Glasgow University Amnesty International

Tuesday 21st January: Guantanamo Bay Events, CSR Panel Discussion, Challenge and Ceilidh

Hey all,

Happy Saturday and congratulations for making it through the first week back! It was great to see so many people at the SPB publicity launch on Tuesday; I hope you all enjoyed the comedy preview!

In short, here are the most important links:

Guantanamo Bay demonstration Doodle: http://www.doodle.com/fr7gq32u4xr2rkq6
Coalition for Syrian Refugees events pages: Panel discussion – Syria: I can still see hope; the challenge and Ceilidh.
Secret Policeman’s Ball event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/758356804182226/?fref=ts
Secret Policeman’s Ball website page: https://www.facebook.com/events/758356804182226/?fref=ts
SPB ticket link: https://www.guamnesty.org.uk/tickets/

Next meeting on Tuesday 21^st January: Guantanamo Bay (Campaign for January)

**Room change: St Andrew’s Building Room 433A/B**

Our chosen campaign for this month is Guantanamo Bay. Despite Obama’s promise to have it closed, Saturday 11^th marked the 12^th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay and for a number of inmates, including British resident Shaker Aamer, this will also be their 12^th year as prisoners. Many of these individuals have in fact been cleared for release but remain detained at the facility despite international pressure to have them released. Find out more on the AIUK website.

Guest speaker: we are hoping to have Dr Iain Banks from the University to deliver a presentation on the history of Guantanamo Bay.

Demonstration on campus: we are still waiting for the orange jumpsuits so the demo will take place later next week. Fill in the Doodle if you want to take part.

Back-up plan – conflict minerals continued: Our chosen campaign for the year

Communication has been difficult with Dr Banks so this is the alternative arrangement if he is unavailable. We plan on making full use of the fact we have a better room for showing documentaries and will be screening ‘Blood in the Mobile’ a documentary film that looks more into the use of conflict minerals in our everyday consumer electronics. http://bloodinthemobile.org/the-film/

Coalition for Syrian Refugees (CSR) Events

GU Amnesty are a member of the GU Coalition for Syrian Refugees, a group formed last year to hold events to raise money for charities who are providing aid to those affected by the conflict in Syria.

Wednesday 29^th January: Panel Discussion – Syria: I can still see hope

Chairperson: Assaad Al Achi from the Syrian Non-Violence Movement, a group that AIUK is working with and supporting.

Other speakers include: Unicef on Campus and Friends of MSF Glasgow

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/573301232761988/

Saturday 1^st February: The Challenge and Ceilidh

The Challenge is for team of up to 4 people who are enjoy a little competition – all in the name of raising money for various funds for Syrian refugees. Registration is open from 12noon and teams will be given a list of challenges to complete in about 2 hours. The challenges are to be filmed on a smart phone and the winners will be announced at the ceilidh.

The ceilidh is happening in QUDOS at 7pm. Of course there is a raffle with some fantastic prizes, and this event will round up all our efforts and hopefully see a considerable sum raised for our cause.

Saturday 22^nd February: GU Amnesty’s 6^th Annual Secret Policeman’s Ball + Afterparty!

Our multi-award winning night of comedy is back! Once again we are bringing you the biggest student charity fundraiser on campus, hosted by Billy Kirkwood.

Our afterparty is being kindly hosted by Philanthrobeats who have recently gained official charity status and have raised money for many excellent causes since their first club night in 2012. Check out their website to see their events and how to get involved!

This year looks to be even bigger and better – remember to get your tickets in advance! Here’s the event page for those on Facebook and website page for those who aren’t.

Other events:

14^th – 16^th February: Students for Co-operation: Founding Conference

A message from Students forÂ Co-operation:

Hi, we’d appreciate it if you could see if any of your members are interested in or are in student cooperatives as we are having our founding conference of Students for Cooperation in Birmingham in February! We have some funding too to get students down from Scotland. It is a new national organisation (and cooperative!) for student cooperatives to get together and to help new cooperatives form, thanks!

Here is the event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1424534744446779/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

22^nd – 23^rd March: Newcastle University hosts the NE Regional Student Conference

We are invited to the North-East regional conference organised by students at Newcastle University. The agenda will be emailed to us at the end of the month but they have requested that we let them know if any of us are interested in attending. Arrangements for food and accommodation will also be detailed later on.

