Images of angry protesters on the news can look quite scary. This week, I have had a taste of something that was labelled 'extreme': taking part in an occupation of a building of Cambridge University, which released demands relating to the plight of the people of Gaza. Over the course of the week, a lot emerged to get angry about. How many people criticised us without being willing to engage with us. How little the university authorities cared what a substantial group of committed students thought. How much effort they made to undermine us, through inconvenience to the students of the faculty we were occupying. How inseparable the issue of Israel's culpability and the suffering of the people of Palestine seems to be from that of Hamas' culpability in people's minds. How quick J-soc is to confuse criticism of the Israeli government with attacks on Jewish students. Maybe at points the expressions on our faces or the tone of our words would have looked scary broadcast on the news.
But then, at the same time, a lot emerged to be proud of. How big and strong Cambridge's student movement is, and how willing they are to take on the apathy of their fellow students, the clouding of the issue from certain groups, and the authoritarian measures of their apparently prestigious university. How much it's possible to achieve cooperatively, non-violently and discursively. How many individuals within the university staff are willing to speak out alongside us. How much love there is in the world that can actively overcome all the hatred, suffering and injustice.
So yes, uselessly waving placards, being told to go away and quietly raise money or volunteer like good little privileged people, and the endless criticism and underhanded treatment more radical actions are subjected to, can make protesters angry. But what met the people who were forced to leave the faculty before negotiations were complete was not mindless, ill-informed anger or violence; it was hugs, tears of mixed joy and disillusionment, and the promise that it would not end there.
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This is only the beginning, little sister.
ReplyDeleteOrganise and fight!
JS.
I'm a little ashamed that our generation of students seems very apathetic. Perhaps it's partly the way university degrees have become for many merely an investment to improve their future careers, and an opportunity to let loose and get drunk for three years whilst living mainly on loans and parents money, or perhaps our generation has become cynical about political action.
ReplyDeleteIn recent months I've wondered if young people are starting to get more politically active, but have passed it off as seeming that way because I've been more exposed to these kinds of people after becoming more active. But all these occupations are making me think that I might’ve been right.
I don't see why tears of disillusionment should come out of this at all! Over a dozen protests, some of which have succeeded and others haven't, were inspired by one small and disorganized bunch of people (less individuals then the total protests held now) with unclear goals that started after typically impassioned SOAS UGM, in a room that nobody cared much about.
Has something like this, student occupations, happened in recent years? I haven't heard of it, but maybe this kind of thing it's just not reported that widely. If it hasn't - surely it's a sign that things actually are changing, perhaps not enormously, but it's a step, right? I'd love to see something like this be used for student fees.
The important thing, I think, is to show people the power that students can have if they just put their foot down. There’s a massive student population now, more than ever before, and momentum is kept up they can be turned into quite an influential force.
Anyway, here here, keep up the dreaming, sorry this post is so long.
Phil Ochs, I'm Going to Say it Now
ReplyDeleteOh I am just a student, sir
and only want to learn
But it's hard to read
through the risin' smoke
of the books that you like to burn
So I'd like to make a promise
and I'd like to make a vow
That when I've got something to say, sir
I'm gonna say it now
Oh you've given me a number
and you've taken off my name
To get around this campus
why, you almost need a plane
And you're supporting Chang Kai-Shek
while I'm supporting Mao
So when I've got something to say, sir
I'm gonna say it now
I wish that you'd make up your mind
I wish that you'd decide
That I should live as freely
as those who live outside
Cause we also are entitled
to the rights to be endowed
And when I've got something to say, sir
I'm gonna say it now
Ooh, you'd like to be my father
you'd like to be my Dad
And give me kisses when I'm good
and spank me when I'm bad
But since I've left my parents
I've forgotten how to bow
So when I've got something to say, sir
I'm gonna say it now
And things they might be different
if I was here alone
But I've got a friend or two
who no longer live at home
And we'll respect our elders
just as long as they allow
That when I've got something to say, sir
I'm gonna say it now
I've read of other countries
where the students take a stand
They've even helped to overthrow
the leaders of the land
Now I wouldn't go so far to say
we're also learnin' how
But when I've got something to say, sir
I'm gonna say it now
So keep right on a-talkin'
and tell us what to do
If nobody listens
my apologies to you
And I know that you were younger once
'cause you sure are older now
But when I've got something to say, sir
I'm gonna say it now
So I am just a student sir
and only want to learn
But it's hard to read
through the risin' smoke
from the books that you like to burn
So I'd like to make a promise
and I'd like to make a vow
That when I've got something to say, sir
I'm gonna say it now.
