the radish

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Birmingham Uni in bed with company abetting grave breaches of international law in Occupied Palestine by Joe STUDENT ACCOMODATION K.B.ROMAN LETTINGS AND SALES WE DEAL WITH ALL TYPES OF PROPERTIES SINCE 1990 0121-472-7000/07931-799-009 NOW IS THE TIME TO FIND YOUR STUDENT ACCOMMODATION WHY WAIT UNTIL THE BEST ONES ARE GONE!! HOUSES FOR GROUPS OF 2-7 & 11 RENTS FROM £49 PER PERSON PER WEEK WE ARE AT 560 BRISTOL ROAD SELLY OAK B’HAM B29 7AH IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WE ARE IN SELLY OAK. BE SAFE COME TO SOMEONE LOCAL Volume 2, Issue 4 09/06/2009 PUBLICATION OF THE JANUARY 15TH COMMITTEE Editorial letter 2 The great debate by Edward Bauer 2 The News in Brief 2 Ken Saro-Wiwa Vs Shell by Mima 3 The EREBUS project by weard 3 At the G20 by bitter sweet bundle 4 Inside this issue: http://theradish.org.uk/ “You yourselves judge which is right…for we cannot stop speaking of what we ourselves have seen and heard” Page 1 The University of Birmingham recently signed a research partnership with Veolia Environmental Services, ostensibly to work together to promote environmental research, inno- vation and sustainable development. Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Transfer, Judith Petts, was quoted in a recent Veolia press release as saying “Our joint efforts today will make the difference in tomorrow’s envi- ronmental and commercial environment, as it is through innovation that a sustainable future will be achieved.”1 Which all sounds very positive, if it wasn’t for the small, inconvenient, matter of Veolia’s complicity in the Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, and the international boycott campaign currently surrounding the company. Veolia Transport, a subsidiary of Veolia Environment, is the leading partner in the Citypass Consortium, which is build- ing a rail tramway system linking West Jerusalem to illegal Israeli settlements such as Pisgat Ze’ev, French Hill, Neve Ya’akov and Gilo in East Jerusalem.2 Official Israeli policy states that ‘Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel’3, but there is an overwhelm- ing international consensus amongst UN member states that regards East Jerusalem as occupied Palestinian territory, and as the capital of the future Palestinian state envisaged in the two state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict4. These settlements are therefore not only all illegal under Article 4 of the Geneva Convention, which bars an occupying power from transferring its civilian population into occupied territory, but are also the major barrier to peace in the Middle East. Israel stands in violation of more UN General Assembly Resolutions than any other state, mostly regarding its 42 year occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, which began after the 1967 war, and settlement building in the occupied territories5. UN Resolution 242, the most important resolution, calls for Israel’s com- plete withdrawal from the Occupied Palestin- ian Territories, based on the principle of the ‘inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war’6. Israel’s proclamation that Jerusalem is its “eternal… undivided”7 capital shows it has no intention of compliance with the resolu- tion. On the ground, Israel’s constant demoli- tion of Palestinian houses, denial of residency permits, unfair allocation of municipal re- sources, denial of building permits, crack- down on cultural events 8,9, as well as settle- ment building, are part of a grander scheme to slowly drive Palestinians out of the Holy City; ethnic cleansing by increment. As of 2002, Israel had moved almost 180,000 settlers into East Jerusalem, taking around a third of the land. It has since moved many more settlers into the territory, continued on page 2 Advertisement Advertisement

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Page 1: The Radish

Birmingham Uni in bed with company abetting grave breaches of international law in Occupied Palestine by Joe

STUDENT ACCOMODATION

K.B.ROMAN LETTINGS

AND SALES

WE DEAL WITH ALL TYPES OF PROPERTIES SINCE 1990

0121-472-7000/07931-799-009 NOW IS THE TIME TO FIND YOUR

STUDENT ACCOMMODATION

WHY WAIT UNTIL THE BEST ONES ARE GONE!!

