On Friday, April 11, Western’s campus and the city of London saw the beginning of an 18-day strike by the teaching assistants of PSAC 610, and with it, some very strong demonstrations of union solidarity.
Originally published at NB Media Coop on May 24, 2024 Earlier this month, students at Western University in London, Ontario began organizing encampments demanding divestment from companies funding genocide. Western University currently invests $33.6 million in companies complicit in Israel’s violent occupation of Palestine. The first encampment was on May 1 and ran from noon to midnight; the second was on May 8 and was also planned from noon to midnight, but instead became indefinite from that point onwards. The following is an account of the encampment’s first seven days. *** “When one part of humanity aches, all of humanity…
Originally published at NB Media Coop on August 6, 2024 On Saturday, June 22, Ahmed Abu Shawish spoke at the student encampments at Western University. A Nakba survivor who served in the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Shawish, speaking in Arabic translated by an attendee into English, delivered a critique of the history of Zionism – the movement that led to the creation of Israel. The Nakba – “the catastrophe” – refers to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948 by Israeli forces. Thousands of Palestinians were ousted or killed; their homes were stolen, their villages destroyed; and millions were sentenced…
