Picked up a copy of London Student at the weekend. And there was some interesting pieces in there.
Kurdish politician Leyla Zana has been jailed for 15 months by a Turkish court because of a speech she made at SOAS.
The court ruled on Tuesday (28th July) that she was guilty of disseminating “propaganda for a terrorist organization” because she is said to have called the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan “as important for the Kurdish people as the brain and the soul are for a human being.”
This really is a shocking attack on civil liberties and freedom of speech.
Oh, and the cleaning contractor ISS (remember them….?!) well they claim they received an anonymous text message in Feb 2009 which alleged that a some of SOAS cleaners held ‘fake passports’ and ‘prompted them to further check the documents’. Furthermore, they claim this, ‘and we encourage them to form unions’…
SOAS management have published a report on the deportation of the cleaners, it includes submissions by ISS and Unison.
And solidarity to Juan Carlos Piedra Benitez
A cleaner at UCL who says he was unfairly sacked because of his trade union activism today launched a campaign to be reinstated to his job.
Juan Carlos Piedra Benitez and his supporters held a rally in UCL’s main quad this afternoon (21/9/09) to draw attention to his claim that cleaning contractor Office and General (O&G), dismissed him for his activities with the trade union Unite.