HOUSES FOR GROUPS OF 2-7 & 11

RENTS FROM £49 PER PERSON PER WEEK

WE ARE AT 560 BRISTOL ROAD SELLY OAK B’HAM B29 7AH

IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WE ARE IN SELLY OAK.

BE SAFE COME TO SOMEONE LOCAL

Volume 2, Issue 4

09/06/2009

PUBLICATION OF THE JANUARY 15TH COMMITTEE

Editorial letter 2

The great debate by Edward Bauer

2

The News in Brief 2

Ken Saro-Wiwa Vs Shell by Mima

3

The EREBUS project by weard

3

At the G20 by bitter sweet bundle

4

Inside this issue:

http://theradish.org.uk/

“You yourselves judge which is right…

for we cann

ot stop speaking of wha

t we

ourselves ha

ve seen an

d heard”

Page 1

The University of Birmingham recently signed a research partnership with Veolia Environmental Services, ostensibly to work together to promote environmental research, inno-vation and sustainable development. Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Transfer, Judith Petts, was quoted in a recent Veolia press release as saying “Our joint efforts today will make the difference in tomorrow’s envi-ronmental and commercial environment, as it is through innovation that a sustainable future will be achieved.”1 Which all sounds very positive, if it wasn’t for the small, inconvenient, matter of Veolia’s complicity in the Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, and the international boycott campaign currently surrounding the company.

Veolia Transport, a subsidiary of Veolia Environment, is the leading partner in the Citypass Consortium, which is build-ing a rail tramway system linking West Jerusalem to illegal Israeli settlements such as Pisgat Ze’ev, French Hill, Neve Ya’akov and Gilo in East Jerusalem.2

Official Israeli policy states that ‘Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel’3, but there is an overwhelm-ing international consensus amongst UN member states that regards East Jerusalem as occupied Palestinian territory, and as the capital of the future Palestinian state envisaged in the two state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict4. These settlements are therefore not only all illegal under Article 4 of the Geneva Convention, which bars an occupying power from transferring its civilian population into occupied territory, but are also the major barrier to peace in the Middle East.

Israel stands in violation of more UN General Assembly Resolutions than any other state, mostly regarding its 42 year occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, which began after the 1967 war, and settlement building in the occupied territories5. UN Resolution 242, the most important resolution, calls for Israel’s com-plete withdrawal from the Occupied Palestin-ian Territories, based on the principle of the ‘inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war’6.

Israel’s proclamation that Jerusalem is its “eternal… undivided”7 capital shows it has no intention of compliance with the resolu-tion. On the ground, Israel’s constant demoli-tion of Palestinian houses, denial of residency permits, unfair allocation of municipal re-sources, denial of building permits, crack-down on cultural events 8,9, as well as settle-ment building, are part of a grander scheme to slowly drive Palestinians out of the Holy City; ethnic cleansing by increment.

As of 2002, Israel had moved almost 180,000 settlers into East Jerusalem, taking around a third of the land. It has since moved many more settlers into the territory, continued on page 2

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Page 2: The Radish

Page 2

Dear Readers by the January 15th committee

The Great Debate by Edward Bauer

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 4

The “great debate” proved to be para-gon of repression I’ve already written about the censorship of The Radish at the debate, if you don’t know what the great debate was have a look at its event page here http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=74861685515.

The Structure of the “great debate”, was clearly designed with not with purpose of representing and empower-ing students as the adverts said “influencing the man at the top”, but rather as a qualitative interview a chance not for the audience to influ-ence the panel but for the panel to influence the audience.

The three pre determined questions presented to panel by the chair, should you pay more for your degree? Are you getting the grades you deserve? Do you think you will find the right job after University? Were hugely imprecise these pre set questions really tied the chairs hands in questioning the candi-dates, to the extent that it allowed for all of the panellists to speak in generali-ties , which unsurprising didn’t generate

any meaningful points of debate.

