Hunger Strike! Suspended Student takes Direct Action
By Barty Roberts, Editor-in-Chief, BA Politics and International Relations
Adam, a third year BA History Student, has begun a hunger strike until he is reinstated as a SOAS Student. He has been suspended for nearly two years as a result of his various protests in support of the Palestinian people. He is also protesting the alleged complicity of SOAS, an accusation laid due to SOAS investment portfolio.
Adam is no stranger to an act of protest, in October 2023 he was suspended alongside two other students and three SOAS Alumni for a protest that took place at Freshers’ Fayre. Despite the other suspended students banding together, Adam was not supported by other student activists and left feeling particularly isolated as he was barred from campus and left without a support network.
Adam has said that he demands “dropping of any repressive actions against me, which you [SOAS] legitimise as a ‘disciplinary’. An acknowledgement that the university management has sought to control the student body in a manner which will now end, permitting the student and staff body to criticise it in all manners protected by the ECHR. No repressive action to be taken in response to this strike or actions in solidarity with it.”
Adam is now occupying an area of pavement of Thornhaugh Street. He has laid out a banner (pictured) and is spending his days in a deck chair, reading anarchist literature and discussing his demands with passers by.
With regard to the SOAS investment policy, in 2024 a SOAS Spokesperson said “We are committed to maintaining a university investment portfolio that is one of the most ethical in the UK. The SOAS community is rightly concerned about the arms trade and abuses of human rights, and these concerns are enshrined in our ethical investments policy. We welcome questions about our investments to help us maintain our high ethical standards. The committee regularly reviews our portfolio to ensure investments meet our principle-based approach to ethical investing”
