The Student Union is now affiliated to the Pakistan Trade
Union Defence Campaign! A motion of affiliation was successfully passed at the
Union Council meeting on 21st February with only two votes against.
An emergency motion has also been approved to be sent to the NUS Executive in
time for the National Conference in. If the executive accepts this motion (on
the grounds that the State of Emergency and assassination of PPP leader Benazir
Bhutto occurred after the deadline for NUS motions) then the NUS could join
with the B.M.T and the NUJ in supporting the PTUDC.
The Solidarity campaign in Norwich started last December
when a broad motion entitled ‘Solidarity with Pakistani Students’ was passed
unanimously. This made it union policy to host a meeting and invite a
representative of the PTUDC to talk about the situation in Pakistan. A lot of
work was put into this meeting and it became the centre for our entire
campaign. The Union Executive gave its official backing to the meeting. The
supporters of the PTUDC campaign then went ahead to organise the meeting.
The meeting was a success and actually helped to win the
support of the Executive members in favour of the PTUDC. This support was
crucial at the Union Council meeting as they made sure that the PTUDC motion
was addressed first in keeping with its emergency nature.
So what now? Supporters of the campaign, Martin Hall
and Dan Morley, are both running in the election campaign to be sent as
delegates to NUS national conference. If at all possible, we urge supporters up
and down the country to try and get themselves elected to conference in order
to bolster the emergency motion! The struggle of Pakistani students is the
struggle of all students. The illegal nature of student unions in Pakistan
clearly demonstrates the state’s fear of the student movement and its
revolutionary potential. The support that the NUS can give the student movement
in Pakistan will be very important.
