“I feel that there’s so much I can do, and I want to start right now” beamed an invigorated Abigail Phiri, a student at Redbridge College.

Abigail was speaking to friends as they shared their reactions to a trail blazer opening plenary on Black representation by Lee Jasper, the Mayor of London’s Director of Equalities, who articulated why Black students needed to make inroads into their institutions and get proper representation.

“Me, too” joined in Toyin Kasali from Brunel University. “We just did a big Respect Not Racism event with our African-Caribbean Society, and although my university is 60 per cent Black, there’s not one Black union officer, and they don’t reach out to Black students or understand our needs.

“I want to make my union responsive to what we want and join in campaigns like speaking out against what the BNP stands for and finding out why so many Black students are dropping out of their studies.”

The mood at the recent NUS Black Students’ Conference in Wolverhampton was brimming with enthusiasm, as students were alerted to the many opportunities that were open to them. After all, there was “everything to play for and nothing to lose” as Simon Woolley, Director of influential race think-tank Operation Black Vote, put it when he spoke from an uplifting panel of Black social and political leaders.

His views echoed those of Karen Chouhan, Director of the 1990 Trust a human rights organisation, who addressed equality issues in society and Raj Jethwa, Senior Policy Officer at the Trade Union Congress (TUC) who spoke about issues in the work place. Their stark portrayals of the equality agenda struck a chord with the full-to-capacity crowd of African, Asian and Caribbean students that had gathered there for a bleak winter weekend.

It was clear to many in the room that the struggle for racial equality was a long way off being achieved, and key to that delay was the under-representation of Black people in the institutions and structures that affect their lives.

In the student context it was noted that despite Black students constituting almost one million members of the NUS, or 20 per cent of the movement, the number of student representatives from the Black community was at less than four per cent. This democratic deficit had a direct link to the fact that numerous challenges were not being met. This was where the change began, in individual colleges and universities.

The opening plenary was followed up by one on anti-racism with Comfort Afolabi from the Detainee Refugee Support Unit and Sabby Dhalu, joint secretary of the broad-based Unite Against Fascism Campaign, a coalition of trade unions, political parties, faith groups and local communities organised against the BNP. They addressed the current political climate that was displaying hostility to the Muslim and asylum and immigrant communities and the dangerous rise in support for the BNP.

The floor was then opened up for students to talk about experiences in their own institutions where we heard from the Victor Ruttoh and Kalan Karim campaigns, but also from students at Birmingham and Brunel. It became very apparent that prejudice was taking on more covert forms, from stopping students running particular events and coming to conference like this one, to outright hostility to certain sections of the Black community, namely Muslims.

The delegates then got an opportunity to participate in a series of small workshops that were designed to meet the breadth of the delegates’ interests. These included Getting Black Representation in Your Union; Developing Strong Clubs and Societies; Building Active Anti-Racism Campaigns (with the National Assembly Against Racism); Tackling Islamophobia on Campus, and Meeting Black Students’ Welfare Needs (with the Terence Higgins Trust and Action Aid).

Later that evening, delegates watched the film Injustice, a harrowing documentary by the families of people killed in policy custody. It left many disturbed that an average of two people died in custody every week, yet no police officer had ever been prosecuted for this, and sparked a lively debate about how to tackle discrimination in bodies like the police.

On the second day there was a well-attended early morning debate on international issues with Makola Mayambika from the NUS, alongside Dr Hisham Ghaneyum, head of the General Union of Palestinian Students in the UK and Salma Yacoob, chair of the Stop the War Coalition. Delegates heard the case for demanding that international law be upheld and that Palestinian human rights were defended, as examples were given of Palestinian students being denied the chance to study through intimidation. Links were also made between the war-drive of George Bush and imperialist traditions, while there was also debate about problems afflicting African states, and how this was dealt with in the British media.

The winter conference is always a showcase for what the NUS Black Students’ Campaign is doing and an opportunity for the delegates to see first hand how their elected representatives are building the Black Students’ movement and achieving the mandate students they set. At this conference students heard from the national officer and committee, and were applauded for the efforts to date, which included the Black Students’ Handbook, and voter registration campaign.

Delegates were also pleased to find that to ensure they all took concrete next steps back to their unions, the national officer gave them a 10-Point Plan of activities with creative ideas on what campaigns could be taken up, and where to access the support. The Black Students’ Committee really drove home the message that each person could make all the difference in their campus, community and wider society.

The energy of delegates at the event spawned from their shared sense of purpose: to work out how they could improve the representation of Black people and generate greater awareness of the challenges faced by their sizeable community. Everyone left the Conference in no doubt about the unity that needed to be demonstrated if those inroads were to be made.

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