Fighting to win the maximum, principled unity of African, Arab, Asian and Caribbean people is fundamental to succeeding in the struggle for Black liberation. That unity can only be achieved by fighting for the interests of the Black communities as a whole. Any attempt to subordinate this struggle to narrow self-interest can only serve to undermine that unity and weaken our ability to challenge injustice.

The unprincipled alliance between the SWP/'Left list' and the right wing within NUS displayed at the recent NUS Black Students' Conference exposed this kind of opportunism and must be vigorously challenged by those who believe in Black self-organisation and an NUS Black Students' Campaign that continues to defend all Black people.

Earlier this month, at the NUS Black Students' Conference in Coventry, leading left activist Bellavia Ribeiro-Addy was elected the new NUS Black Students' Officer. Bell won the NUS NEC post in the first round with a powerful 56% of the votes cast. Her platform was an unequivocal and consistent defence of Black self-organisation and unity to ensure the most effective campaigning against the growing climate of racism and for the liberation of all Black people.

Bell was opposed by an open, and politically corrupt, alliance of the SWP and the right wing NUS leadership 'Organised Independents' (OIs).

Assed Baig, the SWP/Left list candidate standing fraudulently as Respect, refused to advocate a second preference vote for Bell despite claiming to share her progressive agenda of defending Black representation, opposing the NUS 'Governance Review', anti-racism and opposition to British and US imperialism.

Instead Assed and the SWP did a deal with Salima Lanquaye, the candidate of the NUS right, over transfers for the election of Black Students' Officer and the Committee elections.

Since the conference, SWP members have called for this alliance to be maintained. Ultimately, only the more powerful of the two parties stands to gain from such an unprincipled block – the agenda of the NUS right wing will be strengthened.

The agenda of the NUS Black Students' Campaign stands in stark contrast to that of the NUS leadership. While NUS has become increasingly disconnected with its membership and inadequate campaigns let students down, the NUS Black Students' Campaign has grown stronger with increasing involvement by fighting to defend our members' rights.

Black students have had to fight for the gains we have made in NUS. It took ten years to win a full-time NUS Black Students' Officer. We still face gross under-representation and what we have won has to be constantly to be defended. This year we saw the NUS leadership try to push through its 'Governance review' that would have overturned decades of struggle for Black representation at every level in the student movement.

We face constant attempts to over-ride the right of Black students to organise our own Campaign. At the Black Students' Conference, Salima defended the Governance Review and failed to even mention our free education policy in her motions or manifesto. She has previously argued that tensions between sections of the Black community should be a greater focus for NUS than the racism, under-representation and exclusion that we face in common and has never spoken out against the NUS leadership's failure to support the Palestinian people. On every question where a contradiction arose, Salima and her supporters took the position of the NUS leadership rather than what was in the interests of the Black community as a whole.

To support her campaign, Gemma Tumelty, former NUS President, even made a ruling to allow five members of the NEC to attend our Conference as voting delegates from their institutions, despite this being expressly forbidden by the NUS constitution.

The corrupt alliance displayed at Conference is consistent with Assed and the SWP's political record which has seen the SWP label Salma Yaqoob and other former allies in the Muslim community as 'reactionary communalists' over the split within the Respect Coalition, and in conflict with the overwhelming majority of the black communities by publicly attacking those who supported Ken Livingstone against Boris Johnson for London Mayor.

The power of Black self-organisation is that we are not dependant on others. Our representatives can consistently challenge every manifestation of our oppression because they are dependant only on the support of those for whom that oppression is a reality.

By the same logic it is not possible for the SWP to pursue a strategy that is dependant on the support of the NUS right wing without making concessions to the right wing's agenda.

Previously, when the right wing of NUS won control of the Black Students' Campaign participation at our conferences shrunk, Black representation in NUS was rolled back and the interests of Black students were attacked. Since then powerful unity of Black students ready to defend our representation and rights has seen the NUS leadership's supporters weakened inside our Campaign. Now that their support has bought them new 'friends' they and their agenda have already been strengthened.

The history of the struggles for justice for our communities has shown that Black self-organisation can be a powerful defence against such opportunism. Progressive activists in the NUS Black Students' Campaign will have to continue our fight against this corrupt alliance to ensure that it is the interests of the Black communities as a whole that are put first - through powerful and effective campaigns for Black representation, for equality in education, for international justice and against racism.

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