Leopard February 2019

The Leopard 3rd ISSUE

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The Mountains

by Karolina Ros At least they are beautiful, the mountains, my mother said excusing the early evenings, dark days.

It has snowed on their tops and shoulders so they look like glazed cakes.

The snow like powdered sugar on pastry, like soft cream in contrast with the sharp blue bodies.

She explained that the purple and blue and black bodies looked graphic with the lines and squares and diamonds of snow, like woodcuts printed and placed on the horizon.

In the morning sun she said they looked like they were on fire, with a golden sunlight halo rocking on their smooth sides.

In the evening blush my mother told me the mountains were like women.

Lean and soft and warm and welcoming, like our stereotypical women.

Now, in the dark night, they are loyal and steady and they come back every morning, dark day.

Don’t worry, my mother said.

NEWS

by Shreya \ Ukil On 29th January 2019, the Upper Refectory was set up for a night of celebration - it was the Annual Supper of Goldsmiths’ College Council.

The sofas had been stacked against the wall, the knives and forks were set on the tablecloth but sat in the chairs, helping themselves to wine, were not members of the governing council but student activists protesting the conditions in student halls. They came armed with keyboards, vuvuzelas, placards and pictures of halls.

Hovering by the doors was a hesitant pool of council members distancing themselves from the interlopers, with uncertain looks on their faces, and nobody approached the group of students for the first half hour. When Warden Patrick Loughrey entered the room, he sat down with the group in an attempt to move the protesters along.

Nine representatives of Goldsmiths Housing Action group (GHA) were present and eager to state their case.

The group formed in autumn of 2018 and its members are a collection of Goldsmiths students in various years of study. They aim to represent both those who lived in the halls managed by the College and the three (Chesterman, Surrey and Raymont House) managed by Campus Living Villages (CLV).

Their dissatisfaction stems from high rent prices, reports of poor maintenance and what they see as dangerously negligent security. They are dissatisfied with the College’s apparent lack of respect for student welfare.

Jake Roberts, a member of the GHA, said on the night: “We are here to disrupt the meal in protest at the continued rise in rent whilst students live in squalor.

“We’ve had students report that they have had dead mice in beds, their kitchens have been flooded by exploded boilers, ceilings have collapsed.

So we’re here in protest of these horrible conditions whilst rent every year has risen way above inflation.

We are here to disrupt the \Council’s meal, send a message that this is not okay and that we will be protesting until things change.”

The Warden, who had left his fellow council members and waded in to sit down with the students, was shown pictures of these individual complaints.

Pat maintained that these instances are “regrettable”, but that students needed to follow procedures for complaints.

Initially he insisted that the students’ sit-in cannot have a productive result. However, the activists stood their ground and wanted to put their case to the whole Council.

Students’ Union Education Officer, Taylor Mcgraa, and SU President, JT, who was attending the supper as part of his role on the Council, negotiated between council members and activists. Several huddled conversations later saw everyone drawing up chairs in the middle of the room.

Clementine Boucher of the GHA spoke passionately on all the individual grievances but made it clear that the GHA felt “systemic problems of privatisation of student accommodation and high rent” lay at the root of housing issues.

Dinah Caine, the Chair of Council, emerged as spokeswoman for the Council in the discussion that followed. She invited the students to speak their mind but was careful to add: “Councils are not executive senior leadership.” She said

that there was not much that the Council could do immediately because they are not responsible for the day-today running of the College. As Dinah spoke, council members and activists sat side-by-side in silence.

The discussion ended with a reiteration of GHA’s demands: for rent to be not more than 50% of maintenance loans; students to receive a fair compensation for legitimate complaints and that halls meet the ‘Living Home Standard’ as outlined by Shelter, the housing charity.

Having listened to the activists, council members agreed that the next course of action would be a meeting between members of the GHA and Sue Tarhan, Director of Student Services and Rocchi Acierno, Head of Accommodation. Activists then insisted that Joe Leam, SU Campaigns and Activities Officer and the two SU parttime Housing Officers also be present. The meeting is scheduled for 12th February.

“Give us an agenda,” Pat said.

Council members may have hoped that this would be enough to end the sit-in and begin their delayed supper, but they were to be disappointed.

The students, after a vote amongst themselves, opted to remain in the Refectory for a further half hour, while the council members slowly left.

Robert Munton, student activist and a veteran of the recent campaign to bring cleaners in-house, admits to being cynical: “I’m surprised they came and sat down with us but the reason they’ve probably come and sat down with us is that they realised if they don’t things will get escalated.“We will a hundred per cent carry on with the direct action. They know what happens when we do it; we shut down events, we picket the buildings. It’s bad publicity for Goldsmiths - loses them money, they \staff\ don’t come in so it’s their choice to listen to us now.” SU Housing Officer, Louise Warberg, said later that she understood why students feel direct action is needed. She said the best she has been able to do as a part-time officer is to signpost students to the appropriate staff at Student Support

Services for the worst cases.

Photos: WILL HERBERT

Housing activists spoil Pat’s dinner

Louise said: “The complaints procedure needs to be more accessible and complaints should be more objectively assessed. Currently it is solely down to the University \management\ to decide whether complaints are valid, which is problematic as the University often has been the reason behind complaints.”

She is not sure the “confusing nature of the procedure” works for busy students. She worries: “They tend to completely refrain from using the complaint procedure available and therefore miss out on their rightful compensation.

Furthermore, compensation should not be paid in shop vouchers which is completely disrespecting (sic) towards students. They should have the option of choosing financial compensation which is the form with which they’ve paid for their product, that being either a rented student hall room or place at the university.”

University officials may have listened, but it remains to be seen whether they understood

Goldsmiths Students’ Anger over Inaccessible Transport NEWS

by Madeleine Drury A petition created by a Goldsmiths’ student demanding full level access to the new Elizabeth Line has hit 2,900 signatures. The new underground route is expected to open at the end of 2019, and Liam Islam’s petition takes issue with the fact that

only 13 out of the 41 stations being built will have a raised platform, which allows disabled passengers to get on and off the train independently.

Stops at the new central London stations including Paddington, Bond Street and Farringdon will have level access, however stations on the outer sections will rely on manual boarding ramps which require staff to assist wheelchair users.

“Independence can often be taken for granted,” the petition’s creator, himself a wheelchair user, said: “Imagine forcing every single commuter in London to ask station staff if they can board a train or not.

There would be guaranteed public outcry and chaos.”

NEWS

by Madeleine Drury The Students’ Union got a makeover this week as old offices have been converted into a much-needed study space for students. After a number of reports to academic representatives calling for increased study spaces on campus, the restored area offers an extension to the preexisting study and social space on the ground floor of the SU. The newly converted downstairs area was the stomping ground of the SU staff team until 2017, at which point it became a temporary storage range for sports equipment.

Ed Nejari, acting CEO of the Students’ Union, said: “It’s a good use of what was originally “dead” space and I’m sure it can be used for small scale events, talks, film screenings...whatever students want really!” The development of the space was entirely free, as the furniture has been donated by the library.

Transport for London have been mum on the issue. The ‘improving accessibility’ page on TfL’s website highlights that stations on the outer sections with ramp access share tracks with other services, therefore require a lower platform to allow contact with freight trains. The petition has been live for 4 weeks, in which time it has garnered much support online. Some of the 2,971 people who have signed the petition have also expressed their anger: “It is a disgrace to be even thinking of building inaccessible transport. You should be ashamed.” One user said. “Let’s not make it any harder for disabled people than it is already”, another commented. Islam adds

Photos: MADELEINE DRURY

the urgency of the students’ concerns. A spokesperson for Goldsmiths, University of London said: “If there is an issue with halls not managed

by Goldsmiths we would expect any accommodation provider to act as the College would, by thoroughly assessing the situation and responding appropriately.

“We understand housing in London can be a real issue which is why we offer some of the most affordable halls accommodation in London – with rooms starting at £118 a week inclusive of bills, contents insurance and WiFi. Nine out of ten rooms are below the average price for London student accommodation.”JT would like to see both short

and long-term concerns being dealt with in the meeting ahead. “Has to be both,” he said. “If there are ongoing issues that aren’t being fixed they are a priority. I don’t want students living in substandard conditions, especially based on the prices. Outstanding issues that aren’t being resolved, that needs to be an immediate fix and the college needs to go to CLV and demand that happens.”

He thinks the time is right for an evaluation of the partnership with CLV: “It is now the second year \since\ CLV halls have been ‘finished’, and there now needs to be a real analysis of how the move to CLV has altered student accommodation at Goldsmiths, as that transfer has clearly not worked for a lot of people.”

These are big challenges ahead of the meeting set for 12th February. For now JT is satisfied: “It was good to see the students engage. \They made a good point and got council members to sit down and talk to them.”

The next time all parties meet, this time over a sober conference table, they will find out whether they can agree on the nature of the problems students face with housing issues and how to resolve them.

New Lease of Life for Students’ Union

that accessibility is not only important for disabled people, “It’s the lives of older people and parents with buggies that would benefit too.”

The new line will include 70 new 200 metre trains, which include four dedicated wheelchair spaces on each train. The railway is being built by Crossrail Ltd, who announced in August 2018 that there would be further delays to the build as more time was needed to complete the line.

Sir Terry Morgan, former chairman of Crossrail, resigned over the issue in December 2018, following fears of being sacked.

Goldsmiths’ Security Staff look to Independent Trade Union to Solve Outsourcing Troubles NEWS

by Mehroz Shaikh The Goldsmiths’ security staff has recently joined the union IWGB, Independent Workers of Great Britain, which is attempting to get the staff removed from their current contracted status and make them part of the Goldsmiths’ official staff.

Under CIS, their contractor, they are faced with working conditions that are “inhuman,” as described by the president of IWGB, Henry Lopez. Their aim is to bring the security guards in-house and therefore bring them the “dignity and respect they deserve”.

Goldsmiths hires security staff through contracting.

The current contractor is CIS; previous ones include OSC and Mitie. Each contractor comes in for 3-5 years depending on specific contract terms.

The incumbent security staff is asked if they’d stay on without any plans shared about how their wages, timings or workloads might change.

Most of them usually say yes for stability, since they grew close to the Goldsmiths’ community and tend to live nearby; but some have said no, mainly because they could not trust the new contractor’s representatives, according to some staff. Ultimately, the decision is rarely based on concrete issues like the terms which affect their already precarious situation.

The contract is a ‘zerosum’ one, whereby the guards are paid for the work done.

Additionally they get a 28-day paid holiday, and that’s it. They are not entitled to anything else. No sick-leave is allowed

by the contractor, no matter how severe, as it is “not a goodenough reason” for absence.

This was said to a security guard, who, like all others quoted in this article, remains anonymous to avoid anti-union persecution from Goldsmiths and CIS. The security staff “never” goes to the College for anything since they’re not employed by them, according to one of them who has been working for Goldsmiths for more than a decade.

The staff isn’t allowed to sit in the Goldsmiths canteens with the students. They are never allowed to congregate, not even during their breaks.

They are also not allowed to use the free WiFi. Once, one of them, after working at Goldsmiths for 5 years, was given a badge of recognition with the WiFi password on it as a little gift. When his shift manager found out that he received the password, he asked who had given it to him and that if he used the WiFi he would be sacked, said the guard in question.

The contractor, CIS, cut the staff substantially without any explanation, resulting in the remaining staff taking on larger workloads without any increase in their pay. The new schedules and plans can also be life-threatening according to a security guard. He said that, for example, when the emergency alarm goes off unlike before when two guards were sent to check on what happened in secluded areas now only one is sent. He said that their lives are threatened by this because they never know who could “pounce on” them “with a knife or even a gun.” He also said that they have to make rounds in areas like the building terraces all “alone” in the dark even when it is raining and/or violently windy.

Quite a few of the staff members have been guards for Goldsmiths for at least 15 years. “We are the veterans of Goldsmiths,” said one of the staff members who is amongst the most senior security guards in Goldsmiths. He said that they’ve been here longer than the management staff, the warden, or the various managers “who come and go.” But the college remains detached from them.

He shared a personal experience that got him thinking about his precarious situation “more than before.”

He went through an extremely critical operation for a lifethreatening disease during his 12th year at Goldsmiths. After the operation the doctors said to him that they had found it “difficult to bring him back to life.” He spent three months recovering, after which he came back to Goldsmiths and, as if nothing had happened, got back to work. He said he knew he had “no expectations \... nothing,” since his contract is very clear that if he retired tomorrow he would “receive nothing.” He said the College would “just say Bye-Bye” and that “this was the most painful” thing to deal with for him: that he simply did not matter.

