Three people were arrested after a protest on the University’s roof against Lancashire defence firm BAE Systems.

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It was UCLan’s turn to make a stand against atrocities in Gaza, as a demonstration took place on campus last month.  Continue Reading

Occupations, sit ins’ and revolution are not something many people consider to be part of modern student activism. As the years have gone by, students are thought to have left behind the methods of the 70’s and 80’s and moved onto the internet to get their points across. However this seems to have changed this semester and, at the time of writing, no less than 14 universities currently have parts of them under occupation. Starting at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) and then spreading through our most elite institutions like wildfire, with Cambridge being the latest. All issue a set of similar demands which range from giving free scholarships to Palestinian students to institutions stopping all contact with the arms trade (including BAE and Rolls Royce). While I have no doubt that the protesters believe in what they are doing, and believe that their actions will benefit the people caught up in the recent Israel-Gaza conflict, we have to ask ourselves, are these methods relevant in 2009, and if yes is this the right cause for which they should be used?

Back in 2007, NUS launched an online campaign against HSBC when it tried to charge graduates on their interest free overdrafts. The online campaign quickly gathered momentum, and the group still has 4,500 supporters in it. The online back lash quickly brought HSBC to the table and the decision was rescinded. This was a targeted and highly successful campaign by the national union, that had a direct benefit for students, both still in education, and those that had recently graduated. In a modern society, with communication at our fingertips and a 24 hour rolling media surely these are the sort of tools we should be utilising in our fight to make students lives better? Now don’t get me wrong, I am not for a moment saying that we should abandon our campaigns and union and reach for a keyboard, far from it. I have been active this year in trying to mobilise students face to face on issues around student safety and the 09 funding review, where the cap may be lifted. This is where I think the main issue may lie, do students care, or even take notice when they hear that a small group of revolutionaries (and I use the term very loosely in this case) take over a lecture theatre or floor of a university building? The short answer is no.

Which ever side of the Israel – Palestine debate you sit on, and that is not what is in question here, most students I have spoken with see the debate as one of conscience rather than one that they can have a direct impact on and see the occupations as something that disenfranchises the regular student, and in some cases, they find them intimidating, and this is the fundamental problem. Rather than engaging students in issues, small groups have taken them on and this has meant large portions of the student population feeling left out in the cold. This was no more evident than at the recent NUS extraordinary conference, when a small group of delegates took to the stage and held their own sit in. Rather than creating interest in their issue, they alienated themselves from the majority of conference, and many saw it rather as an affront to democracy than a protest on the issue at hand. This is where these groups need to reassess their tactics, because if they don’t it will be them left out in the cold if they are not careful.

There was an organised protest in Trafalgar Square this week in an attempt to increase the awareness of human rights in Uganda.

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