/asset/Manifesto/744/Vote-Valeria-Racu-1-Co-President-Welfare-Campaigns.pdf
Vote Valeria Racu #1 Co-President Welfare & Campaigns!
Hey there! I’m Valeria, she/her, a 3rd year Social Anthropology student from Moldova and Spain. I believe the SU is key to making SOAS a radical learning space. I would like to ensure that such role is actively engaged with by not only providing adequately tailored radical welfare for the community, but also by running and supporting collective campaigns in order to create a culture of dignity, respect and rights at our university and beyond.
I have been an active member of J4W, Crisis SOAS, Sambatage and Food Coop, as well as the Working Class Student's co-officer for 2017/18. I would love to keep pushing for better radical learning spaces at SOAS and beyond, so please vote for me if you believe in the power of collective action and want to fight against the increasing precariousness around us together!
Here are some ideas:
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Approachable and accessible SU: office hours, helpline, 10am-8pm SU
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Welfare clinic: offer 1-to-1 support with SOAS bureaucracy
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Make SU funds accessible, to encourage autonomous organising
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Fight all kinds of harassment, broaden Welfare Contacts and Enough is Enough
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Work with A4T to tackle SU and SOAS’ ineptitude in dealing with GBV. Also, make the school drop unjust disciplinaries!
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Mental health peer support groups, especially for liberation groups, mature students and parents and carers
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Mandatory unconscious bias workshops for all students and staff, work on BME attainment gap
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Get a student representative on all decision-making mitigating circumstances panels
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SU Hardship/Liberation funds, improvement of accommodation options and the Guarantor Scheme
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Reject institutionalised forms of surveillance/control of learning spaces, contest the NSS and support Preventing Prevent
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Bring Saturday School and National Free Education Demo back!
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Ensure restructuring processes such as OPS and SU Governance Reforms create a more democratic and supportive work/studyplace
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Free and anti-colonial education: link different institutions and organisations for local, national and global campaigns against whiteness, neocolonialism, racism, sexism and commodification in HE.
- Promote solidarity by facilitating and supporting collective campaigns against oppression such as Decolonising Our Minds, Decolonising Environmentalism, BDS, End Deportations, Cut The Rent and others at SOAS and beyond.
All the ideas and suggestions on this manifesto have been inspired by the wonderful people I have had the privilege of organising with and learning from during my time in London.
Have got some ideas too? Contact me on 640629@soas.ac.uk!