Some thoughts on NUS Conference

This year's NUS was my first as a delegate as part of Student Respect.

Student Respect came out of NUS Conference with Rob Owen elected to the NEC, and Dan Swain elected to Steering Committee. Assed Baig very narrowly missed out getting on the NEC, but gained a fantastic vote for National Secretary (193), our biggest ever result.

We were a very visible and bold delegation which was leading the left-wing opposition on conference floor on varied issues: against means tested grants, against the "no holds barred" governance review, against equating anti-zionism with anti-semitism, and of course, against the 'war on terror' and the carnage that has been inflicted on the Middle East.

We were proposing a whole new vision of how NUS should be run: a political, campaigning and fighting union -- one that is against Bush and Blair's war drive that costs billions and the slashing in funding in our education system in the form of top-up fees and the associated marketisation of student life.

We proposed to follow the model of French, Greek, Italian and Chilean students, who organised effectively to win the fight against neoliberal reforms by occupying their universities and taking part in mass protests, and uniting with other workers on issues like the French CPE unemployment law.

This proved to be an effective strategy -- and they won on the key issues they were fighting for. Our national union on the other hand, proved itself not to want such action. Instead of supporting a national demonstration, which last year proved to be successful despite the rather small numbers (and which Student Respect was central to mobilising for), Labour Students as well as the Organised Independents faction, consistently voted down and shamefully argued against any real action against top-up fees and the marketisation of education.

They proposed "creative campaigning" which mostly seemed to involve lobbying and talking to "key MPs". Imagine if the Stop the War Coalition decided to do the same around an attack on Iran!

As in national politics, it is up to Student Respect to provide a left-wing pole of attraction that the current leadership does not provide. Labour Students and those in the Organised Independents are digging their own graves -- there was a right-wing faction at Conference which wants NUS to be "Not for Politics, Just for Students", and the leadship's proposed governance review will allow this faction to gain more influence.

Only those who stand for real, principled politics can save NUS -- and it is clear that Labour Students as well as the Organised Independents around Gemma Tumelty cannot do this. They are too tied to interests of Blair and the neoliberal establishment. This link means that they become timid and refuse to fight on the key issues that affect students -- and allow our union to be turned into a bureaucratic arena in which they can further their own careers.

It is up to Student Respect to break this link, and turn NUS into a fighting, radical union on war and the marketisation of student life.

Student Respect will be back at Conference next year with an even bigger and bolder delegation, where we will build on the huge gains we have made at only our second intervention at NUS Conference.