Conferences, Demonstrations and Meetings

It’s been a busy couple of weeks since my last blog - amongst other things, I’ve been to LGB Conference in Leicester, the National Demonstration in Cardiff, and to meetings of Women’s Committee in Preston, and the NEC in London. Phew!

Here’s a brief run-down of what happened:

LGB Conference, 26-28 November 2004

I hope delegates found LGB Conference to be a positive and inspiring event - I enjoyed most of it but am feeling the need to rant about some of the stuff that happened during the debates.

There’s an ongoing debate in NUS - should we or should we not discuss and care about events and people across the world?

Personally, I think we should. If you’ll excuse me from quoting from my manifesto, I believe that students are more than just learners - we are citizens of our communities, the UK and the world, and as such we have a duty to look beyond the edges of our campuses and to uphold human rights and speak out against injustice in the wider world.

That’s why I get so annoyed when people say things like “fighting fascism has nothing to do with the LGB Campaign” or that we shouldn’t do anything about the fact that there are still countries where not only is being LGB illegal, it is punishable by death.

We don’t know how lucky we are in the UK - yes, homophobia is rife (I know - I’ve been on the receiving end of homophobic violence) but in comparison to other countries, we’re a long way down the road for equality. The NUS liberation campaigns have a duty to stand shoulder to shoulder with everyone facing discrimination, prejudice and oppression, not just those who hold an NUS card.

I love debates and discussions, I just get frustrated when we fight the same internal battles about policy, rather than uniting to overcome the barriers facing us and millions like us.

For more information about the LGB Campaign, click these links to go their sites on NUSonline and OfficerOnline

National Demonstration, 2 December 2004

Were you in Cardiff on 2 December? If not, why not?! If you were, I hope you enjoyed and even more than that, I hope the National Assembly for Wales were listening to what we had to say.

As someone who grew up in Wales, was a student and a student officer in Wales, and last year’s NUS Wales Women’s Officer, I feel like I have a personal stake in what the Assembly decide to do, so I’m asking them here and now - please keep those “red waters of socialism” between you and Westminster - keep top up fees out of Wales.

On another note, you can see the photos of the demo here - if you squint, you should be able to see me carrying the (very heavy) NUS banner at the front with Andy Wilson, UCMC / NUS Wales Deputy President!

Women’s Committee, 5 December 2004

NUS Women’s Committee met on Sunday at UCLAN in Preston - we discussed motions about our affiliations and solidarity with Iraqi women, and passed four motions to send to NUS Women’s Conference 2005 - Women in Politics, Women’s Rights Worldwide, Women in Society, and Defend Women’s Officers.

We’re meeting again on Thursday 10 February 2005.

We’re currently developing the women’s campaign pages of OfficerOnline, and the minutes and motions etc will be going up on the site as soon as possible.

Note - If you want to submit any motions, the deadline is this Friday, 10 December, at 5pm. The word limit is 500 words.

NEC Meeting, 6 December 2004

Love them or hate them, NEC Meetings can be great fun, providing you keep a grip on the real world and remember that we’re the NUS NEC, not the cabinet of the world! As we go through the debates, passions run high, words get longer, metaphors more elaborate, and it always has the potential to turn nasty. However, anyone who thinks that we all hate each other, that we can’t tell the difference between the personal and the political, should have been in the bar in ULU later on that evening when we had cross-factional renditions of the old favourites (the Red Flag, Internationale, Jerusalem etc) as well as some new choices - Mary Poppins, Les Mis, Joseph, Oliver! Great fun!

Until the next time,

Jo xx

jo.salmon@nus.org.uk

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