60's Counterculture: Through a Bong, Darkly

[MacCruiskeen]

Glasgow University Student Occupation

Monday, 9 February 2009
First Press Release

Students begin the 23rd university occupation in Britain in the past 3 weeks

At 2pm this afternoon over 50 students at the University of Glasgow went into occupation to protest against the current siege of Gaza, in solidarity with the Palestinians, and against the involvement of arms manufacturers at our university.

[...]

http://glasgowunioccupation.blogspot.co ... lease.html

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

I abhor smoking but that photo in context was inspiring.
Better than burning people with white phosphorus by far.

It will always be the students who haven't had their idealism blunted who create resistance to fascism.

We demand:

The severing of links between the university and arms manufacturers, such as BAE Systems.

An official university statement condemning the Israeli army’s atrocities in Gaza.

A boycott of all Israeli produce on campus, such as Eden Springs water.

Donations of academic resources to help rebuild Gaza’s battered schools and universities.

A day of fundraising across campus in support of the DEC appeal.

A commitment to fund scholarships for Palestinian students.

We, the students, will remain in occupation indefinitely until our demands are met.

Columbia University 1968-


The Grateful Dead performing on the Ferris Booth Hall terrace during the strike (Columbia Daily Spectator)

[MacCruiskeen]

It will always be the students who haven't had their idealism blunted who create resistance to fascism.

Yes, I have to say I am really surprised by what's going on at British unis right now. Because this time it's not a handful of students at one uni demonstrating for lower tuition-fees, etc. (perfectly admirable and justified in itself, of course), but students across the entire country risking something very substantial (their own career prospects) out of sheer anger that a mass murder a thousand miles away is being financed and supported by their own government and their own university authorities.

Quoting myself from another thread:

J.G. Ballard: "The chief role of the universities is to prolong adolescence into middle age"

No. Utter garbage. The chief role of the universities in 2009 is precisely the opposite: to insert middle age into adolescence, in the form of conformism, careerism and timidity. Not least in the form of massive debt. But god forbid that J.G. Ballard's precious imagination (He's a GENIUS!) should ever concern itself with anything as banal -- anything as unmentionably real -- as the replacement of student grants by student loans (nearly every graduate in Britain now starts work about 30,000 pounds in debt), the replacement of a living wage by a credit card, the replacement of affordable housing by the "death grip" (lit.: mortgage), or the replacement of thought by antithought.

So it's really pretty damn inspiring what's going on right now.

[AlicetheKurious]

Oh, man, sorry, MacCruisken -- I hadn't quite kept up with this thread (which I'd been following with much pleasure), and posted the same article you did as a separate thread!

What should I do, delete the new thread?

[MacCruiskeen]

No worries, Alice, it's all grist to the mill. Glad you discovered the article independently.

[JackRiddler]

I love this thread.

Just saying.

YEAH

[JackRiddler]

.

Ran into this at random, how can I resist the above endorsement? Go back to page 1 for the full 1960s experience.

"The Sixties was really just 1966 and the first half of 1967."

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[hanshan]

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I love this thread.

Just saying.

YEAH

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