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SOAS Student Statement of Occupation

15 October 2015

On Thursday the 8th of October 2015, two days after the occupation of the Brunei Suite, the General Assembly of the SOAS Student Union voted unanimously for a resolution of no confidence in the school’s senior management.

The resolution has been a long time coming. Over the years, students and academic and support staff have been in conflict with management over a range of issues – over and over again. As diverse as we all are (always disagreeing and debating about almost everything), there is one thing that we can all agree on: SOAS’ management needs to change.

Whether it is their bureaucratic intransigence preventing us from switching courses and choosing our tutorials, or the more serious matters of outsourcing and course cuts, SOAS management consistently ignores the needs and wishes of students and the exploitation of its staff. They make decisions without us and impose them on us as if our viewpoints do not matter.

* When we passed a referendum with an overwhelming majority (73%) in support of the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign last year, management ignored us.

* When we opposed the outsourcing of cleaners, security and other workers, management ignored us.

* When the Fractionals went on strike for a fair pay, management ignored them.

* The 14% gender pay gap remains ignored and institutional racism thrives.

The Executive Board wants to make 6.5 million pounds of cuts. Why do they insist on redundancies? Why won’t they start with cutting their own inflated salaries?

What the occupation has realised is that no matter how many resolutions we pass as students and academic and support staff, the management will continue to ignore us. The SOAS Student Union is great and always very supportive of the students. Yet the undemocratic structures of governance at the university mean that the SU gets very little say (2 votes in a body of 22 people) over the big decisions such as those about fees, courses and worker rights.

As students, we are sick and tired of being treated as walking ATM machines who are only as good as the money we bring into the university.

The people that run this institution will only listen when they are forced to do so. The occupation is therefore the first step in challenging the management’s autocratic authority. The occupation will not rest until students and all the staff are no longer subjects, but active participants in the running of this university.

It is time that SOAS democratises.

The current governing situation under the Executive Board and Board of Trustees must be restructured. In its place, students, academic staff and support staff should have authority over the running of our university.

The first step in achieving this, as occupiers, is to open up the Brunei Gallery to courses, discussions and lectures by students, lecturers, and workers in SOAS as well as many supporters from outside the university. This space will be a pedagogical space where we all learn together outside the confines of corporatism. Through this action of creating our own free university, the occupation will show that students and staff are capable of driving our own education and that there is no need for senior management to design our curriculum for us.

Anyone who would like to hold an event at the SOAS Student Occupation can email us at soasoccupation@riseup.net or find us on Facebook.  

This university belongs to those who work here and study here. Or in the words of distinguished cultural theorist Stuart Hall, who advocated for the decolonisation of higher education: “The university is a critical institution or it is nothing.” See our list of demands here: http://soasanticuts.tumblr.com/post/131222674685/listofdemands

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Kuro makes friends with Shironeko’s snail.

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A response to Saturday’s events at downing street, and the Daily Mail’s article: Anarchist mob plotting a summer of thuggery

The gauntlet has been lain down.

In last week’s election, a small proportion of this country’s population, 24% of eligible voters, declared war on everybody else. We can...

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sweeeeeeet

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And Smiley Culture And Joy Gardner And Ian Tomlinson And Jean Charles de Menezes And Harry Stanley And Blair Peach And so many others whose names they buried so we'd never know.

UK, USA or anywhere - All Cops Are Bastards.

American Police VS UK Police

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Dear all,

This is an open letter to all those on the left who are planning on visiting, participating in or speaking at the Marxism 2014 conference from the 10th to the 14th of July this year. It comes from a collective of other left activists, students and workers – we hope that you’ll...

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Dear all, This is an open letter to all those on the left who are planning on visiting, participating in or speaking at the Marxism 2014 conference from the 10th to the 14th of July this year. It comes from a collective of other left activists, students and workers – we hope that you'll understand that this is in no way an 'attack on the left' or a petty sectarian squabble. In fact, we would like to see a stronger, more inclusive movement in this country and internationally where all people are able to participate and work for real liberation. And it's because of this we are asking you to reconsider, and not attend Marxism 2014. You might already know that the festival is hosted by the Socialist Workers Party (though not everyone does when they agree to take part or buy a ticket), and that the Marxism festival is their main event of the year where they hope to boost membership and sign up hundreds of new members. The event also bolsters their reputation as one of the largest and most important groups on the left in the UK through the number and range of speakers. However, this year the diversity of speakers is not what it used to be, due to a growing number of people on the left unwilling to work with the SWP, or withdrawing public support for them. They've also had to admit in their party notes that they're now trying to recruit people with “little or no knowledge or experience of left politics”. This is because of a crisis the party is unwilling to discuss. It's the the same crisis that leads us to ask you not to support Marxism 2014 or the SWP. In 2013, a report was leaked showing that a senior member of the Socialist Worker's Party had been accused of the sexual harassment and rape of two younger members of the party. They chose to deal with the issue internally, through their 'disputes committee' in a victim blaming show trial run by long time friends and colleagues of the man accused. To give an idea of how bad this was, the women who had come forward with the allegations were questioned on their past relationships and even asked “if it was fair to say [they] liked a drink”. These kinds of questions do nothing but lay the blame for what happened to these women on their own actions. At the end of the process, the accused 'Comrade Delta' was essentially let off the hook – although he was suspended from his public position, he stayed in the party, close to those running the show. We only know anything of what happened because other party members were so shocked that they leaked transcripts onto the internet – the SWP has been keen to hide the whole affair. When people did start to talk about it, the SWP Central Committee (the 'ruling body' of the party) responded by threatening to kick out members who wouldn't shut up and accusing those who complained of allowing 'creeping feminism' into the organisation. As if that was something terrible. This was not an isolated incident and others have since spoken out about similar cases and treatment in the organisation. Following this, almost all of their student groups have abandoned them. But the SWP refuses to change its position or admit it did anything wrong. Individuals who have challenged them in public have been met with intimidating behaviour and abuse and been called everything from misogynists to Nazis for daring to say that these attitudes towards rape are not ok. We all feel that it's unacceptable for the SWP to carry on as if nothing has happened, covering up allegations of sexual abuse, shouting down dissent and bullying people who question them. We think that people should know about the allegations and how the SWP handled them, since they're trying to make it all disappear. Our movement should be safe from this kind of misogyny and rape apologism. Please join us in sending a clear message to the SWP that sexual abuse is not something that can be covered up, dismissed or ignored by refusing to support Marxism 2014. A left movement needs to be inclusive of women and it is vital that we reject the attitudes held by the SWP to build towards a strong, powerful movement for all. #creepingfeminism