The “panellists” where given a shock-ing amount of control over the course of debate and allowed the “panellists” to digress and talk about their own personal experiences a very good tech-nique for getting across your own interpretation ( a method which you have probably seen used time and time again by politicians). At time when students were meant to influencing the panellists the total control and freedom given to the panel allowed the manipu-lation of the direction of the debate to be done solely by the panellists.

The generalities spoken in gave the audience poor material to probe and clarify with. The number questions the audience was allowed to give was mini-mal and the audience had no chance to engage in any reciprocal exchanges with the panel. James Williams managed to ask good probing question about per-sonal politics however the sheer free-dom given to the panellists allowed Wes Streeting and Jenifer Larbie who answered the question to reframe and redesign it to their own ends, which to

their credit they are very good at doing.

Emma O'Dwyer was the “student representative” on the panel; her pres-ence was a kind of acceptance that the audience was not going to influence the direction of the debate. Emma O'D-wyer is an articulate and clever person however what chance did she have in the Professor David Eastwood, Wes streeting, Jenifer Larbie Vs Emma O’dwyer standoff? Obviously she would be less effective than Professor David Eastwood, Wes streeting, Jenifer Larbie Vs the combined minds of the audience. Aslo how did Emma O'D-wyer come to represent us all? who elected her? How independent can a member of the guilds executive actually be?

I walked out at the end of second line of questions as it had become totally apparent that the event was so con-trolled that it would be compromising to ideals like freedom of speech and democracy to continue to lend it valid-ity by participation. The Great Debate took place on May 8th 2009 in the Guild Council Chambers.

Thank you for picking up and reading a copy of The Radish. In case you’re asking why should I read such a tiny little rag? What you’re reading may be small compared to Redbrick or The Sanctuary but it is defending BIG IMPORTANT PRINCI-PLES.

Redbrick is funded and heavily subsidised by the Guild of Stu-dents and has on several occasions been censored by the Guild of students. A front page story which reported the results of an independent survey about the Guild of students showing that a staggering 96% of students didn’t even know who Jenifer Larbie was and 95% didn’t even know that they had sabbati-cal officers working for them was censored and articles writ-ten reporting news of student protests were censored for undisclosed reasons hours before publication.

With the guilds censorship aside considerable funds for the guild are provided by the university in yearly block grant. If the guild was place itself at odd with the university by allow-ing Redbrick to publish articles as critical as those found in The Radish would the university simply terminate funding? The Radish is truly independent, students are in control of its

finances and editorial.

The Radish is not run for profit the adverts you see are merely to cover costs, The Radish doesn’t support any political party or advocate any ideology or belief system. The Radish was set up by students who believe in freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is the right that The Radish endeavours to secure for students by setting up for stu-dents an independent media on campus.

So that students on campus can exercise their right to freedom of speech, so that no one has the power to decide what information or ideas it is appropriate; for you to receive or appropriate for you to communicate.

If you want to take part in student media but don’t want compromise your belief in freedom of speech, then Join The Radish. The Radish will be back after the holidays and aims to produce its largest run ever in freshers week. To write articles Website ‘contributor’ accounts can be created here: http://theradish.org.uk/wp-login.php. Join the Facebook group “The Radish; student news, uncensored” for updates of Radish meetings

The News In Brief

•Earth hour failure - The university had to make an embarrassing U-turn after promising the World wildlife fund it would turn off the clock tower for earth hour , when it came to light that the clock could not be turned off without breaking it.

•Clasping at Straws—David Lammy Minister for Higher Education visited the guild of students for private lunch and tour. Before the meeting a E-mail was sent out to all invitee’s explaining the meeting was explicitly not for the purpose of lobbying or questioning the minster. Since the event however the guild of students and several officers have insinuated that the event was a lobbying success. Tom Marley VPEA on his blog “We discussed a range of issues including fees, issues facing international students and also the role marketisation has played in the US higher education system”, guild of student website “The team asked him a series of questions and he specifically expressed his views on the forthcom-ing Higher Education Funding Re-view”. The Guild has no real tangible successes for a year campaigning against Top up fees and is clearly clasping at straws to justify its tactics.

