Thursday August 28, 2008
Editorial
Gunning to vote · Issue 865
Our Union once again faces the issue of its relationship with the military, following on from previous controversies over investments in arms companies.
In the week that UCL joined other universities in removing the voice of our armed forces in their unions, questions will inevitably turn to this University’s approach to the military.
The importance that the MOD places on students cannot be underestimated. The forces form a significant part of everything from our first freshers’ fairs to the careers’ days the plague our final months. And who hasn’t seen a film where some impressionable young graduate not yet out of his gown is snapped up onto a recruitment bus?
All joking aside, the seriousness of these unions’ decisions is easy to imagine, when we are simultaneously confronted every day with the front-page hardships of the British Army in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Critics and cynics alike make the point that when the army is advertising it’s a bad time to sign up. Their half-finished adverts featuring sun-kissed navy beaches and xbox-controlled army planes have bought a lot of TV airtime recently.
But behind these manly teasers lies a desperately over-stretched force pushed beyond their means by a combination of mortality and bad press. No doubt the already nervous marketing department at the MOD viewed this weeks’ events with disappointment.
But is it right, and, more importantly, will it spread? The immediate answer appears to be ‘no’. Cardiff students, such as those interviewed by gair rhydd, were widely opposed to the decisions against the armed forces, and it was hard not to notice their emphasis on being able to make up their own minds.
These bans are a slap in the face to these unions’ students, implicitly suggesting that they are vulnerable to the army’s advances, and need protection from them. Nothing could be further from the truth, here or elsewhere on UK campuses.
We are perhaps better informed about the military and its work at this time than any other over previous decades, so why can’t students have the freedom to decide whether to take an army pamphlet?
But if nothing else, these events prove again the power of students in their own unions, able to take stands and make changes, in this case whether university bigwigs like it or not.
Enough evidence then, if evidence were needed, that our Students’ Union Elections will be a key moment, defining the next year of university life – for better, or, if treated with indifference, for worse.
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A university which is not true to its mission statement when it received a charter (what bullshit)namely, NERTH GWLAD EU GWYBODAU- educatrion/knowledge is the strength of the nation. Why are we training through our outdoor societies young women and men to then join an Occupying Force. Let me inform Mr Clever cloggs who wrote this article- the army train people to kill foreigners and anyone who opposses the Crown such as the PIRA, RIRA and CIRA. Cardiff University is further insulted by having a foreign royal as Chancellor- with a title based on Englands torturous campaign against the Great Welsh War of Independence.
why has su elections got into the box above?
If people want to join the military isn’t that a personal choice? Why deny it to them anymore than we should deny your right to freedom of speech and so on?
And come on Chris, even you must realise that the PIRA, RIRA and CIRA are terrorist organisations that kill civilians indiscriminately, and why didn’t you mention the Unionist terrorist organisations such as the UDF? Is it because you know that the Police and Army have arrested and shot Unionist terrorists too which would kind of negate your assertion that the Army only kills terrorists that oppose the Crown?
No. Northen \Ireland is occupied by the British Crown. I have just spent 6 weeks building republican allainces and I would not if i thought they were terrorsits.So you wanna talk talk about dead civilians? Why have you failed to mention Bloody Sunday? Is is because you know it supports and validates that the PIRA, RIRA and (once) PIRA are fighting against a trained army of occupation in a Protestant fundamentalist Orange State where you couldn’t get jobs in H&W unless you were prod? Where catholics could not police themselves they had to bow to the guns and armoured cars of the RUC (which has not been decommissioned).
Bloody Sunday (Irish: Domhnach na Fola)[1] is the term used to describe a massacre (incident if your in the Paras) in Derry Northern Ireland, on 30 January 1972 in which 26 civil rights protesters were shot by members of the 1st Battalion of the British Parachute Regiment during a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in the Bogside area of the city. Thirteen people, six of whom were minors, died immediately, while the death of another person 4½ months later has been attributed to the injuries he received on the day. Two protesters were injured when they were run down by army vehicles. Many witnesses including bystanders and journalists testify that all those shot were unarmed. Five of those wounded were shot in the back. And whatn about the group relatives for justice which records the sectarian death of many who dies from plastic bullets?
For example, Rory Cairns 18 years, Bleary, Co. Armagh, shot dead along with his older brother Gerard in their home on the evening on 29 October 1993. The two young people were watching television and looking after their 11-year-old sister, who had been celebrating her 11th birthday, when two gunmen burst into their home and shot the two brothers dead. . The UVF later claimed it carried out the killings. At this time the UVF in Co. Armagh was headed by Billy Wright, suspected of being an RUC Special Branch agent. And the Security Forces comissioned and colluded the Shankhill Boys UDA who then became major league drug suppliers.