Since the staff is contracted, Goldsmiths bears no responsibility for their well-being or security.

It gets to turn a blind-eye to the circumstances of its security guards by keeping them at an arm’s length through a continually renewed contractor.

This is why the “veteran” and his colleagues joined the Independent Workers of Great Britain, a big new activist union that has very successfully brought several staff in-house throughout the wider University of London.

The staff had initially joined Unison, another workers’ union, but upon realising through the advisement of many students and supporters that they were very disorganised and ineffective, they left them and joined IWGB. IWGB is part of a bigger force, which is a network of several similar unions across the UK representing couriers, cleaners and others alike.

Goldsmiths was sent a letter from IWGB with points for negotiation to bring the Union members in-house and to give them well-deserved better treatment, according to Henry Lopez. But Goldsmiths refused any recognition of the union, insisting on working with Unison instead, according to Henry.

A spokesperson for Goldsmiths told the Leopard: “Goldsmiths recognises two trade unions, with UCU and UNISON representing

staff across the College. We acknowledge the vital role these unions play and work with them on an ongoing basis on a wide range of employment issues.”

Henry said that Unison “has been around for a long time but hasn’t done much” and that “IWGB is new” but has been “successful in bringing justice to many workers,” so the college is threatened by it, preferring to work with Unison “for their own convenience.”

Justice for Workers, Goldsmiths’ students and staff organisation which is campaigning for the security guards, has said that since it is the right of the security guards to choose their own representative, Goldsmiths cannot simply dismiss the union. Regarding the union they said: “IWGB represents mainly low-paid migrant workers, who are typically neglected and marginalised by the recognized unions”.

In response to Goldsmiths’ rejection, IWGB officially launched a campaign that is supported not only by Goldsmiths’ students but also by those from other colleges in the University of London and other union network members in London. A protest is planned with security guards for 14th February, Valentine’s Day, by IWGB, where the security guards will be the participants.

On the same day students and staff of Goldsmiths, Justice for Workers, are also organising their own protest in support of the union, calling out all students and staff members to stand with the security guards by participating in their campaign.

NEWS

by William Herbert Last month, Goldsmiths’ Islamic Society (ISOC) crowned their ‘Discover Islam Week’ with an evening of poetry, song, art, and prayer in the SU Cafe. ‘A Night of Islamic Art and Spirituality’ finished off a diverse sevenday itinerary that included events like ‘Knitting with Niqabis’ and a panel discussion, ‘My Journey to Islam’.

The night started with lots of fanfare. Students and guests enjoyed sweets, art, and a buffet of homemade food, before assembling to listen to a chapter of the Quran performed by Abu Saeed,

Meet the Officers: Kajul Treebhawon

NEWS

Interview by Sophie Taylor What drew you to the Volunteering Officer position?

I had done a lot of volunteering myself in the past, and I knew how important that was. I felt that the voluntary opportunities weren’t promoted enough. I don’t think people are aware of the opportunities that are out here, and \I wanted\ to make a difference to the local community. Also, trying to bring in opportunities where students would be able to do some fun activities as well.

Right now, I’m trying to work with Choose a Challenge basically you can choose a \sponsored challenge, such as a trekking one. I’m working on a three peaks one to see if I can get the University to agree for us to fundraise for a

who has won awards for his Quranic recitations.

The next couple of hours were variations on a theme as poets, storytellers, and spoken word artists explored their own spiritual connection to Islam and God in different creative ways. This creativity meant that Muslims and nonMuslims alike could find some way to connect with the spirit of the performers. ISOC also displayed a modest selection of Islamic and Islam-inspired art, including modern experiments in portraits and more traditional geometric paintings, some layered with gold.

ISOC has been running for a number of years but held their first Discover Islam Week last year, which received a grant from the Goldsmiths Alumni and Friends Fund.

Nusaiba ‘Nush’ Al-Azami, former General Secretary and organiser of the week, compared the two years. “Last year we collaborated with an

interesting bunch of societies but this year we doubled, tripled the number of societies we chose to collaborate with which has been a great experience of working together to deliver the events”, she said. “We definitely had more people attending our events this year compared to last year so we are building the momentum.”

Nush also said ISOC tried to include new types of events this year while holding onto some audience favourites.

A talk entitled ‘Stories of Powerful Women in Islam’, which was given by Dr Mahera Ruby of Goldsmiths last year and Sahar Al-Faifi this year, attracted over 110 people and, is according to Nush, “by far the most popular event every year”.

ISOC is one of the most active faith-based student societies at Goldsmiths and continues to make an active effort to reach out to nonMuslims as well as those in the

faith. Nush says that they want to try to “share the message of Islam” but also to change preconceived notions of the faith.

“Through our events last year as well as this year we have managed to really change the perception and misconceptions of a lot of non-Muslims who used to have a negative perception about Islam, which is exactly what we want”, she said.

“We want more Muslims and non-Muslims to befriend one another, learn from one another rather than through a third party, i.e. the media.

It’s universally known that the best way to get to know someone is to speak directly to them and communicate.”

‘Discover Islam Week’ ran from 28th January to 1st February this year. More information about the Islamic Society can be found at www. goldsmithssu.org/activities/ groups/list and on Facebook @Goldsmithsisoc

charity and then maybe help one of the local charities. I’ve done one of the challenges before; I fundraised for the Mark Evison foundation and I trekked up Ben Nevis but it will be a challenge for me.

want it to focus more around opportunities that are local.

That’s what I’m aiming for really, to help school\ students more who are from disadvantaged areas in, say, Lewisham. And not only with helping students but elderly people as well who need healthcare and support.

Comms department to do that. I’m hoping to put on more events, just so that people know that we have a volunteering network and to join us and yeah, take part, be a part of it. We have a Facebook page which you can like and you can see the opportunities that I’ve been updating and the events that I’ll be running. I’m hoping to start a group soon, get people to join, maybe get ideas from people - what they would like to do and maybe work on that, in terms of volunteering events and socials as well.

What can students gain from volunteering?

I would like students to be able to get inside how the \organisation works; be able to develop different skills or maybe some skills that would help them to progress in their career, make a difference to the community, make them feel like there’s a sense of achievement there. For example, if you decide to go into Marketing, maybe you want to improve on your design skills so then you can volunteer for CEN8, and you can become a \Marketer\ for them and help them with their campaigning.

What kind of opportunities do you have?

Right now I feel like we do have quite a bit of voluntary opportunity, but I would

Is there anything you’d recommend?

I would recommend CoachBright. That’s a oneto-one mentoring that you do - you work with students who are from disadvantaged backgrounds. You help them with their networking skills and help them in what they want to do with life. So for example\ how to progress and get into university or what pathway they want to take.

Volunteering week runs 11th February - 17th February 2019.

Join the Goldsmiths Volunteer Network on their Facebook page (@goldsmithsvolunteer).

What would you like to do with the rest of your time in the post?

I feel like the network hasn’t been growing so much, so I’m still expanding that volunteering network; I’m trying to work with the

Photos: ROSER JORBA SOLER

Discover Islam Week Dazzles SU Cafe

Who are the IWGB? The Independent Union representing workers in the “gig economy� and taking on the University of London

by Mehroz Shaikh

NEWS

company to negotiate with their representative. In addition to a higher pay, their restaurant waiting times were also reduced substantially. The couriers, being paid based on the number of deliveries made, used to be made to wait a long time by the restaurants resulting in fewer deliveries overall on top of lower pay per delivery. But with a higher pay for deliveries and shorter wait periods they are able to make more deliveries for more money. IWGB, like IWW, takes action on the ground, but also pursues issues through court as they did, for example, with the limb B workers, self-

employed workers who provide services as part of someone else’s business (also known as Dependent Contractor). IWGB will be taking University of London to court on the issue of outsourcing employment, according to Henry Lopez, the president of the union. On the same day is planned on the ground action, a march from the Senate House (University of London’s headquarters) towards the Royal Court of Justice, where the case will be pursued on the 26th February. IWGB are also working with United Private Hire Drivers (UPHI) to overturn a new congestion charge for minicabs

and private hire vehicles. In January and February, hundreds of drivers met every Monday to protest and block traffic outside Transport for London’s headquarters in Southwark. In January and February, IWGB and United Private Hire Drivers (UPHI) met every Monday to block traffic in protest outside Transport for London’s headquarters in Southwark to protest a new congestion charge on minicabs.

Photos: WILL HERBERT

The security guards of Goldsmiths have chosen IWGB to represent them in their fight for justice. IWGB is part of an ecosystem of similar independent unions across the UK including London Renters Union, Women’s Strike, DPAC and Class War. They all work alongside IWW, a union organising workers in the “gig economy” across the UK and Ireland since 2018. In January 2018 Cardiff’s branch of IWW, the eldest branch, won UberEats’ courier members higher pay by organising a strike and boycott directly outside Uber’s office, getting the management of the

Interview with Jason Hickel

DEPARTMENT RESEARCH

by Claudia Schroeder

Dr Jason Hickel is the convenor of the MA in Anthropology and Cultural Politics at Goldsmiths and teaches its core module. He is well known for his public criticisms of global political economy and development discourses, and his 2017 book The Divide, which analyses the history of global inequality. Claudia Schroeder spoke with Dr Hickel about his ideas around degrowth, which he is currently developing into a book.

I was really excited to hear about your upcoming book on degrowth, could you tell me a little about it?

The book is still in my imagination, I’ve written a couple of chapter drafts and I’m hoping to have it out later this year. It builds on work that I’ve been doing over the last couple of years on the question of degrowth and climate change and ecological breakdown. And effectively, what kind of economics is necessary for us to shift to in order to survive and flourish in the anthropocene, rather than facing some sort of catastrophic collapse, which is kind of the direction we’re heading in right now.

I’ve seen you talk about this idea of ‘green growth’ as an idea that’s been popularised but is not actually tenable in reality.

There’s this really important research in ecology published over the past decade basically and it’s called the Planetary Boundaries Framework, which points out that human civilisation now has outstripped or overshot a number of crucial planetary boundaries that are essential for keeping the Earth’s system stabilised. So global warming is one, concentration of greenhouse gases is way over safe limits, and that’s the one we’re all focusing on. But it’s not just that – also, rates of species extinction, biodiversity collapse, ocean acidification, chemical loading in our soils which is depleting agricultural fertility and running off into the oceans and creating these huge dead zones on the coastlines of industrialised countries. So in all sorts of ways we’re seeing ecological collapse registering. The question is, can we continue growing the economy given that growth, GDP, is so tightly coupled to resource extraction, climate change, and ecological degradation? And the answer that the optimists have come up with is ‘green growth’. “Yes, we can do it, we can just keep growing GDP indefinitely as long as we decouple it from environmental impacts, by bringing out technological innovations and other kinds of wizardry so that GDP will grow while environmental impacts decline.” The evidence on this is unfortunately really not positive. Basically, while it is theoretically possible for us to decouple GDP from greenhouse gas emissions simply by switching over to renewable energy, then yes absolutely we can have a more or less greenhouse gas free economy, a clean energy economy. But the question is can we do that fast enough to prevent ourselves from exceeding the carbon budget of 1.5-2 degrees? The problem is that as we grow, our energy demand increases, and as our demand increases the amount of energy that we have to turn over from fossil fuels to renewable energy increases

as well. The UN International Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said, for example, that we need to cut global emissions in half in the next ten years, and hit net zero by 2050. I mean, that is a total and dramatic change of direction for our entire civilisation. If we continue growing at our existing rates, then during that same period we’ll almost triple the size of the economy, tripling our total energy demand. It’s difficult enough to imagine turning our entire global economy over to renewable energy now, impossible to imagine doing it three times over in the space and time that we have. Even if we do imagine that switch entirely over to solar panels and wind turbines and electric cars, and even if we do that exactly tomorrow, we still haven’t solved our problem, because that’s only one of the key planetary boundaries.

We still have to deal with the question of resource use.

What are we going to do with a global economy that’s powered by the sun? We’re going to keep doing what we’ve already been doing, which is destroy forests for IKEA furniture, trawl the oceans for more efficient Sainsbury’s and produce more plastic crap. Our economy’s geared towards this ever-increasing exponential consumption, which is a necessity for capitalism, and so even if the energy were clean, we would still be trashing the planet in service of these ends.

