So what have we done thus far? Heres a selection of the highlights:
- Co-hosted a talk on the enivronment with Green Mary, having invited one speaker who was arguing the libertarian-left perspective. The talk took a nice anti-capitalist turn
- Helped form the Tower Hamlets Coalition Against Poverty, which was part of the London Coalition Against Poverty. We focused primarily around housing issues, organising leafleting outside the local Homeless Persons Unit on Roman Road, to let people know about their housing rights in the face of a council determined to keep the numbers of successful housing applicants down.
- Contributed to the development of the reborn Autonomous Students Network, the network for anarchist students in Britain. We organised the ASN stall at the 2009 anarchist bookfair.
- It was at a QMAG meeting that the issue of MBDA Missile Systems preparing to recruit on campus was first raised, and after getting in touch with other societies, together we stopped MBDA even coming to Queen Mary! Out of this success, we pushed for the creation of the (cheesey sounding) Queen Mary Student Alliance, which went on to organise the first Anti-Cuts talk at Queen Mary in the face of an apathetic Students Union. Students and staff turned up to debate the issue of cuts being prepared for QMUL, and how to tackle this threat.
- A couple of us went down to the Tower Hamlets College strike to join the picket lines. The college strike saw both students and staff encouraging new students to not cross the pickets – an inspiration to what could be achieved at QMUL.
- Involved in discussion and debate with the local Radical Reading Group, exploring anarchist texts. We also held a ‘What is Anarchism?’ discussion, complete with documentary clips.
- Taken part in numouress other protests and marches, primarily those around education struggles.
QMAG knows how to unwind as well though! We’ve hosted a radical east london tour/pub crawl through Tower Hamlets, as well as numouress pub outings and socials complete with vegan munch, all of which has helped give us the stomach we need for the class struggle
