Vol. 80/No. 8 February 29, 2016
UK students debate ‘political correctness,’ free speech
This is a deadly threat to the political space and wide room for discussion the working class needs to chart a way forward in face of capitalism’s grinding depression conditions. There is growing opposition here to the attacks.
On Jan. 19 Ami Ayalon, a former Israeli navy commander and former head of the internal secret service Shin Bet, spoke at a meeting jointly hosted by the Israel Society at King’s College and the London School of Economics. Ayalon now advocates freezing all Israeli settlements in the West Bank and for negotiations based on “the concept of two states, 1967 borders with territorial exchange based on parameters of security, demography and contiguity.”
Up to 100 people gathered outside the building chanting slogans against him speaking that included “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a euphemism for wiping out the state of Israel, which sits between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea.
A handful of protesters pushed past security staff, heading for the meeting. When security stopped them from getting in, they started beating the walls, banging chairs on the floor and setting off fire alarms, while the crowd outside continued chanting, banging on windows and trying to get in. The meeting was halted and campus security called in the cops.
An event about peace was “greeted by violence and intimidation,” the Union of Jewish Students said. “Just 25 people managed to disrupt an event attended by nearly 60 while over 100 others who wished to hear the speaker and engage positively were turned away as there was no more space for them.”
King’s College London Action Palestine had opposed holding the meeting, saying Ayalon’s responsibility for Shin Bet’s torture of detainees during the five years he led the agency in the 1990s meant he forfeited the right to speak.
“We believe that peaceful disruption of speaker events by people who have participated in war crimes, including torture, is a legitimate form of protest,” the group said in a Jan. 24 statement.
Action Palestine also calls on students “to support the BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] movement and the academic boycott of Israeli institutions until Israel grants Palestinians their basic rights and ends the illegal occupation and siege of Gaza.” While the group says it opposes anti-Semitism “as a matter of principle,” shutting down speakers and performers simply because they are from Israel flies in the face of this claim.
Students were eager to discuss the issue with Communist League members, who set up a literature table outside King’s campus on Jan. 28. Four people subscribed to the Militant and one bought The Jewish Question by Abram Leon.
“I understand why people are angry over Palestine, and they have a right to exercise freedom of speech and to protest,” said Orlando Yang. “But this disruption will give an opportunity to the right wing to paint all supporters of the Palestinian struggle in a bad light.”
Government ‘Prevent’ program
Robert Andrews, another student, said the government takes advantage of this atmosphere to undermine freedom of speech, pointing to their “Prevent” policies.Prevent is part of the “Counter Terrorism and Security Act,” adopted in 2015. It makes it a legal requirement for schools to “assess the risk of pupils being drawn into terrorism and support for extremist ideas,” to “promote fundamental British values,” create “safe spaces” and remind schools of their existing duty “to forbid political indoctrination.”
“Under Prevent, if anyone says something ‘radical’ in a seminar, the tutor has to report them,” Andrews said. “But who’s to judge what’s ‘radical?’
“There are ‘safe space’ monitors who report anything ‘offensive,’” he said. “I sometimes end up trying to censor myself.”
The Conservative Party government says Prevent allows it to bar speakers it deems “extremist” from appearing on campus. Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has called for banning Cage, a group that defends people accused of “terrorism” whose leaders include former Guantánamo detainees. A government watchdog is conducting an inquiry into six universities where Cage leaders have spoken.
A study of 115 universities by online magazine Spiked reports curbs on free expression were in place at 90 percent of them. In the name of “safe space” and “dignity” policies, various speakers, newspapers, pressure groups, types of behavior, songs and even hand gestures had been banned at more than half of these schools last year. Student unions impose four times more bans than university authorities, the magazine reported.
Last November feminist writer Germaine Greer went ahead with a lecture at Cardiff University, despite a petition signed by more than 3,000 people, calling for her to be banned because of alleged “transphobic” views.
“What they are saying is that because I don’t think surgery will turn a man into a woman I should not be allowed to speak anywhere,” Greer said.
At the London School of Economics, one of the most ban-happy campuses, a motion is under debate to shut down the newly founded Free Speech Society before it has even held its first meeting. The group wants to invite speakers who have been barred elsewhere and debate controversial topics.
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