ABetterSOASIsPossible! FestiRally on the Green

When: Fri 31 January 2020 16:00-22:30
Where:

///CALLING ALL (ALL!) STUDENTS AND WORKERS, SOAS AND BEYOND!\\\

Friday 31st Jan, 4PM-Onwards on the SOAS Green. ((JCR is plan B weather-dependin'))

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|| LIVE MUSIC || DJs || CAMPAIGN SPEECHES! || FOOD + INFO STALLS ||

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****|||Our Green is in danger once again from Feb 1st. Meanwhile, SOAS staff and integrity are under attack from multiple fronts - we have to defend them! Join us for a game-changing evening of Speeches from almost all the SOAS Student Campaigners, Workers' Unions and other activist groups, mashed-up with the best of the SOAS's Music scene - as we do an Epic Student+Worker FESTIVAL/RALLY TAKEOVER of the SOAS Green||||****

FEATURING:

Campaigns Line-Up!:
||||||/:. Crisis SOAS / @SaveTheSoasGreen / @DemilitiriseSOAS / Fractionals For Fair Play / SOAS Justice For Workers - End Outsourcing / Decolonising Our Minds Society / SOAS UCU / SOASUNISON / @Feyzi Ismail / Sandy Nicoll .:\|||||||

Music Line-Up!:
||||||/:. Kiki and the Tiger / DJIsuru / MCCassius Gray / SOAS Ceilidh Band/ Sambatage / Plus much more tbc. .:\|||||||
JAZZ-PUNK/GLOBALFUNK//DANCEHALL/JUNGLE/HIPHOP
Whoever else wants to play - Hit Us Up man!

--- Definitely more tbc! And definitely more room to get involved, Please pm CrisisSOAS page if you want to step up on the mic, or set up a stall, to represent your campaign, society, cause..




It'll be a tiny bit not-warm, maybe.. But C'mon! - Bring Warm Clothes For Occupation-Mode!! We'll burn those fires even higher than last time! And the musics made to dance to ;))

|WATCH OUT FOR SET-TIMES AND LINE-UP ANNOUNCEMENTS|




CAMPAIGN INFO: (please read even if you have an average inter-webbers attention-span :P)

This event will be happening on the eve of the change in agreements with University of London that will mean the site is again at risk of contractors moving in to start works from the 1st February. Rest assured. We won't be moving. They will NOT take our green. We need everyone in on this one!

This is the third event to occupy and vibe-up the Green since the original three day occupation, successfully ending in an agreement in written ink from the vice-director of estates at UoL that all planning for the site will be stalled until Feb 1st, when this kicked-off in early December, and the Refreshers Mash-Up Session Jan 17th. This event is also the second of the ABetterSOASIsPossible! series of mad events, the first mashing-up the place during freshers week!

We are currently also working on legal avenues, sharing the internet petition (link at bottom of page!), and a number of other ways to pressure University of London to turn around these plans that are another direct and sickening attack on SOAS, it's space, and community. Yet another expression of university marketisation, and a total show of disrespect and disregard for students and workers. A fat, dirty, extremely loud building site right in the middle of our campus for a building that won't even be just for SOAS use? It's not happening. Certainly not without prioritising input and consent from the SOAS community and certainly nothing major which cuts the tree and takes the whole green.

Meanwhile, on Monday 20th SOAS management announced a suspension on academic research leave, with cuts to many of our fractional staff members, our teachers, being an imminent threat. The student+worker walk-out, rally and general assembly on the 23rd was EPIC. Join us for a second rally to update and shout loud about these attacks on the heart of our university and get together in solidarity!
We are now calling an assembly follow-up meeting on Tuesday 28th January from 5pm in the Brunei Gallery Atrium, please come along.

Meanwhile: The shockwaves of the OPS reforms, course-cuts and redundancies still scatter the essence of our uni, a second wave of major strike actions is impending depending on the SOAS UCU ballot which will take place on the 29th. Recent findings by dedicated SOAS activists reveal that our university is receiving at least £400,000 a year in effective blood-money from the Ministry of Defence for its role in providing cultural information, and that SOAS ties with The Hebrew University means that the institution is continuing to be directly complicity in Israeli apartheid on Palestine. Meanwhile! The J4W campaign still bravely struggles-on in the face of all the raw injustices, as does HandsOffHamish and many more activist-fronts that will be featured.

MEANWHILE! We students are paying the mandem wayyy too much money, giving them all our time, depending on this institution to be a major foundation and step in our lives. And We workers joined the SOAS team expecting to be treated with basic dignity, respect and workers rights instead of being continually undermined. Managers are sucking dry £1.2MILLION a year as they ransack the school and claim that cutting research freedoms and our valued staff is the way to save the uni. We are demanding that they cut their enormous wages and find better means first!

'Choose your battles wisely - the ones you can win.' EXACTLY.

Loud And Clear. This Is An Occupation Event. This is the SOAS creative and active Collective Taking a Stand. We are saying - There is a Much Better way, A better SOAS Is Possible! And we're going to show them how.

If you have passion for the collective work toward a better SOAS, toward defending the rights and dignity of students and workers, towards defending our universities and communities from the cold, ever, encroaching neoliberal marketisation - then we need you there with us on the 31st and beyond!

SaveSOASGreen Petition Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfV1znSvCP3jM6JdwYmLB82wHF7yqeYrksIoIPRkost9QAR-A/viewform