So, the 'war-efforts' of BME are not recognised after all-SOAS occupation justified

In January, SOAS students occupied the Brunei gallery over the MoD's disgraceful exhibition which was supposed to be celebrating the 'war efforts of Black and Minority Ethnic' soldiers in the First World War. Claiming that the first Britons were those who fought in their wars, the military  were using SOAS space for free in an attempt to attract SOAS students into joining. The exhibition spoke about a few high ranking officers from India and various places in africa who chose to join the armed forces but did not at all, which is whhat we feared, talk about the many who were forced to join and subsequently used as human shields and worse...check out somee of the racist imagery that was used at the time. 

So, now it comes as no surprise that the MoD have issued a series of Action Man dolls in another attempt to recruit even younger kids. (And Hackney Stop the War anti-recruitment campaign fights on...new photos of action HERE)

Stop the War Statement on MOD dolls.

The MOD has sponsored a set of "HM Armed Forces" dolls. All are male, all are white, none have missing limbs or bear the psychological scars of warfare.

Since the ‘war on terror’, the government has been struggling to make the army something to be respected and emulated and to make war seem acceptable and justifiable. These toys are a part of that drive as are the resurgence of military parades and recruitment campaigns aimed at teenagers.

The reality is that the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan are disasters and the last three soldiers to die in Iraq committed suicide because they found their lives unbearable. These toys attempt to make acceptable a completely unacceptable situation. Children have no natural predilection to violence nor do they have any need to play with toys that normalise war. This glamorisation of war and today’s rising levels of unemployment are a dangerous combination. Children should not be targeted for military recruitment.

Christian soldiers marching onward to liberate Afghani's from 'Fundamentalists'-oh, the irony

Hippy burfday Karl Marx

hope the recession is giving you the bumps :-)

Student occupations spread to Croatia. Plus support from Judith Butler-woohoo http://ping.fm/B32q1

Student Occupations spread to Croatia

Read about it here

On Monday (20/04/2009) an independent student initiative for the right to free education started a peaceful occupation of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, Croatia. They organized this action demanding the right to free education for all and the elimination of all tuition fees, at all levels of higher education: undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate. During the occupation, everyone is free to enter and leave the Faculty building, but regular classes will not be held. Instead, students have organized an alternative educational program, which consists of lectures, public discussions, workshops, movie screenings and other happenings. Everyone is free to attend these happenings, whether they are students or not.

Every evening, a plenary session will be held, at which students will decide whether they will continue with the occupation the next day. Everyone is free to attend these sessions, participate in discussions and vote, whether they are students or ordinary citizens. The issue of the right to free education is not one that concerns only the students, it is an issue of relevance for the future of the entire society, therefore every member of the society has the right to participate in decision making at the plenary sessions.

On this page you will find information about the initiative for the right to free education, as well as translations of some of our important documents into several languages.

For more information about the reasons for the protest and why the students chose to carry it out in this manner, see frequently asked questions.

So far, we have received numerous letters of support from individuals and organizations, both at home and from abroad. Among those who have expressed support for our cause are Noam Chomsky, Judith Butler and Slavoj Žižek. Full list of who supports us can be accessed here.

Liberating Women in Iraq American Military Style

A Briefing Paper

OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Prepared by Kristen McNutt, Researcher,