If you are interested then let me know – president@guamnesty.org.uk

As you can probably tell, we have a very busy semester ahead of us! It’s going to be fantastically hectic for the committee but huge amounts of fun for all.

Ruth

Tags: ceilidh, Coalition for Syrian Refugees, demonstration, fundraising, Guantanamo Bay, guest speaker, panel discussion, spb
No Comments »

Christmas Carolling, Human Rights Day and Winter Social 2013!

Hello hello, sorry this is late!

I know this a very busy time for everyone so I’ll keep it brief! Remember – there will be no meeting on Tuesday.

Last week of Women’s Rights

I think last week’s film was a great choice, and thanks to Cate who pointed out that there are follow-up actions to take on the website. So if you are taking a revision break, you can sign a petition to world leaders demanding an end to ‘gendercide’ in India.

December’s Fundraiser: Carol Singing!

This is happening TOMORROW (Monday) so hopefully if you wanted to take part you are in the planning group. If not, then you can still come along! We are meeting outside Hillhead Subway station at 12noon and I will have song sheets; don’t think we actually expected you to remember all the verses to Good King Wenceslas.

Human Rights Day/Winter Social!

On Tuesday we are having a social instead of a meeting and hope to see as many of you as possible. Join the event if you are coming and if you are not sure then don’t worry, we have reserved extra seating to cover ‘maybes’. If you have exams, let this be your study break! We will be gathering from 6pm onward and you can pop along for as long or as short a time as you want.

For those of you with exams, GOOD LUCK !!

Ruth

Tags: carol singing, fundraising, Human Rights Day, petition, social, women's rights
No Comments »

Tuesday 3rd December: Women’s Rights Film Screening, Carol Singing and Human Rights Day Social

Good Tidings GU Amnesty,

December is upon us and we are nearing the end of term and, dare I say it, the beginning of exams. So our next meeting will be our last for this year, but we also have our end of term social, and fundraiser– read on for all the details.

Last week we expressed our outrage at Coca-Cola’s failure to acknowledge human rights abuses in Russia: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.631682286875487.1073741835.458988730811511&type=1

We then took part in the Reclaim the Night March as part of the 16 days of action to end violence against women: http://www.guamnesty.org.uk/2013/11/photos-from-reclaim-the-night-march-2013/

Next meeting: Film screening in St. Andrew’s Building, Room 213 5pm

We are back in the St. Andrew’s Building (Woodlands) for our final meeting and round-up of our campaigns of the semester. We have chosen a film which is related to our women’s rights theme for November, and this will look at ‘gendercide’. This term has come about following the recognition of the fact that many newborn girls are killed simply because they are girls. The film looks at this across different countries speaking to families who have both killed their own daughters and had their daughters killed.

For more information on the content of the film, please email us at mail@guamnesty.org.uk but here’s the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISme5-9orR0

Map for St. Andrew’s Building: http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_26876_en.pdf

December’s Fundraiser: Carol Singing!

Our Fundraising Officer, Maisie, was collecting the contact details for anyone wanting to join the carol singing group for our final fundraiser ofÂ the year. We have done this in previous years and it has been a huge success and great fun! We sang outside Hillhead subway for just over an hour and managed to raise quite a bit of money before heading for a well-earned hot chocolate, so I think this would be the plan for this year.

If you weren’t at the meeting on Tuesday and want to get involved, here’s the event page. The general feeling was to do it before the 10^th December but I don’t think the date is absolutely fixed so we can finalise this on Tuesday.

10^th December – Human Rights Day and End of Term Social!

Join the event if you are coming/thinking of coming so that we can get an idea of numbers. We are looking to have it in a pub but as always there will be no emphasis on drinking or staying out late. If you are more interested in human rights and less interested in socialising, there will be still be an action to do. Amnesty usually have a Christmas card appeal where we send Christmas cards to people who are in prison, to the families of those who have ‘gone missing’, to people who are awaiting investigations into human rights abuses that have taken place but fail to be acknowledged and others too, so this is something we feel is important to do.

So please come along, even if you are only free for an hour or so and then I can also wish you a Happy Christmas in person 😀

Other Events

2^nd December – 6^th December: Medics Against Violence Campaign Week – Ask Listen &Respect Me

Event page for the campaign week with relevant news articles and reposts being posted each day.

Event page for the film screening and discussion (Wednesday 4^th December, 7pm, room tbc).