Just came across this. I personally never wanted to go the SWP paper-sale-athon anyway, but this makes a good case why even people who like that sort of thing should boycott these rape apologists.

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Resource: Here is the poster we use to raise awareness about the SWP. Feel free to print it out and stick it around your campus, or ideally Marxism festival if you are in London over the Summer!

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Did Rothbard just outline the plot to Judge Dredd? I think he did.

read this shit:

4. Take Back the Streets: Crush Criminals. And by this I mean, of course, not “white collar criminals” or “inside traders” but violent street criminals – robbers, muggers, rapists, murderers. Cops must be unleashed, and allowed to administer instant...

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Yesterday, the Pilsen branch of Food Not Bombs in Chicago reclaimed an abandoned police station and turned the parking lot into a garden.

The police and the city were not aware that this was going to take place.

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CSA does it again! No one pulls apart vanguardists, capitalists, libertarians, primitivists etc. with so much brainpower or quite so much style...

I remember you saying you were getting into Especifismo/Specifism recently. Can you give a brief explanation of what it means and what you like/dislike about it?

Yeah, I do like it, it’s a kind of platformism which has been hammered out in practice in places like Rio, with more emphasis on working within social movements and being integrated with the community you’re working in at a basic level… the idea being to advocate anarchist ideas and ways of working  (direct action, anti-representation etc) without seeking to control or lead the movements, just influencing them through active participation and example, building a reputation for being trustworthy, hardworking and militant, undermining reformist leaderships by ignoring them and initiating grassroots direct action and stuff like that. I like it because it’s positive and active, contrary to a widespread tendency in anarchism to just fold your arms and tut disapprovingly from the sidelines because whatever movement isn’t leaderless enough or whatever…we can’t spread our ideas among people if we cut ourselves of from them, why should anyone listen to a bunch of aloof snobs who reckon they’re too good to do the boring leg work of community organising…. There’s obviously much more too it than that, and i’m no expert on it but what I know I read in this text from the FARJ, I’d recommend everyone have a look because it’s good shit

Social Anarchism and Organisation by the Federação Anarquista do Rio de Janeiro ‐ FARJ

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I'm searching for a post and I can't find the damn thing! It's a comparison of antifa stickers and banners and fascists ripping them off and copying them. I know I saw it recently but I've been trawling the antifa tag for aaaages and can't find it... little help?

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best GNWP I’ve seen in a while

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Ahahahaha! Oh MRAs... terrible, terrible people.

"Men’s Rights" Activists are so misundertood /sarcasm

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Someone has to know what that stands for... Cool photo. Cool kid.

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I came back to my old home town after months away to house sit for my folks while they're away (and to get some quality time with their cats). When I arrived, I found a letter waiting for me. Which is strange, since I haven't lived here in a while. When I opened it I found this

from the local Conservative Party. Do they actively recruit people with punchable chinless faces by the way?. In the letter, they ask me to pledge support for some bullshit local scheme (what does an over populated, underdeveloped town with high unemployment, over full schools being shut down and a hospital that's been criticised in the national press for falsifying data need most urgently? Oh, a park and ride scheme. Of course) and to tell them how likely I am to vote Conservative in the next election. Naturally, my first instinct was to burn the letter and purge the evil, but this thing is freepost. So I decided to write them a letter instead

Since my camera is a bit crap (and so is my dyslexic handwriting) here's what I said to them: "Colchester Conservatives, not in my most twisted, soda-masochistic nightmare would I ever dream of giving my support to the Tories in any way. Ever. It's not because I support any particular party that opposes yours - I don't. But I am a young person, and a student, and a person from a working class background - three groups you seem determined to make more miserable so that your donors & upper-middle class back benchers might have a few extra quid to add to their collective millions I also happen to be a person with a conscience. And that means any group that proposes xenophobic, borderline racist, immigration policies which tear families and lives apart through deportation, or who enforce 'benefit reforms' which result in poverty, desperation and the suicide of hundreds of people with disabilities, or who hack away at the public services thousands of people who are less well off rely on while repeating how its somehow good for us all is a group that I will not only never support, but will always hate. Whether acting locally or nationally, the ideology behind your party and behind its 'austerity measures' sicken me. I hope your party crumbles to dust & is remembered only as a warning from history or a sick joke. Never contact me again."

In the end, I feel I was a little too soft. I could have just sent a photo of Thatchers severed head and the word 'revolution'. But I don't think those fuckers will bother me again.