Association of Humanitarian Lawyers

Presented to The United Nations Commission on Human Rights 2005 March Session

Geneva

Iraqi female detainees have been illegally detained, raped and sexually violated by United States military personnel. Women who stay at home in traditional roles are more likely to be imprisoned as bargaining chips by US troops seeking to pressurize male relatives, according to the New Statesmen (UK) . In December 2003, a woman prisoner, “Noor”, smuggled out a note stating that US guards at Abu Ghraib had been raping women detainees and forcing them to strip naked. Several of the women were now pregnant. The classified enquiry launched by the US military, headed by Major General Antonio Taguba, has confirmed the note by “Noor” and that sexual violence against women at Abu Ghraib took place. Among the 1,800 digital photographs taken by US guards inside Abu Ghraib there were, according to Taguba's report, images of naked male and female detainees; a male Military Police guard “having sex” with a female detainee; detainees (of unspecified gender) forcibly arranged in various sexually explicit positions for photographing; and naked female detainees. The Bush administration has refused to release photographs of Iraqi women prisoners at Abu Ghraib, including those of women forced at gunpoint to bare their breasts (although these have been shown to Congress). UK Member of Parliament Ann Clwyd (L) has confirmed a report of an Iraqi woman in her 70s who had been harnessed and ridden like a donkey at Abu Ghraib and another coalition detention centre after being arrested last July. Clwyd said: "She was held for about six weeks without charge. During that time she was insulted and told she was a donkey."

Read more HERE

MET CHIEF WARNED "RIOT COPS WILL KILL" BEFORE TOMLINSON

MET CHIEF WARNED "RIOT COPS WILL KILL" BEFORE TOMLINSON

EXCLUSIVE on The Sauce

BRITAIN'S most senior policeman, Sir Paul Stephenson, was warned in writing that police violence would lead to “serious injuries or even deaths” just three weeks before Ian Tomlinson was pushed to the ground and killed by an officer.

The Met Police commissioner was warned by senior organisers from the Stop the War Coalition that riot officers were so out of hand they were putting the lives of "at serious risk" in a formal letter - backed up by a dossier of evidence.

Read more from Brendan HERE

Heteronormativity for normal people...

(ie not in academese)

Families are like fudge...mostly sweet, with a few nuts!! Count me in!!

Summary of Life

GREAT TRUTHS THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED:

1) No matter how hard you try, you can't baptise cats.
2) When your Mum is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your hair.
3) If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person.
4) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato. (Dont get this one?)
5) You can't trust dogs to watch your food.
6) Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
7) Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.
8) You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
9) Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.

GREAT TRUTHS THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED:

1) Raising teenagers is like nailing jelly to a tree.
2) Wrinkles don't hurt.
3) Families are like fudge...mostly sweet, with a few nuts.
4) Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
5) Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside.
6) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fibre, not the toy.

GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD

1) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.
3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there.
4) You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.
5) It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.
6) Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.
7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.

THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE:

1) You believe in Santa Claus.
2) You don't believe in Santa Claus.
3) You are Santa Claus.
4) You look like Santa Claus.


SUCCESS:

At age 4 success is . . . not piddling in your pants.
At age 12 success is . . . having friends.
At age 17 success is . . having a drivers licence.
At age 35 success is having money.
At age 50 success is . . . having money.
At age 70 success is . .. . having a drivers licence.
At age 75 success is . . . having friends.
At age 80 success is . . . not piddling in your pants.

SOAS sacks key activist

From Lenin's Tomb

Employers have a number of ways of getting back at successful strikers, and one of them is to target militant trade unionists. Recently, after a high-profile campaign by SOAS Justice for Cleaners, which was ultimately victorious in its demands for decent pay*, the SOAS Unison Branch Chair, Jose Stalin Bermudez, was suspended pending a disciplinary hearing. This was presumably good news to the management at my alma mater, Birkbeck College, where Bermudez was supporting the Living Wage campaign by cleaners there - a campaign that continues to this day, and which involves staff and students at Birkbeck.

The charge against Bermudez was that he had made a "death threat" to a colleague in 2007. The charge has not been substantiated, and was rejected by an earlier grievance hearing, but nonetheless Sharon Page of the SOAS directorate resuscitated the charge in order to justify his sacking. This was the same Sharon Page who had, in 2008, conceded that there was "no evidence or witness to substantiate" the claim that there was "any verbal threat" to the life or safety of the complainant. This was subsequently confirmed in correspondence from the Human Resources manager Charles Perry.

