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TheYoungConservative would like to offer its heartfelt congratulations to the team at UCL who have overcome the despicable Union ban on the military at University College London. All trace of it has been vanquished from Union policy. Over 200 people had to be turned away from the AGM after capacity was reached, such was the strength of feeling.
This is a victory for the Officer Training Corps, URNU and ULAS etc who will be able to return to freshers fair later this year.
It’s also a vote of thanks and pride in our armed forces.
But most of all it’s a triumph for freedom in the Academy. Students are adults, they deserve to be treated as such. It isn’t for Unions to censor free speech, expression and opportunities on campus, just because they personally happen not to agree with them. Students have the absolute right to have the military on campus, and be involved with groups such as the OTC if they wish, just as the have the right to see and hear from anyone else. Freedom is indivisible, it doesn’t require permission or sanction, and it shall not be proscribed by Unions.
In particular we’d like to single out Tom Parkinson and Mandy Smith who have led the charge for freedom at UCL.
Take heart, all ye other student bodies around the United Kingdom who are trying to overturn similar bans on your campus. It can be done!
Listen well, also, Union leftists who would try to maintain or impose such bans: they’re anti-liberty, immoral, and moribund.
If your campus is currently trying to overturn a ban like UCL’s I’m sure Tom and Mandy could offer their insights, and the Young Britons’ Foundation is your one-stop shop for support, advice and resources to overturn anti-military, anti-freedom bans on campus.
Hopefully we are in the final stages of the campaign to overturn the student military ban that has plagued UCLU for almost an entire year now.
Whilst the ban is politically motivated, the campaign to overturn it is about freedom. Students have the right to have the OTC on campus. The military are a valued part of your society. If a student wants to shun them, that’s their right. Likewise, if they wish to become involved with the OTC then they deserve to have the opinion to do so. Students are adults, they can make informed choices. No students union has the right to dictate which choices are available to students.
The UCLU AGM is today at 3:00pm in the Bloomsbury Theatre, and has a 5pm guillotine. While it does clash with teaching the staff of UCL have been told about it and should be sympathetic to students who request to miss teaching. The military ban motion is also top of the agenda, so if you can’t make the whole event due to other commitments, please come along at 3pm and stay as long as you can.
The motion can be read at:
http://www.uclunion.org/general/downloads/notices/agmarmy.pdf
and the AGM agenda is at:
http://www.uclunion.org/general/downloads/notices/agend.pdf
Please please please help us end this! The response last year was amazing and the ban clearly isnt in the interests of the student population. Its a minority opinion and a farcical political stand that has been a burden on the union for too long.
It’s finally here, acts of God notwithstanding! The UCL AGM has been reorganised and fixed for this Friday, 27th, at 3pm in the Bloomsbury Theatre.
This is your chance to vote for freedom. It’s not about the rights and wrongs of the military or any particular conflict, it’s a referendum on the rights of students, as rational adults, to be given the choice to think and decide for themselves. No Union has any right or rationale to withdrew freedom and choice from its members.
Due to the inclement weather, to put it lightly, UCL’s AGM, at which the ban on the military was to be voted down, has been postponed.
Tentatively, Feb 27th has been suggested as the new date for the AGM. However, this date creates problems for many students, and it’s imperative that we have as large a turnout as possible to ensure the vote is quorate and the shameful situation at UCL isn’t allowed to continue for another year.
Mandy Smith, from the campaign to vote down the ban, has issue the following advice, and a standard letter, to students on how to contact the organisers to ask for a more acceptable date:
“Hi everyone,
As you mat have already seen, the date and time of the UCLU AGM has been changed due to the impact the weather may have on attendance at the event.
While this is understandable, the new time is unsuitable for a number of people, myself included, and being denied the right to speak for the motion that have have spent a year working towards is harsh and unfair. As a medical student, a 3:00 pm AGM would cut into my teaching time and the medical school would not see it as a valid excuse for non-attendance.
A number of Jewish students have also objected to the now slot based on timing, and bearing in mind the context of a motion on the agenda it is insensitive and wrong to potentially exclude a number of them from attending.
I have drawn up an email that i have sent to the sabbatical team that allocated the new time and if the changes affects anyone else in the same way, please send register a complaint with them.
I have pasted my email below that can be copied and pasted and sent to:
fd.officer@ucl.ac.uk
w.officer@ucl.ac.uk
cs.officer@ucl.ac.uk
uclu-general.secretary@ucl.ac.uk
uclu-democracy@ucl.ac.uk
Dear Sabb Team,
I’m writing to query the time and date selected for the AGM rescheduling.
