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Tuesday 22nd October: LGBT Rights with Pizza and a Trip to The Arches

October 20, 2013 in information, main, newsletter by Ruth

Hey everyone,

We are back in Committee Room 1 in the QMU on Tuesday at 5pm.

Read the blog of what happened in last week’s meeting on our conflict minerals campaign. If you missed this then you can still take action in writing to David Newall – all of the details are in the presentation which is now on our website.

Attached is a list of events happening at the CCA which are all related to human rights and some of our chosen campaigns. Scroll down to see what’s coming up.

Student Conference

We have filled our places for the London Student Conference in November BUT are on stand-by for an update of spare places that may be passed on to larger groups like ours. If you wanted to come but didn’t book your place, then let us know and there is a chance that you can still come with us! More information on the conference itself can be found here.

Next meeting

We are continuing our LGBT photo campaign on Tuesday as well as starting our banners and posters for our ‘Love is a Human Right’ Jamnesty gig on Wednesday 20th November. Ali and Dom and are going to take the meeting giving a short presentation on the persecution of the LGBT community in Russia as is the focus of our current campaign.

After the meeting, we are heading to see ‘Stef Smith: Cured’ at The Arches 7.30pm. You can buy your ticket in advance from here but there is an additional £1.50 charge, otherwise you can hopefully get one on the door.  During the meeting we will organise some pizzas for those who want or you can head early and get food from somewhere and meet us at The Arches, it is entirely up to you. If you’re sticking with us though, we’ll be leaving at 6.45pm to get the subway into town.

Tuesday 29th – Guest speakers

Our campaigns officer Dom is STILL working very hard to get someone from Equality Network/the Scottish Transgender Alliance/Patrick Harvie MSP (or all of them!) to come and talk to us about LGBT rights and UK based campaigns.  We’ll keep you posted, but fingers crossed.

Pub Quiz THIS SUNDAY

Jana and Duncan have been writing the rounds, and if anyone wants to bring home-baking for the cake stall then that would be lovely. We’ll also have our tote bags that members worked hard to make a couple of weeks ago, so come along on Sunday and bring friends. We are making it £3 entry per person, of which £2 will go to us and £1 will be added to the winning pot.

‘Love is a Human Right’ Jamnesty

We have had a date and venue change for our fundraiser gig and that has been due to capacity issues. We are now having it at The Halt 2 on Woodlands Road on Wednesday 20th November. This venue is a much better size and still has a stage area for performers as well as a separate bar.

See you Tuesday in the QMU!

Ruth

Our promotional partner, the CCA, has put together a list of relevant events happening from now till December:

Download Upcoming-Events-at-the-CCA-Sauchiehall-Street.doc (DOC, 33KB)

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Glasgow University’s Conflict-Free Campus Initiative (CFCI)

October 20, 2013 in cfci, main by Ruth

At our meeting on Tuesday 15th October we looked at our conflict minerals campaign that we ran last year, and are continuing this year. ‘Conflict minerals’, namely Gold, Tin, Tantalum and Tungsten, form the direct the link between the technologies that we use every day, including mobile phones, laptops, and cameras, and one of the worst conflicts in the world right now. Our electronic goods need these minerals to function but at the moment they come with the cost of human lives.

The CFCI is a global student movement that takes a consumer-directed approach to demanding an end to this conflict. It focuses on the Democratic Republic of Congo where some of the most grave human rights abuses are taking place throughout the process of mineral extraction under the control of armed rebel groups. These armed groups operate by locating a mineral rich area, forcing the people off the land to build a mine and setting up boundaries to control access in and out, as well as fighting for control of pre-existing mines. Once control of a mine has been established, the local people can be forced to work in the mines for as little as $2 a day or nothing at all. These armed rebels often set such high taxes for anyone wanting to leave the mining area that it prevents people from escaping and effectively keeps them hostage.

This conflict has been ongoing for over two decades, during which time over 6 million people have been killed, hundreds of thousands of women have been raped, children have been recruited as child soldiers as well as being forced to work in the mines and local communities have been used as slave labour and terrorised by armed groups who are making an estimated $144 million each year in the trade of conflict minerals.

As part of Enough Project’s ‘Raise Hope for Congo’ campaign, the CFCI aims are to raise awareness of these atrocities on campus and demand that our universities amend their investment and procurement policies to prioritise companies that are taking steps towards a ‘trace-audit-certify’ system to ensure that the minerals used to make their electronic goods are not coming from conflict areas.

You can look through the presentation to see what we discussed and watch friends of the Congo’s documentary ‘Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering the Truth’ which we showed at the meeting.

