Student Council MT23 Week 7

Free Speech and the Oxford Union

Free Speech and the Oxford Union
Proposer: Luca di Bona, St Hilda’s
Seconder: Alfie Davis, St Anne’s
Content Warning: Racism, islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, antiziganism, fatphobia and antisemitism.

 

Student Council Notes:

1. In Trinity Term 2023 Oxford SU removed a statement published by Oxford SU LGBTQ Campaign (the Campaign) calling for the cancellation of an event at the Oxford Union featuring Kathleen Stock against the wishes of the Campaign.
2. This decision was made by Oxford SU over fears the statement may have been in breach of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023.
3. The Oxford Union has invited Ben Shapiro, Katie Hopkins and Charlie Kirk to speak or debate in Michaelmas Term 2023.
4. Ben Shapiro has been accused by the Scientific American of climate change denial^[1]; accused the Palestinian people of “dress[ing] their toddlers in suicide vests” and declared that “[t]he Palestinian Arab population is rotten to the core”^[2]; said that “Arabs like to bomb crap and live in open sewage”^[3]; falsely claimed that George Floyd, an unarmed black man murdered in 2020 by white police officer Derek Chauvin, died of a drug overdose^[4]; claimed that “[a] man and a woman do a better job of raising a child than two men or two women”^[5], that “homosexual activity is a sin”; and referred to being transgender as a mental illness, saying that “biology is biology; men can’t magically become women”^[6] and promoted the debunked and transphobic concept of rapid onset gender dysphoria.^[7]
5. Katie Hopkins has said that “Islam disgusts me”^[8] and referred to Sadiq Khan as the “Muslim mayor of Londonistan”^[9]; blamed crime on multiculturalism^[10]; said she would not employ obese people^[11]; promoted the white genocide conspiracy theory^[12]; tweeted “Gypsies are ferrel [sic] humans – we have no duty to them”^[13]; appeared alongside a holocaust denier whilst attempting to intervene to return migrants to unsafe Libya^[14]; and blamed the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting on the Chief Rabbi’s support for refugees.^[15]
6. Charlie Kirk leads Turning Point USA, a group whose former second-in-command said “I HATE BLACK PEOPLE. Like fuck them all . . . I hate blacks. End of story.”^[16]. He has promoted the cultural Marxism conspiracy theory^[17]; advocated for the creation of a citizen militia to be sent to the US-Mexico border to protect against the “invasion” of the country by Haitian refugees and prevent the “diminishing and decreasing [of] white demographics in America”^[18]; referred to George Floyd as a “scumbag”^[19]; denied climate change^[20]; pushed lies about the Covid-19 Pandemic^[21] and the 2020 election^[22]; and referred to trans people as a “throbbing middle finger to God”.^[23]
7. In 2001 David Irving’s scheduled appearance at the Oxford Union was cancelled after in part the intervention of Oxford SU (then OUSU)^[24]

 

Student Council believes:

1. Contrary to its name, the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act is an attack on freedom of speech, making SUs and their representatives to exercise their own free speech.
2. SUs should be able to call for the cancellation of events without fear of legal repercussions.
3. Protests against events are a manifestation of freedom of speech and should be protected.
4. The views expressed by Ben Shapiro, Katie Hopkins and Charlie Kirk are repulsive and not worthy of respect in any reasonable society.

 

Student Council resolves:

1. To mandate the SU  to release a public statement condemning the Oxford Union for inviting Ben Shapiro, Katie Hopkins and Charlie Kirk, to be published on all official Oxford SU social media accounts, to be sent to The Oxford Student and to be sent to the President of the Oxford Union. The text of an initial draft of Appendix Two.
2. To mandate all SU sabbatical officers and the SU as a whole to publicly support any protests called against the invitations of Ben Shapiro, Katie Hopkins and Charlie Kirk, including but not limited to the sharing of the details of any such planned protests which the SU or its sabbatical officers are informed of, within one working day of being informed of such protest.
   1. This does not mandate SU sabbatical officers to actually attend any such protests, or to promote any protest outside of official SU channels, although sabbatical officers are invited to do so if they so wish.