Conference, it is with great pleasure that I welcome you today to the start of the NUS black students campaign winter conference 2007; the largest conference in our campaign’s history – a sign that our movement is stronger than ever.

We are coming to the end of an important year. A year, during which we have been marking the 200th anniversary of the decision to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire. That decision was an important milestone in bringing to an end slavery itself – one of the greatest crimes in human history.

It is important that we remember that history. Both because of the legacy of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in developing the ideas of modern racism - ideas that have been adapted and developed as an ongoing excuse for the crimes of war and colonialism, for injustice and inequality right up to the present day.

And because, even 200 years later, those slaves and former-slaves like Olaudah Equiano, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Nanny Maroon and many others who rose up against slavery and fought for its abolition remain a powerful inspiration to every one of us.

We have come a long way since 1807. Who would have thought when Parliament passed that law two centuries ago that this city would formally offer its apology to the descendants of all those on the back of whose lives, suffering and misery it profited so much. Indeed who would have thought just two decades ago – around the time that many of us were born – that outside that same parliament would stand a statue of a black man – Nelson Mandela – now the former-president of South Africa, then a political prisoner struggling against apartheid in that country.

I am proud of the role our campaign has played throughout this year at the forefront of the 2007 commemorations.

But we must also continue to be at the forefront of challenging slavery’s racist legacy and it is to confront that legacy as a strong, active and united NUS black students’ campaign that we come together this weekend. A campaign that can take forward all of our interests - in the face of racism, discrimination, under-representation and always against fierce opposition.

Rising racism is threatening all of the black communities. Arguments and attitudes that just a few years ago we hoped were beginning to be confined to a marginal fringe are now being brought back into the mainstream.

The past year has seen frenzied attacks on our communities from politicians and the media –a sustained attack on our multicultural society – in effect saying that black communities have to abandon our identity, our right to be who we are – to live our lives how we choose.

We’ve seen gun crime labeled as a product of ‘black culture’ - the product not of social exclusion and lives shattered by racism and poverty but instead the failure of black communities to condemn such crimes. The truth is that our communities have worked tirelessly for years to tackle gun and knife crimes with few resources and in the face of unwillingness tackle social exclusion and deprivation.

Meanwhile, the Muslim community continues to face a barrage of reaction – where the debate over security, and how to deal with terrorism, has been twisted away from being a debate of enormous concern to all of our communities to a confused debate about community cohesion. Where every aspect of our identity – where we live, what we eat, how we pray, even including the clothes we wear – is no longer our own personal choice but somehow the business of politicians and journalists and a threat to the nation.

And we know that this hysteria doesn’t stop with one community. If it is allowed to take hold, it threatens all of our rights. Right now we have the absurd situation of a young Sikh school student in Wales facing expulsion from school, prevented from mixing with her peers, because her faith requires her to wear a bangle! Is British society really so fragile that it is threatened by a bangle?!

The claim that black communities are segregating themselves is a lie and giving credence to such baseless myths can only fuel further racism.

And when we here the prime minister talk about British jobs for British workers we know how that is interpreted by many of those who are listening. We know what the result of such language is. It is to create the kind of climate in which young black people experience racist harassment, verbal abuse, racist attacks and where young black people are killed in the streets for nothing more than racism. The last year has seen racist attacks increase by 12 per cent and our campuses and communities are increasingly threatened by those who wish to stoke and exploit fear and hatred.

Rather than challenging the racism that excludes black people from positions of power and opportunities, they are trying to blame us for supposedly ‘isolating’ ourselves.

Only the racists can benefit from such a climate. The fascist British National Party, which follows in the footsteps of Hitler’s Nazis and calls for an all-white Britain, is winning record support; poisoning the political debate – with mainstream parties falling over one another to adopt their policies on asylum and immigration.

The BNP threatens us all. Mobilising to stop its politics of race hatred will always be a priority for black students and of this campaign, which is why we continue to do everything we can to support the work of Unite Against Fascism and we are proud to it at our conference this weekend.