And yet people still sign up and take the Queen’s Shilling, interesting, don’t you think?
Well you haven’t as usual answered my question ( properly). Some of my friends have joined the British Occupying Militia
as its the only was to earn a crust and get a sense of belonging in a rapidly decadent and decaying Wales, Kernow and the Union. These lads and young and naive and its disgustinbg for a GR editorial to advocate this source of barbarism in OUR UNION newspaper. I said it before and I’ll say it again: GR is nothing more than a mouth piece of the Establishment.
You blabbering on about Bloody Sunday doesn’t constitute a question Chris, if you ask a direct question then I’ll give you a direct answer. The Union in general and Wales in specific are not decadent and decaying, in fact we’re in a better economic position now than we’ve ever been. The Armed Forces offer amazing career opportunities from people from all social and economic backgrounds and HMF certainly aren’t a source of barbarism.
Secondly I don’t think I’ve ever read an editorial in Gair Rhydd encouraging people to join up and it certainly isn’t a mouthpiece for the establishment. I’m sure the opinion of the Gair Rhydd staff would be the same as most rational people, students, especially those who have just graduated, are an educated bunch who are perfectly capable of making their own minds up regarding what career path to follow and if that happens to be HM Forces then good luck to them. The fact that you think students need ‘protecting’ from articles that talk about the Services in a positive light merely demonstrates your contempt for students and their ability to think for themselves.
Jezuz. Blah blah, cos you don’t listen.
But here goes: blabbibg on about Bloody Sunday constitutes an implied or continuing question- you spoke of freedom fighters as terrorist who killed unarmed civilians and I pointed out that this was in response to Bloody Sunday, as well as Internment, OPeraion banner, RUC Ornage Militia harrasment and the death of young kids from plastic bullets.
I think you need to seek help becasue of your conservative mentality that recognises no lawful posiion on the people of the UK other than that has been imposed upon us by the Crown.
I don’t think writing an article that encourages military tyranny and killings to be promoted in our su. Sorry to disillusion some guys but the British Army is engaged on a illegal war, with killings on an untold scale, torture and M15/6 agents sitting in on tortures sessions at Abu Ghraib and Gunatanamo Bay! Blair lied to foloww the imperialist Americans INTO A WAR FOR OIL;
Parliament was not asked for consent, let alone the Welsh Assembly.
So answer this question? was it right for the Army to murder kids on the streets of Derry?
cardiff university: tell the VC:-
No to Militarism! NO to the St Athans Murder Academy! (And while we’re at it)No to the destruction of the Taff! We are one united group as students, we are powerful, we should be the leading university su in the country. Peeps should say those studetns are EDUCATED, not loaves dolloped out of the bakery on
belt.
Fe godwn ni eto!
Err Chris, Parliament was indeed asked for consent, in fact Blair allowed Parliament a free vote (in which a lot of Labour backbenchers rebelled) for the first time in history, never before had the Commons been given a chance to vote on if the nation should go to war or not. Perhaps Iraq was a war for oil, but given the scarcity of supply, the increase in global demand and the fact that our economies are all based upon oil Iraq was only the first war for oil were going to have, we will see more.
Were the Paras right to do what they did in Derry? Given the results no, obviously not, on many levels, but I suppose many people would have done the same in their place, including myself. A wrong decision perhaps, but a human one nonetheless.
I very much doubt the VC has any power to stop global militarism Chris, he certainly doesn’t have any say over the St Athan Military Academy either which is going to be built soon. Students are neither strong nor united, the fact that student protest has never changed anything in the country disproves the former and the very fact that we are having this debate rather negates your assertion that we are united.
well if you ever cam to Student Council you’d see that on many issues we are united. The welsh parliament wasn’r consulted. I’ll check my facts bout the English Parliament. good morning to you.
To suggest that all students are united under one cause and then to imply that that cause is socialism is a complete fallacy Chris, student protest has never changed anything in this nation ever.
Since foreign affairs and defence is in the droit d’regard of Westminster alone then neither the Welsh Assembly or the Scottish Parliament had any right to be consulted. As I said above Parliament, for the first time ever, was given a free vote over the case for war and, despite 84 Labour MP’s rebelling, the vote passed 412 to 149 in favour of war. Here’s the link from the Public Whip’s Office;
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2003-03-18&number=118
thanks.