Last year we got the SRC to pass a motion, made our own campaign video for a Conflict-Free Glasgow University and started a petition to David Newall and Anton Muscatelli, requesting a change in procurement and investment policy. We also contacted various MSPs to support the campaign, resulting in a Motion being launched in the Scottish Parliament by Patrick Harvie MSP who also came on campus to be interviewed about this movement.

At the end of the meeting, members wrote letters to David Newall to ask that he continues to work with us to pass a resolution in support of the CFCI at the University of Glasgow and help put pressure on companies to invest in sustainable and ethical sourcing of their minerals. We will also start working towards another demonstration on campus and documentary film screening to continue to raise awareness
of the situation in Congo and the power that we have as consumers to bring about change.

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Meeting on Tuesday 15th October- Conflict Minerals, The Student Conference and our Pub Quiz!

October 14, 2013 in information, main, news, newsletter by Ruth

Hello everyone, sorry this is so late.

**IMPORTANT: there has been a double booking for our usual slot in Committee Room 1 so we are moving to the ST ANDREWS BUILDING ROOM 443A at the bottom of Gibson Street, opposite The Old Schoolhouse. There will be someone inside to show you where to go.**

First things first, congratulations bakers and crusaders – what a success on Thursday! We certainly marked International Day Against the Death Penalty, raising ÂŁ121.30 and collecting over 60 signatures for Reggie Clemons: a great start to the year. Thanks again to those of you who stood in the beautiful sunshine/freezing shade to help out.

In summary:

Tomorrow’s meeting – Conflict minerals and the crisis in the DRC

We shall be taking a break from LGBT rights for this week and looking at our conflict minerals campaign. We need to get this back up and running before David Newall (our Secretary of Court) starts thinking that we have disappeared.  I will take you through the Conflict Free Campus Initiative’s mission and give an overview of the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and how we as consumers are linked to this deadly conflict through the technology that we use every day.

Tuesday 22nd – LGBT rights continued, pizza and ‘Cured’ at The Arches

Presentation on LGBT persecution in Russia. This is when we will take a closer look at the situation in Russia decide how best to use our photos and publicise our ‘Day of Silence’ solidarity action.

I know that some of you didn’t make last week’s meeting and therefore haven’t participated in our LGBT photo campaign, but don’t worry, because we will continue with this the week after. In the meantime, we shall be adding photos of the SRC, GUSA and hopefully the QMU and GUU to the bundle.Also at this meeting we will need to make our visual props for our ‘Love is a Human Right’ Jamnesty in November so we’ll have the paints out again.

This is the day that we were hoping to go and see ‘Stef Smith: Cured’ at The Arches in town. Since it starts at 7.30pm, a brilliant suggestion was put forward for us to grab some Dominos ‘Two for Tuesday’ action during the meeting so that we can head into town together after the meeting. I am currently waiting for a reply about getting a group discount for the play, so will get back to you with that – without discount, tickets are £8.

Tuesday 29th – Guest speakers

Our campaigns officer Dom is working very hard to get someone from Equality Network/the Scottish Transgender Alliance/Patrick Harvie MSP (or all of them!) to come and talk to us about LGBT rights and UK based campaigns.  We’ll keep you posted, but fingers crossed.

Student Conference – book your place!

We will be finalising numbers on Tuesday so that we can book our travel so let us know by then if you are coming!

Dates: 2nd-3rd November 2013

Location: Amnesty International UK HQ – London

Cost: ÂŁ20 + travel

Fun to be had: Are you kidding? 250 students in the same place at the same time, I guarantee it will be one of your most memorable experiences at university.

There have been several people interested in heading down to London for the Student Conference, which is great. We have 8 places to fill so get cracking and book your place here. Also let us know if you are planning to come and we can all arrange our travel together.

These Amnesty weekends are truly inspirational and empowering.

This year’s agenda includes:

  • Syria: ‘I can still see hope’
  • Afghanistan: Violence against women
  • Sri Lanka: Torture and impunity
  • Northern Ireland: Failure to deal with the legacy of past human rights abuses
  • Looking to Amnesty’s future

As well as this, there will be workshops and campaign actions to get involved with, not forgetting a social event on Saturday night. We shall also be collecting our award for our Secret Policeman’s Ball 2013!

[If you are unable to attend the Student Conference in November, remember that Action for Change happens in March. This is a similar weekend in terms of structure and workshops, but will have different speakers and talks and campaign actions. ]

PUB QUIZ – Sunday 27th in Jim’s Bar

We are all set for our pub quiz – all we need is for you to bring friends. We are making it £3 entry per person, of which £2 will go to us and £1 will be added to the winning pot.

