Sunday in Blackpool.
Executive.
new grouping, the Broad Left. This is its biggest test so far. Government's policy.
ineffectual Broad Left strategy.
resolution from the finalised motions before the conference took place.
democracy in me nanionarumon policy.
TWO YOUNG PEOPLE in Leeds The massive wave of student occupations against tuition fee increases is coming to an end with the start of the Easter vacation. The failures of the current National Union of Students during the campaign will however not go un-noticed at the bi-annual conference of the NUS which starts this The Broad Left leadership will be asking for a mandate to continue their disastrous policies and will be hoping for Tory support to maintain their dominant position in the National Socialist Students established in February, is committed to uniting students around an alternative socialist perspective to that of the The most lively debate of the conference is likely to be around the motions on overseas students and tuition fees. Massive dissatisfaction will be expressed over the demands and strategy pursued by the NUS leaders.
Their policy has been limited to opposing fee increases for self-supporting students. The result has been to divide students, selling out those on discretionary awards whose grants will be withdrawn because of increased The NUS relies on 'institutional consensus" with the college authorities, failing to arm students against the use of the courts and the police which has been used by liberals' like Ralf Dahrendorf at the LSE to carry through the After the experience of the recent campaign Steve Moon, the Tories Presidential candidate, can say of the Broad Left in his manifesto, 'the increased willingness or ine present leadership to discard the tokenist toys of mindless militancy is a sign of belated maturity'. That coming from someone whose party proposes even more massive cuts is an indictment of the The historic compromise between the Tories and the Broad Left in the NUS comes a step closer in the debate on constitutional changes. A joint executive and the Tory controlled Birmingham University aims to rid the union of the pre-conference compositing of motions that was instituted only twelve months ago. The reason for this change was to allow meetings in the colleges to mandate their delegates on the This has hindered the Broad Left sothev are lining up with the Tories. who in many colleges have crushed democratic organisation, in a move to reduce In the debate on racism and fascism the NUS leaders will be unlikely to maintain their base of support in their second joint attempt with the Tories to drop the unions 'no platform policy". An influential section of Broad Left supporters have submitted their own amendment urging retention of the The other debates will be on, grants and cuts, college closures, the education debate andine development or umon organisanon in ine Furtace Education sector. This will be the first time that a resolution has been discussed specifically on the FE sector. Unfortunately separating this issue RUNE STUDEN WORKERS AND STUDENT will result in no real changes taking place. from the way in which NUS can take its campaigns into the smaller colleges The non existence of the grants campaign, the concentration on service provision and the selling out of FE students in the fees campaign have directly hindered the development of FE union organisation. The same is true or te debare on colege closures. Ine wilingness of tnese students te escalates S.L. fight was shown dramatically last summer. The main problem was the Executive' strategy for the campaign and their derailing of actions that went beyond the confines of protest. But it is the election of a new national executive, which will dominate the press coverage. Six slates are contesting the elections. The Federation of Conservative Students and the new! Tormed capour sludens crous boln stand lor a less acmocranc unor committed tosupporting the government'sattacks on students and workers. eunionor siberais udeniscan be expeccuto zenerally lake arentwin majority position. The three left slates are the Broad Left, the Nationa Organisation of IS Societies (NOISS) and the Socialist Students Alliance The essentials of the Broad Left's positions are contained in the manifesto of their presidential candidate, Sue Slipman. She claims that the main divisions in the students movement are berween those for maintaining the unity of the union and those against. She adds that the task of NUS *is to defend democratic institutions and extend their responsiveness to peoples needs'. She thus ignores that the main divisions are between those for and against a fight back now against the Government's attacks. Her jargon is a cover for her position that action to defend student living standards in anance with une workine class, must oc suboramate to une long term visio of the return of a left Labour Government. The continuation of Broad Left control in theunion will onlv aid the rightward drift in the membership.
The NOISS slate on the other hand do offer an alternative to the compromise politics of the Broad Left. campaigning NUS that forges alliances with the working class. weakness is their failure to recognise that a mass based alternative to the Broad Left will not be constructed around one organisation posturing as the Without expressing any differences with the programme of the Socialist Students Alliance they have stubbornly refused to consider a united alternative, putting the interests of their own organisation above those of a serious political and electoral challenge to the Broad Left and the right.
The Socialist Students Allance has been formed with the intention of uniting the different elements of the left around a programme of action which encompasses all the maior issues facing students. Hugh Lanning, a long standing opponent of the Broad Left is the SA's presidential candidate. Lanning and the other candidates on the slate do not see the SSA candidacy as merely a way of popularising socialist ideas but as a credible and serious alternative leadership for the NUS. That leadership is essential to defeating the long term project of the Federation of Conservative Students to de-politicise thestudent: movement.
The Tories showed their true colours at UMIST in Manchester only last week. Atlast Thursday's union meeting a debate on Palestine was prevented from taking place when wris were served on studems participating de Ene beginning of the meeting. The writscited a clause of the union's constitution which states that the 'union shall not discuss political or sectarian matters The writs were sought by a leading member of the local FCS, Tony Corcoran Seeing this a clear attempt to gag political debate in the union two thirds of the 300 strong meeting stayed behind for an unofficial debate and decided to launch a campaign to get rid of the clause and the use of writs in the union.
Analternative is urgently needed that can organise students in opposition to the Governments attacks and the threats from the right. The showing of the SSA in this week's conference will be crucial to the success of such a They are committed to a
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HER UNI