ANTARA Posted January 29, 2009 I have lost count of the number of universities that are in occupation (sit-in protest against Israel’s atrocities in Gaza) within the U.K . in every university various demands have been made to condemn the atrocities and to help the educational institutions in Gaza. SOL members can help achieve one of KCL’s (king’s college london) demands which is to revoke an honorary doctorate that was given to perez (Current Israeli president) last year, for the obvious reason of massacring more than 1400 defenseless Palestinians and maiming countless others. So follow the link and sign the petition. Please try and email the link to as many people as possible, it is a shame we only have around 600 signatures. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ibtisam Posted January 30, 2009 Antara, in you are a student at Kings, there is a petition for KCL students only. You need to write your student number and full name. A general petition from the public would not make a difference as it is a privately funded institution. (unless you do a grand scale operation and tarnish its name beyond believe, coupled with a reduction in the number of new applicants this year.) Failing that, collecting list of names who are not stakeholders at KCL is dead end campaign. Few things which have an immediate impact that I would suggest are: - Those who have 50% of their fees still outstanding can also refuse to pay up and drag It out (I hear some people have already done this, but it needs to be more organized and systematic rather than random) - Students can put in transfer requests at KCL for next year, when they ask for a reason, say you are too ashamed to be associated with KCL for their actions. (Again this needs to happen in an organized/ systematic manner rather than two or three students.) The truth is I don’t think people care enough to move or do either of those things which have an immediate impact. Therefore by all means do a petition, but at least it must be student based. Good luck Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ibtisam Posted January 30, 2009 KCL have released this statement. We congratulate you on your stand against the atrocities committed in Gaza, and on your courage to take direct action! Here at King's we are delighted to be part of a strong and vigorous movement that has become national. We very much wish to strengthen coordination between the different universities, in order to strengthen our movement and cause. This will increase the ability of students to have their voice heard in the name of justice and equality. We therefore suggest the following three points: 1. The intensification of communication between universities 2. The production of a bulletin to publicise the experiences of all occupations. 3. The issuing of a joint statement to be distributed as widely as possible (media, trade unions, the government, Universities UK, internationally etc). 1. The intensification of communication between universities In order to strengthen our cause we consider the creation of a united student front for Gaza a chance not to be missed. We therefore suggest that we intensify in any possible way our communication, in an important initial step on the way to achieving this goal. Moreover we suggest a meeting of students activists from all universities in occupation. 2. The production of a bulletin containing the experiences of all occupations At King's we sense that the occupation is becoming a formative experience for many student activists. We are certain we are gaining experience that should be shared and disseminated as widely as possible within the campus communities of Britain. We are sure we and future student activists have much to learn from the different experiences of dealing with issues such as mobilisation, organization, negotiation, etc. We therefore offer to edit a bulletin containing these experiences to be printed and send out to you in pdf. on Monday. This necessitates the collection of articles of approx. 500 words from each university by Sunday at 3pm. We would suggest the articles should deal with such issues as: The mobilization of students, the actual moment of occupation, problems with university security guards and police, negotiations with the university administrations, the organisation of activists during the occupation, forms of meetings and decision making, the establishment of work groups, public relations, solidarity work with NGOs, trade unions, etc. 3. Joint statement In light of the success of our developing movement we should have a deep far-reaching discussion amongst and between ourselves on the political demands we want to put forward. This should be pursued openly and fully in order for fully developed demands to be decided upon so that our movement can move beyond the present confines of our respective universities. We are very proud to be part of this nation-wide movement for Palestine and to contribute to the revival of student activism and the empowerment of students around the country. We wish you the best of luck with your occupations and other activities, and will be very, very glad to hear from you soon. Don't give up, the struggle for a free Palestine continues! Kind regards and solidarity from The King's College occupation - liberated space Also other blogs: Some of the blogs so far: LSE: http://lseoccupation.blogspot.com Essex: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45143838671 Warwick: http://warwicksolidaritysitin.wordpress.com/ KCL: http://kcloccupation.blogspot.com SOAS: http://soassolidarity4gaza.blogspot.com/ Manchester Met: http://mmuoccupation.blogspot.com/ Oxford: http://occupiedoxford.wordpress.com/ Sussex: http://sussexoccupation.blogspot.com/ Birmingham: http://birminghamoccupation.wordpress.com/ Leeds: http://leedsunioccupation.blogspot.com/ Newcastle Bristol Nottingham Kingston Salford Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ANTARA Posted January 30, 2009 Ibtisaam you are right about the student number requirement, but am almost certain and most ppl at kings know they will not revoke it, the whole thing is symbolic and it sends a message that there are people who care about the masakiin in Gaza – although I must admit the moajority of the occupation members are non-muslims. Ta labaad, I think the response to what happened in Gaza has been very positive so far and I bet the Zionists are alarmed by it, a lot of people are really taking an active interest in this, case in point Nick Clegg-the lib dem leader- he called the government to stop the arms trade with Israel. This guy would have even been more vocal if it would guarantee him the muslim vote, but obviously there is party interest involved and he wouldn’t want to become another Ken Livingstone. Eventhough what happened in Gaza can be called a massacre, if it goes unchallenged these Zionists will definitely feel emboldened and might even do the unthinkable and attack Iran. They wanted to drag Iran into this, if u ‘ve time read this article from the jpost it here …....boy that israeli woman is sinister but u gotta give to her she knows sida wax la isku dhex digo been iyo balaayo and make the case for war. BTW , ya’du are fighting on many fronts, there is a big argument about a catholic bishop who openly denied the holocaust, on top of all this they have the Erdogan incident to deal with , I must say their propaganda machine is working overtime..Oy yeah, n don’t forget this petition by some 900 ! American academics link Inaabti you made me write an essay…….. so wat do I get A+ or A-. Anyways, ha ilaabin n make sure u sign the petition , even email it to ppl. Habeen wangsan, Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ANTARA Posted January 30, 2009 my bad,couldn't delete it Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
