Ceasefire and peace for Colombia.

Dear colleague, 

I’m writing to you as one of the 4,000 international academics who supported the successful campaign for the freedom of Colombian academic Dr. Miguel Angel Beltran to ask you to show your support for the civil society organisations working for a ceasefire and for peace in Colombia.

You can sign an open letter to the Colombian government here:
https://www.ucu.org.uk/colombiaopenletter

The Colombian government continues to persecute other academics and critics, including members of the political opposition, trade unionists, indigenous leaders, journalists, and human rights defenders. On 20 November 2012, Olga Cadena Corrales, 68 year old Colombian historian, was murdered. Over 243 social activists were assassinated in the first two years of the current government.

In March 2012 more than 100 Colombian academics wrote to both the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas calling for a peace process and an end to the hostilities.

Peace talks have now begun but the Colombian government has refused to agree to a bilateral ceasefire and the talks are to take place without proper civil society participation.

Colombians for Peace, a wide-ranging civil society movement and leading force for peace, that includes many high profile Colombian academics, has written to the negotiating table calling for a ceasefire and seeking civil society participation. However, in recent months, those calling for peace have received increasing death threats, and there has been a rise in assassinations against opposition activists.

UCU and Justice for Colombia are calling on UK and international academics to add their voices to this call for a negotiated peace involving civil society organisations and for guarantees for their safe participation.

I would ask you to consider adding your name to the below letter and encourage other academics to do the same.

https://www.ucu.org.uk/colombiaopenletter

Thank you for taking the time to read this email.

Yours sincerely

Sally Hunt
UCU general secretary

Halesowen College: Reinstate David Muritu as a Maths Lecturer at the college

This is an attack on education and trades unionism. On December 20th Dave Muritu, a known local socialist trades union activist, was sacked from his position as Maths lecturer. This followed disregard of the college disciplinary procedure (no evidence was presented 3 days in advance of the hearing), without anything other than deductive reasoning (his sacking was linked to results, with no regard for competency procedure or accurate review of statistical significance (his results are above national average).
Please sign and convey your disappointment in the college failure to prioritise student needs and achievement over politics. The only logical conclusion which can be drawn from the situation is that as no substantial evidence has been produced, Dave has been sacked on grounds of disagreement with the principal on educational theory and politics. The maths department have received considerable lack of support in the face of student needs, including
1) Failure of the principal to agree specialist cover in staff absence, inspite of a substantial surplus which could fund this
2) Students in a functional lesson being encouraged by management to give up the studies their time is allocated for in order to participate in a “focus group” based around leading questions with no rigorous development or consistent recording of data
3) Victimisation of a known trades unionist, along with possible victimisation of other known activists in the maths department, setting a precedent for activists to be targeted with knock-on effects for other trades-unionists nationally.
Please sign and join us in fighting this outrageous decision collectively.

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/halesowen-college-reinstate-david-muritu-as-a-maths-lecturer-at-the-college