The aim of this week’s NEC meeting was to vote through the “amended” governance proposals, discussed at last week’s meeting. Unsurprisingly, none of the left’s criticisms were included in the new document, and just to make it clear from the start – I voted against the entire document on principle. The majority of it was unacceptable, but even those bits which were sort-of okay (e.g. spending limits on NUS candidates, a good thing for allowing people who aren’t members of large, well-funded factions to run for NEC positions) had to be opposed, considering they were part of a review carried out undemocratically by an appointed board of (mostly) non-students.

Of course, from the beginning of the meeting, Labour Students and the Organised Independents were keen to paint the left, particularly Education Not for Sale, as small, unrepresentative factions who were opposing the review in order to maintain an undemocratic advantage in the current system. This simply isn’t true – I opposed the review because it’s undemocratic, cutting out pretty much any opportunity for rank-and-file students to get involved in NUS, not because ENS will no longer be able to organise under the new system. From it’s inception, the review has been based upon totally undemocratic principles – accepting “submissions” and adding only bits they agree with to the review, presenting the findings to the NEC with no opportunity for alternatives, no voting just “discussion” of any NEC member’s problems with the final document… it’s all basically exactly what the right-wing of the NEC wanted from the start, with little chance for the left to fight or intervene.

But now the left, and anyone who wants to preserve NUS democracy does have a chance to fight the review. The NEC voted to “ask” member unions to call an extraordinary conference as soon as possible (under the constitution, NUS must receive 25 requests from members unions, voted through their structures, in order to call such a conference) to vote through the reforms. Once the constitutional changes have been voted through an extraordinary conference, they’ll simply have to be ratified at Annual Conference to pass entirely, changing the structure of NUS fundamentally – the right-wing are keen to pass these changes, consolidating their majority, as soon as possible. Extraordinary conference delegates can be hand-picked by sabbatical officers, and such conferences are without exception small and unrepresentative – we mustn’t let such massive changes to NUS’ democratic structures slip through on the votes of 300-odd sabbatical officers with little to no representation of rank-and-file students.

During this week’s NEC, Vice President Education Wes Streeting argued (back up by the OIs) that no student who “can’t even get themselves elected to their union” should be allowed to go to conference, as a justification for the new ruling that local students’ unions can apply to be exempt from the requirement for a cross-campus ballot of all students to elect conference delegates. Labour Students and the Organised Independents think that only union officers should get a say in NUS – not the rank-and-file of NUS, the ordinary students who every day face attacks in the form of fees, lack of grants, low pay, course cuts, privatised accommodation, etc. They think only elected officers, who all too often stand on apolitical platforms, should be allowed to guide the work of the National Union of Students.

For defending the right of every student to elect their representatives at the highest level of our national union, the left were called utopian and out of touch. It is true that many students aren’t engaged in NUS democracy – that isn’t a reason to abolish it, it’s a reason to lead a reinvigoration of political culture across all students’ unions, encouraging political debate not apolitical representation by sabbatical officers who are often little more than heads of the students’ union business interests.

Other highlights from today’s meeting include the failure of Student Broad Left to vote against the entire review (as Black Students’ Officer and SBL fellow traveller Ruqayyah Collector was on the board and didn’t consistently report what was going on, who knows what deals were struck with the leadership to maintain SBL’s influence in NUS? They abstained on creating an NUS board, dissolving the officers of Secretary and Treasurer into it, and on creating undemocratic zone conferences), massively dishonest posturing from the right of the NEC on emergency conferences (pretending that they’re waiting for the will of the membership to call such a conference, rather than organising their pet unions to call one), decrying the right of left-wing NEC members to organise against NEC decisions amongst the grassroots by Labour Students and the OIs, and the championing of two year terms for officers from Dave Lewis, National Treasurer, and Stephen Brown, National Secretary. I’ve got verbatim notes and quotes, so if you’ve got any questions about who did what at the NEC (and remember, you won’t hear it from any official channels), email me at volsunga@gmail.com.

Education Not for Sale has called a broad, united meeting on Sunday 21 October to discuss a campaign against these proposals. Even if you don’t agree with us in general, if you want to fight these massive attacks on democracy, come to the University of East London, 1.45 – 3.15pm, or email volsunga@gmail.com for more information (you can also get me on 07815 490 837).

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/sofiebuckland/274870.aspx