A new national student campaign initiative was launched last night at a meeting in central London. Students for a Free Western Sahara will start as a UK wide network which hopes to establish groups in schools and universities across the country. It also has ambitions to link with student groups internationally.

Representatives from several British universities met and elected an 8 member steering group consisting of students from the London School of Economics, Kings College London, School of Oriental and Asian Studies and Westminster University. It is hoped that branch groups will be set up in universities across the country, holding regular meetings and awareness raising actions. Each branch will propose a motion for their university students union offering solidarity with the Saharawi struggle.

The launch of the network, timed to coincide with the 35th anniversary of the declaration of an independent Western Sahara, also tied in with a number of other campaigns on the EU fisheries agreement, the extension of the UN peacekeeping monitoring mandate and the ‘Sun, Sea, Sand and Torture’ tourism and economic boycott campaign.

“Many students in Britain don’t even know about the injustices suffered by the Saharawi people in Western Sahara. We aim to raise awareness of Morocco’s ongoing violation of UN Resolutions, the illegal plundering of Western Sahara’s natural resources and human rights abuses being committed daily” said Bendik Elstad, a first year student at LSE explained. “Recent events in North Africa show that change is possible and that students are the ones leading the struggle. Students for a Free Western Sahara will show solidarity with Western Sahara and help to free Africa’s last colony.”

Member of Parliament for Islington North Jeremy Corbyn MP, welcomed the new initiative saying that he believed that the student group will give new energy to what is becoming an ever more powerful movement for change in Western Sahara. “History has shown that the politicians and the powerful cannot be relied on to do the right thing and it is up to the people – often lead by students – to make a principled stand for justice” he said.

The first meeting for the meeting for the London branches of Students for a Free Western Sahara will take place at 7pm in SOAS on 9th March where there will be a screening of the award-winning film El Problema.