•Starbucks confounded—The guild recently accepted sponsorship for a “Starbucks ethical and environmental forum” at the guild of students multi-cultural festival. Students went along to the forum and politely asked the staff running the presentation whether they thought Starbucks’ claim to a socially responsible and environmen-tally friendly company was true. This is due to the coffee giant’s support of the US invasions of Iraq and Afghani-stan with donations of resources, its investments in Israel, the fact that only 6% of goods are fair-trade, and its union busting activities. The staff had no reply except to deny these claims at which point the aforementioned stu-dents enlightened them with examples and cases of Starbucks’ misdemean-ours. The entire debacle begs the question why did the guild accept a company that is the very antithesis of multiculturalism to its multiculturalism festival?.

•Rainbow faces closure—Birmingham City Council Environ-mental Protection Unit, are in the middle of proceedings which could result in the closure of the venue. The proceedings are the is yet the result of one residents complaints about a noise nuisance. The closure of one the few remaining independent music venues in the city would be heavy blow to local musicians.

Students from Birmingham

University join the Unite for Jobs

march on may 16th

Continued from Page 1….. and has ensured the route of the apartheid wall allows for maximal settlement growth by building right up to Palestinian towns and villages, keeping the Palestinian population on one side of the wall, and their land on the other, ready to be con-fiscated 8. The railway will complete the Israeli strangle-hold of the city, rendering the prospect of peace in the Middle East impossible.

A global boycott movement is forming around Veolia. ABS Bank in Switzerland has stated that it will sell its shares in the company if the French multina-tional does not withdraw from the East Jerusalem railway project. A legal case has been

filed against Veolia in France and Sligo County Council has adopted a motion to boycott the company. Recently Veolia has lost big contracts in Bor-deaux, Stockholm, and, more locally, in Sandwell2.

It is regrettable that, whilst Birmingham University and Veolia say they are working for a “sustainable future”, they don’t seem to view the sustain-ability of the Palestinian peo-ple’s future with much regard.

References for article are online at http://theradish.org.uk/ along with free comment and debate on this issue.

Page 3: The Radish

Ken Saro-Wiwa Vs Shell – The Struggle Continues by mima

The EREBUS Project by weard

Page 3 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 4

On 10 November 1995 nine Nigerian environmental and human rights activists were hung by the Nigerian Government for the alleged murder of 4 elders. Ken Saro-Wiwa, the internationally renowned writer, poet and activist was one of those brutally executed. The unfounded execution of the Ogoni 9 was because of their commitment to protest against the destructive activities of oil giant Shell in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta.

Shell have been active in the Niger Delta since 1958 and 80% of the oil extracted in Nigeria is from this region. Oil revenue has provided approximately US$30 billion to the economy of Nigeria, yet the average Nigerian sees little of this with 70% of the population living on US$1 a day. In addition to re-ceiving none of the fiscal benefits, the inhabitants of the region have become victims of environmental damage and social upheaval caused by Shells pres-ence. Pipelines now run across farmland, oil spills destroy natural ecosystems and residents live with constant gas flares.

Saro-Wiwa and the other Ogoni 8 were leaders of the Movement for Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), which was founded in 1990 with the aim

of non-violent peaceful protest against Shell’s inva-sion and destruction of the Ogoni region.

The accusations against the Ogoni 9 which lead to their executions were extremely tenuous. It later transpired that two of the witnesses used to testify against Saro-Wiwa and his co-defendants had given misinformation because Shell had bribed them with money and job offers. Furthermore, Shell kept a foot in the door by ensuring that its own lawyer attended the trial as well, demonstrating its influence.

Due to the many violations concerning the trial of the Ogoni 9 a case against Shell was filed by the Centre for Constitution Rights and Earth Rights Interna-tional in 1996. The case charged Shell with complicity in the executions and for claims of torture, detention and exiles of other activists. After years of waiting the trial was set to be held on 27 May 2009. However, it has yet again been postponed indefinitely.

