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Cambridge Tour of Shame

CamSAW | 05.12.2002 16:19 | Cambridge

Cambridge Students against the War gave a free tour of shame in Cambridge today, stopping at various places along the way . . . (article 1)

Cambridge Tour of Shame
Cambridge Tour of Shame

Cambridge Tour of Shame
Cambridge Tour of Shame

Cambridge Tour of Shame
Cambridge Tour of Shame

Cambridge Tour of Shame
Cambridge Tour of Shame

Cambridge Tour of Shame
Cambridge Tour of Shame

Cambridge Tour of Shame
Cambridge Tour of Shame

Cambridge Tour of Shame
Cambridge Tour of Shame

Cambridge Tour of Shame
Cambridge Tour of Shame

Cambridge Tour of Shame
Cambridge Tour of Shame

Cambridge Tour of Shame
Cambridge Tour of Shame


The tour was meant to highlight the roles of various Cambridge institutions in financing the arms trade, specifically through the ownership of mass shares in British Aerospace, the country's largest weapons exporter. Stops included St. John's College, the Cambridge City Council, Sidney Sussex College, the Army Recruiting Centre, and we ended up with a minute of silence for ALL the dead of ALL wars at the Cambridge War Memorial. Present was a strong contingent of demonstrators, several police escorts, and the always humorous University Proctors. The day was a success, and as I write this CamSAW representatives are in a discussion with the Financial Bursar of Sidney Sussex College regarding its investment practices.

CamSAW

Comments

Hide the following 12 comments

Real popular government.

06.12.2002 09:57

While i fully support any protest against the brockers of death , i wonder how many students at Cambridge would give outright support to the over throw of the present corrupt and bankrupt system.What percentage of students are actually of working class background at this archaic museum.Furthermore would the middle class majority fully support true participatory government, and not eventually turn against the popular consent of the masses? Additionaly how much support would students at Cambridge give to a truly democratic socialist populist government,that sought to completely change the Capitalist state structure and not simply reform it as the Labour party as throughout its entire history.
Please do not misunderstand my questions as i give my wholesale support to the students actions at this present momment,but would these same students carry through to the end a socialist alternative society or simply betray it in favour of their own class interests.The class war still continues no matter how much New Labour try to deny the fact.My own eleven year old son is at present attending a local authoriy comprensive school, which is becoming more delapitated by economic starvation.Moreover i wage a constant battle to ensure his REAL education in the face of monumental class barriers with the hope that one day he will attend a University and be presented with the opputunities denied to myself and countles others of my council estate /working class background.To sum up then i ask the students if they are truly acting for revolutionary ends or are they what i term middle class socialists.

Redkop


response

06.12.2002 11:30

as a clarification, CamSAW isn't a revolutionary organization,and it doesn't purport to be. It is a coalition of anti-war forces, from pacifists to revolutionary communists and anarchists. I write this as a member of the latter who is from a lower-class background. Participation in broader organizations by revolutionaries is essential to the radicalization of the middle-lefties and the weakening of capital. Such organizations, while making no claim to the leadership of revolutionary elements, are entirely capable of precipitating crisis through mass action.

geo


To Geo

06.12.2002 11:59

I simply asked if the students would truly support a revolutionary and popular democratic form of government.It is easy to jump onto poltical bandwagons without supporting true democratic populist demands.When the slaughter begins in Iraq we will be all to blame.However what sort of society do students envisage in the future,and what sort of people will the vast majority turn out to be in twenty or thirty years time, not replicas of Blair and co who represent only one small section of society.Furthermore what what improvements to society are these young people going to make once out in the real world?And WHAT is Cambridge University for anyway?Are their any answers forthcoming on these urgent questions?

redkop


To much criticism

06.12.2002 17:53

I have met some of these people and I think you are being over critical and missing the point, I have some strong personal prejudices against those people I perceive to have come from privaliged backgrounds, but bandwagon or not as far as I'm concerned thta as long as they are travelling in the same direction as me, I will support them as long as they continue in that direction for as long as they continue in that direction.
I feel it is unproductive to criticise those that are doing something when so many are doing nothing.