There’s obviously still a huge appeal to “green growth” at the moment, do you think that’s a form of cynicism? Do you think growth has become an obsession to the extent that political actors can’t tell the truth about it?

I think that people have come to believe that economic growth is necessary for human progress. It’s necessary for things like eradicating poverty, creating jobs for people to live well, improving wages, making us happier, more. This is the key thing – it’s impossible for us to imagine degrowth because it makes us think of voluntary poverty. And who wants to go back to the caves, right? This is what everyone says, “You want to wear a

hair shirt”. No! The important thing is to understand that is that it’s not calling even for a massive reduction of the existing global economy. It’s simply saying, “let’s not grow it any further”. We know already that in rich nations, growing the GDP doesn’t actually contribute anything at all to increased human wellbeing.

Past a certain point, more GDP does virtually nothing to improve our lives. If you look at Costa Rica for example, their GDP per capita is one fifth that of the United States, and yet they have higher life expectancy, higher happiness levels. How is that possible?

Because they distribute their existing national income much more fairly, and they invest in public goods like generous and high quality healthcare and education, so that people can access the things they need to live a flourishing life without needing really high incomes.

And so what degrowth calls for is for us to share existing resources more fairly so we don’t have to plunder the Earth for more, and to invest in public wealth instead of private riches.

I wanted to ask you about this idea of the ‘neoliberal optimism industry’ that you’ve spoken publicly about in the past. I’ve noticed myself that you do see this same argument, prosecuted mainly by people like Stephen Pinker and Hans Rosling, that claims the world is improving, and is better than it’s ever been, appearing again and again in the media. What would you say is the most compelling reason why this argument is misleading?

You’re absolutely right it’s become a very powerful mainstream narrative that has been used for particular political purposes. And the purposes it’s been used for have been basically to justify the continuation of the status quo. The idea is, “sure we recognise that maybe inequality is increasing because of neoliberal globalisation, but anyhow look at the poor, I mean the poverty rate around the world has been declining really rapidly!” So if you care about poor people, then surely you should agree

that we should continue with neoliberal capitalism because of the successes it’s generated in poverty reduction, and forget about how well the rich are doing, right? The reason it’s wrong is because it relies very simply on an extremely low poverty line of \1.25 per day, and that is the standard poverty line that the World Bank has used up until recently to judge what they call ‘extreme poverty’. The problem with this is that there is an absolute mountain of scholarly evidence against that line as meaningful at all. We know that people even living just above that line have extremely high rates of malnutrition and infant mortality, and so scholars have been pushing for a much higher minimum, they say around $5 per day is the minimum necessary for normal human life expectancy of about 70 years, a decent shot at not dying before your 5th birthday, having access to basic nutrition - I mean

this is really a minimum, \5 a day. What happens if we start looking at the global poverty trends at \5 a day? The picture changes completely. We see that it’s been rising since statistics began on this in 1980, and today it’s about 4.2 or 4.3 billion people, which is 60% of humanity. What few gains have been made, have come almost entirely from one place, and you can probably guess where that is. If you take China out of the equation, then the trend looks even worse, and even at the $1.25 a day line, and even at the very lowest, extreme, totally discredited, conservative $1 a day line, there’s been no improvement in the number of people living under that line if you take China out of the equation.

It’s truly obscene that we go around measuring progress according to that absolutely diabolically low measure. It’s morally unjustifiable, it has no academic support anymore, and so it’s absolutely necessary

Cleaners Feel Sidelined by the College and Unison

between the union and Goldsmiths, and also where they could raise more issues and concerns to the union.

However, the meeting did not happen. Instead, an email with NEWS an update was sent from the Unison’s ‘Regional Officer’, which was anonymously

by Mehroz Shaikh disclosed to The Leopard.

The update, which was supposed to be a personal Cleaners at Goldsmiths, email to the members telling University of London recently them the reason for the won a hard-fought campaign Christmas Social’s cancellation to have their employment and what the next plan was, brought ‘in-house’ and out instead made general remarks of the hands of ISS, the saying that the “Senior contractor employed by the College Colleagues and Unison College, by 1st May, 2019. representatives” had met However, the last time the mid-December “to commence cleaners were consulted by formal consultation on the Unison, the union representing insourcing of cleaning staff.” them, was in November.

And that fortnightly, starting Unison promised another “early in the New Year,” there meet-up called ‘Goldsmiths would be meetings “to progress Christmas Social’ for legal and HR matters relating mid-December, according to the insourcing process.” It to some members who wish to remain anonymous. An then said that Unison will “meet email was sent out inviting all regularly to discuss the shape members, who had to sign-up and shift patterns post-transfer, via Eventbrite.com. with the views and suggestions The event would have been a of cleaning staff sought.” place where the cleaners could The day before this get an update on the progress “confidential” email was Email fortoaitsbrochure! made inleopard@goldsmithssu.org the negotiations sent out members

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It’s actually not clear that people would necessarily say they’d be happier now than say 50 years ago. In fact, in lots of ways, I think the sort of bizarre nationalist backlash that we’re seeing right now, it’s being rightly painted as this sort of nostalgia for whatever it might be, Empire or the

halcyon days of the past where men were men and women were women. And obviously that’s deeply problematic. But it’s also a clear recognition that the yields of growth over the past 40 years have not been evenly distributed, at all. I think for a lot of people it’s not necessarily apparent that things are getting better, and I think that’s where we get this sense in opinion polls where people are like “actually, we’re not headed in the right direction”, and I would say they’re right. Let’s not kid ourselves, some really crucial important social gains have been made. The 1970s was a time when women had fewer rights, if you were gay you were in trouble, and there was systematic discrimination against people who are not white. But when it comes to the direction of the economy, the past 40 years have been a period of deep unfairness and that, I think, sits very poorly with people.

Goldsmiths published the exact same content on its website. This means that the message relayed by the union to its members personally was in fact sent jointly with Goldsmiths, after the College published first.

College management recently refused to recognise IWGB, Independent Workers of Great Britain, as the union for the security staff and said that they only would recognise Unison. The president of IWGB said that Goldsmiths was threatened by it and preferred to work with Unison for its “convenience.” There are currently motions by the Students’ Union to have IWGB recognised by the University.

Consequently, all the cleaners interviewed for this article have said that they feel left out and are anxious about what is being decided for them without their input. Some have pointed out that this is exactly the kind of dynamic that existed with their contract employer, ISS, where decisions were made without them.

When the senior Representative of the cleaners from Unison, Adi, was asked

why the meeting in December did not happen, she said that Goldsmiths, herself and some other Unison representatives, after meeting up, had decided that there “was no need” to involve their consultation anymore. Karen Westwood, Unison’s regional manager, also in response, said that “cleaning staff are keeping colleagues up to date with developments.”

But the update seems to be written by Goldsmiths first and then relayed to the members of Unison via personal and confidential emails as if they were coming exclusively from the union.

In the emails reviewed by the Leopard there seemed to be no personal touch, no confidential information, and none of the union’s personal discussion either.

Because the cleaners have been sidelined we asked them to share their concerns with us which were then relayed to Goldsmiths, which responded by saying: “These are all important matters which will be discussed by College management and UNISON, the cleaners’ recognized union, in the ongoing consultation over in-sourcing.”

that we shift to a different way of measuring progress. So that’s probably the first and most important critique of the likes of Pinker.

These ideas are obviously really suffused into the culture, and I think if you ask the average person if the world has gotten better, if they’d rather live now than in the past, they’d say that it has.

Obviously all of this serves an ideological purpose but where is it coming from and how has it managed to be so successful as an idea when there’s so much obvious evidence to the contrary?

Interview with David Hirsh

DEPARTMENT RESEARCH

by Euan Philips

David Hirsh is a senior lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths. He wrote his dissertation on Crimes Against Humanity and International Law, and won the Philip Abrams Prize for the best first book in sociology in 2004 for his book Law Against Genocide: Cosmopolitan Trials.

In 2017 he published Contemporary Left Antisemitism, establishing him as the leading British authority on left-wing antisemitism. Euan Philips spoke to Dr Hirsh about his career and the development of his ideas.

How did you come to be teaching at Goldsmiths?

I went to university at 18 to study Physics, got into politics instead and dropped out, and spent three or four years committed to radical left-wing politics before drifting away and spending a bit of time driving a truck, and driving taxis in London.

Then I went to City University to do Sociology, and then to Warwick where I studied Philosophy and Social Theory, and from there a PhD, which was on crimes against humanity and international law, and the sociology of humanitarian law.

When did you start working at Goldsmiths?

I started work around 2003, or 2004, and a year or so later I joined the University College Union (which was at that time the AUT), an experience that turned out to be the least empowering, the least egalitarian experience of my whole life. I got involved in the campaign against the boycott of Israeli academics and experienced the antisemitism that comes with that kind of anti-Zionism.

How much does the work you’ve done on antisemitism, confronting anti-Zionism, and critiquing anti-Zionism overlap with your teaching and researching?

It has concerned my thinking in a quite serious way and so I’ve allowed it to become my academic work. I’ve done academic work on antisemitism and its relationship to hostility to Israel, and that kind of knot, which everybody knows, is quite a kind of toxic knot.

The discourse that worries me is less concerned with the Palestinians and more concerned with the Israelis, and less concerned with solidarity with a democratic Palestine and free Palestine and more concerned with

expressing anger and resentment about Israel, and universalising anger and resentment about Israel to make it a global issue. Israel and Palestine is a real conflict and it’s an unpleasant conflict and I’ve always been part of a tradition that supports the Palestinian struggle for freedom and democracy and national self-determination.

But one of the things that tends to happen is that it becomes a global issue and people all around the world use the Israel-Palestine conflict as a kind of empty vessel into which they can pour their own issues and their own identities and their own thinking.

I think people are tempted to perform their own identities over the bodies of the Israelis and the Palestinians, which is hugely disrespectful to Israelis and to Jews and of course hugely disrespectful to Palestinians, who then become a kind of passive object of our own identity construction rather than people with whom we should be showing concrete and real democratic solidarity.

Is this kind of topic what you teach at Goldsmiths?

It’s quite ironic, because in a way I feel quite alienated from mainstream Sociology, or mainstream Sociology sometimes feels that it wants to alienate me, but one of my key jobs here at Goldsmiths is actually to socialise new students into the world of Sociology. And actually, I really really like that: when people later find out that I’m some kind of Zionist devil and shill for a foreign power and, you know, apologist for ‘Israeli apartheid’ (and whatever it is they find out when they Google me), they already know me, because I’m the person who first tried to tell them what Sociology was and I’m the person who gave their first lecture about Marx and class and gender. So, because they know me a little bit intellectually I think that’s quite positive.

Every year the lectures change, even though the material in the lectures is the same. The first lecture I teach is on Marx’s Communist Manifesto, and I am very aware that the way I teach what I have to say about it changes over the years. And I think more and more of my own understanding and my own critique comes into that lecture, and I think the lecture gets better actually. What you have to say in 2018 might be really different from what you said in 2016 or in 2014.

I also teach a course called Crimes Against Humanity, in which I do more of the material from my first book more, which segues into what I’m thinking about now in quite interesting ways. Crimes Against Humanity is about totalitarianism, totalitarian politics and the totalitarian movement, and that raises all sorts of questions about what democracy is and what the state is and what a movement is, and whether totalitarianism is inherent within modernity or whether totalitarianism is an overthrowing of modernity.

And I teach that in the context of both concept and case studies. I want to look quite seriously at a number of concepts and explore them through stories, through case studies, through things in the world, like the Holocaust or Bosnia or Rwanda or what’s happened in Libya or in Syria, alongside the concepts of universalism and state and civil society and totalitarianism, and populism and the relation of populism to totalitarianism. This teaching links directly into some of the key contemporary debates, such as fundamentalism and the relationship between political movements which position themselves as religious movements or religious movements which aim to take state power.

In 2017 I published my most recent book, and suddenly we had the rise of Brexit and the rise of Trump, and the rise of lots of patterns of politics and patterns of discourse that I had seen for years on

the Right - and especially in relation to antisemitism, started appearing on the Left - in particular in relation to xenophobia and racism and nationalism. And so, for me, politics and intellectual life have become much more a matter of this internal struggle between democratic and antidemocratic politics and ways of thinking on both the Left and the Right.

