Dear student,

Re: Oppose attempts to de-prioritise anti-racism and Islamophobia in NUS - Challenge the unconstitutional rulings of NUS steering committee.

In a complete break from previous practices, thirty-four motions to this years NUS conference have been illegitimately ruled out of order by the NUS Steering Committee on the basis that they were deemed to be in the wrong zone. Of these at least half relate to anti-racism - in particular they oppose the wave of hostility and religious discrimination currently being faced by Muslim students.

The Steering Committee - which governs NUS Conference - is trying to exclude discussion on Islamophobia from the Welfare debate. The topics of the motions ruled out includes restrictions on the right to wear religious dress, as has taken place at Imperial College with support form government ministers; restrictions and curtailment of the legitimate activities of Islamic societies which is affecting numerous campuses; and aspects of anti-terrorist legislation that target the entire Muslim community and are affecting students.

All of these issues clearly affect the welfare of Muslim students and have formed part of the Welfare debate for a number of years. Similar issues of racism and discrimination affecting other faith communities have been included in the Welfare debate this year.

The Welfare Zone also contains many anti-racist motions including opposing the fascist BNP, racist attacks and murders, anti-Semitism and attacks on asylum rights. These have been submitted by students’ unions in response to a growing climate of racism that is threatening all Black and Jewish students.

It is wrong for Steering Committee to treat Islamophobia differently to other forms of racism and to de-prioritise the rights of Muslim students, either by excluding this from the agenda or, as has happened in some cases, moving it into the ‘Society and Citizenship’ debate which can be expected to come lower down the priority ballot than Welfare Zone. Last year, for example, the vast majority of ‘Society and Citizenship’ text was lost due to lack of time.

Not only is it wrong for motions that oppose racism and discrimination towards Muslims to be excluded in this way, but the NUS Steering Committee has acted outside of the NUS’ rules.

• If they have not been submitted under instruction from or in accordance with a students unions’ governing body (102a),
• If they exceed the word limit (102d)
• If they have not been submitted in accordance with Conference Document 1 (102i).

There is no suggestion that the first two reasons apply in any of these cases.

Conference Document 1 clearly lays out the procedure for submitting motions. Nowhere does it say that motions that are deemed to have been submitted in the wrong Zone can be ruled out of order. Nowhere does it say that part of a motion can be deemed to be submitted in the wrong Zone and deleted. Furthermore, Steering Committee issued no guidance to students unions in advance about what was acceptable or unacceptable content for any particular Zone.

Ruling out properly submitted motions sends the wrong message at this time of increasing racism. It is also a violation of NUS democracy.

All those committed to NUS that prioritises the fight against all forms of racism and that defends the Welfare of all of its members should oppose these rulings.

TAKE ACTION:

1) If you are from one of the following student unions affected you should launch a formal complaint to NUS about the exclusion and/or demotion of your text: Kent, Stevenson, Lancaster, Colchester, Huddersfield, Derby College, Middlesex, Leeds Met, Portsmouth, Warwick, Manchester Met, Birmingham, UWE, Manchester, UEA, Hallam, Sheffield, CCN, SOAS, Swansea, Bradford, Leicester, Cambridge, QM, Sussex or UEL.

You should submit a formal objection to Steering Committee’s ruling before the deadline of 12th January. You can contact me at ruqs@nus.org.uk to discuss doing so.

2) Everybody else should register their opposition to this attempt to de-prioritise opposing Islamophobia in NUS by writing letters of complaint to NUS President Gemma Tumelty (gemma.tumelty@nus.org.uk) demanding that these motions are included in the Welfare debate with all of the other anti-racism motions, to ensure maximum pressure is brought to bear to overturn this decision.

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/ruqayyahcollector/273635.aspx