‘Medics against Violence are working alongside Police Scotland, and the Violence Reduction Unit and are campaigning to raise awareness of sexual violence. Sexual violence is a major problem with huge numbers of incidents involving both male and female victims each year.’

‘We will also be holding a film & discussion night, led by Graham Goulden, Chief Inspector and National Anti-Violence Campaign Coordinator at the Violence Reduction Unit, Glasgow.
It will be at 7.00pm, Boyd Orr Building (Room TBC) – Wednesday 4th December.’

9^th December: MEDSIN Campaign Poster Design Evening 7pm

MEDSIN are holding this event as a follow-up to the talk they had on human trafficking. As this is our chosen campaign for next semester, this may be of interest to many of you and we will be working with both MEDSIN and STOP THE TRAFFIK Glasgow next semester for our campaign. This session will focus on a poster campaign – here’s the event page for more information.

Happy 1^st December and let the countdown begin!

Ruth

Tags: carol singing, film screening, fundraising, Human Rights Day, women's rights
No Comments »

Meeting on Tuesday 29th October and our Pub Quiz Today (Sunday)!

Hi everyone,

Welcome to our new members! It’s lovely to still have people joining the society. If you missed the meeting, you can read Ali’s blog on what happened.

I hope you are all remembering our PUB QUIZ TODAY!! Looking forward to seeing you then! We will be starting at 7.30pm in Jim’s Bar, QMU and those of you who are bringing home-baking, thank you in advance, we will add them to the stall with our tote bags.

Conflict-Free Campus Initiative

If you didn’t make this meeting (2 weeks ago), you can read the blog to see what this is all about. Some people who were there said that they would ask certain lecturers if they would support the campaign – please do this is you haven’t already. I will also remind folk on Tuesday!

Next meeting – Tuesday 29^th 5pm, QMU

We have been unsuccessful in finding another meeting room for Tuesday so will still be in Committee Room 1.

Unfortunately the Equality Network and Scottish Transgender Alliance do not have anyone who can come and talk to us on Tuesday, but there is a small chance of getting a speaker towards the end of term leaving us with the opportunity to show a recent documentary featuring Stephen Fry who has travelled to various countries where the gay community face persecution, violence and potentially the death penalty.

As this is officially our final LGBT rights meeting, we were hoping to finish with a quick letter writing action to the International Olympic Committee to send with our photos.

Debbie will be bringing along our previous Secret Policeman’s Ball posters so that we can think about the design for this year, and for those of you who want to enter the competition, this is an opportunity to get started!

November Campaign – Women’s Rights with a focus on India

For those of you who have just joined us, we voted this as our 2^nd campaign of the year. At Tuesday’s meeting we will have a discussion about what particular topics to cover in our meetings in November and possible campaign actions we want to do.

Day of Silence

Wednesday 20^th November – Day of Silence

‘The National Day of Silence is a day of action in which students across the country vow to take a form of silence to call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools.’

Although the date for this is in April and focuses on schools in the USA, we thought this was a brilliant solidarity action and even better when we can end our Day of Silence with our Jamnesty gig.Â We will invite the LGBTQ+ Society to take part with us and anyone else who wants to join in is welcome to, so spread the word!

Love is a Human Right Jamnesty

Wednesday 20^th November, The Halt 2 (Woodlands Road), 7.30pm

Well the banners are looking amazing! Thank you to everyone last week who helped make them J Ali is printing off all of our LGBT campaign photos as well so that we can stick these up all over the venue.

We are going to start selling tickets for this event because the Halt 2 need to know numbers in advance in order to organise staffing for the night. For this reason we decided to make tickets £3 in advance and £4 on the door- so remember to get yours on Sunday at the Pub Quiz, or at our next meeting.

See you later on!

Ruth

Tags: cfci, competition, fundraising, india, jamnesty, lgbt, love is a human right, pub quiz, spb, women's rights
No Comments »

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

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 10^th October, which is of course International Day Against the Death Penalty. Â 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. Â 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. Â 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 9^th November.

In particular:

Tuesday 22^nd 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 17^th 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

Tags: death penalty, elections, fundraising, lgbt, stall
No Comments »

Glasgow To Edinburgh On Two Wheels

We made it! 60 miles, and we got to Edinburgh (eventually!). There were a couple of setbacks (puncture, mangled wheel), but we avoided major disaster and no-one fell in the canal. We were raising money for the Glasgow Unity Centre, which does great work in providing asylum seekers and refugees with invaluable services.