Listen to him, I think you'd like him.
Love you lots.
xx
hello i'm putting off going to latin to read this cos it's snowy BUT a few things...
ReplyDeleteas i said yesterday, just because cambridge occasionally acts like a political institution doesn't mean it should. The problem was not 'everyone should be nuetral about gaza' it was 'the uni should be neutral about gaza.' Getting more involved in politics is not something we should encourage from our academic institutions, because it encourages them to force their political views on their students.
Also, you say there was a large student movement involved but it was quite a small proportion of students that are actually here. You had to use extreme methods to get into the papers etc. beacuse you were a minority with a small voice.
Jsoc are silly, just for the fact that they exist. They obv believe that grouping people by ethnicity is an excellent thing to do. Would Afro-Carribean Soc survive long, do you think?
Don't think that people are apathetic just because they didn't get involved. When it comes to the middle east, not getting involved actually is a political stance, because it shows your contempt for both governments.
I'm a little confused as to what counts as politics and what just counts as generally doing the right thing? Is it political to oppose the view of the Pope that homosexuality is wrong and needs to be combatted more urgently than climate change, by supporting LGBT campaigns? Is it political to take action on the environment, or just what anyone with an ounce of integrity would do, and certainly what an insitution consisting of some of the most highly educated, priviliged and respected people in the world ought to be doing as a matter of course? Why, then, is it political to speak out when a supposedly liberal, democratic government uses excessive military force against a population it has blockaded inside the most densely populated patch of land in the world?
ReplyDeleteWhat's the role of the university? To just lavish money and resources on a select group of individuals, with no view to contributing to the furthering of mankind as a whole? Or to use that money and those resources for the greater good? Is it unfair that the more extreme Christian students of the university have the view that homosexuality is fine forced on them? Is it fair that students who believe in the fight for free education and universal human rights have the political view that the marketisation of education and silence in the face of human rights abuse is fine forced on them?
I meant large in comparison to say, fifteen students. Given the climate of apathy and right wingness outlined by our Smurf friend above, over a hundred students participating in non-violent direct action is big. And we took extreme action because the situation we were reacting to was extreme, and the apathy of the university authorities and its wider student body was extreme, not because we were a whiny minority willing to stop at nothing to make our voices heard.
Implicit contempt for both governments isn't what's going to solve the humanitarian crises, escalating cycles of violence, increasing racism and religious extremism, and increasing limitation of civil libities in relation to the middle east. What's going to solve it, what is the only way for people to ever solve any problem, is by actively standing up, taking action and saying, loudly and clearly 'NO. This has got to stop. NOW.'
Well, it certainly sounds better to get up and say no, this has to stop now, but really saying things doesn't amount to much in the Middle East as generations of peace talks have proven. I mean, it's obvious that invading civilian areas with tanks is wrong. It's even more patently obvious that firing rockets at random into an area over a big wall without aiming them at military installations is wrong. I mean, what more is there to add? No-one likes death and destruction, especially of civilians and children.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that even to start doing this sort of thing you have to convince yourself as a government/nation/people that in your case it's OK, and that's a very difficult process to reverse. Admitting to the rest of the intelligent world that you've made a bit of a boo-boo isn't going to win you many favours amongst your own followers, or perhaps your own people, and may lead to the other side exploiting your 'weakness.'
We have no influence on these people. We can send aid, we can accept refugees, we can send 'peacekeeping' troops to the area, we can stop selling people weapons. But going 'look guys what you're doing is wrong' isn't going to stop them, or it would have done probably about forty years ago.
Oh yeah and lavishing money and resources on a select group of individuals DOES benefit society as a whole, as when those individuals then become comedians/writers/brilliant scientists/mechanical engineers their creations become widely available to the general public, creations which would not have been created had they not had the specialist training they needed at an excellent university.
ReplyDeletePeople have what they call 'opinions' on stuff like gayness, environment etc. about what they personally will do and what they will encourage others to do. When that slips over into legislature, that's politics. Approving of homosexuality or practising it is a personal matter. Campaigning for gay marriages to carry the same benefits as hetero ones is politics. Recycling is a personal matter, as is your choice of car. Campaigning to ban 4 by 4s from Surrey is politics.
Disapproving of wars and thinking that people who voluntarily group themselves by ethnicity and religion against another group doing likewise are idiots is a personal matter. Telling them that what they're doing to each other is in effect illegal is politics.