Post by johnb on Jan 25, 2009 17:38:53 GMT -5
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 universitiesIn 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 occupationsAt 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 statementIn 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 fromThe King's College occupation - liberated space
NB:Two of our participants have proposed the following demands for discussion at King's. We attach them here in order to stimulate discussion:
We call on the British government to:
1. Condemn the Israeli state's attacks and blockade on Gaza
2. To call for an international investigation into war crimes committed in Gaza
3. To temporarily expel the Israeli ambassador from the UK
4. To cease all arms trade with Israel
We call on the British Government, the Ministry of Education and Universities UK to:
1. Guarantee that universities remain or return to the status of public spaces, including the right of students to arrange events with the participation of non-students at campus.
2. That all students have the right of assembly and free spe
ech on all campuses.
3. That all students are guaranteed the freedom of movement within and access to campuses, without any harassment and control carried out by security guards or police.
4. To guarantee the freedom of students to spread information about their activities, and to impose harsh restrictions on all commercial advertisements within university campuses.
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 universitiesIn 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 occupationsAt 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 statementIn 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 fromThe King's College occupation - liberated space
NB:Two of our participants have proposed the following demands for discussion at King's. We attach them here in order to stimulate discussion:
We call on the British government to:
1. Condemn the Israeli state's attacks and blockade on Gaza
2. To call for an international investigation into war crimes committed in Gaza
3. To temporarily expel the Israeli ambassador from the UK
4. To cease all arms trade with Israel
We call on the British Government, the Ministry of Education and Universities UK to:
1. Guarantee that universities remain or return to the status of public spaces, including the right of students to arrange events with the participation of non-students at campus.
2. That all students have the right of assembly and free spe
ech on all campuses.
3. That all students are guaranteed the freedom of movement within and access to campuses, without any harassment and control carried out by security guards or police.
4. To guarantee the freedom of students to spread information about their activities, and to impose harsh restrictions on all commercial advertisements within university campuses.
