Inside the Current Issue

Academic Repression

Academic repression is by no means limited to the U.S. Recently, the George Fox 6 where convicted of Aggravated Trespass for a demonstration at Lancaster University in England. The students had originally faced more serious charges of Harassment and Intimidation which were rejected by the judge. The six had entered a meeting between university officials and corporate representatives from companies such as Shell, the Carlyle Group, GlaxoSmithKline, DuPont and Unilever, who were discussing how to "commercialise university research". The students were in the theatre for three minutes and passed out flyers. The six have received two year suspended sentences and will appeal. For more info: http://www.free-webspace.biz/GeorgeFox/index.html.

Miguel Malo's second trial began in Bronx County Criminal Court on October 17. Malo was the Vice President of the Hostos College Student Senate when he was arrested four years ago for holding up a sign outside the school cafeteria to protest cutbacks in bilingual education. His first trial ended in a mistrial. Malo, who was later elected President of the Hostos Student Senate, could be sentenced to up to a year in prison if he is convicted of the most serious charges of assaulting two CUNY Peace Officers. For more information, call CUNY Action to Defend Miguel Malo, (212) 460-0983 or (917) 520-5368.

Tariq Khan, a student at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia was reportedly beaten by campus police - as well as local bystanders which decided to 'join-in' - after staging a one-person protest against military recruiters on his campus on September 29. He was charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct after standing next to the recruiting table wearing a homemade sign that read "Recruiters tell lies. Don't be fooled." A university official had previously instructed Khan, an Air Force veteran, to leave, which he refused to do, citing his right to free speech in a public facility. For more information: http://fawcettweb.com/peace.

Demonstrations against military recruiters also occurred at Holyoke Community College in Massachusetts, where police equipped with tear gas tangled with the crowd. One student, Charles T. Peterson, was banned from campus after being pepper-sprayed by the cops, but later was allowed to return. Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison also held anti-recruiting protests on September 26 and October 10 and reportedly were immediately threatened with arrest on both days.

A new anti-terrorism bill in the UK is being objected to by both the Association of University Teachers and NATFHE (a lecturer's union) as having the potential to adbridge the academic fredoms of professors. The bill would make it a crime, punishable by up to seven years in jail, to "encourage or glorify terrorism or to disseminate terrorist publications." Home Secretary Charles Clark has already been forced to make some concessions on the bill, dropping a "list of proscribed historical events that people could not glorify" and making the legislation more tightly worded. Still, those opposed to the bill constinue to insist that the language is very general and could cover a large variety of routine academic discussions. (from Guardian Unlimited, online version).