SOAS Stop The War

Activists mtg this Monday 5pm to plan incl Beats Beat Sanctions

2010-02-20T09:53:00.000-08:00

All ideas welcome. 5pm in IoE Students union cafe/bar.

Call 07535 629 289 Loads of exciting things to plan. See you there...

First meeting of 2010 Monday@5 in the IoE bar

2010-01-07T09:10:00.000-08:00

As the subject indicates, the first meeting of the year is on Monday 11th in the Institute of Education bar at 5pm. Almost 1 year on from the horrific Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, the ongoing murderous exploits of the Israeli and Saudi Arabian governments are met with a wall of silence in the national media, while a tirade of anti-Iranian propaganda fills the headlines. Blair's appearance at the Chilcot inquiry and the Afghanistan conference (see below) are events to put in the diary, but in the meantime we've got lots to do- see you on Monday!

WAR MONGERS COME TO LONDON
On Thursday 28 January the leaders of the NATO occupation of Afghanistan are coming to London for a conference organised by Gordon Brown. President Karzai, Hilary Clinton & President Sarkozy are among those expected to attend. Stop the War will organise a protest at the conference. We will publicise time and location as soon as they are announced. BOOK THE DAY OFF WORK NOW!

TONY BLAIR ON TRIAL
Tony Blair will appear at the Iraq War Inquiry sometime in the two weeks after January 25th. Stop the War is calling for the biggest possible mobilisation at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre, Westminster, SW1P 3EE on the day Blair is in front of the Inquiry, trying explain away his lies which took Britain to war. As soon as we we know the date it'll be on www.stopwar.org.uk

LONDON STOP THE WAR ACTIVISTS MEETING
Come to the Activist Meeting where we will be planning exactly what we do at these two massive events: Tuesday 12 January 6:30pm-8:30 pm @ Forum room, Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, 235 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8EP. All welcome.

LOWKEY
Stop the War’s favourite rapper and poet Lowkey is storming the charts with his track Long Live Palestine. Lets get it to NUMBER ONE!! Buy Long Live Palestine Parts 1 & 2 here: http://www.apple.com/euro/itunes/charts/top10hiphopalbums.html

VIVA PALESTINA CONVOY ENTERS GAZA
One month, thousands of miles, ten countries, one ship and a four flights later, the Viva Palestina convoy has begun to enter the besieged Gaza Strip.
The Viva Palestina aid convoy, which planned to enter Gaza on 27 December but has been blocked by the Egyptian government and was viciously attacked by Egyptian riot police.
For lots of video coverage and reports and how you can send messages of protest to the Egyptian embassy, go to: http://bit.ly/pPrky

Christmas Party

2009-12-07T07:53:00.000-08:00

Click to enlarge

Also, HERE is the newsletter we sent today

Today's action success!

2009-11-25T09:02:00.001-08:00

Salam everyone,

1. today's action
2. military families protest 21st December
3. support joe glenton
4. mother courage sold out

1.
Today's action in Westminster was a roaring success, literally! Chanting as we 'died' outside the houses of parliament blocking the traffic, as we went round parliament square, and as we marched to the gates of downing street. Passers-by showed lots of interest, many showing support of our message to Gordon. The placards we left around the cenitaph were unfortunately removed very quickly, but the action should be in a number of media reports and blogs soon.

2.
Members of military families and ex-soldiers from across the

country have pledged to join the protest at Downing Street on
Monday 21 December.

Exeter, Plymouth, York, Dundee, Manchester, Chesterfield,
Burnley and Leeds are just some of the places which have
organised delegations of supporters to come down with the
military families.

Military Families Against the War (http://www.mfaw.net/) is inviting the widest possible support for 21 December. Stop the War is asking all its local groups to organise delegations and make contact with military families in their area.
If you know of military family members who are opposed to the war, please inform them about the protest on 21 December and put them in touch with the national Stop the War office: call 020 7801 2768 or email office@stopwar.org.uk.

3.
Lance Corporal Joe Glenton has been imprisoned for 28 days as
the first stage of proceedings against him for five charges
which carry a maximum sentence of ten years.

Joe's imprisonment is intended to silence his opposition to
the war in Afghanistan, but he has already said he will still
speak out.