Accidental


reply to accidental

06.12.2002 18:46

I do not think that i am being over critical.The point is that we have been down this road before notably the 1960s peace movements.For real political change to occur and for this change to last surely all protest must be just somthing more than a passing fad.The 1960s progressive peace movements are a major example of this fact.The so called peacful hippies soon became ardent supporters of thatcher and her devisive economic policies.As a consequence of this betrayal history is simply repeating itself.May i ask the question once again will the students at Cambridge truly support a revolutionary alternative or simply once more cave in to their own class interests?

Redkop


response 2

07.12.2002 00:54

um, well, no. i'm not going to answer your question because I can't speak for everyone in CamSAW. But I can ask another question - if members of CamSAW aren't revolutionaries, then should they stop opposing the war? Should they be forcibly ejected from the movement? I don't agree that lots of criticism is always a bad thing, but if your criticism has no practical value, if it offers no affirmative response, then it has no point.

geo


Response to Geo 2

07.12.2002 07:05

My question is quite simple realy, are Cambridge students true revolutionaries looking for a more humane and democratic government or are they or will they turn out to be clones of Blair.After all Blair himself is the end result of elitist education!I think this is quite a valid question considering the present danger this autocrat presents to us all.

Redkop


PS to last answer.

07.12.2002 08:27

Iwould like to add that my questions are of a real funda mental nature in that they address the problems at the heart of the UK establishment.The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge have always supplied a disproportionate number of political leaders with a vested interest of keeping the political status quo.I only seek to clarify the sittuation by finding out if this remains the same or if their is genuine political and social change of a fundamental nature being attempted by the students at this present time.If this is not the case i cannot see the point of any future demonstrations of this kind.Please answer my question if you can.

Redkop


Questions?

07.12.2002 10:27

Questions are a burden to others, answers a prison to oneself.

Redkop


Cambridge and the revoution

07.12.2002 16:21

Geo is right, CamSAW is definitely not a revolutionary organisation. It is a 'united front', people with different political beliefs who have agreed to form a coalition with the aim of opposing the consequences of the 'war on terror'. There are many different analyses of the issues, many different opinions on actions, and CamSAW operates by consensus.

As regards the position of Cambridge students to a system of government which was a progressive socialist worker-controlled one, I think that most students at Cambridge would wholeheartedly oppose such a move. And I also believe that many of those in CamSAW would support it... to single out Cambridge as the target for a tirade against the middle-classes appears to be misguided, you may as well pick any university in the country, I believe that Bristol has a higher percentage of public-school educated students than either Oxford or Cambridge. And this tendency to believe that members of the middle-classes have no right to engage with radical or revolutionary politics, that if you are not working class then you have no right to support participatory democracy, this tendency is anachronist, and in a way bigoted. Judge people individually, don't blame them for their parentage.

Matt


Cambridge and the revolution

07.12.2002 16:23

Geo is right, CamSAW is definitely not a revolutionary organisation. It is a 'united front', people with different political beliefs who have agreed to form a coalition with the aim of opposing the consequences of the 'war on terror'. There are many different analyses of the issues, many different opinions on actions, and CamSAW operates by consensus.

As regards the position of Cambridge students to a system of government which was a progressive socialist worker-controlled one, I think that most students at Cambridge would wholeheartedly oppose such a move. And I also believe that many of those in CamSAW would support it... to single out Cambridge as the target for a tirade against the middle-classes appears to be misguided, you may as well pick any university in the country, I believe that Bristol has a higher percentage of public-school educated students than either Oxford or Cambridge. And this tendency to believe that members of the middle-classes have no right to engage with radical or revolutionary politics, that if you are not working class then you have no right to support participatory democracy, this tendency is anachronist, and in a way bigoted. Judge people individually, don't blame them for their parentage.

Matt


Elitist system of government!

07.12.2002 17:16

The government of the UK as always been dominated by political elites drawn from the Universities of both Cambridge and Oxford.You mention in your reply that no students at Cambridge would agree to a government made up of working class people.The working people of this country have been always been governed by political elites drawn from Oxford and Cambridge.Why on earth cannot this situation be reversed and a government put in place that reflects working peoples interests and not only one small section of society?The middle classes of this country appear to have had it thier way for far to long , all as i am suggesting is that the workers interests control things for a change.If this offends you then i appologise , Cambridge seems only to be of service to the political elites of this undemocratic country.

Redkop