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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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 Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 6:10 am Post subject: Is the revolution finally coming? |
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It would only be a few decades later than we'd hoped.
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| While it was the situation in Gaza that triggered this mass protest, the beginnings of political enthusiasm have already spread to other issues. |
Students are revolting: The spirit of '68 is reawakening
Campus sit-ins began as a response to the Gaza attacks, but unrest is already spilling over to other issues.
Emily Dugan reports
Sunday, 8 February 2009
They are the iPod generation of students: politically apathetic, absorbed by selfish consumerism, dedicated to a few years of hedonism before they land a lucrative job in the City. Not any more. A seismic change is taking place in British universities.
Around the UK, thousands of students have occupied lecture theatres, offices and other buildings at more than 20 universities in sit-down protests. It seems that the spirit of 1968 has returned to the campus.
While it was the situation in Gaza that triggered this mass protest, the beginnings of political enthusiasm have already spread to other issues.
John Rose, one of the original London School of Economics (LSE) students to mount the barricades alongside Tariq Ali in 1968, spent last week giving lectures on the situation in Gaza at 12 of the occupations.
"This is something different to anything we've seen for a long time," he said. "There is genuine fury at what Israel did.
"I think it's highly likely that this year will see more student action. What's interesting is the nervousness of vice chancellors and their willingness to concede demands; it indicates this is something that could well turn into [another] '68."
Beginning with a 24-hour occupation at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) on 13 January, the sit-ins spread across the country. Now occupations have been held at the LSE, Essex, King's College London, Birmingham, Sussex, Warwick, Manchester Metropolitan, Oxford, Leeds, Cambridge, Sheffield Hallam, Bradford, Nottingham, Queen Mary, Manchester, Strathclyde, Newcastle, Kingston, Goldsmiths and Glasgow.
Among the demands of students are disinvestment in the arms trade; the promise to provide scholarships for Palestinian students; a pledge to send books and unused computers to Palestine; and to condemn Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Technology has set these actions apart from those of previous generations, allowing a national momentum to grow with incredible speed. Through the linking up of internet blogs, news of successes spread quickly and protests grew nationwide.
Just three weeks after the first sit-in at SOAS, students gathered yesterday at Birkbeck College to draw up a national strategy. The meeting featured speeches from leaders in the Stop the War movement, such as Tony Benn, George Galloway MP and Jeremy Corbyn MP. There has also been an Early Day Motion tabled in Parliament in support of campus activism.
At the end of the month students from across the country will gather for a national demonstration calling for the abolition of tuition fees, an event that organisers say has rocketed in size following the success of the occupations over Gaza.
Vice chancellors and principals have been brought to the negotiating table and � in the majority of universities � bowed to at least one of the demands. The students' success means that now there is a new round of protests. On Wednesday two new occupations began at Strathclyde and Manchester universities, and on Friday night students at the University of Glasgow also launched a sit-in.
Emily Dreyfus, a 21-year-old political activist in her third year of reading classics at Oxford, was one of around 80 students to occupy the historic Bodleian library building in the city and demand that the university issue a statement condemning the Gaza attacks and disinvest from the arms trade. She said: "I found Oxford politically very dead when I arrived, but it's completely different now. There seem to be more and more people talking about politics, which is so exciting. It's really been aided by the communication tools we've got, things like Facebook."
Wes Streeting, the president of the National Union of Students, said: "What we've seen over the Gaza issue is a resurgence of a particular type of protest: the occupation. It's a long time since we've seen student occupations on such a scale. It's about time we got the student movement going again and had an impact."
Establishments that have not previously been known for their activism have also become involved. Fran Legg was one of several students to set up the first Stop the War Coalition at Queen Mary, a research-focused university in London, a month ago. Now they are inundated with interest.
"Action on this scale among students hasn't been seen since the Sixties and Seventies," she said.
"This is going to go down in history as a new round of student mobilisation and it will set a precedent. Gaza is the main issue at the moment, but we're looking beyond the occupation; we're viewing it as a springboard for other protests and to set up a committee to make sure the university only invests ethically."