Joe needs the support of the anti-movement more than ever.

Stop the War is asking all its local groups to send messages
to Joe (see below), if they haven't already done so.

Please circulate as widely as you can Joe's contact details
and encourage anyone you know who opposes the war to email or
write letters to him in support of his courageous stand.

EMAIL MESSAGES TO:
defendjoeglenton@gmail.com

SEND LETTERS, CARDS TO:
Lance Corporal Joe Glenton
Military Corrective Training Centre
Berechurch Hall Camp
Colchester
Essex CO2 9NU

4.
Tickets for the Mature Students' day out including Brecht's 'Mother Courage' at the National have now sold out.

--
For more info on soas stws and upcoming events head to:
http://soasstopthewar.blogspot.com/

Also: Stop the War Coalition national office 020 7801 2768 and http://stopwar.org.uk/

Direct action on Downing st

2009-11-24T05:30:00.000-08:00

Soas meet up 1pm on steps

The Afghanistan Day of Action on Wednesday is being supported by Stop the War Coalition, CND, War on Want, FOSIS, Lowkey (Peoples Army, Mongrel..) and many other groups and individuals... will you be there too???

A few final details for Wednesday...

MEET- 1:30pm, Parliament Square. Due to the logistics of the event it is vital that people arrive by 1:30pm at the latest- we need to all arrive together so we can move on to the DIE-IN.

Please wear BLACK or dark colours. If your university group has a banner, please feel free to bring it along with you- the more visual we are the better!

Please carry on building, spreading the word (text, twitter, email, facebook...) and mobilising! Look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday!

0779 2121 239 for further info. or if you have any questions.

Signs of Revolt exhibition

2009-11-16T12:39:00.000-08:00

The team from Globalise Resistance mark the 10th anniversary of the battles at Seattle by bringing to us a wonderful exhibition of photos, art, videos and more.

Some of went this weekend for the talks, it was really good, inspiring and we got lots of ideas.

Just turn up basically :-)

Free entrance.

See http://signsofrevolt.net/ for more details.

SOAS Mature Students Officers debut event

2009-10-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

SOAS Mature Students and SOAS Stop the War society go to see Mother Courage, one of the most astonishing stage creations of the twentieth century, drags her cart across the battlefields, profiteering
from a war that destroys her children, one by one.

"It isn’t easy, starting a war, but nothing worthwhile is easy. And once you’re in, you’re hooked like a gambler, you can’t afford to walk away from
the crapshoot once you’re deep into it."

Followed by drinks and discussion in a private room at the Oxo Tower.

£15 including ticket and drinks. Please let us know if you are TOTALLY skint and we will see what we can do.

planning mtg & debrief

2009-10-26T03:33:00.000-07:00

Following the brilliant demo on Saturday we are meeting today to discuss what next. All welcome to this mtg and plz bring people with you.

The Institute of Education is just next door to Soas. Call 07850 177637 if u can't find us.

Bring new ideas and suggestions

see u later...

demo report back

2009-10-26T03:13:00.000-07:00

Saturdays demo was great. Soas students began the day by marching down Oxford St (see video below).

We chanted 'da3man helwa al-hurriya (freedom is always beautiful) and taught passersby how to join in this Arabic chant! We sang 'we all live in a terrorist regime' and handed out leaflets as we did so. We got to know the new students and began planning further activity as we marched. Soas students were lively and highspirited for the whole day.

A woman in her 60's came up to us and said how much she enjoyed marching with us but that she had nothing to compare with since this was her first ever demo. She had come all the way from Cornwall because she 'felt so angry about this war' and felt powerless on her own but coming to the demo had renewed her belief in humanity.

One of the most bonkers thing on the demo was the Iranian 'Halal Leather Jackets' theatre group. They said that only 2% of the Muslims own a quality Spanish designer leather jacket! Not quite sure what the subtext was?!! I thought I videoed it but must have only pressed record after thinking I was filming since I then filmed two minutes of my feet and me chatting to Viva about how bonkers the leather jacket thing was!!

Anyway, it pleased me to see that someone had poured red colouring into the fountains-how much more blood will be shed in Afghanistan before these governments start listening to the people?