Shell clearly does not want the trial to be brought into international focus and there is talk of an out of court settlement. However, many environmental and hu-man rights activists are rooting for the trial to go ahead in order to expose Shell and bring justice to

those unlawfully killed. The trial would also highlight Shells continued environmental and human rights abuses in the Niger Delta.

The University of Birmingham has direct links with Shell, with the mechanical engineering building play-ing host to the ‘Shell Lounge’ and even a miniature model of a Shell oil rig. Shell has also been present at previous career fairs attempting to recruit students. There are also more links with RBS-NatWest, the biggest student bank on campus, which actively in-vests in Shells oil extraction. As students we should condemn this connection and do everything within our means to reveal the bloodshed induced by Shell.

The desire to reap the benefits of the Nigerian oil has lead to human rights violations and environmental devastation. The courageous efforts to challenge Shell regrettably brought the Ogoni 9 to their deaths, but they are far from forgotten and we should be driven and inspired by their dedication. Therefore in order to instil change we must speak out in support of the Ogoni people, and others, violently disturbed by Shells actions and demand that Shell get taken to court and duly punished.

The EREBUS project was developed by “major stake holders” in the west midlands and works within the universities of Aston, Warwick and Birmingham. It is the corporate salient within the west midlands acade-mia. According to its website the project aims to focus “upon making impact in the Energy, Financial Services and Health technologies sectors”1.

Project EREBUS, is part of a progress that has being gradually creeping into the higher education sector for almost 20 years. Starting under John major’s govern-ment and the conservative white paper “realising our potential: A Strategy for Science”, the idea was to adapt British science to the needs of British business, to distort academic research for the immediate appli-cation by industry.

The idea was to stop scientists spending decades pursuing economically useless pursuits of knowledge, to force British science to undertake research into subjects that have immediate economic application. This has been achieved largely through massive cuts in public spending on research, driving cash deprived institutions into the hands of business for research money2.

The needs of big business are not however the needs of the people or the planet. The needs of big pharma-ceuticals are not creating cures to illness afflicting the poor global south but rather in creating drugs to sell to the rich3. The effect of pinning the energy research agenda to the agenda of the British energy firms has proved equally disastrous. Investigations into the consequences of these links between academia and energy firms, have shown that it has created a distor-tion of research in favour of oil and gas by a factor of five4. The outcome of which has been that the posi-tion of oil & gas if further cemented against alterna-tives.

The EREBUS project is going further than just trans-forming the research agenda, its founding principles contain not just the aim of “transforming researchers” but also of “transforming Higher Education Institu-tions (HEI)s” 5. What this means is a shift in the power of the governance of the university between its three stake holders students, staff and lay members (lay members are appointed notables either from the

government, wealthy families or business). I’ve touched on the ramifications of this transformation before in an article earlier this year http://j15committee.baylott.org/2009/01/30/a-new-paradigm-defined-by-force/.

While this transformation is good for business, it’s bad for stu-dents & staff who get a university that doesn’t listen and doesn’t care. The Corporate university doesn’t want to know about getting cheaper halls, it doesn’t want to hear about alterna-tives to top up fees, it doesn’t care about getting students from poorer back-grounds into higher education; hidden course costs, equality, ethics and sustain-ability means noth-ing to it, what the corporate univer-sity cares about is keeping its revenue streams up to support the corpo-rate research agenda.

While we are here at university we can spend our time asking, begging and petitioning the university for cheaper halls, to support the cam-paign against top up fees, to give us free printing cred-

its, to ask for more ethical products around campus or a better recycling policy. In doing so do we make ourselves doctors attempting to treat the symptoms of an Illness rather than the cause? Should we not in-stead treat the cause of the illness? What can ever truly be gained by only asking for remissions from a cruel world instead of asking for a better one?

