URGENT - Solidarity with Nottingham University Occupation

[tbaldwin]

I love this thread. Good old Udo.

 

[Udo Erasmus]

Report from Dundee University:
http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/02/421501.html

 

[Hocus Eye.]

People shouildn't make fun. When I was a student, we occupied the University Library more than once. They showed a film about Blair Peach and played Linton Kwesi Johnson records. It was great - we stayed up all night and talked. It helped form my political views.

These occupations will form a new generation of radicals for the twenty-first century.

Pull the other leg it's got bells on. Or were you on the NUS to Labour MP train, and somehow didn't quite get to be an MP.

 

[The39thStep]

People shouildn't make fun. When I was a student, we occupied the University Library more than once. They showed a film about Blair Peach and played Linton Kwesi Johnson records. It was great - we stayed up all night and talked. It helped form my political views.

These occupations will form a new generation of radicals for the twenty-first century.

Sums the scene up well

 

[Streathamite]

These occupations will form a new generation of radicals for the twenty-first century.

all things considered, you're not really best placed to go on about 'radicalism', are you?

 

[frogwoman]

People shouildn't make fun. When I was a student, we occupied the University Library more than once. They showed a film about Blair Peach and played Linton Kwesi Johnson records. It was great - we stayed up all night and talked. It helped form my political views.

These occupations will form a new generation of radicals for the twenty-first century.

well what do you know, maybe having a sit in at my uni wouldn't have been such a good idea

 

[embree]

People shouildn't make fun. When I was a student, we occupied the University Library more than once. They showed a film about Blair Peach and played Linton Kwesi Johnson records. It was great - we stayed up all night and talked. It helped form my political views.

These occupations will form a new generation of radicals for the twenty-first century.

be warned, a new generation of the Labour right is being germinated right now. In that sense we'd probably be best off burning down the occupied campuses right now

 

[frogwoman]

be warned, a new generation of the Labour right is being germinated right now. In that sense we'd probably be best off burning down the occupied campuses right now

good job my uni wasn't occupied and has loads of right wing tossers in it maybe they'll be the ones leading the vanguard

 

[Fullyplumped]

Pull the other leg it's got bells on. Or were you on the NUS to Labour MP train, and somehow didn't quite get to be an MP.

I wasn't in the Labour Party when I was a student and I wasn't active in NUS. I don't think that anyone I remember being with at University with at the time became Labour MPs. A few became Tory, SNP or SDP MPs. A few became Labour MSPs. We were genuinely protesting against things when we occupied the university library and it was a reasonably well disciplined experience.

Sorry to burst your stereotype.

 

[butchersapron]

Which university?

 

[Fullyplumped]

all things considered, you're not really best placed to go on about 'radicalism', are you?

Why not? I was radical for the times and I suspect that my thinking is more genuinely radical and open than that of many others who post here and seem to have their thinking about politics stick thirty years in the past. There are people here, for example, who think that wearing trainies and trackie bottoms in a teaching job is a radical act.

 

[Fullyplumped]

well what do you know, maybe having a sit in at my uni wouldn't have been such a good idea

That is up to you. Why not try it? Just organising to try and get it done might be a practical lesson in practical politics. Posting on the internet and slagging people off, isn't.

 

[Fullyplumped]

be warned, a new generation of the Labour right is being germinated right now. In that sense we'd probably be best off burning down the occupied campuses right now

Killing your potential opponents because you can't be bothered marshalling and putting arguments isn't very radical.

 

[Fullyplumped]

Which university?

That is none of your business. Stop prying.

 

[butchersapron]

Killing your potential opponents because you can't be bothered marshalling and putting arguments isn't very radical.

It's pretty bloody radical actually.

 

[butchersapron]

That is none of your business. Stop prying.

Has little FP got a new labour sized hangover? I know anyway, whichever scottish uni is the bastion of elite privilege.

 

[frogwoman]

jesus christ, it was a joke

 

[frogwoman]

That is up to you. Why not try it? Just organising to try and get it done might be a practical lesson in practical politics. Posting on the internet and slagging people off, isn't.

what makes you think i didn't organise to try and get it done?

 

[Fullyplumped]

what makes you think i didn't organise to try and get it done?

Sorry, I let people get me all red faced and het up there. Do you know, some people don't think I'm radical at all!!!

 

[Fedayn]

I wasn't in the Labour Party when I was a student and I wasn't active in NUS. I don't think that anyone I remember being with at University with at the time became Labour MPs. A few became Tory, SNP or SDP MPs. A few became Labour MSPs. We were genuinely protesting against things when we occupied the university library and it was a reasonably well disciplined experience.

Sorry to burst your stereotype.

Given you mention SDP MP's and no NUS i'd hazard a guess it was Glasgow Uni as they're not NUS affiliated and Charles Kennedy was at Glasgow Uni and he becanme an SDP MSP.