Following the initial decision to sack Bermudez, an appeal was launched. SOAS selected a panel to hear the appeal, rejecting the arguments from SOAS Unison, UCU, NUS and several members of the Academic Board for an independent review. That panel, under the direction of the HR advisor, affirmed the original decision. The basis of the decision was the perception of the complainant, Norman Riseley, of the Estates and Services staff (Estates and Services manages the facilities at SOAS). But there was an independent witness, Pablo Grisales, who - instead of being given the opportunity to testify - was brought before three managers, who read to him a prepared statement and asked him to confirm it. He was given no chance to read the statement, or qualify it in any way. He was prevented from offering his own independent version of events. And the statement, never signed, became the official "witness statement".

Grisales subsequently attended the disciplinary hearing earlier this year, and supported Bermudez's recollection that there had been no threat of any kind. However, Sharon Page dismissed the evidence as a fabrication, declaring that "on the balance of probabilities" she would prefer to believe the managers' claim that Grisales had "verbally confirmed" the unsigned "witness statement". Further, the complainant's version of events was deemed "far more credible" than that of either Bermudez, the accused, or Grisales, the sole independent witness. This absurd judgment reeks of prejudice. In their statement on the decision, SOAS Unison and SOAS UCU, say: "To say that this borders on downright racism would be an understatement. Sharon Page made her decision to dismiss Stalin on her perception of the complainant's perception. One white manager's perception of a white complainant's perception of a black employee. No contest in SOAS."

*The SOAS Living Wage campaign successfully sought to raise cleaners' wages to the modest London Living Wage level of £7.45 per hour, set by the Greater London Assembly to account for the high costs of living in the city. This campaign continues at the other Bloomsbury colleges.

State the bleeding obvious

I know it looks like a razor but this lovely, ergonomically designed state-of-the-art piece of equipment is actually a vegetable peeler. Mind you, either one could be potentially fatal if used incorrectly so I am so thankful to the kind manufacturers for warning us of any impeding danger.

On a more serious (no really) note, I actually want to recommend this lovely friendly item.

When I worked in restaurant kitchens I actually really enjoyed peeling carrots-i can speedpeel which made me VERY popular! But the trouble with most peelers is that they are only designed for use in one direction only. This one, however, clever little thing, has a swivel head for use left handed, right handed, and either horizontally or vertically (i personally prefer the blade the other way round to in this photo-it makes it easier to peel quickly).

And the blade is made from non-rusting silicon so will not blunt and hence last for years .

Great, fab...

So, hope you are all now inspired to rush out and buy this beautiful thing.

Students Fuming over Labour Party tricks-spot the difference anyone?

Alice Mahon who has recently left the Labour party wrote us this little leaving note. I have made a few changes-mine are underlined. Feel free to comment with any further suggestions.

==========================

It became clear to me during my insert number of years/18 years in NUS/parliament that, with the phenomenon called New Labour, two things would change the politics of the student/Labour movement forever.

One, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown would adopt with great enthusiasm the free market economics pursued by Thatcher and the US neo-cons. Two, they would have to change the structures and policies of the NUS/party to achieve their goal.

A machine was put in place to crush anything remotely connected to Old Labour. Conference was changed beyond recognition, any dissent ruthlessly stamped on by the new spin masters. Delegates were sought out and pressurised into supporting New Labour policies even if they were against what the local students' unions/party had decided.

This nastiness was a hallmark of New Labour and they exercised it at every level of the movement.

I have stood for conference arrangements committee twice and the party machine has moved in and spent enormous amounts of money supporting the candidates who would always support the leadership's bidding. No expense was spared when it came to defeating an independent voice. Opposition/Party members have effectively been banned from any decision making.

For those of us on the left, the weekly parliamentary Labour Party meetings were not a happy event.

I remember asking for a motion at the NEC/two-day debate on the Iraq war and the sky almost fell in. The Blairite foot soldiers ran out to brief the press and sure enough on the front pages the following day it was reported that I and other usual suspects had been opprresive to minority students causing inaccessibility/ridiculed and "roundly booed" for opposing the Wes Streeting's/leadership position.