Game on.

See you (somewhere) tomorrow,

Ruth

 

 

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Photos from Death Penalty Stall and Bake Sale

October 10, 2013 in main, photos by Rob Hallam

Thanks to everyone who baked, came along and helped out and signed our petition!

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Meeting Tuesday 8th October: Let’s Get Down To Business

October 5, 2013 in death penalty, events, information, main, news, newsletter by Ruth

Hope you’re all having a good weekend!

If you missed my update earlier this week, our chosen campaign for October is LGBT rights with a focus on Russia. You can check the website for our full list of campaigns for 2013-2014, as well as all the campaign action ideas put forward last week.

I am trying hard to keep the newsletters brief, but there are just so many exciting things I don’t want to leave out. For those of you who are too busy to read it all, I’ve written a summary just for you.

  • At Tuesday’s meeting we are splitting the committee rooms according to upcoming events
  • The elections are taking place at 6pm with drinks afterwards at the Old Schoolhouse on Woodlands
  • LGBT events (scroll down)

Here’s the plan for Tuesday:

Committee Room 1 – Campaigns

‘End the Death Penalty’ demo preparation

Our first demo will be next Thursday 10th October, which is of course International Day Against the Death Penalty.  We have some banners made in previous years and some AK-47s (of the cardboard variety) that we can put to good use so we need everyone who is free on Thursday to contribute ideas for an effective demonstration on library hill. We will be bringing along paints, sheets and cardboard to continue from past creative efforts.

LGBT Rights in Russia

We will begin our first campaign with a photo action as suggested by someone last week. We will have Robert (our website manager) along with his super expensive camera to take photos of us sending messages of solidarity to LGBT students on our campus and in the wider community.  We can also use this photo action to send a message to the Olympic Committee which has ignored Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter which states:

‘Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement’.

Our third photo action shall be focused on Vladimir Putin’s violent persecution of the LGBT community in Russia which we discussed on Tuesday which, believe it or not, is the same day that it was announced that he has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.  A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE!!! Oh dear.

Committee Room 2 – Fundraisers

This room shall be finalising our list of events for the year and planning our first semester fundraisers:

Bake sale alongside Thursday’s demo

We still have GU Amnesty tote bags that we can have on the stall as well and hopefully more will arrive by Tuesday for us to paint.

Pub quiz in October

We need to finalise our date for this and delegate responsibilities for running the quiz.

‘Love is a Human Right’ gig night in November, for which I am pleased to say that we have already recruited some acoustic talent!

Nikola will be looking for help with poster designs for our pub quiz and gig night.

Elections for Ordinary Board Members

The elections will take place at 6pm. Anyone who wants to stand for OBM but can’t make 6pm, please get in touch either via email or Facebook and we will try to make some arrangements.

Afterwards we shall head to the Old Schoolhouse for some more socialising.

LGBT Events

The Glasgay festival has officially begun and there are a whole lot of events taking place between now and 9th November.

In particular:

Tuesday 22nd October – ‘Cured’ 7.30pm @ The Arches

‘Inspired by real accounts of conversion therapy, two performers, Julie Hale and Mary Gapinski, uncover the stories of four women in a brand new play about love, identity and The Golden Girls.’

I think this event looks really good and happens to take place on a Tuesday after our meeting – if people are keen then we can go as a group. Tickets are £8.

Equality Network and Scottish Transgender Alliance event:

Thursday 17th October – ‘Including Intersectional Identities Film and Discussion Event’ 2pm Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

‘The films focus on Minority Ethnic LGBT and Disabled LGBT intersectional people and include their ideas on how services can better include them. A discussion about including intersectional identities in services will follow the screening.’

This event is free but places are limited. If you don’t have classes on Thursday at 2pm then give this a look.

 

Well done for making it to the bottom,

Ruth

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This Year’s Events, Tibet Meeting and a Reminder About the Elections!

September 28, 2013 in main, news, newsletter by Ruth

Hi everyone,

I hope you all survived the first week!

I am thrilled that so many people have joined Amnesty this year and it was great to meet most of you at our social on Tuesday. For those of you who didn’t make it, don’t worry, there will be another one soon enough.

Next meeting: Tuesday 1st October 5pm QMU

This Tuesday we will be voting for our campaigns and fundraisers for the year. Some of you made some really good suggestions, so we will be discussing all the ideas in more detail at the meeting. Whichever campaign and fundraising event we decide to do first, we will start planning and organising.

