protest – The Orbital

No Longer Standing: The Monumental Message in What Remains

31Mar

By Sofia BajerovaNo Comments

News, Opinion

No Longer Standing: The Monumental Message in What Remains

In the early hours of the 23rd of December 2021, Hong Kong University’s Pillar of Shame statue was removed from the centre of campus. It has stood there at the University of Hong Kong since 1997 and represented the numerous lives lost in the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, one of the most delicate topics in Chinese politics. Recently replaced with a new seating area, no remnants of the statue remain onsite. The image of the orange twisted bodies imprinted only in memory. The Tiananmen Square Massacre has largely been erased from history in Mainland China and Hong Kong is now following suit. The Pillar of Shame stood as a symbol of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, highlighting the difference of freedoms between Hong Kong and the Mainland, a gap that is being gradually clos...

21Mar

By Accalia SmithNo Comments

Features, News, Opinion

One More UCU Strike…

How effective is the Strike action in creating the change it seeks? An Interview with James Smith The end of March will see the disappearance of professors from classrooms once again. Not because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but because of industrial strike action from the UCU (University and College Union). As a third-year student my university experience has been impacted by both the strikes and COVID resulting in an unexpected minimal amount of time spent on campus. In my first year there were extensive strikes which some students joined in on. Then COVID struck in March, disrupting the entirety of that year. Now, we are partly back to campus with both covid and strikes interrupting simultaneously. Professor James Smith, the UCU representative within the English department here at...

6Feb

By Alex JonesNo Comments

News

The Day Britain Left

The mood was convivial and fairly relaxed as Rhubarb TV’s Station Manager Charlotte Hutton and I strolled on to Parliament Square on Friday evening. Union flags and St. George crosses flapped and furled in the icy January air and yet the revellers were seemingly insulated by the atmosphere of hope and relief. This was the day that Brexiteers had been expecting for over 25 years and a cold January evening punctuated by fittingly British drizzle was not going to lower the mood. In one corner of Parliament Square the mood was particularly excitable. The ‘Liberty Bell’ was sounding a tune lacking both rhythm and timbre while flares were colouring the night sky in red and blue and men and women of all ages were hiding cheap cans of lager from the police. This wasn’t just a Brexit party; th...

UCU Announces 8 Day Strike Affecting 60 Universities

8Nov

By Kaelin DignamNo Comments

News

UCU Announces 8 Day Strike Affecting 60 Universities

Two days ago the day this article was written the University and College Union announced eight days of strike starting this month, which will affect 60 universities across the country including Royal Holloway. The strike will take action between Monday 25th of November to Wednesday 4th of December. The action has been called in response to concerns regarding member contributions to the USS pension scheme, pay and conditions. There have been talks which could indicate the dispute could be resolved without industrial action, however this so far seems unlikely. Last week UCU members backed strike action in two separate legal disputes, one on pensions and one on pay and working conditions. Overall, 79% of UCU members voted for strike action in the ballot over changes to pensions. In the ball...

22Nov

By Natasha LamNo Comments

News

Silence Will Fall

People marched through London on Saturday 14th October 2017 as part of a protest calling for the end of modern slavery around the world. The Walk for Freedom march is organised by A21, a charity organisation fighting human trafficking and slavery. It is an annual event that aims to get people to stand together against “forced labour, servitude and sexual exploitation”. A21’s Walk for Freedom is organised all over the world, with marches in 48 states in the US and over 20 counties in the UK. There are also participating walks in most of the EU, Australia, Canada, South America and in a few Asian countries. Charlie Blythe, director of A21’s UK division and the organiser of the walk, stated that the walk is “one of those things that makes you feel great, to do something for others… it i...

Dissent & Disapproval: English PEN’s Muslim Ban Protest

1Mar

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Sports & Socs

Dissent & Disapproval: English PEN’s Muslim Ban Protest

President Trump’s executive order banning refugees, migrants and visitors from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia from entering the United States for a period of three months has sparked protests all over the whole world. As those seven countries are predominantly Muslim, people have taken to calling it a ‘Muslim Ban’ and protesting against it in an effort to stand against the somewhat questionable reasoning behind the ban. The English PEN society, headed up by Rebecca Wilson, organised a protest on the 2nd of February for Royal Holloway students. People gathered at The Hub and proceeded to march along the road up past the Students Union, congregating in Founders South Quad to stand, chant and listen to speeches made by representatives from the English PEN society, the M...

NUS Vice President attends SURHUL preparations for National Mass Demonstration

19Nov

By No Comments

News

NUS Vice President attends SURHUL preparations for National Mass Demonstration

Sorana Vieru, NUS Vice President for Higher Education, was present at a banner-painting event organised by the Royal Holloway Student Union on Wednesday 9th November. The meeting, attended by members of the Left Forum, saw students prepare for a mass demonstration due to take place on the 19th November. Organised by the National Union for Students, the London protest will involve students from across the country voicing their opposition towards increasing tuition fees and a new tiered system. It is being put in place by the current Conservative government. Ms Vieru, who was democratically elected to her post early in 2015, was intensely critical of the Higher Education and Research Bill, calling it “ideologically driven.” She criticised plans to introduce tiered systems, where unive...

Racial Volunteer Force clashes with student protesters at Royal Holloway

24Oct

By No Comments

News

Racial Volunteer Force clashes with student protesters at Royal Holloway

On Saturday the 22nd October, a political group called the Racial Volunteer Force organised a demonstration at the main gate of the Royal Holloway campus. Prompted by an ongoing case involving two outsourced cleaning staff, hired by the company, CleanTech, contracted by the Students' Union, they arrived at the entrance just after 2pm, carrying flags, banners, and a megaphone. The 10 men and 1 woman were met with a throng of at least 50 students, which grew to maybe 80 or even 100 later on, brandishing their own banners and homemade flags. Their anti-fascist agenda was made clear as chants of “Nazi scum, off our streets” arose to welcome the arrival of the RVF. In both groups, faces could be seen covered by scarves, wary of betraying their identity to the opposition as well as the ...

7Dec

By Yasmeen FrassoNo Comments

Features

RHUL Protests the ‘Tampon Tax’

Tuesday 1st December saw RHUL Women’s and Marginalised Gender’s Network and FemSoc take to Windsor Building for a protest against the tampon tax. (more…)

13Nov

By No Comments

News

NUS Withdraws support for tuition fees demonstration

The National Union of Students has withdrawn its support for a demonstration against university tuition fees scheduled for the 19th of November over safety concerns. The march is expected to be the largest student demonstration since the riotous march against fees in 2010. The protest which has been organised by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts in conjunction with the Student Assembly Against Austerity, will march on Westminster, reportedly with thousands of students from around the country expected to join. The campaign looks to Germany for inspiration, as last month the German government scrapped tuition fees. The campaign organisers suggest that this is a prime example of the possibility of free education, and that though we are told there is no alternative to huge hikes i...