This lovely man was starting to struggle by the end but he kept going-what a trooper.

A small delegation of us made an impromptu march down to Downing st to attempt to deliver a petition. A woman called Kay persuaded the police to let her in to do so. We don't know her full name so if anyone does please let us know. Well done Kay.

Assed Baig brought loads of new activists from the Uni where he is now President of the Students Union and they said they had a great time.

As did we all.

Well done to everyone who spent time building this great demo. See u at the next one.

Our lovely banner...

2009-10-24T01:22:00.001-07:00

See u soon

This is how it's done...

2009-10-23T06:03:00.000-07:00

Students' Union elections TMRW (Wednesday)

2009-10-20T08:22:00.001-07:00

Dear SOAS Stop the War people and supoprters,

Tomorrow there are the Students' Union elections. We are not allowed to tell you who to vote for but we can tell you that we want you to vote for people who speak out against wars and who we think would represent us best in our vibrant union. You can read their manifestos on the walls around the union and behind the ballot box.

VOTE WED 24 Oct from 10am to 5pm in the main stairwell. Remember to bring your student ID.

The Students' Union is affiliated to Stop the War Coalition and on the ballot paper there is also a section for us to vote to keep this affiliation. PLEASE make sure you tick this box too. It sends a very strong message when an entire Union is affiliated.

Good luck to all the candidates standing...

=======================

National Demonstration THIS Saturday

2009-10-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

Reminder for National demonstration: 24 October 2009

As you have seen around campus we are preparing for our own little action on Saturday ahead of the national demo. Please bring anything noisy with you (margerine containers and wooden spoons will be fine). We want the whole of Oxford St to know what we are protesting about. An end to the occupation of Afghanistan and to all these wars.

The more people that meet us at SOAS the more impact we will have so PLEASE come to the SOAS meet up point.

Assemble 11am at SOAS to march via Oxford St to Hyde Park to meet the rest of the demo then on to Trafalgar Square
Called by Stop the War Coalition, CND and BMI
The march will be lead by anti-war military families & soldiers

Speakers include: Peter Brierley, who recently refused to shake Tony Blair's hand because it had his son blood on it; Lance Cpl Joe Glenton, serving soldier facing court martial for refusing to return to Afghanistan; George Galloway MP; musician and poet Lowkey.

Call 07931 365 731 or 07850 177 637 for more info or if you are late.

See you there.

Rethink Afghanistan filmshowing THIS Tuesday (tmrw!)

2009-10-12T06:08:00.001-07:00

Stop the War Society: Filmshowing & discussion Rethink Afghanistan

Date: Tuesday 13th October
Time: 5.30pm
Venue: JCR

Stop the War society is showing the first 3 parts of Robert Greenwald's new documentary 'Rethink Afghanistan' offering a strong critique of the escalation of the war in that country. Subjects include the consequences of escalation, Pakistan and the cost of the war. Stick around afterward for a chat about the issues raised. Part 2 next week!

We are building for the National Demonstration on 24 October. SOAS is looking to build a lively, militant contigent so please let everyone know. Let us know if you have any musical instuments, samba bands etc - music makes the demo even more lively!

** Banner and Flag making on Wednesday lunchtime on the steps** Come add your voice to the banners...

From soas.stopthewar@gmail.com

Welcome

2009-10-05T16:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the SOAS Stop The War Society blogspot.

We aim to use this site to keep members updated on all events, meetings and general news of the society. If you would like more information on the stance of this society check out the Stop The War Coalition website.

More information will be provided soon on upcoming events but as it stands we aim to have a STW Stall outside SOAS(Russell Sq. Campus) every Thursday in the run up to the National Demonstration against the war in Afghanistan on 24th October. The SOAS Stop The War group will be meeting at the steps outside the main building at 11am on the 24th.

Also in the run-up to the 24th Demo will be the screening of a film entitled "Rethink Afghanistan" on the 13th (Tuesday) and 14th (Wednesday) October at the Khalili Lecture Theatre starting at 6:30.

If you're interested in joining the group, want any extra information on what we stand for, or have any queries at all do not hesitate to e-mail at

soas.stopthewar@gmail.com