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Kingston Student Union bans the military

Military-Free Zone | 28.11.2008 16:09 | Anti-militarism | Education | Iraq | World

At yesterday's Student Union AGM, Kingston University students voted to "ban Military Forces from Promoting on Campus".

KU students passed a motion stating that "British troops should be withdrawn immediately from Iraq and Afghanistan" and that "the OTC, RAF, Royal Navy, TA, and Army are not allowed promotion or recruiting stalls at our fresher's fair and on the Kingston University campuses". This means that KU is a Military-Free Zone for the next 3 years. During the debate students discussed "economic conscription" in the current climate of economic crisis, Michael Moore's docu-film Fahrenheit 9/11 and a general feeling of disgust at the war in Iraq. This follows recent actions against the military at Sussex University.

Military-Free Zone

Comments

Hide the following 8 comments

maximum solidarity

28.11.2008 16:35

maximum solidarity from sussex uni. this movements really just getting going. awesome

captain pugwash


solidarity from London

28.11.2008 17:45

Solidarity from University College, London.

Troop out of Iraq, troops out of Afghanistan, troops off our campuses!

Jeremy Bentham


Great stuff

28.11.2008 17:47

Like the Sussex people said, it's great to see that the student movement really seems to be getting its act together when it comes to challenging the military presence in our unis.

Solidarity from Sheffield!

Kicker Conspiracy
mail e-mail: kickemoffcampus (at) googlemail (dot) com
- Homepage: http://www.kickemoffcampus.org


Plod

28.11.2008 20:39

Thank God you lot were not around in 1940. No doubt you would have been spouting the same rubbish then but with potentially far more serious consequences. You give the impression that the British Army is like the Waffen SS or the NKVD.

Trevor Williams
mail e-mail: Trevor.Williams@Thamesvalley.police.pnn.uk


Have you maybe misread this Trevor?above article links the ban to illegal Iraq

29.11.2008 04:40

& other illegal conflicts involved in by the UK military against public opinion. If person posting this really is by PC Trevoe williams of Thames Valley police who exists then you should look into its illegality& campaigns to arrest Mr Bush & Blair.
Indymedia activists are exactly the kind of people who went to defend democratic Spain against nazi aggression with international brigades almost a deacade before the allied governments, finally got their act together to stop nazi fascism.
They are not directly responsible in the way SS units murdered Jews or the KGB murdered Kulaks & Polish officers, but the UK army does help maintain a system that forces about 100,000,000 mainly young people to die in poverty every decade in the last 30 years,according to UN figures. This poverty doesnt help lower population levels as many in poverty doing subsistence farming& cheap factories have more children to supply manual labour. Some might argue we are being too nice, certainly this college has made the right move,well done

Universal Democrat


A reply

29.11.2008 15:59

To Universal Democrat, no doubt Indymedia activists would have fought in Spain against Franco but they would no doubt have also have then campaigned against Britsh involvement in World War II (calling for a peace with Hitler) as much of the left did during the period of the Nazi-Soviet Pact simply because they had been told to do so by Moscow.
My point is this, the real agenda behind anti-army actions such as the one at Kingston Univeristy is simply that the army are considered by many on the radical left to be a central prop of capitalist society and therefore to be abused and insulted on all occassions. You must realise that the army are a professional body who go where they are sent by the (democratically) elected government of this country. They cannot refuse to undertake operations as a result of their individual beliefs. You, and the students at Kingston are not motivated by pity for the people of Iraq but by a hatred of the armed forces.
Finally I find it ironic that given hisor her title, Universal Democrat is violently opposed to the involvement of the arny in Iraq given that (however imperfectly they are doing it) their aim is to install a democratic governement. Perhaps he would rather the people of Iraq live in a brutal police state or under a fanatical Islamic theocracy.

Trevor Williams
mail e-mail: Trevor.Williams@Thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk


clever trevor

30.11.2008 01:21

"My point is this, the real agenda behind anti-army actions such as the one at Kingston Univeristy is simply that the army are considered by many on the radical left to be a central prop of capitalist society and therefore to be abused and insulted on all occassions."

- Yep.

"You must realise that the army are a professional body who go where they are sent by the (democratically) elected government of this country. They cannot refuse to undertake operations as a result of their individual beliefs."

- which is exactly why we oppose the army; it is an insult our ability to reason that we are asked to join a body who you have to obey no matter what. The Left has never claimed there is no need for self defence and no need for armed groups, what we say is that people have the ability to make up their own mind. "Just following orders" is not good enough - but you wouldn't get that, would you Officer? I love how you cling to the army's professionalism as some kind of defence too - as if being good at your job validated whatever it was! There are people out there who are just brilliant at making landmines that look like toys (etc.)

"You, and the students at Kingston are not motivated by pity for the people of Iraq but by a hatred of the armed forces."

- both.

bill stickers


Soldiers of the World Unite, you have nothing to loose but your Generals

01.12.2008 15:23

"You, and the students at Kingston are not motivated by pity for the people of Iraq but by a hatred of the armed forces."

In fact many of us who oppose war feel comradeship with lower-ranks soldiers and sailors. Soldiers made the Russian Revolution by refusing to fight. The sailors in Kronstadt took the revolution so far that they came into conflict with the Bolshevik government. Banning the OTC is an act of solidarity with soldiers & sailors since it is an act of opposition to the bastards who repress soldiers.

No War but the Class War!


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