Given the increasing levels of antisemitism on the Left do you think this is a subject that could become a course in its own right?

I think if I wanted to teach antisemitism I wouldn’t narrow it down in that way. I would rather look at some of the history of antisemitism and antisemitic movements and look at nationalist antisemitism and antinationalist antisemitism, and totalitarian antisemitism, and Christian antisemitism and Muslim antisemitism, and so look at some of those histories and what those movements have in common, and the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust, and how we might want to treat those phenomena as different things from different times and different places in different epochs. And how they clearly have something in common with each other. I would like to set up a foundation of what antisemitism was and then move into contemporary antisemitism and excavate a history of left antisemitism.

People on the Left, or the radical Left, look at the world and they think that there is something radically wrong, and there’s always a temptation towards conspiracy theory: to say the world looks like a conspiracy, the world looks like there are a very small number of people with all the power and they run it by fooling people and telling people what to think. And antisemitism has always been tempting, once you start with that kind of conspiratorial politics. In today’s Left we don’t educate

people about our own history, young people who come into today’s Left with all sorts of good intentions and good ideas but are more likely to be educated that people who raise the issue of antisemitism are really our enemy, are really people who are apologists for imperialism and for apartheid and for Israel and all the bad things. They don’t get educated to understand that even within our own movement antisemitism has always been a temptation. They don’t get educated to recognise it. They get educated to recognise the people who recognise it as the enemy. And that worries me.

Do you think the way that the Sociology and other academic disciplines tend to examine structures lends itself to conspiracy theory?

Yes. And I’ve had that in my own thinking and the way I teach critical readings, looking at Descartes and Rousseau and Shakespeare.

We start with this fantastically liberating liberal revolution against the Church and the King and the idea that only the Church could say what was true and only the King had all the rights, and this idea of Descartes, and an idea of the rational autonomous subject of the human being who thinks and then acts, but by the time we reach Said and Freud we lose the idea that the rational autonomous subject is a human being who is capable of thinking and choosing and deciding and acting.

And we lose it into social structure where people are then conceived of as being just victims of the social structure in which they’re born, and by which they are exploited, and that social structure is seen as being nothing more than a kind of trick to perpetuate oppression and power structures. It seems to me that is really a problem and we need to hold on to the idea of the rational autonomous subject.

NUS Makes Grave Mistake in Defunding Trans Campaign COMMENT

by Fiona Sim It has come as an unwelcome shock that the National Union of Students (NUS) has announced a proposal to defund its independently-run Trans Campaign, including its Trans Officer and Committee for the 2019-20 period. Currently, NUS Trans Campaign is one of five liberation campaigns and politically autonomous bodies within the NUS, meaning each campaign hosts their own annual conference and determines their own policies.

In a society where 2 in 5 young trans people have attempted suicide and 4 in 5 have self-harmed (LGBT facts and figures, Stonewall), where so-called “gender critical feminists” are allowed to lead London Pride spreading antitrans rhetoric, and the media spur on reactionary divisions between cis women and trans women (Anti Trans protestors invade London Pride Parade and Are Allowed to Lead, Out Magazine), trans students need national representation and material support more than ever. With the NUS being the only national body which has a dedicated campaign to support trans students, many students are questioning the political motives behind this proposal. The decision was made behind closed doors, absent of any dialogue with either members of NUS Trans Campaign or NUS LGBT+ Campaign, a move which has been criticised as both full time LGBT+ Officers are trans themselves (Trans students need representation, Gay Star

Students).

In Gay Star News, NUS LGBT\ Officer Rob Noon said; “The campaign has also presented a radical and democratic vision for trans healthcare to contrast the breadcrumb reform approach of more liberal LGBT organisations, all while supporting countless trans student activists in fighting transphobia on their campuses.” The fact that NUS Trans Campaign is now being put in the firing line sets a precedent for seeing and treating trans rights as expendable - a betrayal to the legacy of the trans women of colour at the forefront of establishing Pride and fighting for LGBT\ rights during the Stonewall Riots.

It is not just the NUS Trans Campaign under threat, however, as other proposals to tackle the £3 million deficit (National Union of Students cuts half of staff over financial woes, BBC News) include defunding the International Students’ Campaign and stripping back the full-time paid positions of the Women’s, Black, Disabled, and LGBT\ Officers. The future of NUS Trans Campaign and other liberation campaigns will be determined during NUS’ National Conference in April when these proposals will be voted on.

With the emboldenment of fascists on our streets and hate crimes rising to unprecedented levels (Abuse of Anna Soubry is proof of rising fascist propaganda in post-referendum Britain, The Independent), it is an absolutely crucial time to defend liberation campaigns and be in solidarity with marginalised students from all liberation groups.

Students across the UK are being called on to form a united front and support the campaigns to Defend NUS Liberation (@defendnuslib) and \SaveNUSTrans (@ retransformnus).

Change from within COMMENT

by Laura Moyies The NUS is a historically great and proactive organisation. It shouldn’t be scrapped. But it does need to be changed. The problem is those that do partake in student politics focus more on national and international policies which are nothing to do with students.

Every university pays a fee to be a part of the NUS. That membership gives our university 3 NUS delegates and spots at many conferences the NUS holds to set their agenda. This membership also gives those who work at Students’ Unions, opportunities for training.

Since Students’ Unions are run by students for students it is good to receive training and resources from those that know the ins and outs of running a student union.

The NUS works with the Education department and is invited to have a seat at the table at important discussions.

The NUS is well known and therefore is a good tool in which students can use to get their voices heard. The NUS is an established organisation that policy makers know about and are willing to engage in discussion. NUS went to the Conservative, Labour and SNP party conferences in order to engage with those on the front line of policy. Decision makers do not have the time to sit down with every university.

Therefore a national union is useful in making actual change. The tool of the national union is a good one.

It is ensuring those that run it are those that students agree with and support has been the problem.

Student politics in general does not garner much interest from students. Students need to be informed about what is going on at a university and national level and how they can impact change. First years starting at university need to be given the knowledge of how the system works so that they can get involved and impact the outcomes.

Student politics does seem to be an elitist environment.

Yes, sabbatical officers get paid, but those that want to be involved during their studies don’t. Those who wish to involve themselves with Student Union activities need to have the time.

Many students nowadays have not got much time for extracurricular activities.

If they do they choose something they are passionate about and can make friends doing. It should be possible for students to study for a full time degree, be an active member of a sport or society and partake in student politics.

Many students have to work in order to get by, leaving them with less time to get involved in Student Politics.

Leaving those who do not face hardships as a student, leading the student voice. Therefore, hard up students don’t get listened to, those who think being a student is a time to be high for three years, or who have never worked a day in their life running the show.

Therefore, one positive campaign we could do is to change the law which means students can only be paid for two years as a student union officer. This makes sense for full time staff. However, if you spend two years at undergraduate level as a paid representative of students at the Students’ Union you cannot then seek election for a full time role. As it stands in order to be bothered, you do need the time to be bothered.

A luxury not everyone has.

From personal experience from attending the NUS Women’s Conference last year there are things that need to be addressed before the NUS can be saved.

As a first time delegate it was very surreal voting in a hands up manner when no one else is dissenting. There were some votes that I was not confident voting against because I didn’t understand them. By the time I realised the ridiculousness it was too late. If I had disagreed I’d have felt the eyes of the room glare into my soul. The NUS should follow Goldsmiths in holding secret ballots to seek fairer results.

I’m sick of solidarity motions. They are a waste of time. Not all student agree with all these causes, use the

NUS for things which actually affect students. Maybe campaign on student loan interest rates, housing matters and education reform.

There are masses of students throwing energy at global issues that they cannot do anything about.

Why not direct that energy at things that the students, with the organisation of the NUS can have a great impact on. Students need to walk before they can run. We learn from student politics how to campaign, negotiate and lobby.

If we focus on the issues we know about, within organisations we have access to we can make a change.

The skills we learn from student politics will allow some to progress towards changing national and global issues. The NUS is s union for students, so it should focus on student issues.

My argument is simply that those that are bored and angered by those who supposedly represent the student voice need to be heard too. Get involved in student politics. We can change this thing from within.

The NUS is the largest student organisation in the UK. There are 563 student unions associated with the NUS. The NUS engages with the Education department and as a long standing institution has the recognition of many and that fame is helpful in establishing connections and furthering campaigns. Why would you dismantle this?

The NUS has had some bad press recently, but this overshadows smaller achievements which do actually impact student lives.

The NUS does need to be changed. It just needs students to be willing to stand against the typical student voice you hear. Not to discount what is already heard but to allow the NUS to be truly representative.

The student community has a far broader range of opinions than what is currently seen at the NUS, so underrepresented voices need to step up if they want to be heard.

To students wanting to fight for an international or national cause please go and campaign with the relevant organisations. The more people engaged with politics

the better. But please do not use an organisation built to campaign on student rights to do this. To those who agree that the NUS needs to address their current mess, run for election and help the institution change.

There is still good going on in the NUS behind the big press headlines. We need to step up and prevent the NUS from being completely destroyed and removed from its original purpose. If enough students are brave enough to face those loud voices of the NUS we can save it and make it an organisation which truly represents student issues.

In my opinion the answer is getting more students interested and involved in student politics. Then the NUS would be more representative and can work on student issues. The NUS is too large an organisation to be dismissed.

What needs to happen is for the NUS to stick to what it was built for, campaigning for students.

If it’s broke, don’t fix it

COMMENT

by Jamie Hollywood The National Union of Students (NUS) is an organisation that attempts to provide a platform by which students can be represented on a national level. With this platform, reforms and changes wanted by students, that represent the views and wishes of such students, should be fought for. However, I put forward that the NUS is no longer fit for purpose, and my argument is that an open discussion about the benefits, or lack thereof, of NUS membership should be had.

Over the last few years NUS disaffiliation has been a big talking point across universities within the United Kingdom. The students’ union at the University of Cambridge being the latest to confirm that a referendum on whether to stay a member of, or to disaffiliate from, the union is being held.

Successful referenda for NUS disaffiliation, or student bodies choosing to leave the union, since 2016 have happened at the University of Plymouth, Surrey, Hull, Newcastle, and Essex; and many other votes have returned results that indicate that change within the NUS is not just necessary, but vital.

It is difficult within many institutions, with low student activism rates, to even reach quorum on whether a motion can even continue, let alone reach a university wide referendum; so it is truly telling that many students are upset by the lack of representation, for so many votes to have occurred.

My arguments against the NUS will be threefold. First, arguing that there is a distinct lack of benefits for students, and that on the whole the NUS would prefer to focus on issues like boycotting certain nations and making global policy proposals than tackling real-life student issues.

Secondly, that the financial stability of the NUS is threatened, with rising debt and mounting fiscal uncertainty for the union, and with chief executives being on

six-figure salaries, should this really be an organisation which should be receiving money from Goldsmiths’ students?

Lastly, I will argue that the NUS in recent times has itself become politically insidious, rife with extremism and elements of anti-semitism, and for this reason alone, our university’s membership of the union should be considered.

At NUS conferences in the past, we expect issues such as depression and suicide on campus to be tackled, issues like supporting students who may be struggling during their time at university, or tackling the issue of the cost of university with MPs in Parliament. Instead over the past five years, the NUS has rejected a motion to condemn ISIS, a group we all know to be barbarous and fundamentally opposed to liberal democracy, rights and freedom. They have put forward a motion to ban clapping and cheering at events to avoid causing anxiety amongst audience members, and to replace dangerous clapping with jazzhands.

Instead of tackling issues such as the cost of student loans, and their past increases, seriously, they mounted a “liar liar” campaign that targeted almost exclusively Liberal Democrat MPs, costing the NUS over \40,000, and if anything, made more likely the 2015 Tory majority; the party which coerced the Liberal Democrats into adopting the policy of student tuition fees in the first place. Students at Goldsmiths deserve better. They deserve to be represented by a student body that takes their interests seriously, rather than an organisation which failed to even condemn a terrorist organisation, and attempted to ban clapping.

When many are struggling with the extortionate cost of London rent and pint prices, the NUS is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on executives that run conferences supporting motions like those outlined above. Whilst some students are in desperate need of financial support, the NUS has sunk further into a sinkhole of spiralling debt, a sinkhole of which they will likely never

see the surface of again, forcing the union to consider mortgaging its headquarters, curtail the ‘all-loved’ activities on campuses, and cut staff.