See photos of past events on our Facebook page and find more information on our website.

I know there are people who cannot make our meetings at 5pm but there will still be plenty to get involved with outside our usual slot. Psychology students – see note at the end*.

A Sacrifice Poster
Tibet meeting: Wednesday 2nd October

A Sacrifice

Don’t forget we have our joint event with STAR next Wednesday, 6-8pm.

https://www.facebook.com/events/597440403650551/

Theo Hessing is coming to Glasgow to promote his documentary ‘A Sacrifice’, which will be shown in Boyd Orr 412 (Lecture Theatre B). The Students for a Free Tibet society will introduce the meeting and then we will show Theo’s film. The documentary lasts 30 minutes and will be followed by a Q&A and discussion with Theo.

“A Sacrifice” follows the journey of Lhamo Kyab, a Tibetan nomad living in India, as he secretly returns to Tibet to highlight suffering of the Tibetan people. Meanwhile, 100 Tibetans set themselves on fire. “A Sacrifice” considers the implications of the sacrifices being committed by Tibetans in the name of freedom.

More information can be found on the film’s website: http://asacrificefilm.com/

ELECTIONS: Tuesday 8th October

As we mentioned at our first meeting, there will be elections in two week’s time for 2 x Ordinary Board members.

These elections are open to all members of the society, whether you have just joined or not. If you are interested in standing for the position of Ordinary Board member, please come and chat to me or anyone else on the committee on Tuesday and we’ll tell you why you should J.

I should also mention that we will be forming a Secret Policeman’s Ball sub-committee. The Secret Policeman’s Ball is our huge annual comedy fundraiser and will be held in February next year. As it’s such a big event to organise, we have decided to form a sub-committee consisting of both current committee and non-committee members. So, this is something else to bear in mind. Again, come and chat to us if you are interested and want to know more about getting involved with that.

I can’t wait to get cracking with our events! This year is going to be awesome, I can tell.

See you Tuesday,

Ruth

[*Note for 1st year Psychology students:  I had an informal chat with Jason Bohan, who is in charge of Level 1, about those of you who can’t make our meetings on Tuesdays. He said that in the coming weeks, attendance will naturally drop and if you are free at 9am, then you should be fine to attend this lecture instead. Keep me posted though and let me know if any problems arise. I know some of you have other classes at this time, in which case, I hope you can still come to our events outwith our Tuesday meetings.]

 

 

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First Meeting and Social

September 21, 2013 in main, news by Ruth

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Hello GU Amnesty!

 

It was absolutely wonderful chatting to so many of you at the SRC and QMU Freshers’ Fair this week, and I look forward to seeing you again at our first meeting on Tuesday. A huge thanks to everyone that helped with the stall, I know I wasn’t the only one who just about lost their voice after day 1!

 

First Meeting and Social

 

Our first meeting will be next Tuesday 24th September at 5pm in the QMU, Committee Room 1. The committee rooms are on the 3rd floor but there will be a couple of us in the reception area to welcome you and show you where to go if you are unsure.

 

This meeting will be more of an introduction and a chance for new members to get to know who we are and what we do. We will also outline the campaigns and fundraisers for this year and add any new ideas to the list so that we have everyone’s thoughts and suggestions before voting on our main events in the second meeting. So if there are any particular campaigning or fundraising events that you think we could do, please share these ideas with us on Tuesday!

 

As most of you know, Amnesty International UK chose ‘Free Pussy Riot’ as the freshers campaign so if you didn’t manage to sign the petition at our stall, you can do it on Tuesday.

 

We’ll be having a social afterwards at Hillhead Bookclub on Vinicombe Street, which is just off Byres Road. We have booked the space from 6.30pm onwards, but I will need to confirm numbers by Tuesday next week, so please let us know if you are coming! You can either reply to this email, or better still, join the event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/200011773510109/

 

Coming up

A Sacrifice

https://www.facebook.com/events/597440403650551/

We are co-hosting a meeting on Tibet with STAR (Student Action for Refugees) which will be on Wednesday 2nd October 6-8pm. It’s not during our usual slot, but due to having an external speaker, this was the date that worked out easiest for him. Our speaker Theo Hessing is on tour to promote his documentary on the Tibetan self-immolations, which will be shown in Boyd Orr 412 (Lecture Theatre B). The documentary lasts 30 minutes and will be followed by a Q&A and discussion with Theo.

