End Army Recruitment on Campus!
Stop the Criminalisation of Dissent!

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End Army Recruitment on Campus! Stop the Criminalisation of Dissent!

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Students vote to ban military from campus

Workers’ Weekly Youth Group

Students at Newcastle College organised a protest on Friday, September 12, to demonstrate their opposition to military recruitment on campus.

The armed forces have been attempting to raise their profile in colleges and universities, particularly in this period of the open-ended "war on terror". Given the ever-increasing financial pressure on students and their families, a favoured method has been to try and persuade students to join the army in return for financial support on their courses. The fact that they are resorting to these despicable tactics is evidence of the difficulty they are having in recruiting young people for war.

The Students’ Union had a year ago had taken a stand against such subversion of Newcastle College and passed a resolution against military recruitment and banned the Army from the freshers’ fair.

This year, the College authorities colluded with the Army in inviting them to give a presentation on September 12 to recruit students with the promise of financial assistance for College and University fees.

In response, students organised an emergency protest against the holding of the meeting. According to reports, after demonstrating outside of the meeting room, a few went into the meeting, while no other students attended. It was a dismal failure for the College authorities and the Army and a resounding success for the students.

The students’ intervention at the presentation was to ask of the Army, "How many of our students would be killed?" Simply for asking this question, one of the students, Artem Liebenthal, was threatened with security. He then left the meeting room.

The following Monday, Artem was told by phone that he was being suspended for a week, effectively banned from campus and not allowed to attend lectures, pending an investigation and a disciplinary hearing on September 22.

The petition organised by the students to "Defend democracy; defend our right to speak out; defend Artem Liebenthal" points out: "No other student involved in the protest is being punished for the same activities that Artem carried out. This is simply a way to spread fear and intimidation in order to paralyse any student activism, democracy or accountability.

"Those of us who wish to defend our rights to speak out, to vote, to stand in elections or to organise on campus as activists should have the right to do so. Democracy and human rights are not something that you leave at the doorstep of the college but something that you carry with you everywhere you go."

Artem himself is reported as saying: "The whole thing just seems so unfair ... I wasn’t violent or threatening. I thought colleges were supposed to be places for free speech, democracy and accountability, but I wasn’t allowed to ask a question. Last year, the Student Union wanted the Army banned from the campus for recruitment purposes, so I couldn’t understand what they were doing here. Now my whole future could be in jeopardy. I wanted to go into the law and media, but if I’m kicked out then I’ll struggle to get into a university. I feel victimised."

Such colleges as Newcastle College are considered key ground for the establishment to target in getting the youth to take up their war agenda, because this is where many working class youth go for courses and apprenticeships. It is important that all support the just stands of the youth and students in Newcastle who are taking up the programme of not a single youth for war.

sign the online petition [here]

By Andrew Pierce, Telegraph.co.uk, March 8, 2008

[…]

The students' union at University College London (UCL) passed a motion attacking the government for "waging an aggressive war overseas" in Afghanistan and Iraq.

To the dismay of the university management, it also prohibited the military from setting up recruitment stalls at freshers' fairs. The students also voted to break off links with the Officer Training Corps, which recruits up to half its number from universities up and down the country.

The union motion, passed by a majority of 80 votes to 50, said: "This union believes that because the British military under the Labour Government is currently engaged in an aggressive war overseas, for the union to use its resources to encourage students to join the military or participate in military recruitment activities at this time would give political and material support to the war."

A spokesman for UCL scorned the vote and said there was no question of the ban being applied. "This vote was taken by the student union and refers to union premises and events only. It has no implications for any activities held on the main campus of UCL, or sponsored by the university," said the spokesman.

[…]

A Ministry of Defence spokesman described the vote at UCL as deeply disappointing. He said: "Universities play an important role in raising awareness among young people about the important work our Armed Forces do and we enjoy a good relationship with most universities. However people view specific military operations, everyone should be able to respect the brave and professional job our Armed Forces perform."

[…]

The vote at UCL follows similar ones at Goldsmiths and London School of Economics, both part of the University of London. […]