Increasingly, the BNP is trying to gain a foothold on our campuses. Last term we stopped BNP leader Nick Griffin speaking at Bath University – but he hasn’t given up. The Oxford Union debating society has invited not only Nick Griffin but also racist holocaust denier David Irvine to speak in just over a week’s time.

Unbelievably, the event is being billed as a ‘free speech forum’! Fascists don’t stand for free speech – for reasoned logic and polite debate – fascism stands for burning books, eliminating opposition, the destruction of democracy, human rights, including freedom of speech, and for the murder of millions.

Conference – there is a world of difference between defending freedom of speech and voluntarily providing a prestigious platform for fascists to spread their racist hatred. And conference, when the facts show that where fascists are active racist attacks increase, what right have they to give Griffin a platform at the expense of our freedom to live and to study free from the fear of violence.

On the day of this event – if it goes ahead on the 26 November, a week on Tuesday, there will be an anti-fascist demonstration in Oxford and I want as many of you who can possibly be there to be there.

We must demand an end to politicians and the media whipping up hatred. Instead racism, under-representation and discrimination need to be confronted. From parliament to our own students unions black people are denied the levels of representation that would come close to reflecting our numbers – making it easy to ignore, attack and isolate our communities. That is why our NUS black students campaign is so important.

As a campaign, we continue to go from strength to strength – building a vibrant and dynamic movement to defend all sections of the African, Arab, Asian and Caribbean communities.

Involvement in our campaign continues to grow - bringing black students together to break down the common oppression we face.

And it is not always easy – many of you have had to struggle to even get here this weekend. I know of one students’ union where - already unhappy at having to send two black delegates here – when a third black student said they wanted to come they complained that – and I quote – “every black student under the sun” was coming in wanting to come to this conference! They complained about how annoying this was – it would seem, for some unions, having to see two black people in the same week was already two to many. There is a delegate here who had to stand for an election in his overwhelmingly white senate – to decide whether they would allow him to come. He won. And we won – every one of us – by being here and being part of this movement. So we know only too well that every step forward we take, every victory must constantly be defended.

On 4 December, NUS will hold an extraordinary conference in Leicester. The NUS leadership is proposing that the conference adopt a new constitution for NUS which, if passed would have serious and damaging consequences for the already inadequate level of black representation in the student movement.

It is proposed to replace the current NUS NEC with a ‘NUS Board’ that, unlike the current NEC, would not include the NUS Liberation officers (including the NUS black students’ officer). This would drive back decades of struggle for black students’ representation at every level in the student movement that culminated in the creation of the fulltime NUS black students’ officer on the NEC. It could result in key NUS decisions about staffing, the allocation of resources and strategic planning, being taken without any reference to black students. Black communities know from bitter experience what this would mean – a return to the days of neglect, indifference and even outright hostility to our needs.

Such a step would also send a clear signal to students’ unions that the national union considers black representation to be a matter of secondary importance. How could we expect to win the argument for a black students’ officer on the executive committee or trustee board of every students’ union if the message from NUS is that ‘you’re better off without the hassle’?

It is also proposed to abolish the ‘Block of 12’ executive officers who are elected by proportional representation at annual conference. The ‘Block of 12’ is designed to allow minorities to gain representation at the highest level in NUS and, as such, has been vital in facilitating the election of black and other minority groups.

An attempt is also being made to force the international students campaign to except EU students who are not international students as candidates for its officer. This could result in a further reduction in black representation. Either way the international students’ officer would no longer be a member of the executive board.

Black students should be clear about what this would mean. 2007 was the first time in five years that a black student won one of the six fulltime positions elected at NUS conference. These proposals could see year-after-year go by with no black representation whatsoever at the highest level in NUS.

We have got to defeat these proposals – which in all likelihood mean we have to vote against the entire review – because we cannot afford to allow black representation to be rolled back – instead it must be pushed forward - we must put an end to the disgrace of under-representation of black students in so many students’ unions and in NUS. We will not rest until there is a black students’ officer in every students’ union.