The NUS announced that it will likely fail in 2019 to meet its seemingly ever-growing budget deficit; a deficit that at the end of 2018 stood at \3 million. The union claimed in its letter to university officers that other student bodies and organisations are challenging the typical income streams for the NUS, and that it is for these reasons that it is failing to meet its financial obligations.

Students and companies are no longer choosing to use the services of the NUS as other bodies are becoming more effective at fighting for student discounts and services.

Organisations such as Unidays are more prevalent in stores across the UK, giving a student discount on Spotify, where an NUS card (which is now a Totum card) doesn’t, and when you get that free cheeseburger or McFlurry at McDonalds, it isn’t the NUS that negotiated that on your behalf, it was Unidays (whilst simultaneously providing this service for free).

Why should we as students be funding a body which is financially incompetent, that provides ever fewer benefits, and will likely collapse in the near future due to economic ineptitude?

The final point on the NUS that I wish to raise is one of the more insidious, and this is their past support and election for those that have fostered anti-semitic sentiments. Malia Bouattia was elected as President of the NUS in 2016, and it came to light subsequently some of the remarks that she had made. A report by the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee in October 2016 labelled her comments as “outright racism”, and stated that both she and the NUS were inadequate at fighting the rising frequency of anti-semitism on campus, and in society at large. In 2011, whilst studying at the University of Birmingham, Bouattia wrote in a Friends of Palestine blog post that her university was “something of a Zionist outpost in British Higher Education” that had

“the largest Jewish student society in the country whose leadership is dominated by Zionist activists”. Whilst an internal investigation by the NUS did conclude that Malia Bouattia had said and written anti-semitic and racist remarks, it was deemed permissible to allow her to continue as leader, so long that she apologised. This is simply unacceptable.

Furthermore, the NUS additionally opposes governmental legislation that aims to prevent right wing terrorism and other forms of terror and extremism.

Claiming that the Prevent legislation by the government is an attempt to silence students of faith and minority students, the NUS has seen to side with individuals who are a risk to student wellbeing and safety. A report by The Centre on Radicalisation and Terrorism at the Henry Jackson Society , stated that “activists have hosted extremist speakers at a series of unbalanced events” and that many of them “belong to organisations that have Islamist links and troubling histories of intolerance and sympathy for terrorism”.

It seems obvious then, to conclude, that the NUS has failed to put student priorities first, shown to the world that it believes racism and antisemitism to be permissible but with an apology, and acted with complete disregard to its own finances. Whilst other student bodies and organisations are, without charge, providing services which exceed those of the NUS, the NUS is continuing down the sinkhole of debt, and espousing quite frankly ridiculous, irrelevant, and erroneous statements rather than standing up for the students that need it most. To modify a common phrase; if it’s broke, don’t fix it.

Goldsmiths Bass Society Diversify the Decks MUSIC

by Kate Walker The role of the DJ, like many other positions of power in musical settings, has traditionally been one occupied by a man. Gender and lack of diversity in music is a much discussed issue in the press of late, with surveys and studies often showing that this lack of gender balance extends far and wide across genres and geographies. When The Guardian reported on the lineups of the UK’s biggest music festivals in summer 2015, it revealed that 86% of performers were men.

Electronic DJ-driven music has a less than admirable track record in terms of diversity - it has only been in the past 7 years that Mixmag, the influential EDM magazine, has started to include DJs that aren’t exclusively men in their roundup of the top 100 DJs of the year. Fortunately, there has been significant change more recently, with big names such as Nina Kraviz, The Black Madonna and Peggy Gou making their way onto headline bills, and female

A Night at the Opera

MUSIC

by Sarah Walls

With English National Opera’s latest initiative opera is no longer only for the wealthy elite. Thanks to the ‘Access All Areas’ scheme, it is now possible to visit the London Coliseum in the heart of Westminster for a night of singing, theatrics and even a free drink for the very reasonable price of £12 per ticket. All that’s required to access the scheme is to sign up through their website and then bring your student ID along to verify your student

DJ collectives such as Siren and female:pressure running pioneering projects to improve accessibility and provide supportive communities for women and non-binary DJs. Goldsmiths Bass Society are running a similarly trailblazing project of their own, aiming to address this imbalance from the bottom up within the university.

‘Diversity on the Decks’ is a series of workshops hosted by the society, aiming to give women, non-binary and LGBTQ-identifying DJs the opportunity to practice their skills, build confidence on the decks, or even to try DJing for the very first time. After the huge success of a similar event held by the society as part of last semester’s ‘This Girl Can’ week, Bass Soc decided to build on this and run a series of 5 weekly workshops, culminating in a club night in the SU where participants will get to show off what they’ve learnt. Taking place on Saturday afternoons, these workshops give DJs access to top quality equipment, tuition from Wired’s DJ Baby Flame, and a supportive, relaxed and safe environment to give DJing a go.

Bass Society committee member and the coordinator of the series Edgar Ndazi, told us about how the Diversity on the Decks workshops came about.

“It all really started with This Girl Can week, when we ran a (DJing) workshop for women, LGBTQ and nonbinary students, in place of our normal Open Decks sessions which are open to everybody.

There was a really positive atmosphere, a really positive vibe about it, and I felt that it would be a good idea if we continued it. So then I made an application to the Alumni and Friends Fund, and it was successful! So that enabled us to hire the equipment, and gave us a bit of a budget for the culminating club night, and a bit of a budget for advertising, and yeah, here we are.”

Ndazi also explained the thinking behind the series, and why he thinks this opportunity is so vital.

“Music - and DJing in particular - can sometimes look like an event where its just a purely male activity, where the truth is that it’s open to everybody. Another thing that needs to be considered is that, as someone said to me recently, as a woman, non-binary or LGBTQ DJ, because there have been so many male DJs over the years, if they get engaged with it they can really make a step forward quickly in their career. They’re more unique, and being cynical, they’re much more marketable.

If you combine the fact

identity. For the low price of admission the experience is sublime, with a fantastic view of the stage and the building’s lovely architecture that provides great acoustics.

Immediately upon entering the 20th century theatre, the staff are instantly helpful; guiding you to your seats and happy to help with any problems you may be having. When the show starts there are a few more nice surprises, with singing translated to English and subtitles running alongside.

ENO’s recent rendition of the ` classic La Boheme was a joy to watch. Add to this impressive vocals and a wonderful orchestra, the story delighted at every turn, was easy to follow

and suitable for opera novices.

Even from the upper circle the acoustics were perfect with every note and inflection from the singers being heard and well received. Combined with some playful humour in the plot and running at just under three hours with an intermission in the middle, the experience never got old. Even when the show ends, the evening does not; as part of their attempts to bring in more customers, you are treated to a free drink and the opportunity to ask the cast questions in a secluded area by the well-priced bar. As unique of an experience ENO delivers, when combined with the low cost, it can’t be recommended enough.

that Goldsmiths has a very welcoming community, and the uniqueness you could have as a more diverse DJ, I think it would be beneficial for everybody.”

The culminating club night will be held at the SU bar on 27th February, and Ndazi hopes it will be a positive experience for participants, and the start of more permanent change within the Goldsmiths music scene.

“I foresee an opportunity for people who haven’t really had much experience DJing in front of crowds, to get experience promoting their own event. I’m not an expert at it, and the more experience you get doing promotion, the more successful people can be going into the future.

I hope it will just be a really friendly unique night. This step will be people diving into the pool, and they might get a bit scared at first, splashing around, but eventually they’ll swim. From there eventually it will just get bigger and bigger.”

Bass Society is keen to hold more events and workshops like this in the future, so do keep your eye out for these if you fancy having a shot on the decks. In the meantime the society hold regular Open Decks sessions at 13.15 on Tuesdays in the SU Stretch which are open to everyone.

A venture out of Goldsmiths, into University of London MUSIC

by Anne-Louise Fortune ‘Goldsmiths, University of London’ are words we see frequently around campus. On a practical basis, this means that many of the facilities and events of other constituent colleges of the University of London are available for Goldsmiths students to take advantage of.

The School of Advanced Study is based at Senate House in Bloomsbury, and consists of nine institutions, all of which run a programme of events open to their students

as well as all UoL students.

Eager to take advantage of this opportunity, we attended the Institute of English Studies’ London Shakespeare Seminar, hastily relocated to KCL on The Strand. These seminars are frequently held during the academic term, and consist of presentations by academics. The presentations are often thematically linked and, on this occasion, the broad theme was on Shakespeare as related to extreme politics.

First to speak was Adam Hansen of Northumbria University, presenting ‘Shakespeare and extremism’.

Using the UK Government’s ‘Prevent Strategy’ as a focus to discuss elements within Shakespeare’s plays, Hansen took measures to point out the differing interpretations which the strategy’s requirements

can present. This was an intriguing paper highlighting how the encouragement of ‘extremist’ behaviour can arise from innocuous circumstances taken to interpretative extremes. The second paper of the evening was delivered by Alessandra Bassey, a researcher studying the productions of Othello in the Third Reich. It is perhaps surprising to discover that this play was one of the most popular plays produced during the Nazi Regime, despite the lead character being originally written as a Moor. Given these facts, it is perhaps less surprising to discover that Othello was often portrayed by men who were Arabic, rather than from Sub-Saharan Africa. Lago was often also presented as ‘an Oriental’, and it was disappointing to see Alessandra miss out some

Hear your Upcoming Events music on Leopard Roars Deptford Heritage Festival (02/02 - 28/02)

MUSIC

by Kate Walker Very excitingly, the spring term sees The Leopard take to the airwaves with a new weekly show on Wired radio. As part of our goal to report widely on the vibrant musical life here at Goldsmiths, the music section would love to use our slot on the radio show to champion some of the up-and-coming musical acts from across the university, in our surrounding neighbourhood of New Cross and further afield in wider South East London. If you have any music that you’d like us to play on the show we welcome all sorts of submissions; just send us an email with files attached and we’ll give it a listen. This could be a really great way to promote an upcoming release, or to gain more listeners for your music generally. If you’d let us interview you for the show - even better! We look forward to hearing your tunes, and in the meantime don’t forget to tune in to The Leopard Roars on Wired Radio, every Friday 10.00-11.00.

Deptford History Walk The Life & Poetry of Robert Browning - Deptford Heritage Festival - Kath Duncan talk, why she is the most important Scot & UK civil rights activist past 100 years - Deptford & the slave trade & activism Olaudah Equiano - The Deptford Pirates: Peter the Great and the life, love & home of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton - Liberty: A New Play

of the vital information to examine that characterisation in more detail. It was also interesting to note that Othello and Desdemona’s relationship was always portrayed as nonsexual, due to Nazi racial purity laws which banned interracial marriages. There was a lot of information to absorb in this paper, and it will be fascinating to read Alessandra’s findings in due course.

Any Goldsmiths student with an interest in Shakespeare would be encouraged to attend the seminars. The presentations are followed by supper at a local restaurant.

Details of forthcoming events at the School of Advanced Study are available here: https://www.sas.ac.uk/ events.

MUSIC

Thursday 14th Feb

Friday 22nd Feb

Tuesday 26th Feb

NX12X vinyl launch w/ La Leif and Sam Hostettler, The Glove That Fits, 19.00-23.00, FREE

Double dare w/ phil graves, canadian embassy \ leather.head, Sister Midnight Records, 19:00-22:00 £3 (suggested donation)

Cultivating Hip H(P)op Music Borderlands in Research, RHB137 17.30-19.00 FREE

Thursday 14th Feb

Saturday 23rd Feb

Thursday 28th Feb

Ecstatic Material: Beatrice Dillon and Keith Harrison, South London Gallery, 19.00-21.00, £7 / 9

Echo Chamber: Secret Sounds (Camberwell), Adam Knight’s flat, 20.00, free registration on Eventbrite

Factory Magazine Launch - Goldsmiths Creative Writing Society and Goldsmiths English PEN, 310 New Cross Road, 18.00 - 23.55, FREE (magazines £1)

Friday 15th Feb

Saturday 23rd Feb

Sunday 3rd March

Sugarush: VROOM VROOM, The Chateau 21.00 - 03.00 £5

WET PAINT at the Bunker Bunker Club Deptford 22.00 - 03.00, £3 / 5

Sonic Incoherence - a free form jam night, Sister Midnight Records, 18.00-22.00, FREE

Tuesday 19th Feb (and every Tuesday)

Sunday 24th Feb

Monday 4th March

Flamenco at Tapete Denmark Hill 16.30 - 18.30

Simon Says, The Stretch SU Bar 19.00-00.00 FREE

Thursday 21st Feb

Sunday 24th Feb

Friday 8th March

Contact Improvisation Workshop / Weekly Event RHB 300 6:30pm - 9pm 4 Members \7 NonMembers

Mark Kavuma at Good Evening The Royal Albert 21.00-23.00

MASH UP The Albany, Deptford 19:00 pay what you like

Bass Society: Open Decks SU 1pm - 7pm FREE

Grace Wales Bonner: A Time for New Dreams ART & CULT.

by Katrina Nzegwu Anne-Louise Fortune “The world is the shrine and the shrine is the world. Listen here to the revelations of Saint Time.” Thus reads Ben Okri’s Invocation For the Shrine I, a poem that adorns the wall of the immersive, multi-media exhibition, devised by polymath Grace Wales Bonner.

