News
Cleaners working at SOAS have voted in favour of taking strike action over their sick pay, holiday pay and pensions, their union, UNISON, has said. According to UNISON, 100% of cleaners voted “yes” in the three week-long postal ballot on a turnout of 62%. The cleaners are outsourced to facilities
National News
Tom King, BA Politics The Metropolitan Police have paid £40,000 in compensation after “shocking” inconsistencies in police accounts of arrests at a tuition fee protest at SOAS in 2011. Ashok Kumar and Simon Behrman were wrestled to the grounded and arrested by police at a demonstration prompted by a
Uncategorized
[Carrie Benjamin – Barcelona, Spain – published Sept ’13] As the summer comes to an end, Spain’s autonomous region of Catalonia is courting greater domestic and international support for an independence referendum in 2014. Although the Catalan independence movement has its roots in the early XX century, public support has significantly
Opinion
Is our Students Union fit for purpose? By Alia Osman SOAS students assume that we have an effective complaints system in place for students to use if we ever need it, as the Students’ Union (SU) has a reputation for being radical and at the forefront of political activism. So
News
Students can now vote in the referendum on the future of ULU until 7th February, after union officers decided to extend the deadline for colleges to organise ballots. The decision was taken after several colleges failed to hold the referendum by 12th December, the original deadline. Michael Chessum, ULU President,
News
Caterers Elior are at the heart of a new scandal over the treatment of outsourced workers at SOAS after whistleblowers revealed a catalogue of complaints to The SOAS Spirit. Elior employs a number of workers at SOAS on precarious casual contracts, where workers have no guaranteed hours per week and
Uncategorized
By Mohammad Tahboub, Editor After 2 years of progress will you let your SOAS Spirit crumble? Will you SOAS student let the platform made to protect your free speech fail? We are fighting a battle 2 years after the union censored the former SOAS Spirit and prevented it from publishing
Uncategorized
Charles Brook (BA Politics and Arabic) SOAS students run campaign in south London promoting healthy relationships and providing support for victims of domestic violence Team V is a national network of young people changing the world, one community actions project at a time! Over the course of the year Team
International News
By Sabeehah Motala, LLB Law On Thursday 5th December, the world lost arguably the most iconic politician that ever lived. Mr Mandela – a leader, father of a nation, revolutionary, freedom-fighter, boxer and lawyer – passed away in the comfort of his home in Johannesburg, South Africa. The anti-Apartheid hero has found
Chessum
ULU President Michael Chessum was arrested at lunchtime yesterday as he tried to enter ULU headquarters on Malet Street. He was released in the evening after nine hours in custody. It is believed that the arrest was related to a protest at Senate House earlier this week. A 200-strong crowd
British Museum
In defiance of an effective campus-wide ban on protest, members and supporters of the 3 Cosas – ‘Three Things’ – campaign headed to Senate House on Thursday October 24th to insist the University of London listen to their demand: “sick pay, holiday, pensions now!” At approximately 1 PM, protesters gathered at the
International News
“This is not a company, it is a university. We are not clients, we are students,” METU students in Ankara. Students of the Middle Eastern Technical University (METU), Ankara, have taken matters into their own hands after government-sponsored construction workers deforested several trees in the university fields in the hope