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Page 4: The Radish

Page 4 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 4 Advertisement

People and Planet @ Vale Festival People and Planet @ Vale Festival People and Planet @ Vale Festival People and Planet @ Vale Festival

You may remember the series of actions against RBS-NatWest on Campus over the past year. We are ending this year with a stall at Vale Festival so come and visit us at the Earth Bank and find out how you the truth behind your student banking and what you can do to transform it

and make a real change!

NATIONAL CONFERENCE : ‘Justice for

the Palestinians - the Moral Issue of our

Time’

on: Saturday 11 July 2009 10.30 – 4.00

Carrs Lane Church Centre, Birmingham, B4 7SX

“1948 and after – ethnic cleansing and the refugee question with Prof Ilan Pappe and Karma Nabulsi “

The Reality of Occupation:

Politics - Prof. Manuel Hassassian , Economy – Samia Botmeh and Health – Dr. Rita Giacaman

Building Solidarity Lessons from the Anti Apartheid Movement: Victoria Brittain , War crimes – Daniel Machover and Boycott,

Divestment and Sanctions – Betty Hunter, Hugh Lanning

This conference is an opportunity following the attacks on Gaza for members and supporters to discuss the

current situation in Palestine in its historical context and to address issues of solidarity work.

At the G20 by bittersweetbundle I only went for the day. We arrived, excited, curious and slightly nervous, I had a small placard: on it, the slogan ‘Stop Climate Chaos’. I felt as though some people might be going for the wrong reasons, to start fights, make a scene, to get on the telly. I’d decided I was going to demonstrate about climate chaos and the placard was to dem-onstrate that. People need to make changes, and people are making changes, but govern-ments are not. We caught up with the cli-mate change ‘horse’. I was a little confused, and, being rather small, couldn’t quite tell what was happening. There was noise, but no chants – a shame. There were many banners – some merely advertising websites – how frustrating. Anyway. We got there, to the Bank of England. We scrawled mes-sages in chalk, spoke to journalists and photographers, danced and wandered around.

It was a beautiful day and we headed back the way we’d come aiming to go to Climate Camp… then we met a line of police offi-cers. They looked pissed off and the people around them looked pissed off… We were-n’t allowed out, an officer was complaining – he needed a piss, someone needed to get back to work, we just wanted to get out. No such luck. All exits had been barricaded by officers in high vis jackets. There was noth-ing we could do. So we sat, we chatted, played hopscotch, took photos, observed other protesters in their extremism (breaking windows and climbing buildings), in their peacefulness (making tea) and in their daily lives (there were no toilets – people were pissing on the pavements). Finally we found our way out. The police hadn’t advertised the exit and some didn’t seem to know about it, but we got out.

We got to Climate Camp, a festival in the middle of the city. As I have said, it was a beautiful day, and a rather beautiful thing… people dancing, playing music, making food, sharing ideas and talking – ‘putting the world to rights’ I expect. As the after-noon wore on I got a little bored. I didn’t fancy getting drunk and was slightly anxious about the police presence outside the camp. People were doing things to deliberately piss the police off, something I still don’t understand. Yes, they were horrendous that day but no need to damage property – it surely gives them a reason to stop us dem-onstrating in the future? As I say, I was bored, there was nothing to do… so a few of us left. At 6.55pm we were out, at 7pm we saw police lining up… in full riot gear. When I questioned them and their motives regarding their riot gear, one replied, ‘Why do you think we’re dressed like this?’ I really couldn’t think why, no one at the camp was rioting.

I left hastily – I decided I didn’t want to see police brutality or bloodied protestors. Looking back I’m glad I did. On my way to the Tube I saw more and more police vans, officers and dogs. It made for a disturbing spectator sport. For the first time I hid my placard. I was nervous of everyone… Peo-ple other than protesters whom I spoke to seemed to understand the way the police were acting, but I really couldn’t. And I still can’t. To hear that someone was killed that day barely came as a shock considering the police tactics. I’m angry about the way the police behaved, angry about the way some of the protesters behaved and indeed I am enraged that that day’s G20 demo did noth-ing to stop climate change.