St Andrews Stands Against Gender Based Violence

Last Friday, 7 May, about 70 gathered at the University of St Andrews' student union for to protest gender-based violence. The event, called "Reclaim the Night: Unite Against Gender-Based Violence", was organized by the St Andrews Feminist Society.

At 8:30, only about nine students had arrived, but by 9:00 the group had swelled to over seventy. After distributing homemade banners and signs, three speeches about the importance of stopping sexism and gender-based assumptions and violence launched the march. The group marched down Market Street, Largo Road, along the Kinnesburn, and ended on East Sands with a bonfire and informal discussion. The march included chants -- "no means no! yes means yes!" - and drumming by the female troupe SheBoom. The boisterous and colourful protest drew attention from passers-by, who often paused to ask marchers what was going on.

The march was attended by undergraduate and postgraduate students of the University of St Andrews, students from the University of Dundee, and local activists.

According to Miranda Myrberg, at the beach the march was interrupted by a police officer. She said they had received a permit--the march was indeed supervised by two officers--and that the officer's actions infringed on their right to protest.

"We had an interruption at Castle Sands, as the police stopped us there, forcing us to run and get a letter stating our legal rights to have a bonfire there. He also demanded that someone came with him to the police station, and Jonny Wilde, one of our members went," Ms. Myrberg said in an email. According to Ms. Myrberg, after Mr. Wilde went with the officer, the event continued as planned.

The participants greatly enjoyed the time on the beach, she said. VegSoc provided food and Gemma Lawrence and Rollo Hornyold-Strickland were performing acoustic music.

Reporting by Katie Meyer. 7 May 2010.
www.thesaint-online.com

(Source: - The Saint)

Nick Clegg’s Cowardly Retreat from Glasgow

On the 4th of May Nick Clegg was hounded out of Glasgow by angry local socialists.

When SSY members in Maryhill heard that Nick Clegg was in our local community centre, we roared into action to try and ask him a few questions about his policies.

The entrances to the community centre were surrounded by cops and Nick Clegg’s personal body guards, and as soon as they caught a whiff of us walkietalkies were buzzing, as they planned his escape from the terrifying sight of people who don’t agree with him.

Despite only finding out about the Lib Dem Love In with half an hour to spare, we rounded up local activists to make our point… in contrast to the Lib Dems, who had clearly bussed in activists from across the country – and across the border!

Before Clegg was scheduled to leave the building, a flood of Liberal Democrat supporters crowded around us with placards in an attempt to stop Clegg or the press from seeing anyone question the Lib Dems, and Clegg’s messiah complex.

Lib Dems attempted to obscure our placards – when they failed, many of them attempted to forcibly remove our placards from us and were aggressive in attempts to hide them from view.

Clegg was ushered into a shiny James Bond car and didn’t bother to address our concerns, only giving us and our placards a disdainful look. I suppose he only cares about what local people think if they’re thinking that they’d like to kiss his arse. He was no doubt terrified of the massed placard waving hordes of Maryhill SSY.

When his car had sped off, we were surrounded by Lib Dem activists who didn’t seem to know their own policies as well as we did. None of them Lib Dems we spoke to knew that their party…

- wanted to stop public sector workers from being able to strike

- are in favour of Britain having weapons of mass destruction

- opposed the introduction of a national minimum wage, and wanted the minimum wage to be lower in poor regions

- want to impose savage cuts

- support fascists in Thailand, through their membership of the Liberal International

and that Nick Clegg is a great admirer of Margaret Thatcher!

Err… maybe you should research your party before you join it?

It’s great that so many people are looking to the Lib Dem for a left-wing alternative to the Tories or New Labour – but they’re looking in the wrong place.

Source: SSY (Leftfeild Blog)

Radicals Fail to Gain Seats in St Andrews Student Union

19th of March saw the St Andrews Student Union Elections, with great disappointment for the Radical Candidates standing.

Terry Fulton stood for Director of Representation, on a platform of affordable accommodation and rebuilding the Union into a functioning body. Losing to the three other candidates.

Ben Bridgman lost to Becca Ladley for the position of Association Chair.

And James Morris running for SRC Accommodation Officer on a platform of Structural Change, Affordability and Transparency, lost to Conservative candidate Sunny Moodie whom wished to "Preserve St Andrews Architecture" with the results 844 votes to 1016 votes.

St Andrews "Radicals" run for positions in the Student Union

St Andrews Socialists, Greens and Anarchists run again this year for positions in the St Andrews Student Union in an attempt to change the policy and structure of the University.

Terry Fulton is running for Director of Representation, Benjamin Bridgman is running for Asscoiation Chair and James Morris for SRC Accommodation Officer.

Results will be posted here after the election on Friday 19th.

LRNC Begin Writing Pamphlet

The Lower Rents Now! Coalition (LRNC)has began to write a well-researched pamphlet on the state of unaffordable, pseudo-sustainable, university-owned accommodation within the town of Saint Andrews.

After news reached the group that the University had gained proper funding to push ahead with the Fife Park rebuild (beginning imminently), a member decided to take incentive and push forward the campaign by writing "an accessible work for all St Andrews' students", stating that "whether still holding on to the view that the University is a beacon of truth or whether the reader is already disillusioned, the evidence and practice of University decision making and residential management will shock beyond all belief".

Once the pamphlet is finished it will be distributed in the town and available to browse as a pdf.

Updates on the LRNC campaign can be found here or on the LRCN homepage (link above).

Scottish Student Left Forum CANCELLED

The Scottish Student Left Forum planned for this weekend at St Andrews University has been cancelled.

In an email sent out to the Left Society's mailing list who were organising the event, Patrick O'Hare (President and SSP Member) stated that the cancellation was due to a 'lack of confirmed guests' going onto say 'It seems people are too busy with essays, exams and other stuff, even though they all said it was a good idea'. However Mr O'Hare did not rule out the possibility of the event taking place at a later date stating 'Hopefully its something we could try again next semester when people have more time'.

Nikki Duda (one of the main organisers) said that members of the Socialist Workers Party although interested could not attend due to other arrangements, and that another large group had also pulled out of the proceedings.

It seems that the event will now take place in autumn (if at all), when Leftist Students will have the first chance to come together as a collective group.



*Picture of Occupation for Palestine Earlier This Year

Scottish Student Left Forum

After an unprecedented year of activism, the Left Society at the University of St Andrews is welcoming leftist students from across Scotland to the Scottish Student Left Forum this weekend. It is the first event of its kind following the example of the Convention of the Left in Manchester last year.

The itinerary includes workshops and discussions on University privatisation, the influence of the military, tuition fees, democratic education, narrow teaching as class warfare and cutting links with imperialism.

The event is planned to coincide with Reclaim Your Education (Global Week of Action), and a good attendance is expected with student groups from all over Scotland being invited (and all individuals being welcomed). It is also hoped that another University will take on the role of organising a similar event next year.

News on the event will follow...

For more information visit: -

www.leftsoc.info

or

www.emancipating-education-for-all.org