 

[Doctor Carrot]

smash capitalism, smash the police, smash corporate universities, smash neo-liberal Vice Chancellors who replace neo-liberal Vice Chancellors. smash the whole thing.

 

[Udo Erasmus]

http://www.thesitch.com/occupation/

The movement has now crossed the water with victory declared at Rochester University in the USA!

 

[embree]

Killing your potential opponents because you can't be bothered marshalling and putting arguments isn't very radical.

I'll have to reassess my approach to politics then

 

[Udo Erasmus]

UPDATE: Action at Goldsmiths University

Students at Goldsmiths College have occupied the administration building,
Deptford Town Hall. The students are demanding scholarships for Palestinian students. Goldsmiths Union is twinned with Al Quds Open University.

 

[Udo Erasmus]

http://edinburghunioccupation.wordpress.com/

Edinburgh University Occupation!

 

[Udo Erasmus]

My name is Hanan Hamad, a Palestinian student studying English at Al-Aqsa University in the Gaza strip.

As Gazan students, my friends and I have suffered a lot during the previous years, especially from the unjust siege which is continued up to now. Many Gazan students were prevented from traveling abroad to further their studies because of the unjustified closure of all crossings in and out of Gaza. There are thousands of Gazan students who have lost scolarships and university placements in the past two years because they are trapped in Gaza and are prohibited from travelling abroad. These students’ dreams of receiving Master and PHD degrees were destroyed and I know that you as students are aware of how frustrating it is not to be able to achieve your academic dreams and ambitions. We view education not only as a personal dream, but also as a way to support our people and struggle. The mechanisms of the Occupation try to destroy our ability to have a functioning, proud, educated and capable society and we are determined to resist this through attaining all of our rights- including our right to education.

Our professors also suffer from this imposed siege- unable to travel in order to participate in different international conferences and debates. We remained steadfast throughout the oppression of the siege and challenged all these restrictions by trying to gain knowledge from the available poor sources- even textbooks and paper are banned from entering Gaza, the economy has been destroyed and many of our parents face unemployment and have to struggle and sacrifice just to pay our fees- but the recent Israeli massacres and attack on Gaza have made conditions much worse.

Many of our friends who study with us were killed during the brutal war. They were ordinary young men and women trying to live normal lives , to learn and study to improve lives and that of their peoples’, to be of service to their people and struggle, but the Israeli killing machine never allowed them to do so. Their empty desks in our classrooms and lecture halls cause us pain and are a constant reminder of how cheap our blood and lives are to the Israelis.

Most of Gaza’s universities including mine were partially destroyed by Israeli shelling. My best friend Hiba was made homeless when Israeli invasion forces destroyed her house completely. Her books, research papers, references, and computer were destroyed, burned and lost under the rubble of her home, days before she was supposed to take her final graduation exams. Countless other stories just like Hiba’s are buried under the rubble of Gaza.

What we as Palestinian students need at the moment is our fellow students’ support and solidarity all over the world. We deeply appreciate your taking a position to support us and express your solidarity. It shows us that we are not alone and breaks the isolation we often feel when we see the silence of the world’s governments as we our friends and families are killed. We ask for students around the world to pressure and take action and mobilise for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and to start campaigns of non-violent actions and resistance to pressure your universities to start academic and cultural boycotts in order to isolate apartheid Israeli policies.

We wish you luck and strength in your protests today and wish that we could join you there and speak face to face. We are thinking of you all today and are proud of your positions and solidarity. We hope these actions spread and that other students join you, and us, in this struggle.

 

[untethered]

If I were at university I'd be demanding a refund for every session missed due to student occupations. Campus security and the police really need to get a grip on this.

It's basically just stealing from the other students who work hard to pay for their courses and are entitled to receive the education they've bought without disruption due to some students' childish and selfish behaviour.

They should send the troublemakers down, without exception.

 

[audiotech]

They should send the troublemakers down, without exception.

I hear Peter Cook.

 

[Fullyplumped]

If I were at university I'd be demanding a refund for every session missed due to student occupations. Campus security and the police really need to get a grip on this. It's basically just stealing from the other students who work hard to pay for their courses and are entitled to receive the education they've bought without disruption due to some students' childish and selfish behaviour. They should send the troublemakers down, without exception.

To be fair, the students don't seem to be causing much disruption and seem to be left to get on with it. The revolting students at Edinburgh have taken over the big lecture theatre, but since it holds 400 people it probably isn't used for the day to day stuff. No doubt the Uni will find alternative rooms for proper lectures. I imagine most of those doing the occupation are studying Social Anthropology anyway - they'll probably get course credits for taking part! It's not really a job for the police, though, and anyway many of these students probably have quite influential mummies and daddies.

You make an important point, though, about the costs to students who want to work. The Universities need to stick up for students who are paying customers, and make sure they don't lose out so that the social anthropologists can be indulged.

 

[Fedayn]

The Universities need to stick up for students who are paying customers, and make sure they don't lose out so that the social anthropologists can be indulged.

Says it all.....