The Manifesto Club supports...

Other campaigns and initiatives we feel are in the spirit of the Manifesto Club.

Students campaigning against 'No Platform' motions

The Manifesto Club supports students across Britain who are calling for the abolition of 'no platform' policies in student unions. We believe that no speakers should be denied a platform on principle, however objectionable their opinions, and that universities should not be afraid of argument. See these commentaries from Oxford, Sussex, and UEA. The Sussex group in particular fought a heroic battle to overturn the university’s ‘No Platform’ motion (see their Facebook group, Support Free Speech at Sussex University), taking on the combined forces and political manoeuvring of the Student Union.

Oppose bans on public drinking

The new London major's first act was to ban drinking on the Tube. As spiked's Brendan O'Neill points out, one's attitude towards public drinking has long been a test of libertarian spirit. The Manifesto Club supports all those – and there have not been many – who have raised a protest against public drinking bans. These include the organisers of this Circle Line Party against the Tube drinking ban, and David Shariatmadari on Comment is Free; and this petition from the publicans and patrons of Soho, who call on the PM to ‘resist a ban on drinking outside and maintain the liberal culture of Soho’. See also Dolan Cummings' comment against the booze ban in the Manifesto Club Members' Room.

Defending academic freedom in a climate of panic

Students and academics at Nottingham University are campaigning against the deportation of Hicham Yezza, a former PhD student and current employee of the university, who was arrested under the Terrorism Act along with MA politics research student Rizwaan Sabir. The arrests came after a colleague saw an al Qaeda manual Yezza had printed for Sabir's research, and called the police in a panic. They were later released without charge, but Yezza was immediately re-arrested on immigration charges because of confusion over his visa. There will be a public reading of the research materials on campus on Wednesday 28 May, as a show of support for academic freedom. Meanwhile, the threatened deportation is a reminder of more mundane obstacles to the free exchange of ideas and research in a climate of panic and increasing surveillance. The campaign to release Yezza is heartening.

Standing up for embryo research

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is currently being considered by the House of Commons. The Bill proposes to allow embryo research to continue in the UK, including embryonic stem cell science and animal-human hybrid embryo work. When the Bill had its second reading on Monday 12 May, representatives of hundreds of patient groups demonstrated outside Parliament, together with scientists, doctors and others, to show their support for the Bill, and to counter lobbying from vocal opponents who want to impede embryo research and clinical interventions like preimplantation genetic diagnosis.

Most of the public do support research in this field, recognising its medical benefits as well as the broader value of scientific experimentation. It is important to show support for legislation that supports such experimentation, and not let debate on these issues be dominated by fear-mongering and anti-science prejudice. The Manifesto Club supports all those who stand up to make the case for scientific research and experimentation. See the HFE Bill weblog.

Say no to league tables!

The UK University College Union - Uncensored website has launched a campaign against university league tables. The feisty campaign calls on academics to boycott and sabotage the league tables, which reduce the 'open and unfinalised' process of university research and teaching to simplistic metrics amenable to 'servant journalists'.

Standing up for amateur photographers

Austin Mitchell MP has submitted an Early Day Motion to Parliament in defence of Photography in Public Areas. He notes that photographers in the UK are increasingly being pestered by police, police community support officers and wardens. These busybodies try to stop people taking pictures, or make them delete pictures they've already given, sometimes on the spurious grounds that pictures of public places could be useful to terrorists, as well as the familiar 'child protection' grounds already documented by the Manifesto Club. With the Metropolitan Police currently urging us to report photographers as potential terrorists, Mitchell's motion is to be commended for making the simple point that photography is a normal and benign part of life that should not be sacrificed on the altar of the precautionary principle.

Cotton wool kids can't swim

The Scottish youth research group Generation Youth Issues, which campaigns against the over regulation of young people’s lives, has launched a campaign to get rid of the irrational safe swimming policies being adopted by council swimming pools across Scotland. Regulations that often vary from pool to pool and council to council are increasingly taking a hyper-cautious ‘cotton wool’ approach to adults taking their children swimming and are refusing entry to parents who turn up with their children because of ‘health and safety’. This campaign is very much in the spirit of the Manifesto Club's campaign against vetting, and we hope to see many similar initiatives.

Free speech in Germany

Hundreds of people have signed an online petition against the criminalisation of Holocaust denial in Germany. The ban not only denies people the right to express their views, but also obscures the reality of the Holocaust by turning it from an historically established fact into state imposed dogma. Humanists and anti-racists should be the first to support free speech in Germany and elsewhere, and not allow the issue to be claimed by far right cranks.

If you know of other campaigns and initiatives worthy of the Manifesto Club's support and potential collaboration, please do contact us.