 

“A Sacrifice” follows the journey of Lhamo Kyab, a Tibetan nomad living in India, as he secretly returns to Tibet to highlight suffering of the Tibetan people. Meanwhile, 100 Tibetans set themselves on fire. “A Sacrifice” considers the implications of the sacrifices being committed by Tibetans in the name of freedom.

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by guamnesty

Freshers’ Fair and a Big Welcome Back!

September 13, 2013 in main by guamnesty

Hi everyone, *Welcome back to another year of GU Amnesty!* I hope you’ve all had a lovely Summer and are looking forward to getting back into hectic student life (where applicable) and our weekly news with this year’s upcoming campaigns and events. *Freshers’ Fair * * * You will find us at the *SRC Freshers’ Fair* next *Tuesday 17th* and *Wednesday 18th* in the Marquee, Stall 105 from *10am – 4pm*. We have also been given a stall at the *QMU Freshers’ Fair* on* Friday 20th* in QUDOS. Please do come and say hello if you are about, the more the merrier and those of us who are there all day would love some extra bodies to help out. *Meetings* * * As always, we shall be meeting on* Tuesdays at 5pm in the QMU*, Committee Room 1. Our first meeting will be the *24th September*, and we plan on having a social afterwards, with Jana currently in the process of finding a suitable venue. I hope to see as many of you as possible and I will be sending more details next Friday. *Coming up* * * A date for the diaries already! We are co-hosting a meeting on *Tibet *with STAR (Student Action for Refugees) which will be on *Wednesday 2nd October 6-8pm. *It’s not during our usual slot, but due to having an external speaker, this was the date that worked out easiest for him. Our speaker Theo Hessley is on tour to promote his documentary on the Tibetan self-immolations, which will be shown in *Boyd Orr 412 (Lecture Theatre B).* The documentary lasts 30 minutes and will be followed by a Q&A and discussion with Theo. That’s all for now, so for those of you engaging in the freshers’ week madness, enjoy! Ruth

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AGM 2013 (With Photos!)

March 19, 2013 in main, news, photos by Rob Hallam

And the results of our AGM are in!
President: Ruth Brown
Vice President: Debbie White
Secretary: Jana Sweeney
Treasurer: Duncan McNab
Publicity Officer: Nikola Cabanova
Fundraising Officer: Maisie Peebles
Campaigns Officer: Dominic Walsh
Website Convener: Robert Hallam

Remember we will be electing two ordinary board members next term so you still have a chance to join the committee of 2013-14!

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by Martin Lennon

Annual General Meeting and Ceilidh

March 18, 2013 in main by Martin Lennon

Tomorrow is a busy day for GU Amnesty,: we’ll hear about Sri Lanka, hold our AGM and then head down ot the STAR/ GU Red Cross Ceilidh. It’s all part of our patented mixture of Human Rights, activism and dance. So if you want to spend next year delveing into the world of Amnesty International we are meeting Tomorrow – 5pm – QMU – Committee Room 1.
Annual General Meeting & Committee Elections
The AGM is arguable our most important meeting of the year. It’s our chance to review how the year has gone, what we have achieved and look forward to what we hope to achieve next year – a big part of that is mobdro free download electing our new committee. This year we had two by-elections early on and it really helped people who wouldn’t other wise get the chance to be invovled get involved, so next year the plan is to elect the two Ordinary Board members after summer rather than at the AGM. The positions up for election tomorrow will be:
President: Responsible for chairing meeting and the overall direction of the group.
Vice President: Responsible for assisting the president and filling in when they are unavailable
Treasurer: In charge of the groups finances and bank accounts
Secretary: Responsible for managing the group’s correspondence and affiliations
Publicity Officer: Responsible for getting out events and campaigns out there online and in student publications
Campaigns Officer: Coordinates and researches our campaigns
Fundraising Officer: Comes us with fundraising ideas and takes the lead putting them into practise
Website Convener: Keeps our webiste updated and looking slick
STAR/ GU Red Cross Ceilidh – Qudos – ÂŁ4 otd
Since haven’t had a social in a while (and everyone love dancing in a non- Sauchiehall Street environment) the plan is to head down to Qudos for a Ceilidh. The tickets are ÂŁ4 on the door to support Student Action for Refugees and GU Red Cross.
After the Holidays
This is the last newsletter of term, but don’t despair – there are alread ideas for the Human Rights related fun after the holidays! AmnesTea In the Park is a definite possibility, but we’ll have to wait until we hear Mobdro Online TV the ideas that the 2013-14 GU Amnesty Committee come up with. if you want to be a part of that You’ll have to come down tomorrow.
See you then,

Martin

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