Advice for Freshers: Think critically
James McAsh, Edinburgh University Students’ Association President, offers some advice to new students in a speech at the beginning of Freshers’ Week. When trying to work out what I should say today, I thought back to what advice I would have wanted four years ago when I was new to the university. And here it [...]
1892 And All That
This week, the exclusive Kate Kennedy Club at St Andrews University have announced that from next year they will be accepting membership applications from women. Until now, the Club’s membership has comprised of 35 young men, mainly from very privileged backgrounds, who organise an annual procession, and a ball at the start and end of [...]
Student protestor attacked by his own union president
By Simon Furse and Edd Bauer Mark Harrop, the Tory president of the University Of Birmingham Guild Of Students (student union), has Colluded with the University management to try and suppress a peaceful protest. Harrop identified one of his own students for disciplinary action and helped the university in the deployment of an injunction that [...]
Policing politics?
This is a slightly longer version of an article which appeared yesterday in Edinburgh University’s Student newspaper. It hopefully has some utility for others who are working towards social change in radical or leftist ways and wondering about engagement with the police therein. The independence of policing and politics is a fundamental principle of democracy. [...]
Hey Jude: culture and class from inside a kettle
We had been kettled for 8 hours. In December. It was below freezing and the air was cut with the acrid smoke of burnt bus stop. “We need to make a bigger stink than them” the pyrotechnic had said, gesturing at Parliament. “Yeah, but we’re stuck here, we have to breathe.” He wasn’t popular. To [...]
Strathclyde University Occupied
This afternoon student at Strathclyde University in Glasgow occupied the geography and sociology department of their university in opposition to threats of cuts and course closures. The students issued the following statement: On the 27/06/11 Strathclyde University went into occupation over the proposed cuts to four departments; community educacation, geography, music and sociology. These annoucements [...]
A 5 Year Plan for the Left in the NUS
In April 2016, the NUS elects a progressive left-wing President and two or three VPs. This is no surprise: there have been a couple of lefty officers for a few years now, and student unions up and down the country are run by progressive sabbaticals. This is a perfectly realistic scenario: if you replace the [...]
Reinvigorating the Student Movement
Last Saturday the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) held a ‘reinvigoration conference’ at Birmingham university to debate its future direction and the need for an elected steering committee. For those who don’t know already the NCAFC was founded almost two years ago, but probably came to most people’s attention during the student protests [...]
NEWS: National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts – national committee elected
The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts today had its annual conference in Birmingham, at which it elected a national committee. Those elected (using the Single Transferable Vote) were (in no particular order): Edward Bauer, Bob Sutton, Ryan Barnes, Claire Lister, Jade Baker, Aaron Peters, Eshe Asante, James McAsh, Alice Swift, Greg Brown, Daniel Cooper, [...]
Students win in Scotland through Power of Protest
Jim Hacker, the fictional Prime Minister in “Yes Prime Minister” at one point says grandiosely of the electorate “It’s the people’s will. I am their leader; I must follow them.” There is an important lesson for all campaigners in how students have managed to make fees an issue on which politicians will follow them. Last [...]
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