Zeitgeist

I am really glad I attended the annual conference for NUS in Blackpool this year. It was really exciting for most parts and it was a great way for the first time attendees like me to understand the difficulties, the pain and the beauty of practicing democracy!

As I mentioned previously here, this year’s conference was centred on the governance review. It did not take very long after stepping on the floor of Blackpool Winter gardens to be approached by the campaigners on this topic.

The two sides were easily recognisable; the ‘right’ – labour students who already had the main power in the NUS exec including the president, and the ‘left’ – a unified union called ‘Save NUS Democracy’ which consisted of left activists including Education Not for Sale (ENS), Respect students, Socialist students and others.

The main argument was that NUS needs change, and the governance review contained a list of recommendations that would make the NUS better. However I sympathised more with the 'Save NUS democracy movement' which argued that it is true that change is very much needed however supporting this motion would mean ending up with a less democratic NUS which would make it less representative, especially for the activists, minorities and ‘those of the silent minority’ (which almost every speaker later labelled themselves with).

The national president Gemma Tumelty argued rather passionately for the review and for sometime it felt like the right fractions are going to win. However wining was never too far from reach for the lefts and in fact the 2/3rd majority vote needed to pass the motion was never reached. The reaction from the loser fraction however was not very great. The highlight of this was ... Tagged as Conferences, NUS | 1 Comment » | Continue

I am not yet convinced I have to say. There are some serious accusations that change could make the organisation less democratic and harder for some groups to get policies passed or elect members on to the NUS committees.

Apart from this major issue there are a few motions to be discussed relating to Iran. Per usual, there are one or two motions against the war, one of which comes from the ENS (Education Not for Sale), which seems interesting.

Another is the nomination of an Iranian student activist called 'Anoosheh Azaadbar' to become an honorary Vice-President for the NUS. It must be noted that she will not be the first; Ahmad Batebi became an honorary VP in 2006, in solidarity with imprisoned Iranian students.

I have heard that these pro-imperialist actions have prompted angry reactions from the 'true' socialists which is always nice.

Anyway I will post about what happened with some pictures hopefully when I get back.

What better time to start a new virtual home but at the start of spring and the Nowruz festival! (Persian New Year)

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درود بر دوستان عزيز، اميدوارم كه نوروزتان پيروز باشد و سال بسيار خوبى در پى داشته باشيد. من اميدوارم كه با نوشتن بيشتر در پارسى، نوشتن پارسى خودمو بهتر كنم. خواهش مندم كه اگر مشگلى در املا ميبينيد به من بگيد كه درستش كنم!بدرود, خشايار