{"id":405,"date":"2018-03-01T22:30:49","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T22:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=405"},"modified":"2018-03-01T22:30:49","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T22:30:49","slug":"fascisnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/01\/fascisnt\/","title":{"rendered":"FASCISN\u2019T?"},"content":{"rendered":"

subtext’s report on racist and antisemitic comments and questions at a public lecture (see subtext 173) seems to have hurt a few feelings (see letters, below). Isn’t it amazing how quickly people who insist on their own right to express hateful opinions start throwing around words like ‘libel’ and ‘slander’ as soon as someone challenges them? As so often in right-wing populist circles, it seems free speech only travels in one direction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since the report, LUSU has confirmed that the group in question was denied society status ‘because there was not enough detail in the students’ plan of activity or their description of the group to convince the committee of the group’s sustainability or unique offer, two of the key criteria that all groups are judged by.’ Perhaps the applicants forgot to mention important details, like how they get hot under the collar about black actors playing historical figures on TV, or equal marriage? LUSU went on to clarify that they ‘are working with the students, as we would any student wanting to form a society, to help them address these concerns of the committee and anticipate that they will resubmit an application[…] The union respects the rights of individuals and groups to hold or express potentially controversial opinions – however, all of our groups are subject to union policies designed to deal with instances of discrimination, harassment or hate speech, which are applied accordingly if issues are reported and evidenced.’ So that’s all right then.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite not being a student society, the group in question nevertheless set out to organise an event on campus to discuss the life and times of Vladimir Putin, an event ostensibly co-organised by the Russian Society. Until, that is, it turned out that the Russian Society was, to quote LUSU again, ‘suspended temporarily after its president decided to step down this week and it came to light that the group does not meet a number of the union\u2019s administrative requirements. The union is now working with the Russian Society to address these issues in order to return the group to active status.’ No doubt this sudden interest in the administrative workings of the Russian Society, which led to the campus event being cancelled, was entirely coincidental, and nothing to do with their links with the other group. But isn’t it wonderful how LUSU wants to help all societies to meet their full potential!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

subtext’s report on racist and antisemitic comments and questions at a public lecture (see subtext 173) seems to have hurt a few feelings (see letters, below). Isn’t it amazing how quickly people who insist on their own right to express … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[227,233,20,248,247],"class_list":["post-405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-fascists","tag-issue-174","tag-lusu","tag-russian-society","tag-societies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s99sHo-fascisnt","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":528,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/04\/26\/sufferin-succofash\/","url_meta":{"origin":405,"position":0},"title":"SUFFERIN’ SUCCOFASH","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"April 26 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In subtext 173, we reported on the activities of an unofficial far-right student society, which made its presence felt at a public lecture on the politics of fear by raising concerns about the ethnic makeup of Europe, advocating a white Christian Europe, alleging that Israel forcefully castrates immigrants and that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":397,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/01\/special-report-scrutiny-mutiny\/","url_meta":{"origin":405,"position":1},"title":"SPECIAL REPORT: SCRUTINY MUTINY","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 1 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"subtext spent a large amount of the 15\/16 academic year remonstrating with the Students' Union and advising it not to implement its 'democratic review', an initiative which involved LUSU reviewing democracy and deciding it wasn't very good. LUSU subsequently abolished its council, and handed all of its power to two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":726,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/09\/13\/fascism-on-campus\/","url_meta":{"origin":405,"position":2},"title":"FASCISM ON CAMPUS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"September 13 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Centralisation and the erosion of accountability somewhat paled into insignificance when we learned that a small but vocal group of students were attempting to set up a society for fascists. *Ahem*, sorry - 'traditionalists.' Their Facebook page is full of the usual witless moaning about 'social justice warriors', complaints about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "history"","block_context":{"text":"history","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":842,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/11\/23\/snow-joke\/","url_meta":{"origin":405,"position":3},"title":"SNOW JOKE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 23 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Contributed by Ronnie Rowlands. Readers of subtext will have been pleased to learn that Lancaster University is currently enjoying a flurry of coverage in the national press. Has Cary Cooper received another knighthood? Did someone devise a formula for the perfect twerk? 'Students face probe over t-shirts daubed with swastikas.'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":644,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/06\/07\/another-glorious-victory-for-subtext\/","url_meta":{"origin":405,"position":4},"title":"ANOTHER GLORIOUS VICTORY FOR SUBTEXT","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"June 7 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In subtext 178, we helpfully noted that LUSU's online general meeting was not only completely unconstitutional, but also easy to game, as it was possible for students to vote as many times as they wished. Since our report, we note that LUSU has sent out a 'special newsletter' to promote\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1098,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/11\/01\/special-feature-lancaster-university-students-disunion\/","url_meta":{"origin":405,"position":5},"title":"SPECIAL FEATURE: LANCASTER UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ DISUNION","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 1 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"SPECIAL FEATURE: LANCASTER UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' DISUNION Contributed articles by Ronnie Rowlands ONE SUGAR, PLEASE When we covered the Students' Union officer elections for the 19\/20 academic year, your subtext correspondents observed that the new crop of officers ought to make short work of becoming popular. LUSU had been awash with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":406,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions\/406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}