Sam O'Neill, UCL student
Richard Carabine, Birkbeck UCU
Sebilio Lillo, SOAS student
Naomi Bain, Birkbeck UNISON
Jesse Oldershaw, Birkbeck student and UCL UCU
Christophe Josiffe, Senate House Unison
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Monday, 2 March 2009
NEW, but still, provisional line-up for Internet for Activists Conference 2009
See blog HERE for more info.
| Provisional Line up for conference | ||
|
| Room G2 | Room B102: workshops |
| 10.00-10.30am | Registration | |
| 10.30-11.45am | Opening plenary: On the political uses of the internet Speakers: Hicham Yezza. Ex-Nottingham student and Guardian columnist Fiona Osler of Red Pepper and author of "The Activist's Guide to the Internet" Dr. Kevin Gillan, Sociologist, http://www.antiwarresearch.info/ | |
| 11.45-12.00 | Break | |
| 12.00-13.00 | Internet Security Speakers: George Danezis, Microsoft Research Security Group Rep from the Open Rights Group | Effective online organisation: Widgets, live and micro-blogging & co-ordination Speaker by live link-up from Egypt: Hossam el-Hamalawy of Arabawy blog |
| 13.00-13.30 | Lunch. Available in common room | |
| 13.30-14.30 Please arrive by 13.00 as there may be unscheduled changes to this session. | Free Our Books Campaign Launch: Speakers so far: Toni Prug. More soon. See http://www.freeourbooks.org.uk/ More info will be added soon | Workshop: Using Humour Effectively Online Speaker: Kate Smurthwaite, Cruella Blog |
| 14.30-14.45 | Break | |
| 14.45-15.45 | Blogging for Building Campaigns Speakers: Richard Seymour of Lenin's Tomb Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads Laurie Penny of Penny Red | Workshop: Video Activism Speaker: Ady Cousins Bring equipment if you want to get started straight away |
| 15.45-16.00 | Break | |
| 16.00-17.00 | Effective Online Campaigning - Success Stories Rep from Encyclopedia Dramatica on the anti-Scientology movement David Semple from ThoughCowardsFlinch and Liberal Conspiracy Karin Robinson, Political Consultant, blogger and regional director of the Americans Abroad for Obama campaign. | Workshop: "Be the Media" With members of Indymedia UK. |
| Laptop surgery will be run all day in SOAS JCR. Please bring your own equipment to participate in the workshops and your own experiences or questions to participate in the plenaries. | ||
| 17.00-22.00 | Entertainment, food and networking in SOAS bar | |
| Stalls and bookshops all day | ||
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Tony Cliff, an inspirational leader.
“Intellectual toughness does not mean dogmatism; grasping a changing reality does not mean vagueness. Our criticism of orthodox Trotskyism was conceived as a return to classical Marxism.” – Trotskyism after Trotsky
http://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/
I'm not doing nothing, honestly...
As you are well aware, recently I have been trying to do 'nothing', especially activism.Pondering upon this, whilst trying to do my essays, I have discovered that not only is doing nothing practically impossible (ie how on earth can an activist switch off completely?) but, also, philosophically/biologically it cant be done. Has anybody ever written on this subject? Perhaps Alan Badiou? I would be interested to read.
Nothing, even in its state of being a big fat zero, is still doing something; not only to itself in whatever form it is ie lying on the piece of paper or being spoken out aloud, but also to the thing that receives said information; the person, animal, mineral etc. The point being that it hits the senses is one way or another.
To do nothing is to still to consume; oxygen for example, is still to interact and transform the material world around us; oxygen into carbon dioxide, and, to do nothing is, therefore, always doing something. We, as individuals, are never ever free-floating; we participate in the material world around us whether we like it or not.
All I can say is, in the words of my son, 'i not doing nuffin' forever...
Long live optimism.
Just found wikipage that explains how to do something nothingly but...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)