For ten years we fought and they refused to let us have a fulltime NUS black students officer. But in the end, through our unity and determination, we won. We are not going to give that up without a fight – let’s make sure we have 200 black delegates at that extraordinary conference – and at NUS conference in April to defend our place in our union.

We want to build on what we have achieved – and I ask every one to use this weekend to find out how you can get more black students in your institution active on campus and involved in our campaign. To find out how you can empower yourselves and, in the process, other black students to overcome the barriers to our participation.

The alarming rise in racism means a strong united response has been needed, and we have worked hard to make sure that black students are defended.

This weekend you will hear about the huge amount of work we are doing to oppose racism, from working with the victims of racist attacks, to being partners in Europe’s largest anti-racist festival and tackling institutional racism.

Conference, our campaign is moving striding and we are not going to be driven back.

The expansion of further and higher education has drastically changed the face of our institutions. Just as a majority of students are now women, black people now represent 20 per cent of all students.

But too often access to more ‘elite’ universities is minimal; the increasing burden of debt hits us hardest, and racism and under-representation continue to shape our experience.

But we are not going to take that lying down! Conference, in the year 2000, following the recommendations of the Stephen Lawrence Enquiry, the government introduced legislation – the Race Relations Amendment Act – that requires all public bodies – including colleges and universities to actively challenge racism. Disgracefully many institutions are still failing to meet their obligations.

That is why we have produced an important briefing – ‘racism in education- the law is on your side’. If you think that you are experiencing racism in education, or you know of someone who is experiencing racism in education, then now you have the tools to demand that your college or your university takes it seriously and takes action.

Our campuses have the potential to really celebrate what diversity and multiculturalism can mean and do mean in practice. Celebrating who we are and where we come from. To dispel the lie that we must all become the same – that our cultures and our identities should be degraded and abandoned.

Our campaign is proud of the important and valuable contribution black people make to our colleges and universities – just as we do in every walk of life.

We also have a deep responsibility to our sisters and brothers across the world to challenge the oppression and injustice that the overwhelming black majority of humanity has to face. Racism has always accompanied war and colonisation.

So we continue to campaign against the occupation of Iraq, and Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine – we have been active in our support for Khaled Al-Mudallal – a University of Bradford student, one of our members, who is trapped in Gaza due to restrictions on his freedom of movement imposed by Israel. Khaled will be speaking to us via a live phone-link from Gaza tomorrow so you can hear more about that campaign directly from him.

And we are inspired by the social and democratic gains in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela where the African, indigenous and mixed race majority are empowering themselves for the first time. Last week I had the privilege to chair a meeting with a leading representative of the African Venezuelan community and it truly was an inspiration to hear what can be achieved if the right priorities are set.

We are continuing to develop and strengthen our links with students in Africa working with them on issues such as tackling HIV/AIDS and poverty; demanding the west drops the debt that blights Africa. And we are campaigning for action now to tackle climate change – because we know that while the west guzzles gas and plunders the world’s resources – from Bangladesh to New Orleans – it is black people who have to suffer the consequences. I am proud that these issues will also be addressed this weekend.

I, and I am sure you, are fully aware of the enormous challenges that each of us can expect to face. But we have the potential, individually and together, as a campaign to make a real difference to the lives of black students.

Before I finish I would like to ask you all to stand up. To stand up and to pause in a minutes silence in memory of all those like Stephen Lawrence, Anthony Walker, Zahid Mubarek Jay Abatan and the many, many others who have lost their lives due to racism.

----------------A MINUTES SILENCE-------------------------

Thank you conference. I hope that you will make the most of this weekend, listen, learn, talk; ask questions and that you will learn from our speakers and from each other – that you will take away not just good memories and materials but inspiration and motivation to play your part.

The committee and I are here to help you and will do everything we can to support you but, ultimately, only with your support and your active participation can we – together – make a difference.

Thank you

Ruqayyah Collector

ruqs@nus.org.uk

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