As the first generation of students to pay substantial direct fees to universities, their negotiating power has also been strengthened. Their concern over their college's investments have been given new legitimacy because it is partly their money.
Ms Legg said: "For the first time, you've got students getting principals to the negotiation table, saying they don't want their tuition fees funding war. Everybody wants to know where their money is going."
The activist: 'Students will see they can take action'
Katan Alder, 22, student leader speaking from the occupation at Manchester University
"We've been occupying the university since Wednesday. More than 500 people came to an emergency Students' Union meeting and we took the vice chancellor's administration block that afternoon. Israel's assault on Gaza made people angry, and we heard about the occupations at other universities through blogs. This is the biggest student campaign we've had and it's also the most wide-reaching. We'll stay until the university lets us meet with the vice chancellor. I think students will see they can take action on more issues, such as the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the education system; the Government's refusal to stop the marketisation of education has provoked a lot of anger."
The '68 veteran: 'It changed our lives'
John Rose, 63, former student organiser at the London School of Economics in 1968; now a lecturer and author on the Middle East
"I arrived at the LSE in '66 as an extremely naive liberal student and I left in '69 as a revolutionary socialist. It changed our lives. I was one of the student organisers with Tariq Ali and attended all the demonstrations and occupations. We did think a revolution was coming; we thought mass action of students might overthrow capitalism and bring genuine equality. It took us some time to realise that wasn't going to happen.
"It wasn't just about rioting and having fun, it was political argument that probed all the assumptions about the world. It was a highly intense period and the memory stays powerfully with anyone involved; it's the memory of those times that has kept me going.
"It was a feeling of fantastic elation: we began to realise that mass action could change things. Once it started, we developed a taste for it and began to consider mass activity as a way of doing politics, which is what's happening now. People are fed up with bankers, politicians and elite institutions. Hundreds of us thought the revolution was coming in '69, but maybe the revolution is coming now." |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 6:39 am Post subject: |
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| Ummm...not very likely. Anyway, '68 was something that students in a whole slew of countries got involved in. No sign of it anywhere else so far. |
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:14 am Post subject: |
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| Whatever, students are not intellectuals, nor do they understand much about life or the so-called 'system'. Mostly all they do is buy into cliches. |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:29 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Ummm...not very likely. Anyway, '68 was something that students in a whole slew of countries got involved in. No sign of it anywhere else so far. |
Wanna bet it spreads? |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 8:42 am Post subject: |
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| If they only protest about Gaza and nothing else then they are probably neo - nazis or moonbats or both. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 8:58 am Post subject: |
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| visitorq wrote: |
| Whatever, students are not intellectuals, nor do they understand much about life or the so-called 'system'. Mostly all they do is buy into cliches. |
Well said. And this describes more than merely the undergrads and even the grad students on any given university campus, Visitorq. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 9:12 am Post subject: |
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| bacasper wrote: |
| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Ummm...not very likely. Anyway, '68 was something that students in a whole slew of countries got involved in. No sign of it anywhere else so far. |
Wanna bet it spreads? |
I think that is about as likely as the US and Iran going to war before the end of the Bush administration.  |
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Kimbop
Joined: 31 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 9:21 am Post subject: Re: Is the revolution finally coming? |
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| Quote: |
At the end of the month students from across the country will gather for a national demonstration calling for the abolition of tuition fees, an event that organisers say has rocketed in size following the success of the occupations over Gaza.
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Now we know that these 'protesters' are part of the environmental-leftie-muslimapologist movement, but how many more years will it be before this group grows from merely a 'fringe' to consensus in the UK?
Because EVERYONE is ENTITLED to secondary education! Not only British citizens, but asylum seekers in the UK as well! It is our RIGHT to receive quality education, and I shouldn't have to pay for it!
Goodbye Britain! |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 1:41 am Post subject: |
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| bacasper wrote: |
| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Ummm...not very likely. Anyway, '68 was something that students in a whole slew of countries got involved in. No sign of it anywhere else so far. |
Wanna bet it spreads? |
The economic crisis certainly has the potential to stir up some nutty extremist movement, but it's a little early yet. There's been a spike in nationalism, evidenced in the calls for protectionism in a number of countries, but even that isn't getting much traction so far.
