Day 09,

Day 9 was packed with interesting meetings. Phil Marfleet (Uel lecturer) and Anan AL-Quds (Action Palestine) spoke on the issue of the Palestinian refugees.

Ken Olende and Jeansy Kazadi (UEL Congolese Society) spoke on the war in Congo. They emphasised that this war is not an 'ethnic' conflict, contrary to popular belief, but rather a war for control and access to DR Congo's vast natural resources. The Patrice Lumumba Society was set up by UEL student Sohrob Kamali to campaign against and raise awareness of imperialism in the DR Congo and worldwide. It is hoped that the occupation for Gaza at UEL will lead people to become more interested and active against other injustices around the world.

Finally, the UEL Samba band entertained in the evening.

Uel Occupation day Eight

It's been eventful, It's been stressful.But hope is all we have left. Three delegates attended the, another education is possible, march where they networked and spoke to many other students about how they went about with their occupations and basically how to step up the organization of occupations and to build them to be stronger. We had a successful film viewing of 'not in our name' directed by Phill Maxwell. Where we had a question and answers session with the director. We learnt that this film was made over a six year period and showed images of how people expressed they're opinions about war through creativity and art.We had two speakers from "The friends of CAIS MALOKA" who talked about helping others "Build the international school for bottom-up organising". All in it's been a positive day apart from the minor set back in the morning. One of our achievements today was, obtaining new support from the student body, it helps us to work harder knowing that people are slowly realising why this occupation needs to carry on building. p.s well done to LCC for occupying and achieving what they did our delegates were very interested when vising this university and happy that they had made a difference.

Betty Hunter emails us!

Dear friends and comrades at UEL,

We salute your actions in support of the Palestinian people and would like to do all we can to support you.

In solidarity


Betty Hunter
General Secretary
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
www.palestinecampaign.org

Fire Alarm Drama

at 8am today we were rudely awoken by the fire alarm. We immedietly all agreed that we would not leave the building unless we witnessed the flames ourselves. Security tried to get us out of the building but we would not move. we saw this as a blatent attempt to remove us and we would not comply. Surprise surpise there was no fire.

after recieving a lecture from fire officials we were then told that we still had to vacate the building to ensure they had made the building secure. again, we would not move. we were then told that no other person could enter the building again until we had left. this led to Alan Lingal giving us his word that we could return to the room as soon as the fire officials had made a complete inspection.

although we apologise to all the people we left waiting out in the cold for half an hour, we are completley committed to this cause and will do everything that we can to stay here until our demands are met.

many thanks for your continued support!!

End of day 7...

Today was an emotional day. Our speaker today at 5.pm from Jews for Justice for Palestinians was extremely informative and inspirational. We were also grateful to Rob from Islingtons Friendship with Palestine for his presentation on the reality of life in Gaza. Such disturbing images of the injustices that Palestinians face everyday boosts our determination to do what we can in addressing such gross violations of human morals, as well as international law.

Meeting the VC and a number of the deans of schools this morning received a seemingly positive response, but with few concrete successes. Following this meeting it was decided that we shall remain in Occupation until we can claim real victory.
We cannot lose sight of why it is we are doing this. We want to make a difference to those living in the Gaza Strip, the open air prison that it is. We know that our actions are extremely meaningful for Palestinians. By standing in solidarity with them they can be assured that not everyone in this world has forgotten about them, or ignores the injustices that they face everyday.

Our demands will not be decided upon by the board of governors (the powers that be) until next tuesday. We intent to stay here until then, and we are going to up our campaign. We need much more support in order to this.

Please all do whatever you can...
- invite your friends of facebooks to our events and our groups
- write an email to our VC Susan Price at s.price@uel.ac.uk stating your support for us and our demands
- come and say hello to us in our liberated space EB.1.04
- help us out on our stall in the atrium everyday between 9-5
- come to our daily events at 1.pm and 5.pm which are always extremely inspirational and informative

We welcome the news that LLC and Cardiff have initiated occupations in solidarity with Palestinians. Together we are stronger.

In solidarity,

UEL Occupiers