Bonner, a Central Saint Martins graduate, fuses elements of her Jamaican and English heritage to produce thoughtful menswear collections rich in theoretical, compositional, literary and historical research, that disrupt traditional notions of gendered dressing. Although A Time for New Dreams, which borrows its name from Okri’s 2011 collection of essays, is Bonner’s second project with the Serpentine Sackler, it marks the designer’s first curational feat.

This is the first exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler to be curated by a designer, marking the beginning of a series of

Franz Kafka Apparatus, The White Bear Theatre, Kennington ART & CULT.

by Anne-Louise Fortune It is a universally acknowledged truth that all European colonies, penal or otherwise, attempted to create a small part of ‘home’ in whatever distant part of the world they found themselves in. Rules must be obeyed and procedures followed. Cults and cliques can quickly develop, and a change of leadership can spell freedom for some, and disappointment

interdisciplinary projects.

The show features work from various artists, including musician Chino Amobi, photographer Liz Johnson Artur, and conceptual postblack artist Rashid Johnson.

The Serpentine Sackler, a relatively small traditional white cube gallery, is apt for the exhibition’s content. Composed of site-specific shrines, Bonner uses the function of sanctums as a cross-cultural tool of spirituality, exploring ‘magical resonances within black culture and aesthetic practices’. The space facilitates the viewing of each shrine as a space for contemplation. The presentation is pared back with the use of white plinths and plain black frames, offering no point of distraction. The pieces are left to stand for themselves, thus imbuing a delicacy and personality that larger, more commercial exhibitions often lack. The individualised form and content of each shrine makes the show almost universally resonant – whether one is drawn more to Rotimi Fani-Kayode’s quiet yet striking portrait Half Opened Eyes Twins (1989), or Eric N. Mack’s multi-faceted sanctuary of draped fabrics, A Lesson in Perspective (2017), there are myriad opportunities for

and fear for others. ‘Franz Kafka Apparatus’ is a gruelling adaptation exploring these themes via Kafka’s original prose called ‘In the Penal Colony’.

The prose was brought to life through a four-actor monologue, accurately adapted from the original, and Emily Carding’s unusual gender-swap of the previously male officer, which gave a chilling edge to the enticing play. The play was performed at The White Bear Theatre in Kennington - and it took over an hour to deliver the story of changing times through barbaric ‘punishments’, and the almost silent performances of Luis Am\lia and Maximus Polling as the Soldier and the Condemned Man respectively were compelling, if not a little distracting. Matt Hastings completed the quartet as the Traveller who was invited to condemn the machine at the

connection. The two enclaves in the gallery are sites for performance, with events occurring throughout the exhibition. Notable happenings include the sound piece performed by Philadelphiaborn mystic, musician and practitioner of laughter meditation, Laraaji, and the contextualised reading by composer and playwright Klein. The particularity of the exhibition comes from the blend of artistic techniques and media; Bonner’s fusion of music, art, fashion and design creates engagement through cross-cultural referencing.

The end of the exhibition coincides with the presentation of Bonner’s A/W 19 collection, Mumbo Jumbo, which represents a host of characters connected to Bonner’s exploration of various geographies and moments in time. The ideal way to access the show would be at times of less foot-traffic, going once around the space, and then spending more time with preferred pieces. The exhibition space will finally function as a setting for these myriad personalities, a visual representation of Bonner’s investigations into the black, diasporic essence.

centre of the plot. This was a sinister warning about how blind adherence to an ideology births people unable to identify their own lack of humanity – and how quickly the views of the masses will change to accommodate a new leadership regime. We expect this play to return to the stage in the near future, and recommend it to you. Emily Carding appears in ‘Liberty’, a new play exploring the untold struggle to establish civil rights, at the Zion Baptist Chapel on New Cross Road from 14th February to 28th February.

Upcoming Events

ART & CULT.

Contemporary Art Talk

by Lydia Ourahmane, discussing her exploration of existence, surveillance and political structure through various new media including performance and sculpture.

13th February 2019, 5:30-7pm, Ian Gulland Lecture Hall.

Free admission

Barbican OpenFest: Art50, examining what it means to be British through works of various British artists.

Presented through art, film, music and performance.

23rd February 2019, Level G of the Barbican.

Free admission.

‘Exploring art-based research in the context of consumer culture’, a seminar by Usva Seregina.

The seminar will focus on understanding current practical examples of art-based research and a discussion about the potential methodology for conducting research.

27th February 2019, 11-1pm, RHB 141.

Contemporary Art Talk

by Tate Modern’s Ed Atkins, discussing how the physical world, especially bodily experiences, cannot be accurately and sufficiently replicated within art, taking a satirical approach to his idea.

27th February 2019, 5:30-7pm, Ian Gulland Lecture Theatre.

Free admission.

Vegan protein balls

Horoscope

Puzzles

by Maddalena Dunscombe

Matthew Sapsed, Webb Crosswords

Aries (March 21 – April 19)

Libra (Sept. 23 – Oct. 22)

Remind yourself that love is a garden. Abundant with all kinds of flowers, never lacking in blossom. But you only have pot plants, and they keep dying.

Whether you’re in a long-term relationship or you’ve been single for years, don’t worry about what the next step will be. All that matters is that we save the planet. Spread the word about the environment, while people are sort of listening.

Taurus (April 20 – May 20)

Scorpio (Oct. 23 – Nov. 21)

It’s nice to feel loved for one day of the year, especially when you can get that 20\ discount at Pizza Express.

Try to enjoy yourself on the triumphs of your romantic life, don’t worry about your friendships which have slowly faded out of existence.

Please, please just help save the environment!

Gemini (May 21 – June 21)

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 21)

I think we can safely say to all people that it is never too late to change: tell your friends, your family, tell yourself. Then feel really good about talking about changing and relax for once.

Please help Scorpio help Libra who is trying to help the environment!

Cancer ( June 22 – July 22)

Capricorn (Dec. 22 – Jan. 19)

HEALTH & SUPPORT

Danielle Desouza With January having just passed and the remnants of Veganuary still lingering, we have attached a yummy recipe to keep people fighting fit in February!

Ingredients 4 ripe bananas 160g of rolled oats Walnuts (optional) Dates (optional) Vegan chocolate chips (optional) Desiccated coconut 1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6.

2. Mash up the bananas in a bowl until they are more or less fully broken up.

3. Add the 160g of oats.

4. Add the remaining ingredients, except for the desiccated coconut.

5. Form the mix into medium sized balls, before rolling them into the desiccated coconut, and then place them on a baking tray.

6. Put the mix in the oven, and bake for around 15-20 minutes (gas mark 6).

7. When they are ready, allow them to cool for around 5 minutes before tucking in!

These snacks are delicious pre/post gym session, or just as a healthier alternative to a

1 Initial(5) 4 Hit(6) 8 Deed(3) 9 Promise-assurance(9) 10 Country’s border(8) 11 Slim-slender(4) 13 Character (such as A or Z?)(6) 15 Assistant(6) 18 Hint-tip(4) 19 Soccer(8) 22 Impersonation(9) 23 Cutting tool(3) 24 Physical pressure(6) 25 Move to music(5)

Down

Did you know that black holes aren’t actually holes? They are very dense stars. Some forceful relationships can start to feel a little like an abyss when things get too intense.

If I were you I’d speak to Stephen Hawking about how to turn a black hole back into a star. But you can’t really ask him, because he’s dead.

Oh Lord in heaven, the planet is dying, please don’t make me tell you about romance, just save the planet.

Leo ( July 23 – Aug. 22)

Aquarius ( Jan. 20 – Feb. 18)

I don’t really have time for you today - so take some time for yourself. Figure out what’s really going on.

Oh, you wanna light up some candles? Well where are the candles? In the cupboard, next to all the Christmas stuff.

Christmas. I miss Christmas.

Go on and put up that Christmas tree again, no one will blame you.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

Pisces (Feb. 19 – Mar. 20)

You made the most beautiful Valentine’s Day card for someone you care about. But you put the apostrophe in the wrong place, so you never sent it. You fear rejection.

Did nobody tell you that it’s actually still Christmas?

flapjack.

Across

1 Afraid(7) 2 Proportion-quotient(5) 3 As one(8) 4 Boas, for example?(6) 5 Study the written word(s)(4) 6 Tomato sauce(7) 7 Unkind(4) 12 Fated(8) 14 Sightseer(7) 16 Alleviate(apain, for example)(7) 17 Films(6) 18 Penny, for example?(4) 20 Once more(5) 21 Title(4)

1

2

3

4

5

6 7

9

8

10

11 12

13

14

15

16

17 18

19

20

21 22

23

24

25

3 7 4

5

2 4 9

1 3 6 5 8 9 9 2 6 4 8 9 2 5 4 8 6 3 1 9 6

Down: 1 Fearful, 2 Ratio, 3 Together, 4 Snakes, 5 Read, 6 Ketchup, 7 Mean, 12 Destined, 14 Tourist, 16 Relieve, 17 Movies, 18 Coin, 20 Again, 21 Name.

Across: 1 First, 4 Strike, 8 Act, 9 Guarantee, 10 Frontier, 11 Thin, 13 Letter, 15 Helper, 18 Clue, 19 Football, 22 Imitation, 23 Axe, 24 Stress, 25 Dance.

Green Book

by Grace Higgins Sorry to Bother You is the most extreme anti-capitalist movie I have ever seen. When I first saw the trailer and the promotions I, like most people, assumed this was a comedy. In reality, it’s a sci-fi/fantasy that edges on horror.

This movie is about a broke black man, Cassius Green, who uses a ‘white voice’ to work his way up the ladder of a telemarketing company, and slowly gives up his morals for more money than he could ever imagine earning while his co-workers, friends and

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 13 FILM & LITERATURE

Image: Alamy

by Sarah Benhamou The thirteenth season of comedy series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia premiered on 6th January 2019 in the UK on streaming service Netflix. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia follows a group of five people – one of them is a millionaire, two of them are siblings, one of them is gay, and the other a child-like stalker. All of them, however, have one thing in common, and that is a pub.

The five characters - Dee, Mac, Dennis, Charlie and Frank – own and run Paddy’s Pub in South Philadelphia. The series documents the mishaps, arguments, adventures and schemes elicited by the fivesome, and in the process offers a funny, offensive and entertaining perspective on a very troubled but wholesome group dynamic.

Season thirteen was a great addition to the series. More intense topics were explored in some of the episodes, including Mac’s homosexuality and the \MeToo movement. It

FILM & LITERATURE

by Joshua Lamb

is worth mentioning that It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is not a series that is renowned for exploring important topics in a serious manner; quite the contrary, the series often exploits these topics in a humorous and irreverent way.

Season thirteen did not divert away from this exploitation, but instead continued, in It’s Always Sunny fashion, to cleverly combine humour with real world issues. However, audiences will find themselves surprised when they watch the finale, an episode dedicated to Mac - a character who has often struggled to understand his sexuality. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, that is all I will say about the episode.

Despite Glenn Howerton (Dennis) announcing his departure from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia during the finale of season twelve, audiences will be happy to find he does make an appearance in the latest season. Although he is absent from four of the episodes, his presence in the remaining six is comforting. Upon reflection, it would be strange for any of the five group members to leave, because each of them contributes something important to the whole dynamic of the show.

The series is produced by FX Productions, and series fourteen has already been renewed.