I think I'll take your bet if it's limited to the next 2 years. |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 6:46 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| bacasper wrote: |
| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Ummm...not very likely. Anyway, '68 was something that students in a whole slew of countries got involved in. No sign of it anywhere else so far. |
Wanna bet it spreads? |
The economic crisis certainly has the potential to stir up some nutty extremist movement, but it's a little early yet. There's been a spike in nationalism, evidenced in the calls for protectionism in a number of countries, but even that isn't getting much traction so far.
I think I'll take your bet if it's limited to the next 2 years. |
OK, I win.
Hampshire College becomes first college in U.S. to divest from Israeli Occupation!
Posted by OPGAI on Thu, 02/12/2009 - 11:28
Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, has become the first of any college or university in the U.S. to divest from companies on the grounds of their involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
This landmark move is a direct result of a two-year intensive campaign by the campus group, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The group pressured Hampshire College�s Board of Trustees to divest from six specific companies due to human rights concerns in occupied Palestine. Over 800 students, professors, and alumni have signed SJP�s �institutional statement� calling for the divestment.
The proposal put forth by SJP was approved on Saturday, 7 Feb 2009 by the Board. By divesting from these companies, SJP believes that Hampshire has distanced itself from complicity in the illegal occupation and war crimes of Israel.
Meeting minutes from a committee of Hampshire�s Board of Trustees confirm that �President Hexter acknowledged that it was the good work of SJP that brought this issue to the attention of the committee.� This groundbreaking decision follows in Hampshire�s history of being the first college in the country to divest from apartheid South Africa thirty-two years ago, a decision based on similar human rights concerns. This divestment was also a direct result of student pressure.
The divestment has so far been endorsed by Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Rashid Khalidi, Vice President of the EU Parliament Luisa Morganitini, Cynthia McKinney, former member of the African National Congress Ronnie Kasrils, Mustafa Barghouti, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, John Berger, Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire, and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, among others.
The six corporations, all of which provide the Israeli military with equipment and services in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza are: Caterpillar, United Technologies, General Electric, ITT Corporation, Motorola, and Terex (see attached info sheet for more information on these corporations.) Furthermore, our policy prevents the reinvestment in any company involved in the illegal occupation.
SJP is responding to a call from Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) as a way of bringing non-violent pressure to bear on the state of Israel to end its violations of international law. SJP is following in the footsteps of many noted groups and institutions such as the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education in the UK, the Israeli group Gush Shalom, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and the American Friends Service Committee.
As well as voicing our opposition to the illegal occupation and the consistent human rights violations of the Palestinian people, we as members of an institute of higher education see it as our moral responsibility to express our solidarity with Palestinian students whose access to education is severely inhibited by the Israeli occupation.
SJP has proven that student groups can organize, rally and pressure their schools to divest from the illegal occupation. The group hopes that this decision will pave the way for other institutions of higher learning in the U.S. to take similar stands. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 8:21 am Post subject: |
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| Hamphire College is full of dope-smoking hippies. I should know, as I went to school up the street at UMASS-Amherst where I was a dope-smoking regular person. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 9:18 am Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
Will this revolution be focusing solely on the Jews?
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Let's hope not. What the social justice movements have been fighting for for nearly a half century (anti-war, the environment, etc.) goes so much further that if it be limited only to Israel, it would be mostly a failure, as it would be for the noble anti-Zionist cause to be supplanted by the ignoble anti-Semitic cause. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 9:29 am Post subject: |
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| Can you give me a clear definition of "social justice" so I can know where to hide from it? |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 9:42 am Post subject: |
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No, I can't. I am not a spokesman for any movement, so I can only give my own fuzzy definition of it which would encompass not only peace and environmentalism, but money for housing, health care, education, infrastructure, etc. In short, a more equitable distribution of wealth than the 1 or 2% of the population who control 95% of the wealth today.
And please hide well. |
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