The IWGB Universities of London branch stands in solidarity with students and staff at UCL who have been fighting for justice and peace in Palestine, including by calling for an end to UCL’s links with companies funding and supplying weapons to the Israeli military, and the curtailment of its institutional ties to several Israeli universities complicit in the Israeli occupation and genocide in Palestine.

We have been concerned to see UCL management increasing securitisation of the UCL campus, such as through the introduction of ID checks on all entrances. This has left some students and staff feeling ‘policed’ on their own campus, as well as creating additional, unnecessary work and stress for security staff required to carry out these measures. We are also disturbed to learn of the suspension of students participating in protests.

We note that UCL and its subcontractor Bidvest Noonan have unilaterally attempted to suppress protests on campus. We oppose these attempts to restrict protest rights at UCL. Our members often find themselves required to carry out such practices against their will. We also wish to draw attention to the repression faced by our own members in relation to these issues. Where our members have attempted to express solidarity with students when they are off duty, they have been met with a highly punitive response by management. This includes threats of disciplinary action for praying outside in the main quad during Friday prayers, as well as everyday gestures as common as shaking hands. In particular, Muslim security guards are facing pressure and surveillance from Bidvest Noonan, and have been treated with increased suspicion by management. Unlike directly employed staff at UCL, our members have been told that they cannot express any views on or make comments about the protests, including on their personal social media accounts. 

Bidvest Noonan’s attempts to restrict the rights of our members in this respect is part of a wider attack on outsourced workers at UCL, which has involved the ongoing erosion of UCL’s ‘parity agreement’ and a crackdown on our members’ rights to protest. Many of the tactics of intimidation and surveillance currently being used on UCL students are the same practices management have used to target and silence our members when they have stood up against mistreatment and poor working conditions. We recognise that our campaign for UCL to end racist outsourcing and bring all UCL workers in-house is connected to students’ demands for UCL to stop being complicit in Israeli apartheid. We believe that the workers movement and the student movement must strive for unity and not allow ourselves to be divided.

We call on UCL to engage constructively with the students regarding their demands and to uphold its responsibility to ensure freedom of speech on campus.