Week of Action! (and of Meetings).

This week is the week of action for the arrested Jayyous students. We are having stalls everyday from 12 in library square (if the weather holds) and under the cover of Falmer House if not. Feel free to come down and help.


The general organisational meeting will be back to the usual time of 4pm on Wednesday this week after last week's meetings were disrupted by the Free Education demo. We've got lots to catch up on and make sure that we keep the ball rolling so please come along... meet Falmer common room.


Just before that at 3pm will be the boycott and divestment working group meeting in Falmer Common Room (or outside in the concrete square if the weather is nice). Some excellent research has been done and it is now broadening to ethical investment more generally (which everyone seems to agree is a natural progression). Come down to find out what we are up to ... there's a few plans afoot, although progress is quite slow. We are assessing the companies which the university invests in and assessing how best to pressure the uni administration to form an ethical investment policy.

This Friday lunchtime there will be a talk with Tamar Katz, a 19 year old Israeli student who was jailed for 51 days last year for refusing to serve in the army. 12-2pm Arts A5. See http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/event.php?eid=54315469230 for details.


Huge solidarity to Manchester uni, who after nearly a month of creative and energetic occupation which saw them take several different rooms on their campus and despicable threats and intimidatory strategies from their VC are still going stronger than ever! They say:

We in Manchester have been in occupation for almost four weeks now, yet the University has so far refused to negotiate with us. The University still invests in the arms trade, leading to some students having to disrupt a DSTL stall (an agency of the MoD) at an official graduate recruitment fair.

The Vice Chancellor Alan Gilbert has threatened expulsion for students who are involved.

Our demands are in line with current Union policy having received an overwhelming majority at an Emergency General Meeting, attended by over 1,100 students.

They have called for a national demonstration of support at 2pm this Wednesday 4th March (see http://manunioccupation.wordpress.com/). This is a critical time for the occupation: please support them by sending an email to VC Allan Gilbert demanding that he negotiate with occupiers: president@manchester.ac.uk.

Indymedia are putting together a feature page and article on the occupations and have put a call-out for occupation-related writings that people have done. Post your article to the Indymedia newswire (make sure you tick the'University occupations for Gaza' action topic when you post it) and then send an alert to baylott@riseup.net so that it can be linked into the main article. See the current occupations news page here: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2009/occupations/.

Plymouth Victory!

After four days of occupation, Plymouth University Occupation has announced victory. Check out their statement on their blog at http://plymouthunioccupation.blogspot.com/

The following has been agreed to by the university:

- The University of Plymouth will set up a humanitarian scholarships scheme, for students that for reasons of war, natural disaster or other calamity, are unable to continue to study at their home university. This will be a yearly recurring scheme, and the first 6 scholarships will be offered specifically to students of University of Gaza for the next academic year.

- The University of Plymouth will work with the other 30+ occupied universities to send aid and surplus materials to Gaza as a collective.

- Delegates from the occupation along with members of the Students' Union will put forward their case for an ethical investment plan (something that the University of Plymouth currently does not have) in six weeks time. This will include ending links with BAE Systems and an on-campus boycott of Israeli goods.

- There will be no legal, financial, or academic measures taken against anyone involved in or supporting the occupation.

Congratulations to Plymouth! We wish you all the best in solidarity in the ongoing movement. We also continue our solidarity with the students still in occupation at Byam Shaw, UEL, and Manchester, the last of which is the longest running student occupation at 23 days! Follow their blogs by clicking on their links at the right, under "Solidarity."

Call to Action: solidarity with arrested Jayyous students

Please circulate widely.

Week of action in solidarity with the arrested students of Jayyous
2nd- 9th March

On February 18th 2009 in the early hours of the morning, Occupation forces rampaged through the West Bank village of Jayyous conducting violent house to house raids and carrying out mass arrests totalling over 50 students and nearly the entire youth committee of Stop the Wall Campaign.

For months the youth movement in Jayyous had made it one of the most active villages in the West Bank , embodying a strained resistance against occupation and the wall which will carve through village land destroying hundreds of olive trees and cutting the village off from many of its primary water supplies.

The students of Jayyous have called for IMMEDIATE BOYCOTT AND DIVESTMENT action in response to the incursion.

The students of the University of Sussex stand in solidarity with those in Jayyous and appeal to the wider student body to join us next week in a week of action against Israel ’s attacks on the basic human rights of those students in Jayyouss who dared to express dissent.

It is crucial that we recognise the severity of this event and draw wider attention to it as an example of the crimes on humanity that Palestinians experience every day.

In solidarity,

Sussex .

Cardiff University Occupied!