Green Book has been nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Viggo Mortensen, and there’s little begrudging it all of the praise. It’s not an original tale; Mortensen’s Tony Lip is hired by Mahershala Ali’s heavily contrasted, elegant pianist, Don Shirley, to drive him on an upcoming tour of the deep south of America in 1962. What ensues is a road trip movie where both characters find out that they aren’t so different from each other after all, by way of some cultural hilarities. Both actors deliver fine performances.

Mortensen, overweight and slobbish, often borders on cartoonish, whilst Ali offers a gentle, composed performance as the talented musician. As their road trip develops, Lip refines his Italian American aggression and slumber, but teaches Shirley to simply loosen his collar slightly. As things turn more serious in the hostile and racist deep south, that collar loosening turns from acceptance with a stiff upper lip, to an outright lack of tolerance. Green Book is largely a character-driven comedy, that doesn’t always shy away from the intense racial politics and violence in America at that time, but fails to really vent it in its entire brutality. However, Green Book pulls its punches by bringing two outrageously contrasting characters together, who refuse to let society’s hate get in the way of who they are, resulting in an irresistible, hilarious and binding charm.

Image: Universal Pictures

FILM & LITERATURE

girlfriend begin to protest their respective companies’ poor wages. This is probably a plot you’d roughly expect of an anti-capitalist movie, however an hour in the movie takes a turn you 100% do not expect, to the point where it left me shook and I needed some time to gather my emotions as I did not know how to feel after watching it.

I was so emotionally spent, I needed to watch some Disney afterwards to calm my mind and gather my thoughts.

The director, Boots Riley, wonderfully puts together a refreshing movie that’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen, and will definitely leave you speechless.

Image: Annapurna Pictures

Sorry to Bother You

LGBT Reading List FILM & LITERATURE

by Sophie Taylor

To celebrate LGBT History month, we’ve selected books written by or focusing on the experiences of characters in the LGBT community.

1 - Zami: A New Spelling of my Name, Audre Lorde

3 - Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin

Lorde’s life through the lens of her cultural past and the women in her life is richly entrancing. The introduction may seem heavy-handedly poetic, but Lorde goes on to illustrate a colourful, submersive mid-century New York.

Lyrical, tortured, expressive: these words describe James Baldwin. And his writing.

Sexual attraction has rarely been written about as vividly and yet as purely, Baldwin elevating a violent passion with language, like his characters, that is delicate and strong.

2 - Fun Home, Allison Bechdel

4 - Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin

This wordy graphic novel recounts Bechdel’s childhood and sexual awakening with self-searching honesty, defined by unsaid things in a family rippling into adult life - especially Bechdel’s relationship with her father, characterised as much by what is not there as what is.

Slavery and Social Injustice Series at Goldsmiths FILM & LITERATURE

by Sarah Benhamou

‘‘Memories change in the light of new knowledge”

The first of four seminars titled ‘Slavery and Social Justice’ took place at Goldsmiths University on 30th January 2019.

The Centre for Caribbean and Diaspora Studies invited Professor Selwyn Cudjoe to speak at the first event with a seminar called ‘Reflections on the writing of the life of William Hardin Burnley’.

William Hardin Burnley is the subject of Cudjoe’s new book, ‘The Slave Master of Trinidad’.

Cudjoe is a Trinidadian academic, and currently

teaches at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. His main academic interests include African literature, black female writers, and Caribbean literature.

In the seminar, Professor Cudjoe spoke about how there were no books on the slave master of Trinidad, and so he embarked on a 10-year journey to write one. Growing up in Trinidad, he was unsettled to discover the remnants of slavery that burdened his town, Tacarigua. The school he went to, Cudjoe recalls, was built by slaves, “a slave school”.

The question was raised, why write about a slave master?

Cudjoe simply answered that the life of William Hardin Burley interested him, and that as a writer you need to write about something you find interesting, especially when that interest takes you on a 10-year journey.

The book comprises of 47 chapters and. admittedly, Cudjoe did not plan for 47 chapters. He reflected on the writing process and spoke of how the narrative happened naturally. With his grandfather’s notebook used as a source for the book, Cudjoe recalls how he

You will not put this book down. Told through interconnected strings of characters, this tongue-incheek comedy of 1970s San Francisco, with its sharp dialogue, hairpin plot twists and characters who grow in surprising directions, leaves you flipping through with delight.

noticed that William Hardin Burnley and his grandfather lived parallel lives. With this, Cudjoe asserts how truth is a process of discovery, and that it is through discourses, discussions and new knowledge that truth is found.

The Centre for Caribbean and Diaspora Studies hope to help Goldsmiths, alongside the community, explore the heated debate about reparations for slavery. The Slavery and Social Injustice Series is a space where individuals can either observe, or participate in this discussion, with guest speaks like Professor Selwyn Cudjoe guiding the conversation and offering interesting perspectives.

The next event has not yet been confirmed.

A breathing technique and 6 poses for calm and clarity

HEALTH & SUPPORT

by Holly Hodgson

Note from the editor:

Holly Hodgson, Yoga Society President, is also a trained Vinyasa Flow Yoga Teacher. She is currently completing her undergraduate degree in Psychology and wants to use both her degree and Yoga qualification to understand the connection between Body and Mind.

She is passionate about promoting the importance of movement through yoga for healing benefits to all levels and individuals.

We invited her to share some of her favourite techniques.

All human beings have systems that help our minds and bodies in times of need.

The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is involved in regulating our bodies’ fight or flight reflex. Like students, with long hours of essaywriting and over stimulation from technology, our SNS is in constant use, which can result in feelings of stress and anxious thoughts. Thankfully, there are ways to regulate the SNS. Activating our parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), or the “rest and digest” system, is one way in which we can learn to regulate our SNS. When the PNS is in balance it restores our body to a state of calm. This can be done through breathing, especially activated by a long deep exhale. The following breathing technique is known to bring restoration and balance.

Alternate Nostril Breathing/ Nadi Shodhana Taking the thumb and index finger of your right hand, place your thumb over the right nostril and inhale smoothly through the left.

Close off the left nostril with your index finger, then exhale smoothly out of the right.

Inhale through the right, close right nostril, exhale smoothly out through the left. Do this for 3-4 rounds and see how you feel.

Poses

Images: Shreya Ukil

The following poses are twists; twists are really good for detoxifying, improving digestive functioning, stimulating circulation and to de-stress. To maintain (or restore) normal, happy spine functionality I recommend the following, to be held for around 3 breaths each side.

Parivrtta Parsvakonasana; Revolved Side Angle Pose

Pascimottanasana – Intense Western Stretch

Start standing, step your right leg back, left leg forward finding a bend in your left knee, bring your hands together at the heart centre, to twist your right elbow over your left knee.

Variation: right knee finds the floor.

Switch to do the right-hand side!

This next posture is not a twist, it is a forward fold; however this acts as a counterbalance in this sequence of twists, to relieve any tension in the spine, neck and back whilst keeping the spine strong and flexible.

Parivrtta Trikonasana Revolved Triangle Pose If your knee is on the floor, move to straighten the back knee and the front with a shorter distance between the tips of your back foot and the heel of the front. If it is your left leg that is at the front, place your right hand outside of your foot and from the spine twist to turn your chest to the side. Left hand to the ceiling, gaze following. Switch to do the right-hand side!

Ardha Matsyandrasana - Half Lord of the Fishes Find a seated position. The left leg extends out in front of you, right foot over the left knee, with a bend in your right knee. Placing your right hand behind you, use your left hand to twist your body over to the right and let your gaze follow behind you if you can. Switch to the right-hand side with right leg extending and left foot over the right knee.

Sit upright, legs out in front of you, arms above your head, hinging from the hips fold over your legs and let your hands find a place on your legs, knees, shins or feet – wherever feels comfortable. A bend in the knees can take out any stress in the lower back.

Janu Sirsasana - Head to Knee Pose A forward fold to open up the side of the body. Keep your left leg out in front of you, bring your right foot into the inside of your left thigh, twisting slightly so your body is over your left leg, and fold over letting your head hang and your hands take hold of wherever feels comfortable.

Come up to a seated position and stretch the right-hand side.

Jathara Parivartanasana Finding yourself lying on your back, bring your right knee into your chest and let it fall to the left (you may need to wiggle your left hip to the right to find space here); arms out wide and gaze over the right shoulder. Coming to your back, switching to the left knee and twist!

After all of this allow yourself to stay on your back with your hands down by your sides for the last few moments in Savasana - Corpse Pose.

Tips to keep you fighting fit HEALTH & SUPPORT

by Radhika Das Adopting an optimistic approach to staying fit and maintaining the urge to hit the gym can be a daunting task, both mentally and physically.

So here to assist, we’ve put together nine ways you can get motivated to go to the gym, work out and ultimately stay happy!

1. Keeping track of your progress: Whether it is going to the gym for independent workouts or attending fitness classes and training sessions, constantly updating yourself with how far you’ve come since the beginning of your workouts can prove to be useful. As you adapt to this new plan it becomes a part of your daily routine whereby, gradually and effectively, you begin to hit the gym more often.

2. Taking a Gym Buddy along: The thought of going to the gym can be emotionally exhausting, to the point where you’ve lost the tiny bit of motivation you probably had a few hours ago. Here’s where going with a friend may come in handy. Not only will you feel less self-conscious about working out in a public space, but you’ll also put in a collective effort to be healthy and beat your body goals together. Moreover, if you’re having a bad day for any reason there’s always someone who can help you feel better and encourage you to go to the gym.

3. Adjusting the thermostat in your room: During the winter, having to work out or walk to the gym can be a buzzkill when you find it difficult to even get yourself out of bed. Apparently, setting the thermostat to a higher temperature about half an hour before you normally wake up can help. This is because now the room is more heated than usual and therefore you feel more comfortable getting up out of bed.

4. Choosing the right fitness classes for you: Going to the gym is not everyone’s cup of tea. A lot of people may prefer sports or yoga and fitness classes over working with dumbbells and treadmills. Most of the time, there are a range of classes offered in the gym itself, such as weight training, cardio and dancing. So, it is about finding the classes that you enjoy and are more suited to your preference. Besides this, you will also feel like you belong to a community of people that share your interests and understand your reason for being there.

5. Taking walks during the weekends: There may be instances when your day may not be off to a good start and naturally, you feel discouraged to carry on with the rest of the day’s events. During times like these, having to work out and hit the gym will probably be the last thing on your mind.

This is where you embrace the alternative of going on weekend hikes and short group walks, which will guarantee you added energy and a clear head.

6. Buying new Gym clothes: From a psychological point of view, possessing ‘workout’ clothes can be a motivating factor because they serve as constant reminders to exercise and be active at all times. For example, if you are looking to shed some weight and are committed to your current plan, you will progressively buy smaller-sized outfits for yourself. In fact, owning individual gym clothes is of a dual nature, whereby buying these outfits will encourage you to go to the gym and prolonging this habit will inspire you to shop for more gym clothes. Therefore, if you feel comfortable with what you’re wearing, it makes you feel good about yourself.

8. Choosing healthier alternatives for food: Having dark chocolate rather than milk or white is more organic and can be better for the body. In addition to this, try replacing junk food such as crisps with healthier foods like nuts and raisins.

Adapt to a more balanced diet where your calorie intake aligns with your own body and not anyone else’s, because each person has a different body type and tolerance for foods..

‘Calorie Calculators’ on the internet are easily accessible and very informative for such scenarios. It is more about balancing and less about restricting!

9. Develop an effective mental strategy: 7. Set the right target and know your limits: It is very common to expect too much too quickly when at the gym, and in the process raise our hopes of attaining something in particular. We can tend to get over-ambitious and too ahead of ourselves at times. In terms of exercising, one fine day you may wake up and decide to run on the treadmill for about half an hour and yet, when the time comes, you only find yourself jogging on it for a mere fifteen minutes. A lot of the time this occurs when you haven’t exercised in a long time and you immediately start working out intensely, straining your muscles and putting yourself through unnecessary pain.

Learn to take it slow and steady and instead, pick up pace along the way.

Begin by telling yourself that you will set aside a particular amount of time, say twenty minutes or so, to hit the gym and perform light workouts. As you get accustomed to this, you’ll surprise yourself over the next few days and weeks by increasing this amount of time subconsciously. It is important to remember that the body and the mind are interconnected, and that telling yourself you’re tired inherently lets the body know too, slowing the functionality of the body. Having a sanguine outlook to exercising can really help you with getting yourself to go to the gym.

