I bring you all another missive from the murky and chaotic world of student anarchism via the conduit of Autonomy & Solidarity, our officially registered Goldsmiths society.

This one - as promised - is much shorter, partially cos I'm knackered but also cos more is forthcoming from us, especially in terms of an occupation postmortem.


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CONTENTS:

(i) A&S participate in the gloriously victorious and notorious occupation of Deptford Town Hall
(ii) Film night on 26th February
(iii) A&S meeting on Tuesday 17th February


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(i) Well, as I hope you've already heard, for around 48 hours the rather stunningly neoclassicist stairways and chamber halls of Deptford Town Hall on New Cross Road were the setting of an entirely victorious, albeit sadly shortlived, occupation by a group of around 50 Goldsmiths students - a motley crew of anarchists, socialists and concerned students - who won the installation of a scholarship programme at Goldsmiths for international students from areas of political and military conflict and strife. The programme will offer four full scholarships a year for the next 10 academic years, of which two will annually be awarded to Palestinian students.

The full terms of the agreement can be found here:  http://www.gold.ac.uk/student/latest-news/title,6869,en.php

The occupation also graced page 8 of Saturday's Grauniad:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/14/gaza-student-protests

A&S have got plenty to say on this occupation - both about its positives and negatives - which is why we're taking our time in drawing up some kinda communique. For the meantime, it feels good to witness the power of collective action and direct democracy, and even better to win battles using these structures. We suspect that this won't the last time Deptford Town Hall saw the red and black flag flying, and that neither will it be the last time that a flicker of discontent temporarily threatens the forcedly insincere Cheshire cat grin of our unscrupulous College Registrar upon seeing the access to his office blocked.


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(ii) In the meantime, we're gonna continue our hard work raising the profile of anarchism on campus and encouraging those to participate in the process of social change. Our next bitesize chunk of our thinly veiled recruitment campaign will be the frankly sublime film "Blue Collar", a 1978 Hollywood film about some autoshop workers in Detroit and their relationship with their trade union. I can't really give much more away that wouldn't be a spoiler, other than to say it has Richard Pryor (yes, the Richard Pryor) playing a straight character, alongside Harvey Keitel (yes, the Harvey Keitel), who also (obviously) kicks ass in it.

If you wanna know more about the film, here it is at IMDB:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077248/

The film showing will be on Thursday 26th February. Time and venue TBC, but what we can assure you all is that this time we will definitely have a fully functioning copy!!


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(iii) Finally, I should probably plug our next meeting, which will be tomorrow (Tuesday 17th). The Student Union bureaucracy being what it is, we're still awaiting some kinda news as to what room we'll be placed in, so we're gonna meet in the Library foyer at 6pm and then move onto the meeting venue from there.

Topics for discussion will include our ongoing work with London Coalition Against Poverty (www.lcap.org.uk) and the minutiae of the promotion of our film night but it will mainly be a retrospective of the occupation and its consequences.

All welcome.

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That's it folks, I gotta get back to my degree for the rest of the day, I'll see you all tomorrow.

Go join the Facebook group ( http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=45329272803&ref=ts) and the forums: (www.lolsmiths.tk).

Regards
AJ (on behalf of Autonomy & Solidarity)