Two new occupations today! And one meeting...

We are still paying attention and we are still angry! Today saw two new occupations at St. Andrews University and the University of East London.

At St. Andrews, 50 people occupied the Lower College Hall in protest at the University's complicity in the Israeli occupation after having presented the principal with a petition signed by over 30 academics and 700 students. They say:

"Now is the time for students, staff and management to show that we do not lack the courage to condemn crimes against humanity, nor the generosity to help those who are in such desperate need."

Please send messages of support to: campaign@scottishpsc.org.uk

Our congratulations and solidarity to both.


Another productive general meeting today with feedback from the various working groups on progress with our demands among other things and lots of plans and ideas for more events and initiatives including some exciting things going on in library square and a new website in the offing. We've tried to ignore our deadlines and obligations, but they still won't go away: we still very much need people to volunteer for tasks and get involved. The Events and Education and Scholarships and Supplies working groups could both do with some extra help at the moment. Please email the relevant working group contacts (previous post) to find out about things that you can do or scheduled meetings.


Coming up next week are a couple of events:

On Monday 23^rd 5:00pm in Mandela Hall there will be a Stop the War event with speeches from Lindsey German, convenor of Stop the War Coalition, and Rose Gentle, Military Families Against War.

Then on Tuesday 24^th at 5:00pm, SWSS are hosting a talk with John Rose, author of 'The Myth of Zionism' in Engineering 2, AS03

We will be rescheduling next week's organisational meeting as lots of us will be off to London to overthrow NUS president Wes Streeting who, after last week's sensational attempt at claiming that the occupations were actually the inspiration of the NUS, this week treacherously attacked the occupations with inexplicable accusations of causing intimidation and inciting racism, saying "I do not believe that the sit-ins relating to the Gaza crisis have been the student movement's finest hour". Lucky you don't speak for the student movement then Wes. Oh no wait a moment...

Update and information Weds afternoon

Well after a little bit of a celebration last night, it's back to work again today for many of us, organising tomorrow's events and thinking about our next steps. The rally did not take place this morning as planned due to pretty horrible weather and it feels a little strange being back on campus and not being in occupation: walking up to Library Square and not seeing the Palestinian flag hanging above the Arts A building, but after a very long and trying week, the general mood is definitely one of victory and relief. Again, immense thanks to all those who supported us throughout the week in many different ways and who helped to make this a success, and solidarity to those around the country still in occupation.

Tomorrow we will be holding what may well be our final speaker session in Mandela Hall from 5-7pm, with Jeremy Corbyn MP (for real this time!) and a speaker from the International Solidarity Movement, as well as others. This will be followed by a discussion where students who were not a part of the occupation will have the chance to ask questions of those who were. Then afterwards we will all head to the bar for a well-deserved celebration and fundraiser with an open mic session followed by DJs.

If you're feeling that the end of the occupation has left a gap of action in your life, then this afternoon is the regular weekly Smash EDO noise demo from 4-6pm outside the ITT factory on home farm road (Moulsecombe, just past the bridge on the way into town from campus). Bring whistles, pots and pans etc. Also tonight is a screening of the excellent animated film Persepolis by the FilmSoc in Arts A2 at 7pm. Or if you just fancy a drink and maybe a bit of a song then come and join us in the Cowley Club on London Road for the regular weekly student night where we'll be trying to raise more funds for Palestine.

For all those interested in helping to take things forward, an organisational strategy meeting has been scheduled for Friday in Falmer House Rm 126. We will be organising through the Sussex Palestine Initiative, which brings together groups and individuals on campus and in Brighton interested in Palestine-related events. Please sign up to the email list for a a weekly email with a summary of events to come, and links to the relevant websites and facebook events, or join the facebook group.

Call for information

With regard to our second demand, that the university divest from companies complicit in human rights abuses, the university management expressed interest in the information that we previously published on their current investments in companies manufacturing arms: Cobham Inc and General Electric. They informed us that they have existing ethical investment policy guidelines in place and requested that we provide them with any further information that we have on current unethical investments so that they can investigate these. If you have any information or research that would help with this request then please send it to sussexoccupation@gmail.com.

Notes on Sussex University arms investment

UK arms company shareholdings: Cobham £1,389
(see http://www.caat.org.uk/publications/companies/cobham.php)

US arms company shareholdings: General Electric £4,373
(see http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/arms/ge.html and http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/mideast/palestine/arms.html)

Total Assets Invested (all shares) £9,321,000Arms shares as % of total investments 0.06

Information refers to May 2008

To verify information, email: James Knapton, Freedom of Information OfficerTo register concerns, email: Allan Spencer, Director of Finance

Information sourced from Campaign Against the Arms Trade