I’m currently on the way back from NUS National Council in London and I’m absolutely furious at some of the things that were said today.

Before I begin, I guess I had better point out that the following post reflects my own opinion and is not necessarily the policy of NUS or the Women’s Campaign. Feel free to challenge me on anything I say.

As part of the priority campaign round up, all members of the current NEC were asked to state what they had been doing during the General Election. Personally, I think the NUS Get the Vote Out campaign was used by certain people present today in some sort of pathetic attempt to “expose” those of us who are Labour party members and activists - though for what end, I do not know.

Anyway, we all had to say what we had been up to in the run up to May 5th. Lots of NEC members said they had been on campuses all over England and Wales (well, Cardiff anyway) getting out the student vote as part of the Education, Education, Education campaign. However, some of us did not get involved in that campaign and worked for the election in different ways. For example, I worked for the Labour party in Oxford West and Abingdon (where my partner was the Labour candidate) and in the neighbouring constituency of Oxford East. Members of Labour Students spent their time in other constituencies working for a Labour victory (well, the name ‘Labour Students’ kind of gives it away).

Then it turned nasty.

One member of National Council (who will be on the NEC next year) asked if we had worked to get out the student vote or the Labour vote. We all said the Labour vote.

Then another member of Council asked how we could bring ourselves to work for Labour (or something along those lines).

Then a third member of Council started screaming at us, accusing us of something to do with wasting affiliation fees, of not doing what we were elected to do - and generally treating us like something you would scrape off the bottom of your shoe.

Someone else suddenly demanded to know how much we had claimed back from NUS in expenses, which is when, I have to confess, that I lost my temper and shouted back that what I do in my own time is my own business, that I am a democratic socialist and of course I worked for Labour, but that I did it in my own time.

It all got every heated - so the Chair called time out and sent us all for lunch and to calm down.

This tactic worked, and we were allowed a right-of-reply, where myself, Mel Ward, Helen Symons and Gareth Smith responded to the outrageous comments, saying that had NUS fulfilled its constitutional obligations and given us a contract to sign, we would have taken formal leave during the election campaign, but that since none of us had ever signed a contract, there was no way we could actually go on leave. However, each and every one of us worked for Labour candidates in our own time and we all considered ourselves to have taken leave. Furthermore, none of us have or will submit expenses to NUS for the work we did for Labour during the campaign.

No-one, not the NEC, not National Council, has got the right to tell us what to do in our own time - and that includes our political affiliations and political activity.

I thought the subject was closed, but later in the day a motion of censure was put against James Lloyd, outgoing National Secretary, because he was on a Lib Dem party political broadcast in his formal capacity as National Secretary. The point was made extremely well by Wes Streeting (Council rep for East Anglia and NEC-elect) that there is a massive difference between doing something for a political party on a personal level, and endorsing a party in a professional capacity as a member of the NEC. Council eventually agreed, but before the vote, another member of Council who will be on the NEC next year suddenly made a statement that you don’t stop being a student officer - in other words, that no member of the NEC is allowed time off or is allowed to be a political activist or do anything out of work hours that he or NUS might disagree with.

I was absolutely disgusted by today’s events. I am a political person and while I think that everyone should be political, there is no way I would ever force someone to share my politics or do what I told them in their spare time.

So how is that some people who (or so it seems to me) define ‘political’ by knowing and caring only about top up fees, think that they have got the right to dictate their beliefs to me? Of course I am furious about top up fees, but I don’t think that society and politics begins and ends with Higher Education. I’m not just Jo Salmon, NUS National Women’s Officer - I am also Jo Salmon, private citizen, and I have opinions, beliefs and values that go beyond the student movement. Politics isn’t just about single issues - for me, being a socialist is about giving a damn about society, about collectivism and solidarity, about freedom and democracy, and the right to express your beliefs free from harassment and discrimination.

Hmm, does that last bit ring a bell? I don’t understand how we, as a national movement, can on the one hand have policy to stand in solidarity with students across the world who, in some cases, are risking their lives for the right to be political, to participate in free and fair elections, but on the other hand seek to deny that fundamental right to our own officers.

The whole thing stinks, and I urge the student movement, regardless of their political beliefs as individuals, to stand together against a trend that seeks to de-politicise our movement, that would ban politics from our work, that would rather hide behind the individualism generated by Thatcher than fight for collectivism and a society that works for the millions, not the millionaires.

Yes, I am a Labour party member and activist. Feel free to disagree with me. But be grateful that I allow you the right to do so. Some people appear to want to take that right away from you.

Here ends my rant.

Yours in pride,
Jo x

The Blogs on this site represent the individual views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or practices of the National Union of Students.

All links in blogs will open in a new browser window.

The permanent URL for this specific blog entry is: http://www.officeronline.co.uk/blogs/josalmon/270898.aspx