Today Cardiff university became the 28th UK university to occupy, and the first occupation in Wales!

A student from the occupation said:

"I am ashamed that Cardiff University is helping fund the horrific violence in Gaza the consequence of which is the obliteration of education infrastructure in another, poorer part of the world. I don’t want the money I pay for my education contributing to the destruction of someone else’s. Our thoughts from the occupation are with the people of Gaza, who have lost so much.”

Please send messages of support to cardiffstudentsagainstwar@gmail.com copying in VC FarnhamS@Cardiff.ac.uk.

Meetings this week and national news

There has been a bit of difficulty in scheduling the meeting dates this week as there are too many other events going on! So we have decided for this week only to have two meetings for whoever can make either one...

One TODAY (Tues), meet 6pm Falmer Common Room - we will be organising Thursday's events in library square among other things.

One on THURSDAY at 4pm, for one hour, meet FCH.

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Occupation news:

18 NYU students have been suspended following the occupation which ended on Thursday. Please check www.takebacknyu.com to see how you can support them.

Congratulations to UWE who won their occupation a couple of days ago.

Solidarity to Plymouth and the University of the Arts, London became the latest universities to occupy yesterday.

St Andrews, UEL and Manchester continue to occupy, with Manchester now in their third week of occupations!

Check occupations.org.uk for news...

NYU Occupation Ends With Expulsions and Violence, St. Andrews and Manchester Still Going

The NYU Occupation has ended under outrageous circumstances. Participating students were evicted from their residences, while a few who were occupying the building were offered negotiations, then were instead taken away by security guards and served with explusion papers. No negotiations took place.

To complain about the underhanded quelling of this peaceful protest:
Contact NYU Housing to complain about student evictions:
Phone: 212-998-4600
email: housing@nyu.edu

Here is a short YouTube video covering the NYU Occupation, and here is a video where rallying students clashed with the police.

The Occupation has also put up a beautifully written statement on their website, which ends with the one word that perfectly encapsulates the sentiment of Take Back NYU!, as well as all the student occupations happening around the world: "Onward." Glad to hear it, and solidarity to everyone involved!

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The St. Andrews Occupation is going strong, having had what sounds like a friendly meeting with the Principal. Unfortunately, more negotiating will have to happen next week before a resolution will be reached, but at least the management seems keen to have a proper negotiation with the students of the occupation, which is more than can be said about too many of the other university managers.

Keep up to date with the St. Andrews Occupation at their blog.

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At 18 days, the Manchester Occupation is the longest-running of these student occupations so far. The management continues to ignore the demands of the occupying students, but as it can be read on their blog, the students are nowhere near giving up. They have called out for a demo to support the student occupation, to demand that the Chancellor listens to them, and to support the people of Gaza:

“Now 2 weeks on, University of Manchester students have occupied key buildings in the heart of the campus. The occupation has seen an unprecedented amount of support from students and academics alike most notably in an emergency general meeting in which over a thousand students attended to overwhelmingly support a motion to stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Entering their 18th day, the occupation is still strong in both numbers and spirit. The next focus is to pressure the university administration to accede to our reasonable demands but the arrogant and uncomprimising Vice Chancellor (send complaints to president@manchester.ac.uk) has failed to make any concessions for the student body claiming that the university cannot take a political position. But given the universities unethical investments in the arms trade, such an action is a political position. Notorious for his history at Melbourne University, he refused to engage in an open and just dialogue with the students of the occupation even threatening to take away the right to protest!
A DEMONSTRATION HAS BEEN CALLED TO DEMAND THE CHANCELLOR LISTEN TO US: FOR THE STUDENTS, FOR GAZA!”
** THE DEMO STARTS AT **
** MARCH 4TH 2PM @ MANCHESTER STUDENTS UNION **

Solidarity to the Manchester Occupation! Their spirit and dedication is an inspiration to all of us here at Sussex.

Urgent meeting today and NYU occupation update

There is an urgent meeting today at 5pm in Falmer Common room to brainstorm how we can support the students of Jayyous, Palestine who were arrested on Wednesday when Israeli troops stormed their village. See www.stopthewall.org for details.

NYU management have begun negotiating with the occupation. Hundreds of supporters are outside on the streets, singing, dancing and resisting police, with 30-40 having stormed the 3rd floor of the occupied Kimmel building to join protestors inside. They say:

"This is for the students who work three jobs to attend the school of their dreams. This is for the students in Gaza, whose university is destroyed and can no longer study. This is for workers in Abu Dhabi building our facilities with no human rights to speak of. We are a global university and our actions are connected to world events, whether we like it or not. It is our responsibility. We have voices. Let’s use them."