WeeklyWorker

02.04.2008

NUS: Right plans defeated ... for now

The National Union of Students annual conference saw a tactical defeat for the right, but the left would be wrong to celebrate too much. Dave Isaacson reports from Blackpool

One policy issue dominated all others in the run-up to this year’s conference - the governance review. As we have previously warned, this was an attempt by the bureaucracy to make the NUS even less transparent and democratic than it already is. Annual conferences, for example, were to be scrapped and a congress that “celebrated achievements” was to replace it.

Communist Students, along with the rest of the left, have been arguing for a rejection of this review. Unlike many on the left, however, we were not content to simply defend the current set-up, which is frankly appalling. We said that the left must use this as an opportunity to put forward positive proposals to rapidly expand the democratic space within the NUS.

In December of last year NUS organised an extraordinary conference which was packed out with mainly student union bureaucrats - partly due to the short notice given. Over two-thirds of the delegates voted for the governance review, but this decision then had to be ratified at annual conference. Once again, this week the bureaucrats needed a two-thirds majority to make these constitutional changes. The governance review, which was the first policy item on the agenda and in the end, was defeated despite the bureaucrats putting massive resources and money into trying to convince people of the need for “change” (Obama-style, as they have put it). But only just.

The leadership needed 717 votes to get the review passed, but in the end got 692 votes, with 355 voting against. Indeed the vote was so close that the review’s defeat was only secured thanks to a number of delegates, including Chris Strafford (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Laurie McCauley (Sheffield University), who broke their mandates (see ‘Why we are breaking our mandate’ below). As can be seen, these Communist Students comrades were elected after openly standing against the review in their manifestos, only to have undemocratic mandates slapped on them by their local student unions.

The Socialist Workers Party’s Rob Owen, who has sat on the NUS national executive for the past year, has said that: “This is a significant blow for the right wing, which has left them demoralised and reeling. It comes at a time when students are radicalising, with grassroots movements springing up on campuses against war, racism, climate change and many other issues.” Unfortunately, the facts do not bear this out, Rob.

Yes, the individual Blairites within NUS who had made this review their big project are hacked off. Yet those opposing the review only scraped together just over a third of the votes. The SWP have been telling us that “students are radicalising” for so many years now and if that was really the case then surely we should be in a much better position than this. The fact is that, while there is a layer of students out there who are looking for radical answers, the organised left is completely failing in its duty to offer any credible theory, democratic organisation or leadership. And the kind of hyperbolic nonsense coming from the SWP merely underlines this point.

So far the rest of the conference has been dominated by the right wing too, with the Blairites winning almost all policy votes and elections that have taken place up until now. I write on April 2 with one more day to go. A full report will be carried in next week’s paper.

Why we are breaking our mandate

When it comes to the vote on  the governance review, we won’t be sneaking off to vote in the ‘safe room’ or hide in the toilets, as some members of the Stalinoid ‘Student Broad Left’ are planning to do.

The governance review goes to the heart of democracy in the student movement - or rather, the lack of it. It is an attempt by the rightwing NUS bureaucracy, dominated by Labour careerists, to make this organisation into an even less transparent and accountable body than it already is. It will lead to more control by consultants, the abolition of conference and the block of 12, the further de-politicisation of the NUS, and will allow national conference delegates to be appointed by student union executives, rather than bothering with tiresome and unpredictable elections. Rather than involving more students, the review will have the opposite effect and further alienate people.

This is an extremely important issue that must be discussed openly and honestly. That is why we reject the attempt by some rightwing student unions to impose ‘binding mandates’ on conference delegates. For example, both of us have been threatened with the “removal of voting cards, accommodation, expenses and transport back” if we vote against the review.

But that is precisely what we plan to do. These are the reasons why we have decided to break these crassly undemocratic mandates:

We applaud students in Leeds who on March 22 overturned a decision by their small union council to support the governance review. 1,436 students backed a motion opposing the review (with 920 voting against).

We call on all students still ‘bound’ by such undemocratic mandates to break them - and do it proudly and openly! The more we are, the more difficult the bureaucracy will find it to take action against us!

Vote no to the review! Fight for the NUS to become the kind of democratic campaigning body students and young people in Britain need! For a NUS that fights fearlessly for:

For our full manifesto, go to www.communiststudents.org.uk

Chris Strafford
Manchester Metropolitan delegate, candidate for Block of 12

Laurie McCauley
Sheffield University delegate