By Tim Roll-Pickering
The NUS National Executive Committee met on October 22nd 2002 for a dramatic
meeting that saw the passing of resolutions on the current international
situation amidst heavy controversy, which I observed on behalf of
the National Postgraduate
Committee
The meeting, although scheduled to commence at 16:00, did not actually begin
until 16:22 when sufficient numbers had arrived. Not in attendance were VP
Welfare Verity Coyle, NUS Scotland President Rami Okasha, UCMC/NUS Wales
President Tom McGarry and Block of 12 members Hassan Patel, Daniel Yeo, Belle
Turner, Kath Owen and James Balloch. From the outset it was announced that the
meeting had to end at 17:30 as Mandy Telford and Chris Weavers had to go for a
meeting with the University of London Union and various London Presidents about
the proposed Imperial/UCL merger.
A number of administrative matters were dealt with first before the meeting
came to ratify a document on Reform Policy aimed at bringing the NEC Guidelines
in line with the policy passed at the last National Conference. It was agreed
to only ratify the most immediate sections at this stage, which are as follows:
* Every NEC member must now provide a monthly report for all Constituent
Members (affiliated Students' Unions).
* Regular Financial Statements will now be produced.
* Regional Conferences, which were due to meet the following week, can now
elect observers to attend NEC meetings.
The full document was not passed at this stage because there were concerns
about how widely it had been circulated in advance. Several NEC members
expressed their concerns about the circulation of information and decisions
amongst the full NEC given that they can be held accountable for them.
The NEC now came to discussing motions. No less than sixteen were on the
agenda, which were as follows:
Education Funding
NUS Education Funding Campaign
Education Funding Campaign
No To War on Iraq
Don't Attack Iraq
War on Iraq
Democracy in NUS
NEC Procedure
Under 16s in FE
LGB Campaign
Equality and Representation for Mature Students within NUS
Segregation in Education
No Sweat
Students and the Labour Movement
European Social Forum
Stop racism - stop the BNP
An emergency motion had also been submitted relating to the Imperial/UCL merger.
The order was challenged twice during the meeting, first to take the three
motions on Iraq first (by a narrow vote of 7:6 with 3 abstentions) and then to
take the FE motion after that. By now it was well past 17:00 but the guillotine
was extended to 17:45 and then later to 18:00.
There was much outrage when Mandy Telford tried to take the emergency motion
first and was forced to leave it until the end of the meeting. So debate began
on the Iraq motions. One had been submitted by the CFE members of the NEC and a
group of independents and this was composited with one submitted by SWSS member
Helen Salmon and Student Broad Left member Louise Hutchins. Labour Students
member Steve Bloomfield then turned his submitted motion into a set of
amendments designed to beef up the other motion by increasing the condemnation
of Saddam Hussein.
The motion was proposed by Kat Fletcher and seconded by Helen Salmon. They
outlined their proposal by saying that there is strong public opinion against
the war, it is critical to split Blair off from Bush, every extra bit of
pressure helps, national unions can do this, nearly every major TU has come out
against this, there is a huge student interest in this as shown on campuses
across the country and that it is right to take a position.
The motion was opposed by Conservative Future members Ben Archibald and Richard
Hilton. Ben Archibald stated that the motion called for the text to go on
the website and said if this happened it would show NUS to be "The
unprofessional organisation the hard left want" and that "This is a
COMPLETE JOKE!!!", slamming his fist down on the table. Richard Hilton
pointed out that the motion was factually incorrect as opinion polls are
shifting in favour of the war and felt that NUS shouldn't have a position on
this but should follow the clear feeling of last National Conference that NUS
should focus on issues affecting students as students.
A vote was taken on the motion. Archibald and Hilton voted against it, there was one absention and every other member present voted for it.
The FE motion related to the Government's plans for 'Increased Flexibility for
14-16 year olds' that will mean a larger number of 14-16 year olds studying in
Further Education Colleges than there are presently. It was uncontroversial and
was passed as follows. It resolved to:
1. Support our students' unions in any implications this new system has on them
2. Continue to lobby the Government for a response to the issues mentioned
above in Further Believes 2.
3. Oppose 'Increasing Flexibility for 14-16 year olds' in its current state,
until we are satisfied that the students who take part in this new system have
an effective form of representation, that all legal requirements surrounding
supervision are being met, and that adequate provision, funding and guidance,
is given to Further Education colleges to meet the requirements of catering for
under 16s
4. Work with other organisations such as NATFHE, Unison and AoC who will also
be affected by this
5. Write to the secretary of State for Education and Skills outlining our
position and asking for the issues that we are concerned about to be addressed,
and to copy this letter to our constituent members
As time was now extremely short, the emergency motion on Imperial/UCL was now
passed. The only change made was to widen the mandate to write to just the
Guardian and the Mirror and to take a
wider approach to the media. The NEC resolved to:
1. Support the actions of UCLU and ULU to ensure their voice is heard in any
negotiations between colleges and the University of London.
2. Write to all CMs outlining the dangers of top-up fees detailed in the leaked
report and encouraging them to show solidarity with London students' unions.
3. To encourage all students' unions to lobby their local MP on this issue.
4. To work with Imperial students involved in the campaign as this fight is
more important than differences within the student movement.
[A reference to Imperial's decision not to affiliate to NUS, reiterated most
recently in a referendum in March.]
5. To mandate the National President to write to the press condemning the
recent events. A press release should also be sent out immediately.
6. To hold an Emergency NEC Meeting on the first working day after the
publication of the government's paper on education funding.
It was now 17:59 and Mandy Telford declared the meeting closed, despite several
calls for her to leave the meeting open and hand over the chair to National
Secretary Penny Hollings. Telford refused these calls. This was not surprising
as the very next motion included a resolution to censure both her and Chris
Weavers "For their lack of action and direction in building for the
lobby/rally of Parliament (and the free education campaign in general." It
is almost certain that this motion would have been passed had Telford and
Weavers left the meeting open.
Ironically two of the other motions both contained resolves that would ensure
the NEC meets more often and thus gets through the backlog of motions that has
piled up.
