NUS

Charlie Winstanley (Blackburn, Blackburn College): In the aftermath of this year's National Union of Students conference, a series of unexpected victories have placed the left and independent student groups in a position of daunting agency over the future of the Union. The sinister Governance Review (the central project of the Labour students 'vision' for NUS over the past two years) has been rejected; and despite hard talk about returning with the Review again at next year's conference, the Leadership of the National Executive know that another blatant attempt to force through undemocratic legislation so openly could further undermine their now damaged control over the Union. On the back of the left's victory over the Review, other surprise successes (on motions opposed to military intervention in Darfur and in favour of occupations and civil protest in event of a military strike on Iran) lead the Student Respect group to gain the 1^st and 3^rd highest votes for the Block of 12 elections, firmly establishing a left base within the NEC. Mumblings and murmurs about creating a united left movement from the 'Save NUS Democracy' campaign were prevalent in the post-Review caucus, for the first time offering the realistic prospect of building a united, alternative vision of student politics to that of the dominant political groups.

This is a response to Charlie Winstanley's post on the upcoming NUS governance review.

Gemma Tumelty, (London, National Union of Students): Charlie Winstanley's article on the NUS governance review is based on some serious misconceptions. The changes proposed are not a reaction to student apathy, quite the opposite, they stem from an ardent desire from over 600 Students' Union members of the National Union of Students (NUS) to have a more effective and more representative national union. For over 10 years there have been repeated calls for change, all of which have been continuously curtailed by the same group of people, fuelling disaffiliation threats across the UK.

Charlie Winstanley (Blackburn, Blackburn College): That student politics can become polarised is no grand revelation; but visible to those of us who have been involved in the internal politics of the National Union of Students over the past 10 years is a fundamental rift within the political student community, of greater significance than much seen previously. In response to alleged "student apathy" within the governing bodies of Student Unions across the country, a proposed Governance Review aims (amongst many other things) to centralise authority towards the elected officers in regional SUs and towards the elected officials of the national organisation. This would be achieved most notably in the removal of compulsory elections for conference delegates (delegates would thence be selected by the SU officers) and the reduction of the conference's powers, which would be transferred to other unelected bodies.