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.
The proposals come from the National Executive Council and are backed by all the major members. From the NEC the concerns appear to be management related - in response to declining rates of participation in local SUs and elections. But mounting opposition to the Review has united the independent and left-of-Labour student organisations, who claim that the moves will serve to undermine their ability to significantly influence official NUS politics. With the majority of SUs around the country dominated by the monolithic Labour Students organisation, independently elected conference delegates are in many areas the only opportunity for alternative voices to make themselves heard at the conference. The planned reduction in size of the national conference, alongside an attack on its authority, would effectively shut independent and left groups out of the official decision-making process entirely, cementing the authority of Labour over NUS as a politically campaigning organisation.
The cause of non-Labour students is still far from lost. To pass constitutionally amending documents, the conference needs the support of two thirds of delegates. Due in part to marginally increased delegations from left-of-Labour organisations in recent years and the partial alliance founded by independents and student Islamic societies, non-Labour organisations have been able to carry the support of roughly a third of delegates in conferences past. The margin will be tight. But whatever the outcome, this year's conference will mark a watershed in NUS history. Whether the NUS is to become the self-selecting and politically neutral organisation envisaged in the Governance Review, or whether non-Labour student organisations will be able to get their acts together to inflict one of the most significant defeats to the NEC in recent NUS history, is yet to be seen.
Gemma Tumelty responds here.
