Emails to Sheffield Halam & Manchester

The President of Sheffield Hallam Students Union has taken it upon himself to suspend the Equal Opportunities officer, Matt Vicary after he took part in a stage occupation at the NUS conference demanding the NUS condemn Israels attacks on Gaza.

Matt's disciplinary hearing, which now will also be discussing the Hallam occupation, is due to take place this Thursday, 5th March at 3pm. We urge everyone to send a message of protest at the suspension and defend the solidarity movement within our student unions.

Please e-mail uuspresident@shu.ac.uk with your complaint, or copy and paste the following text (adding your name at the bottom) -

To the President of Hallam Union,

I am writing to express my outrage at your decision to suspend Matt Vicary from the position of Equal Opportunities for taking part in the occupation of the stage at the recent NUS conference.

When innocent people are being killed and there is a blatant injustice, it is only right that people speak out. Your decision to suspend Matt for exercising the right to free speech and peaceful protest is a disgrace to the student movement.

I urge you to reconsider this matter which you have approached in such an undemocratic manner, before the reputation of Hallam Union is damaged further.

Yours sincerely,
NAME

Manchester university have now been in occupation for nearly a month! Their vice-chancellor has so far failed to enter into negotiations and a demo is planned for this afternoon. Please take one minute of your morning to take action to support them. Copy and paste the text below into an email, adding your name at the bottom, and forward to president@manchester.ac.uk. We want to inundate him with support for the occupation! You can also call him at 0161 306 6010 to express your feelings. Please circulate widely.

Dear Vice-Chancellor Gilbert,

I am writing to express my total support for the Manchester University occupation in solidarity with Gaza and its demands.

The Manchester University occupation has been the longest and the largest of a national wave of UK university occupations in solidarity with Gaza and its students have shown admirable passion and commitment to this urgent cause. That its students are sufficiently compassionate and engaged to interrupt their own lives to this extent in order to speak out in solidarity with the victims of violence and oppression is surely something to be celebrated by Manchester University. The students have demonstrated utmost willingness to work together with the university administration and have sought negotiations throughout the entire protest.

The Manchester University occupation has the support of a strong national student movement and its principles and sentiments are reflective of those of the majority of the British public. Its demands are similar to those currently being implemented in numerous universities across the UK which are now working together with their students to put an end to their institutional collusion with the illegal Israeli occupation and find ways to use their privileged position to help those who are suffering because of it. Manchester should be no exception. Therefore we urge you to do the same and hope that you will begin working together with the students of the occupation to address their demands.

Yours sincerely,

NAME, Uni/organisation