The recent wave of student occupations in solidarity with Gaza has highlighted a renewed political consciousness among students, and the success that can be achieved through direct action. The spontaneous and independent basis of the occupations also revealed the potential for mobilisation through grass-roots organising in channels outside of the National Union of Students. In the midst of such developments, a referendum among students on the University of Sussex’s affiliation to the National Union of Students was held last month. Those who voted ‘yes’ to affiliation won by a staggering 87.4%.
This is the latest episode in a long standing campaign to disaffiliate Sussex from the NUS; a motion to disaffiliate was defeated at the last Student Union AGM in November 2008, and the recent referendum was the second in the last three years. The importance of Sussex to the disaffiliation movement nationally cannot be overstated. Amongst student activists, Sussex has a strong reputation as a campaigning students union and has been at the heart of struggles against Blairite/ Brownite ‘reforms’ in the NUS. Such is Sussex’s significance that Alliance for Workers’ Liberty have even proposed orienting a new national student organisation around a disaffiliated Sussex Union.
A Clean Break
There are numerous reasons behind the calls to disaffiliate. In part, they are the product of the persistent failures of the NUS to properly represent students. In April 2008 the NUS accepted that students should now have to pay for their education, dropping its commitment to free education and adopting a more ‘moderate’ stance of ‘fairer funding’. The final straw for many occurred in January this year, when a new NUS constitution was passed under the guise of ‘modernisation’, placing limits on democratic procedures and crystallising the dominance of the New Labour executive. Reporting at the time, Daniel Randall of the University of Sheffield was unequivocal in his assessment:
‘For us the tactical assessment is clear; in a post-Governance Review NUS, individuals and SUs committed to radical, activist politics will have no room to manoeuvre and no meaningful hope of getting the NUS nationally to adopt those perspectives. We can spend the next period mired bureaucracy and a struggle to reverse these changes – that could necessarily only progress by inches – or we can make a clean break and establish something new.’
Calls for disaffiliation immediately ensued among sections of activists with Sussex leading the way. The creation of a new, more representative, more radical, student body was presented as a necessary alternative to the right-wing dominated NUS. According to the disaffiliators, for student politics to be properly radical, it needed to be cleansed of any right-wing elements that may prevent students from mobilising.
So why did Sussex, a hotbed of radical activism reject disffiliation? An argument persists that the referendum results were skewed by the self-interest and lack of political consciousness among the voters. In other words, students voted for affiliation not because of any political ideal, but because it ensures 10% discounts on groceries, for example. For disaffiliators, this itself underpins the reactionary policies of the NUS leadership – so long as students aren’t banging on the door, we can keep it shut.
Attacks
Whether their decision is enlightened or not, the majority of Sussex Students still undoubtedly see the NUS as an organisation that could effectively campaign for their rights (even if they have been entirely ineffective in doing so) as reflected by the result of the referendum. This 87% might well have voted for cheap booze but increasingly they will draw revolutionary conclusions from the developments surrounding them.
The British Government is in crisis and will seek to attack students and young people in their attempts to ‘save’ the capitalist system. The government’s National Internship Scheme will urge graduates to work below the minimum wage for a host of multinationals. A recent government report recommends increases in the amount universities can charge students, while two-thirds of Vice Chancellors would like to see an increase in fees according to a BBC poll. Such measures will ignite opposition and mass movements by students, struggles the NUS is currently incapable of leading. As more and more disaffected young people become radicalised, so too will the rank and file of the NUS, placing the right-wing leadership in an untenable position. Turning away from an organised body of students at such a time would be counter-productive in building a progressive student movement.
This reveals a more fundamental reason behind calls for disaffiliation: sectarianism. The most radicalised students see the NUS bureaucracy as a hindrance to the promotion of student rights. And they are correct. The conclusions drawn from this are, however, wrong. One cannot expect student politics to become revolutionary by name alone. While disaffiliation from the NUS certainly means disaffiliation from its right-wing leadership and its bureaucratic stymieing, it also means disaffiliation from its members – 7 million students. It means the isolation and fragmentation of the left-wing. It means giving the NUS leadership a free reign for any further reforms. It means abandoning new generations of radical students. By disaffiliating, the most politically advanced layer of the student movement would be turning their backs on the very people they claim to be fighting for.
On April 18th a meeting will be held at University College London on how to capitalise on the success of the student occupations, and organise and co-ordinate a radical student movement. But in order to generalise the movement, work cannot take place on the periphery. It must be in contact with the mass of students who, like it or not, are affiliated to the NUS. Certainly the occupations indicate a massive upsurge in political consciousness amongst students that, if generalised, can help build a radical student movement. If we are to build effectively, we must not resort to sectarianism. A concerted radical movement within the NUS has the potential to transform student politics beyond what could be hoped for by disaffiliation.
