Bristol update: Extraordinary General Meeting

Last Wednesday around 480 students and
staff filled the largest meeting room of the Bristol Students Union.
This was an Extraordinary General Meeting, called as a result of a 24
hour occupation of the union last week.

The mood was electric, with students from 1st year undergraduate
courses to postgraduates and lecturers. The two motions were on the
University Of Bristol (UOB) stance on tuition fees and Higher Education
cuts. There was a lot of anger directed toward the sabbatical
officers, who started the evening off with a catalogue of their
‘achievements’ in tackling the issue of education funding. What was
quickly pointed out by an older student was that at a previous AGM, the
union had voted to oppose the cuts! Despite this, the current union
president has been claiming that they were remaining ‘objective’, and
were asking students what they thought about the cuts. This explains
their poor response to the national protest on the 11th, where a single
coach was put on, and most students remained completely unaware of the
protest.

Bristol Marxists managed to pass an amendment relatively unopposed
linking the UOB with the wider labour movement. There was a bizarre
objection from an American right-winger who began denouncing Trade
Unions as a social evil, but he was immediately booed down. What
remains now is to follow up this proposal with some concrete actions.
The Marxists mentioned the need to form a ‘Joint University Networking
Committee’, to link with UNISON and UNITE staff members, which got a
round of applause from the staff at the back.

A follow-up meeting has been proposed, which we will send more updates on.