I know I haven’t blogged in ages. But I’m back and the reason I’ve been gone so long is because I’ve been really busy.

1) National RAG week’s still looking good. It looks as if 15 unions are finally going to run it on their campus. I really hope we raise a lot of money, but more than that, I hope we raise a lot of awareness.

Getting this project going as a part time NEC member has been so hard. Trying to keep on top of my studies and of my finances has become a nightmare in light of all the work I’ve been trying to put together.

2) AR/AF has had some teething problems. In my opinion, it is really unacceptable, but we most focus on the positive: We still stand united against racists and fascists. Some minor disagreements got in the way of our publishing our report and plan on time – but as soon as we can get a meeting of the zone and the committee, I’m sure we’ll iron these out. I for one will not let political point scoring get in the way of unity in the fight that we in the student movement must be leading against racism and facism.

The Nazi BNP has been trying to get a conference together in Blackpool over the 26th and 27th of November. If their conference goes ahead the UAF will be staging a protest on the Saturday which we will fully support. On the Sunday, we will stage our own protest in order to make sure that all students who want to show their anger at the policies and thuggery of Nick Griffin and his henchmen (most of them are men) will have their chance irrespective of their access needs. The more protests the better!

I want to thank Gemma Tumelty, Kat Stark and Alex Kemp for so enthusiastically helping to get the NUS wheels moving in the planning of this demo on the Sunday.

I’ve also been liaising with London Met SU in an attempt to help them write and put in place a policy against discrimination. If any other unions want some help or want to talk about racial/religious discrimination policies, or wants to discuss no-platform policies – please contact me. It will also be my pleasure to represent AR/AF at the Cambridge University Student’s Unions Anti-Racism week.

Alongside the great work done by the black student campaign, Ama Uzowuru has been doing some fantastic work in terms of diversity, which I’ve been trying to keep up with and support, and Wes has some great plans concerning diversity in Education. As co-convenor of AR/AF I will do my utmost to help whoever shares my vision of a society that doesn’t punish people for their diversity; that recognises the dignity of difference. How many black, minority and ethnic people rise to the full-time positions in your union? If you want to rectify the situation, please get in touch with the black student campaign and/or AR/AF, and in the case of those underrepresented ethnic minorities who are not (or do not define as) black, please contact AR/AF.

3) Vis a vis national demo: I can’t wait! I’ve been at Hertfordshire University Student Union selling the priority campaign to the discussion society as well as at various freshers fairs in London. The irony of ironies is that I’m so strapped for cash because of being a student in these days of marketised education, that despite being a “full-time” post-graduate student, I have to work almost full time to pay my rent. My employer won’t let me take the Sunday morning off to go to the national demo – so I’m going to be late, because the system has made me too poor to protest against it! But I’ll be there, even if I make it late. I’m really excited.

Some people in the media have been blaming the NUS for falling numbers of students. They say that we’re scaremongering about the cost of education. I’ve never heard anything so twisted! We support the government’s agenda for widening participation in higher education. We’re in favour of education. We believe that it’s a public good and more than that, we believe that it’s a right. It’s the government that’s charging students and strangling them with debt. It’s the government that’s threatening to lift the cap and allow tuition fees to rise through the roof until we have an American style system in which education is only for the privileged few and in which research and academic disciplines will only continue if they’re financially profitable. Don’t accuse the NUS of putting people off. We’re the ones defending the education system against market forces, we’re the ones fighting for widening participation and we won’t stop fighting until we win, for us and for the students of the future. 2010 is a long way away, but we must let the government know that we will not “learn to love” our fees.

4) And finally, I have been representing NUS on the government backed steering committee concerned with planning a more effective and appropriate policy for HE institutions and student unions for responding to global disasters. About which I’ll keep you all informed.

If you have an queries that you think I can help with, please be in touch.

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