[Edd Mustill]
In France over the last few months, students have held regular demonstrations and occupied universities in protest against the government’s proposed education policy. Meanwhile here on the other side of the Channel, the leaders of the National Union of Students (NUS) are moving in precisely the opposite direction. They are rushing through a new constitution for the organisation which would make such campaigning by the NUS much more difficult. The document includes the introduction of unelected non-student members on a new ‘Board’ which will be responsible for finance and will be able to veto decisions made by the new ‘political’ body of NUS, the Senate, on financial and legal grounds.
On 4th December 2007, there was a conference held by the NUS, the main purpose of which was to vote on the constitution, which needed a two-thirds majority to pass. Members were only given three weeks’ notice of the conference, and there was no requirement for unions to hold full elections for delegates. As a result, the hall was full of union officers who in many cases had failed to even mention the event to their membership. The arguments of the leadership largely concerned finance, with the main focus on the idea that those responsible for finance could be ‘non-political’. Surely, pleaded president Gemma Tumelty, we can put up with some unelected members who “won’t get directly involved with our politics” (my emphasis), for the sake of financial stability?
Once such lines of principle are crossed, however, things rapidly get worse. We know this from looking at other issues that have affected students in recent years. For example, when the Dearing Report recommended the introduction of tuition fees in 1997 the suggested level was £1,700 per year. This year, of course, we paid £3,070 in fees. In 2009, the fees are due to come under review, and may well increase again. The idea of free education as a right will thus continue to be undermined. It is unlikely even to occur to many students as an option.
The political culture of the NUS mirrors the situation in society as a whole. ‘Mainstream’ politics and free-market economics are converging, and the majority of people are completely isolated from the political process. Claiming widespread apathy, political leaders can excuse themselves from making their intentions public. Politics has become an activity that is concerned with single issues rather than all-encompassing worldviews, and is carried out by a small number of professional ‘politicians’. The NUS mirrors this in its transformation from a union to a charitable organisation, from a campaigning to a lobbying body.
The effects of this political culture include a rise in the ‘we know best’ attitude in the political class. Such thinking allows Tumelty to claim, presumably sincerely, that their consultation over the new constitution was ‘extensive’ because “five hundred officers and staff” responded from a membership of over five million. Stephen Brown, NUS National Secretary, has argued on his blog that student officers are ‘the real rank and file.’ This attitude is behind the NUS leadership’s current idea that no grassroots activism need be done to build for a proposed national demonstration against lifting the cap on tuition fees in 2009. Lobbying government ministers, in their view, is all that is required.
Is there a revivable tradition of activism among British students? The official union is not the only method by which students’ interests can be defended and advanced. In France, there is no single union but a number of competing organisations. This makes the self-organisation of students outside of unions an important element. This can be seen in the convening of regular General Assemblies in occupied universities.
The resources and membership of NUS, however, give it the potential to be an effective campaigning organisation. The new constitution needs to be passed again at the annual conference over Easter in order to come into effect. The leadership have given us very little time for debate, but we must use this time as effectively as possible to reinvigorate the campaigning aspects of our union.
