In response to RESPECT students' statement on the NUS National Executive's position on Lebanon, I'd like to raise my voice in agreement with their disgust at NUS's weak anti-war stance.

A combination of political opportunism and reluctance to criticise any position taken by the Blair government lead Labour Students and "independent" right-wingers on the committee to vote together against the Education Not for Sale motion calling for an immediate end to Israel's war. RESPECT are right to call the NEC to account for this, and if John Rees of RESPECT wants to come and speak, I'm strongly in favour of it. For one thing, I'd like to take the opportunity to question him about RESPECT's own weakening of the anti-war movement by their whitewashing of Hezbollah.

RESPECT students' statement conflates justified criticism of George Galloway on the basis of his support for the deeply reactionary, anti-semitic, anti-women and anti-socialist Hezbollah and opposition to the anti-war movement. The weakness of NUS's position on Lebanon had nothing to do with its perfectly legitimate condemnation of Hezbollah - criticism of Galloway is not, by extension, criticism of the anti-war movement.

I hope ENS will continue to push for a strong stance which combines opposition to war and imperialism with support for genuinely progressive movements across the world - including students', workers' and women's organisations in Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, and the new independent labour movement in Iraq.

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