There are very few of what I would call real Labour candidtaes/MPs in the student movement/Parliament.

I stayed in the movement/party hoping that with a new leadership we might go back to being a really progressive and caring party. In the event I could not have been more wrong. Under Streeting/Brown things are just as bad. The decision to privatise the student fees/Royal Mail is inexplicable and simply wrong. We said in our 2005 manifesto we would not give up the fight for Free Education/privatise Royal Mail; we lied.

His/That manifesto promised real democratic change/a referendum on NUS activity/the European Constitution, we renamed it the Governance Review/Lisbon Treaty and reneged on that promise also.

Now we find out that Ednet/Facebook/NUS websites/NUS mailing lists/a website was to be set up in our name whose sole aim was to smear members of the opposition and their families. Well not in my name and, from the response I am having to my decision to resign, not in the name of many party activists either.

I have spent most of my life working for and representing the Labour Party. I always took the view that I should stay and fight within, but New Labour have done such a good job of demolishing our democratic structure (with a Governance Review) that I realised there was nothing I could say or do to change things from within.

There was only one thing for me to do and that was to resign.

Victory for Matthis Chiroux - good things come to those that struggle

Chiroux, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, refused to participate in what he described as "an illegal and immoral occupation" May 15th, 2008, in Washington D.C., after nine other veterans testified to Members of the U.S. Congress about abuses they experienced during deployments to Iraq. Chiroux also vowed to remain public in the U.S. to defend himself from any charges brought against him by the military.

"My resistance as a noncommissioned officer to this abhorrent occupation is just as legitimate now as it was last year," said Chiroux, adding, "Soldiers have a duty to adhere to the international laws of war described as supreme in Art. 6 Para. 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which we swear to abide by before the orders of any superior, including our former or current president."

I received this from the campaign this morning:

Today, I stood before the Army. I looked a board of officers in the eyes, and I told them I thought they were sending people off to participate in war crimes. And what did they say? Get out of here, Sergeant, and keep your damn G.I. Bill!!!Indeed, folks!

The Army awarded me a recommendation for a general discharge under honorable conditions from the Individual Ready Reserve for my refusal to deploy to Iraq last summer. This landmark decision means not only am I a free man, I’m free to continue school this fall with the “new” G.I. Bill that I earned while on active duty.

...

During the hearing, my girlfriend Alexandra among others were present in the board room to offer moral support. Having them there made all the difference as I squared off with the military over human slaughter that we’ve all been forced to bow down to.So what does this mean for the military?

RESIST!!!! Now’s the time, ladies and gentleman. The flood-gates are open. Your leaders are listening, and more and more, they are agreeing. Resisters are moving away from being the exception, and slowly becoming the norm.If I can refuse to go to Iraq, climb monuments, march into presidential debates, lobby congress, face the military, not go to jail and not even loose my G.I. Bill, we just don’t have any excuses anymore!

Resistance is rising, and IVAW will stand firm underneath it. My story is now history, and I humbly pass the torch. More to follow soon on my testimony at Winter Soldier and the juicy details of my hearing.

Now, I’m going to sleep like I haven’t in a year!

Peace and Solidarity,

Matthis Chiroux

Matthisresists.us

See also http://ivaw.org/

My heartfelt thanks go out to him and all the resisters-we need more people to do this and now hopefully they will find the encouragement they need. In solidarity brother.

May Day, May Day, low pay, no way

P R E S S S T A T E M E N T Victory for Living Wage protesters at Birkbeck College!

Staff and students to demonstrate to end poverty pay for cleaners + caterers across Bloomsbury!

March, stunt + rally this May Day!

The recently-formed Bloomsbury Living Wage campaign has called a demonstration for this May Day (1st May.) The protest will include a stunt to make visible the contribution that low-paid and mainly-migrant cleaners and caterers make to our city; and will call for the introduction of the London Living Wage (LLW) across the many educational centres in Bloomsbury.

