The battle for free speech on university campuses in the UK is well underway. At King’s College London, two separate violent incidents impinging on the free speech of visiting speakers and the safety of students and staff have occurred over recent years. At both of these events, Safe Space policies and marshals were in place as the main deterrent to disruption and violence. The irony of using a policy which polices speech and emotion as protection against physically aggressive students is apparently lost on the university.
In the aftermath of these incidents, while the administration has made statements acknowledging the importance of free speech, they have failed to take tangible action to affirm this. Three academic years have now passed without adequate action against individuals who promote violence on campus. It is now time for students to stand up and assume greater leadership in defending the founding liberal values of the university.
The Safe Space Policy has been in place at King’s College London’s Student Union since May 2013. The policy holds that that certain “ideologies” and “cultures” should be protected from discrimination or prejudice, which is in itself antithetical to the purpose of the university. Students should embrace academic freedom by challenging themselves to debate and discuss their ideologies and beliefs freely, even if they are “controversial”. The Safe Space policy is imposed by Marshals, who are payed almost 13 pounds an hour for a job that essentially involves babysitting students and regulating speech at student society organised events. If a student feels offended by a visiting speaker under the Safe Space policy, they can tell a Marshal and the speaker could be no-platformed.
The student union describes the policy as “anti-harassment”. However, the policy itself, as well as Safe Space Marshals, have now presided over two events where students and staff have been physically harassed. In the presence of Safe Space Marshals in January 2016, former Israeli Security Agency head Ami Ayalon was attempting to speak at King’s when protestors smashed a window and set off fire alarms in order to prevent the event from going ahead. Students who wanted to listen to the speaker were barricaded inside the university and had to escape through underground tunnels.
Just over two years later, at an event which I helped to organise earlier this month, the Israel-born objectivist Yaron Brook and liberalist youtuber Carl Benjamin were targeted by the “anti-fascist” group Antifa, who colluded with King’s students to break on to campus, threaten attendees and shut down the entire event. The masked thugs trespassed through the university gates, punched their way through security, set off smoke bombs, fire alarms and then thundered through the room where the event was occurring to terrorise speakers, students and staff. Two female members of staff were assaulted, one security guard hospitalised and the university’s property defaced.
In the aftermath of these incidents, the university has failed to show leadership in affirming a commitment to free speech. They have also refused adequately to punish those responsible for the violence, despite there being substantial evidence that student societies actively collaborated or were complicit in the invitation of a violent mob on to campus. In the most recent event with Yaron Brook and Carl Benjamin, seven far-Left student societies had organised a protest the day before the talk, with the stated aim of keeping the speakers off campus.
Students from societies such as Action Palestine and the Marxist Society brought megaphones into the room and began chanting “no fascists on campus” alongside Antifa as they stormed the lecture theatre. One protestor during the evening has since been elected as a paid sabbatical officer in a prominent position at the student union. Rather than publicly announcing punishments for students who use violence to no-platform speakers, the university has acted to punish the very societies victimised by such behaviour for their own supposed controversy.
Since January 2016, the Israel Society has been forced to incur the restrictions on our events of the presence of an impartial academic chair, a Safe Space policy and Safe Space marshals, as well as limits on attendees. However, far-Left societies such as KCL Action Palestine are allowed to bring in speakers who promote terrorism and have been previously banned from other institutions without facing any such restrictions. In addition, in response to events on March 5, the university has cancelled all “high risk events” from going ahead until the end of term.
This has disproportionately affected the Libertarian Society and the Israel Society, both the targets of violence on campus. One cancelled event included the banning of Dr Adam Perkins, a lecturer at the university, from giving a talk on the scientific importance on free speech. By cowing to the demands of the protestors who seek an end to free speech, the university has unfortunately signaled that violence on campus is rewarded. The university administration has now emboldened outside groups such as Antifa, as well as internal far-Left student societies, to further engage in violence at any event they disagree with.
Such adversity has only driven students who believe in liberty to assume greater leadership in defending free speech on campus. We have launched a campaign to abolish Safe Spaces at our student union, to defend the philosophical necessity of free speech in the face of complacency from the university. We want to encourage a robust response to violent protests, where the university polices violent behaviour instead of speech.
The excessive resources spent on restricting student society autonomy instead of providing adequate security reveals the extent of the problem with our universities. The position of the British university as an instigator of societal progress is now fundamentally at stake, as Safe Spaces continue to advance the infantilisation of students and undermine academic freedom. With the tactics of no-platforming, Safe Spaces and violence taking hold across the country, we must act now to stand up for our values. King’s College London has unfortunately revealed that violence yields rewards on campus. However, we will continue to build a movement based on civility and freedom over violence and identity politics.
