On the 12th of February, one of the members of the UCL Communist Society, as part of the Coalition for Palestine was arrested inside our campus during a peaceful protest during the Palestine Day of Action. Students gathered to peacefully voice their dissent with UCL’s involvement with arms industries directly tied with the genocide in Gaza. Even before the protest had started, UCL management had already called the Met Police. Our comrade gave a speech on the importance of fighting against Imperialism from within our campus through mass mobilization and class struggle. Immediately after finishing his speech, our comrade was approached and arrested by the police. This is a shameful instance of UCL calling the police at their own student body and allowing arrests to happen within our campus.

This university hypocritically brags about being a place for academic freedom and free speech while at the same time, they violently repress dissenting voices on campus. This institution does not consider dozens of police officers on campus, kettling peaceful protesters as a threat for the students. They don’t see danger in inviting IDF soldiers and arms companies proven to be complicit in genocide into campus; but consider one student giving a speech and calling for mass mobilization for Palestine as an unacceptable act of aggression. It comes as no surprise that this is the case, given the heavy economic ties between UCL and arms companies such as BAE Systems and Airbus. These economic relations are themselves the main threat to academic freedom and free speech on our campus! The morals of an institution like UCL are completely compromised to their economic investors and they have shown that their interest in ensuring the safety and freedom of students is also limited to this. 

UCL management was completely comfortable also using the rotten institution that is the Met Police in their attempt to silence students. The repudiate the use of this corrupt organization which through the Palestine movement has shown how they are a tool for the suppression of the masses trying to mobilize against the decisions of our rulers. This government has decided to pour resources into this institution to intimidate regular people and keep them in their place while leaving the true criminals at the top free.

We won’t allow either UCL or the police to intimidate us. This arrest is not a show of strength from these institutions but a sign of their weakness and desperation to suppress the Palestine movement. They know their actions are deeply unpopular and are currently standing in an unstable place because of it. We won’t let this arrest, or any others, to be a set back for our group or for the Palestine movement, but a show of the true intentions of our class enemies who are perpetrating the atrocities in Gaza.

We won’t rest until this university drops their disciplinary measures against our comrade. We will fight for justice and for true academic freedom and free speech. This not only means the freedom to protest the universities’ decision to involve themselves with the war industry, but it means that the university needs to have economic independence that allows them to cut these ties permanently. 

Our petition goes as follows:

• Lift disciplinary sanctions against our comrade Jamie now.
• Reinstate Jamie in all his academic and teaching positions immediately.
• Drop all charges against our comrade.
• Keep police and other institutions of state repression out of campus! Stop the repression against Palestine protests and students showing their disagreement with UCL management.
• End economic ties with arms industries by ending the marketization of higher education. Run the university based on necessity of students and staff instead than profit.