The LLW is a minimum wage and conditions package established by the GLA, which takes into account the higher costs of living in London. Its rate (currently £7.45 an hour) has been calculated carefully through adapting the national minimum wage to local conditions. It also includes a series of other basic rights (including sick pay and union rights.)

Recently, after a long campaign by Birkbeck staff and student unions, which was supported by public figures such as Ken Loach and MP John McDonnell, management at the university agreed to pay all cleaning and catering staff the Living Wage rate. This followed a similarly successful campaign at SOAS, and the decision by 27 other employers across London to implement the Living Wage. Now Birkbeck and SOAS activists have joined forces with other Bloomsbury college campaigners to organise a May Day protest.

Some Bloomsbury universities still pay wages as low as the minimum wage of £5.73. This means that to make ends meet cleaners and other staff often end up doing several jobs (sometimes on top of organising childcare) and working unsociable early morning and weekend shifts. Further, there even have been cases of unscrupulous subcontractors not paying employees for months.

We say that the people who prepare our food and make our buildings fit for purpose are essential to making universities function properly. They deserve to be treated with dignity!

We have chosen international workers’ day (May Day) to demand this, as too often low-paid migrant workers are treated as ‘invisible’ and their contribution to the work and society, ignored.

Our 1st May action will begin with a rally (including MPs and other public figures) at 12 pm midday at the main steps, SOAS, 10 Thornhaugh St.

The Bloomsbury Living Wage Campaign is supported by activists from UCL, SOAS, Birkbeck, LSHTM, Senate House, and Institute of Education.

For more information contact Camilla on 07789 680 115 or c.royle@ucl.ac.uk

Everyone deserves a Living Wage!

Assed Baig beats the BNP. Go President Baig

In the face of a vicious, racist campaign at his uni Assed Baig has proved that All it Takes for Evil to Triumph is for Good Men to do Nothing by winning the presidency of the students' Union.

Assed has not done nothing and therefore evil has  not triumphed.

Baigus has been an inspiration to many standing firm on his politics fighting fascism on campus, defending liberation campaigns and campaigning for free education for all (amongst many other things). Last year he did a national speaking tour  on the topic 'What is Racism?' putting his studies in jeopardy, and not seeing  his son for days on end. 

The campaign against him included smears about his personal life but worse still apparently he was going to:

• implement sharia law
  
• close the night club
• separate women in classes and social spaces
• have only curry in the catering services (like that would be a bad thing!!)
• references to Assed bin Osama
• and more.

Read his report HERE if you are on facebook  or HERE if you are not which includes all 116 comments.

His university is in the heartland of the BNP and has had fellow campaigners beaten up for working with p*ki's. He has campaigned tirelessly on his campus for a few years now, has been on  the SU exec for 2 and now has proven that he knows how to put his money where his mouth is and has built many campaigns on what was otherwise an awful politically passive university.

Here are a few of the lovely comments on his facebook page: 

From Bonolo Woracker - Oh My Days Brother!!!! Congratulations dude, I am so proud and happy. I knew you would make it!! You have been an inspiration and mentor to me and now I know you can only bring good things to the students at Staffs!! If you don't stand up for something, you will fall for anything!! Congrats President Assed!!

Jennifer Jones - So amazing you're elected, can't believe you managed despite all the lies and smears. proves you can't win an election by relying on islamophobia! now racism will never go unchallenged on your campus. you're gonna be brilliant next year I will be so proud to waive motions to you at NUS! "Goldsmiths waives to Assed Baig, President of Staffordshire Students' Union"!!!

Shamin Akhtar - Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.

I feel compelled to share the thoughts of Subhaiha Sheik which she wrote after having accompanying Assed on his tour: Why racism is very much White on Black.

I want to wish Assed all the best and would like you all to send your support to him on facebook (if you're on it).