It’s Welcome Back Week Training For Volleyball Side’s Road To Varsity SPORT

by Terrelle Iziren Goldsmiths’ Mixed Volleyball team met up for their first training session of 2019 on 26th January, ahead of their return to the South Eastern 3A league. Only the Women’s team are competing in this league, while male players train alongside them. The first part of training saw the group split into two for the first practice game. Goldsmiths player Julius tested the reflexes of his teammates from six yards, skilfully volleying their rebounded passes onto the next player. The aim of this game was to improve players’ speed and coordination while seeing who could rally the longest. Both sides had mixed starts as volleyballs soared across the sports hall.

Inside the Team Room SPORT

by Ricardo Domingos It’s a funny old thing, footie at uni.

The most fun I’ve had in fifteen years of playing has been in a Golds shirt.

There’s never been anything so liberating as walking out onto the pitch with the sole intention of getting a good win, and not really understanding how any results will affect your standing in the London University Football League because it’s completely incomprehensible. No-one really knows who’s meant to be an easy three points or who we should be happy to settle for a draw with and so the result is ninety minutes of

The teams even train to the sound of EDM (Electronic Dance Music), a great way to energise players to raise pulses so they can get an edge over their competitors. The group then shifted their focus on to a game called spiking lines. This is where one team serves to another, and the serving team then attempts to block their opponents from rebounding in their own half. Then came the big one; the volleyball team played a competitive game and 21 points was the winning score. This offered Goldsmiths players the chance to test out new tactics ahead of their 30th January trip to the south coast against University of Chichester Women’s (1sts). Team B (Ayman’s side) raced into a 3-1 lead, before team A clawed the game back to 3-3 with some fantastic shots. It was a tight scoreline throughout as team B’s dominance and team A’s resilience became the perfect mix for a high-scoring fixture. The high-energy match ended 21-15 to Team B, and both sides looked all set for the new season. Overall, in an actionpacked session, Goldsmiths’ Volleyball team must be commended for their flexibility, playing in various formations while constantly testing their reflexes.

very amateur, very attacking football.

Being a bit of an artypants uni, teams often expect Goldsmiths to be a roll over - which, at times, I’ll admit we can be\ (cut to footage of some very heavy early season losses from the 1st team, forgive me lads). But the majority of the time, we’re an unwelcome surprise.

I remember one team that had a fancy on-campus pitch that didn’t flood, fancy goals that weren’t bent and were very proud of their fancy crisp white lines that were visible from further than ten feet away. Being in the box was like having a scrap behind the sheds with the year above in secondary school.

Around 75 minutes in we’re a few goals up - their heads have dropped, bless ‘em, and for a moment we almost feel sorry for them. Almost. A

Be On Our Radio Show SPORT

by Terrelle Iziren Ever wanted to appear on a radio show? Interested in sports? We are looking for people to get involved with the official ‘Leopard Roars’ breakfast show, live on Wired Radio every Friday from 1011am. Volunteers are needed for broadcasting, producing and show preparation, so don’t worry if the Friday morning slot doesn’t fit your schedule - there are lots of exciting prospects out with this time.

Our 10-minute sports section will cover all the sports news at Goldsmiths as well as feature a short discussion and debate on the leading national and international sporting stories. We are looking for sports team members, people with strong opinions or anyone interested in getting some radio experience to help us out.

If this sounds like something for you then get in touch via leopardsports@goldsmithssu.org

voice screams from the back: “Come on lads! They’re only a fucking arts Uni!” It’s beautiful.

They have no idea how much that meant to us. So to thank them, we knocked a few more into their fancy goals.

There’s every type of character in our team, in our family. Big man Theo Gorst o’ captain, my captain. He was the gaffer of the 3rd team in my first year, and conducted some of the most inspirational pre-match team talks I’ve ever heard. Once he went around every single player in the dressing and screamed in our faces why we were the best on that pitch - stunning stuff. Current captain of the 2nds, Fred Garratt-Stanley, bless that man. Don’t let his devilishly handsome looks fool you as he’ll go toe-to-toe with the biggest player on the pitch and have them in his pocket all day long.

What Mandi-Ghomi may lack in his ability to do a legal throw-in, he certainly makes up for in running the best football twitter you’ve ever seen (@GoldsmithsFC). Faisal Babouk joined the same year as myself and has never let anyone past him on that right wing. Chris Waller has had trials with [insert Premier League team here], and turns defenders inside-out for fun.

Cotton can talk for England but, when given the chance, can score for them too. He was last year’s Varsity hero after scoring a hat-trick.

It’s a funny old thing, footie at uni. I could go on for days about this team because I love it. We all do and that’s what makes it the most enjoyable football I’ve ever played.

Varsity 2019 SPORT

by Simon Throssell

Men’s Rugby President, Sebastian Wehmeyer Hi Sebastian. How are the team preparations for Varsity going?

They are going well. Varsity is the biggest day of the year for sport and the build-up and aftermath is something we all look forward to just as much as the big day. Although we have a few injured players at the moment, they are recovering well. At our twice weekly training sessions, we have been focusing on developing some great set pieces with the backs and forwards. These have worked successfully in our matches so far.

How did you do against UAL last year?

The intensity and physicality from the UAL team was very high. We scored and converted a try within the first ten minutes, giving us an early 7-0 lead. The terrain underfoot became worse and worse as the match went on and eventually the game became a battle of tackling, constant rucking, malling and scrummaging. UAL have some strong runners as well as a very physical pack, so our focus over the next few weeks will be to work on protecting the ball at the breakdown, supporting our runners and our defensive line.

Mixed Hockey Captain, India Whitty

Badminton Captain, Kitty

Hi India. Are you looking forward to this year’s Varsity?

What does Varsity mean to you?

Definitely! I think it is safe to say that Varsity is the highlight of our season and the team are pumped to give UAL a run for their money.

As a team, Varsity is an opportunity for all of the Goldsmiths sports teams to band together and participate in a team effort to prove that Goldsmiths is the best arts university in London. We don’t often intermingle between sports and I think that the social aspect of Varsity is an excellent opportunity to do that. Equally, it is our biggest game of the season, so every single training session we do from September is working towards success in the cup. Last year, we had tears from our vice captain - that’s how emotional it gets out there.

How are the team preparations going?

With an increased intensity in fitness sessions and skill specific trainings, our team is really working towards being the best it can be for Varsity.We have a fab team this year with an excellent skill set and and our chemistry on and off the pitch is really putting us in a positive position for the competition.

What happened in last year’s Varsity match?

Honestly we played excellently, and fought hard to make it a really competitive game. Unfortunately they just pipped us to the post and won, but in our minds, we were the winners from that day. We had never gelled so well together as team.

How can the crowd cheer for you?

We love a bit of music as a team so getting the crowd singing is always a winner.

Our favourite chant has got to be ‘Gold’ by Spandau Ballet.

Nothing gets us going like a loud crowd, giving off a positive vibe and making sure we feel the support of the whole university.

Hi Kitty. Are the Badminton team looking forward to this year’s Varsity?

Yes we are! For us, it’s an excellent yearly sports event with a great chance to meet other people. Our women’s double and men’s double team have been training hard every week, and after last year’s loss, we are ready to fight UAL.

Men’s Basketball Tresurer, Edgar Ndazi Hi Edgar. What does Varsity mean to you?

The feeling of unity around the campus and on the day of the games. Two Varsities ago, I was provided with a lifetime memory; the men’s basketball team beat UAL in the morning.

In the afternoon, the women’s basketball team won a particularly exciting overtime victory. I was recording the crowd’s reactions as part of my Sonic Arts assignment.

With all the excitement and high spirits propelling Goldsmiths to victory, the sounds I recorded enabled me to receive my best mark yet in my music degree!

Varsity to myself, and I think the team as well, is the game of the year. The hype surrounding the day is just completely different to any other game, and I think it’s just a great day where we can go out with our friends supporting us on the side-line and cheering us on. As it is the final game of the year, we will go out there and give it our absolute all.

Photos: ROSER JORBA SOLER

What does Varsity mean to you?

All You Need To Know About Varsity 2019 SPORT

by Simon Throssell Goldsmiths are looking to put last year’s Varsity defeat behind them as they face bitter rivals University of the Arts in the 13th annual Arts Cup challenge.

This year’s competition will be taking place from 9:00 am on Saturday 9th March at St Dunstan’s College, Catford.

The first match of the day will feature the Mixed Badminton competing on the indoor courts. Last year, the team were narrowly beaten 3-2, so will hope to get the win this time round.

The Mixed Volleyball team and the Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams round off the morning’s action, playing indoors from 11:00 and 12:30

Former Netball Captain remembers Varsity SPORT

by Simon Throssell Hi Ffion. How were you involved in Varsity?

I was involved in Varsity throughout my three years at Goldsmiths, starting off on the substitutes bench in my first year, to captaining the Netball 1st team during my second year and being President of the netball club and SU Sports Officer in my final year.

How would you describe your Varsity experience?

Three words: nerves, camaraderie and joy!

Impressum respectively. The volleyball squad enjoyed a close, but still well-deserved, 2-1 victory last year, as did the Men’s Basketball cohort who won their game 38 points to 36.

The Women’s Basketball side will be looking to make amends for their 44-38 defeat in the 2018 Arts Cup. Kicking off at 1:00 pm on the outdoor pitches will be the Men’s Football 2nd team, who eased a comfortable 4-2 win a year ago, and the Women’s Football 1st team who played out an exciting 3-3 draw but lost on penalties.

At 3:00 pm, the Cheerleading team will be performing a routine indoors, whilst the action continues outside for the Men’s Football 1st team and Men’s Rugby team matches, also at 3:00 pm.

The rugby team are looking to replicate their 2018 7-0 success with another crowd-pleasing victory against their UAL counterparts. Having narrowly been beaten 2-1 last March, the Men’s Football 1st team will be out for revenge.

The final matchup of the

day is at 5:00 pm and features the Mixed Hockey team in play. The Student Union Sports Team of the Year 2018 made it their aim, in their Neutral’s Guide feature (see The Leopard November 2018), to win Varsity, and are encouraging everyone from Goldsmiths to cheer them on before the night’s festivities can begin.

This year’s after party will take place at the Students’ Union bar, followed by The Venue New Cross. Starting at 10:00 pm and finishing at around 3:00 am, players and supporters will be given a wristband that means free entry to the party. After every match, competitors will be awarded a medal alongside their wristband. Spectators will also be given a wristband as they exit St Dunstan’s. Tickets are £3 on the door.

EDITORS IN CHIEF

Will Herbert Shreya Ukil Dana Broadbent COPYEDITOR

Hannah Walker LAYOUT EDITOR

Mihaly Verebes

Section editors NEWS

Will Herbert Shreya Ukil Dana Broadbent COMMENTS

Laura Moyies DEPARTMENT RESEARCH

Claudia Schroeder ARTS & CULTURE

What does Varsity mean to you?

Since graduating, I am very nostalgic about Varsity. It was definitely a highlight of my university experience as it incorporates one of the things that I love the most about sport - its ability to bring people together and form strong social bonds. I doubt that I’ll ever have the opportunity to participate in a similar sporting event again so, to me, Varsity is a memory I will treasure.

What makes Varsity special compared to the weekly sports matches?

It’s unique. You get to see nearly all of the Goldsmiths sports team competing at the same place on the same day.

The adrenaline and excitement creates an electric atmosphere.

It’s definitely an amazing feeling to compete and have fun with your team-mates in weekly sports. But at Varsity, I feel that each team becomes one big Goldsmiths team together.

However deflated you may feel

after losing, it’s quickly turned around by sharing in the victory of another team. Also, loads of friends and familiar faces come to watch and after your game you can join in spectating some other quality games too, which you wouldn’t usually have the opportunity to see on Wednesdays.

Ana Kozlova Anne-Louise Fortune FILM & LITERATURE

Josh Lamb Grace Higgins Mieke Foeste Maria Juaniz

Any words of encouragement for the Goldsmiths team this year?

MUSIC

One thing I’d say to all competing Goldsmiths students this year is just have loads of fun. Don’t plan anything else in the day or evening, and enjoy the opportunity to spend time cheering on and hanging out with all the other sports teams.

HEALTH & SUPPORT

Kate Walker

Danielle Desoza Radhika Das SPORTS

Simon Throssell Terrelle Iziren

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