Socialist Appeal - Cambridge students Vote To Stay With NUS

Cambridge students Vote To Stay With NUS

By Adam Booth
Saturday, 13 February 2010
From the 4th-9th of February, Cambridge University students voted in a referendum on whether to remain affiliated to the National Union of Students (NUS). The referendum was held due to a motion, passed earlier in the term, in which a small group of students proposed that the Cambridge University Students Union (CUSU) disaffiliate, claiming the the NUS had irreversibly degenerated into a bureaucratic travesty and that we were wasting our time (and money) by remaining affiliated to such an organisation. From the start, the campaign to disaffiliate was a mess of contradictory moods and statements. Various ultra-left groups and individuals (many of whom are not even students at Cambridge) opportunistically tried to use the referendum as platform from which to launch their idea of forming a new, radical federation of student unions. This is an idea that has been raised many times in the recent period, ever since the NUS Governance Review was pushed through using emergency conferences in early 2009. The Governance Review did indeed curb much of the remaining democracy inside the NUS, but as we explained in our perspectives on the NUS (http://www.socialist.net/perspectives-student-movement.htm), forming a new, fighting union without first winning over the mass of students to such an idea (or at least having a mass movement of students participating in university politics) would be even more undemocratic than trying to work within the current NUS structure. From our perspectives: "a new student union established without their involvement or consent will inevitably pass by the majority of students unnoticed...it would in fact be much more bureaucratic and time wasting than struggling to democratise the NUS we have now...It is entirely possible that for a time the NUS could come under the pressure of a mass movement of students, resulting in a much more left-wing leadership, whilst retaining today’s undemocratic structures". The other major concern about the disaffiliation campaign was the way it was used by the right-wing within the university. Tories have often called for disaffiliated in many universities, citing the "wasted money" spent on affiliation fees. These affiliation fees amount to approximately 30p per student, and in return students receive a number of services and discounts that they would otherwise not have access to, not to mention that they (and their university) get a voice at the only nationally recognised body that is supposed to recognise student concerns. Recent disaffiliations from the NUS that have occurred in the UK, such as at Imperial College in London, were very much on a right-wing platform intended to isolate the university and de-politicise the student union. Many of the ultra-lefts campaigning for disaffiliation were all too happy to go along with the isolationist campaign of the right-wing, claiming that as long as they won the vote, they would ensure that it was their message [of the need to form a new, radical union] that made it across to students, the media, and the government. This optimistic outlook was not founded on any evidence or strategy, and the tactic of "we'll shout louder and campaign harder" should never be the approach of socialists. Our tactic should be to patiently explain, through long-term work inside the mass movements and organisations, so that when students do start to move and fight-back, our ideas can chime and resonate with people from within the movement, instead of standing on the periphery of the movement and shouting slogans from the sidelines. In the end, students voted in favour of remaining affiliated to the NUS, with a vote of 65% saying "YES to NUS". Members of Socialist Appeal and the Cambridge Marxist Discussion Group were involved in the campaign for affiliation, and it was encouraging to see so many students supporting the idea of fighting for change from within the NUS. Simultaneously to this referendum, Cambridge University announced that it would be closing its Education faculty, following on from other recent attempts by the university to close the Architecture department and the Portguese course, both of which were successfully fought against by students. This news, alongside the looming cuts to education funding that have been promised by New Labour (and that will most likely be enlarged by a Tory government), shows that students will have to fight back in the coming period if they are to defend their education. Over the past few days, students at Sussex University have occupied a conference centre at their university in protest against cuts and closures, and it would not be suprising to see another wave of university occupations in the next few months, similar to this time last year, but now directly over the question of education. Socialists should be prepared to intervene in such a movement, and should arm themselves with the necessary arguments in order to explain why, under capitalism, the state cannot provide free education for all, which should be a right, not a privilege.