There are two motions going to the AGM, one extremely highly charged, that the jewish students of UCL will have an interest in and their votes are significant.Holding the AGM at this time, bearing in mind the context of a motion included in the agenda, is insensitive and unfair.
A number of student groups will also be unable to attend as it is during
teaching time, such that large groups will be excluded from attending.
For example a large number of medical
students are on GP placements, or specified small group teaching or off
campus on a number of sites that would be excluded from attending. I am sure other subject groups are just as affected.
This is a formal complaint regarding the rescheduling and a call for the
time and/or day to be changed.
Although the Bloomsbury Theatre is a fantastic location and ideal for such a hopefully well attended event, it shouldn’t dictate the timing of the event such that it affects the demographic of the student population in attendance rather then other locations which MAY impact on the overall number.
I hope this matter is looked into and resolved quickly
Kind Regards”
As the crucial vote on reinstating the military at UCL draws nigh, let’s focus on how you can support the military on your campus.
Remember, if you’re a UCL student, you must vote in the AGM on February 3rd. More here.
First stop is the Young Britons’ Foundation, who offer a comprehensive pack of materials to help you support the military on your campus.
The packs include 10 copies of the ‘Behind Our Troops’ poster (shown right), plus:
- Advice on pressuring the University to erect memorials for fallen alumni (of any conflict)
- Advice on holding fundraising events for Help for Heroes
- Advice on working with the OTC to organise welcome home parades for troops
- A draft motion of support to put to the Student Union, or a draft motion to overturn existing anti military policy
- Advice on holding a service of thanksgiving for servicemen and women in the university chapel
- A 10 point briefing note for pro military activism
If you would like one of these packs, simply email christian@ybf.org.uk to arrange delivery. Thanks to the support of YBF’s donors, these packs are available for free to those who wish to claim back their campus from the rabid left.
Next, this podcast (30mins), entitled ‘Protecting the ROTC on campus‘, was originally given at the Young America’s Foundation’s National Conservative Student Conference. It’s packed with ideas for how campus activists can support our military. Obviously, it’s from an American perspective, but easily importable to a British context.
The Young America’s Foundation Director of Military Outreach Flagg Youngblood talks about how our military secures the peace and democracy we enjoy, how it has given democracy to the oppressed overseas, and how the left, who are the most vocal in the field of human rights, are utter hypocrites for not supporting the one force in the world that actually advances those values. He gives some excellent suggestions and examples for how campus activists can stand up for those that serve.
The podcast also refers to the Sharon Statement, which you can read here.
Back in March of this year University College London Union made headlines by passing a motion prohibiting the military, including the Officers Training Corps, from attending UCL student union functions and maintaining a stall at Freshers fairs. Whilst the vote was largely symbolic, as it only extends to union events and premises, it was deeply insulting to our armed forces. In the immediately aftermath the university management came out pouring scorn over the carried motion, which read,
“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.”
As an aside, even if one were to accept the utter rubbish that underpins that motion, it seems the union have no sense of irony, having also voted to twin UCL with Al-Quds University in the West Bank. Al-Quds, hailed as a moderate university, held a week long party celebrating the terrorist credited with inventing the first bomb belt back in the 1990s. The Palestinian definition of moderate, then, still fails to condemn terrorism. Surely, by UCLU’s own logic, twinning with a terrorism-endorsing university constitutes “political and material support” for the murder of Israelis?
From these trying times has come some good, though. The UCLU, as is so often the case, claims to speak for all students, but in reality speaks for no-one but themselves. Students were outraged at the motion and immediately set about appealing it. On Facebook, a group – Condemn the Banning of the Military by UCL Union – was set up by Tom Parkinson, Mandy Smith and Eamonn Hurley-Flynn to co-ordinate efforts to repeal the motion. Within two weeks it had enlisted 5,000 supporters, and six months on has maintained virtually the same level of support.
Last Wednesday, 8th October, at the Welcome General Meeting a motion was submitted to overturn the ban. Whilst it received overwhelming support – students voting 5:1 in favour - it will not immediately be adopted as the meeting was considered inquorate. But that fact that the motion was submitted at all, and that it received such strong support is a testament to the potency of campus activism. Leftish unions must be confronted and their agendas torpedoed.
If you have a tale to tell about the abuses of power by your union, or need help and support in taking them on, get in touch now: edward@theyoungconservative.co.uk
