Posted on Wed 15 May 2013 at 16:29 by
Swaran Singh
At NUS UK Conference, we were privileged to hear from Maxwell Dlamini, the outgoing President of the Swaziland NUS.
Last month, Maxwell (now Secretary General of the Swaziland Youth Congress) was detained and has been charged with sedition (actions that are deemed to tend toward insurrection against the government).
Maxwell’s arrest follows a number of events over recent years in which student unionists in Swaziland have been unable to carry out their legitimate activities without fear of arrest or harassment by the Swazi government. (Source: Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=19400)
NUS UK have called on students in the UK to urge the Swaziland government to listen to and act on their legitimate calls for democracy and rights for the people of Swaziland.
Before I got elected as Education Officer, I was involved with campaigning for human rights; one of the key things that I promised myself before I started the new job was to carry on that work. So why should you care? Well, imagine if this happened to us in the UK. I'm a strong believer in treating others how you'd like to be treated. If my government started persecuting Student' Union leaders here, I'd certainly like the support of the international student movement in stopping them.
So here is the plan: instead of reinventing the campaign lightbulb, those of you who want to get involved can help me to join the current work that National Union of Students UK, The Free Maxwell Dlamini Campaign, and Action for Southern Africa are all doing to help free Maxwell.
Firstly, I’d ask that you sign the change.org petition petition here
Secondly, join me on Fulton House Lawn on Friday 24th May at 9:30pm to form a giant human M with candles (if it's raining, I'll buy some glowsticks.) If you reckon you can spare 5 mins to join us, give me a heads up over email: educationofficer@swansea-union.co.uk or confirm on our facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/162625833906887
We’ll use pictures from this event to create postcards that students can sign which we’ll send to the Swazi Ambassador. This kind of action does have an effect, check out this clip: http://vimeo.com/48147746
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