NUS Conference: Going through the motions
University of Bristol delegate Etan Smallman entered a strange world of student politics full of factions, impassioned students and heated political debate, but where crucial decisions had to be made.
Every year, Blackpool's Winter Gardens becomes home to the central pillar of the National Union of Students' democracy. Each affiliated university sends an allotted number of delegates to represent them. They then determine the policy, elect the leaders and decide the future of the national union for the coming year.
Entering the conference centre, one is greeted with many hundreds of students, all politically engaged, all poised to discuss the pertinent issues of the year. From student militancy to the minimum wage, Holocaust denial to student grants, and every issue in between, this was the pinnacle of student politics in Britain, where students get a national voice and where potential future political leaders get to hone their craft.
On the journey up to Blackpool the fiery debate began, with a predominance of left-wing activists making up the delegations of Plymouth and UWE, accompanying Bristol on the coach. The girl behind me felt the urge to begin many a sentence with "when my brother was a Communist....". Talk of "revolution" and "bourgeois self-absorbed students" filled the air. It is perhaps worth noting that NUS is so left-leaning that the Conservatives are considered far-right within its political spectrum. On the coach, an agitated Tory supporter next to me turned up her iPod, and we all got a taste of what was to come over the next three days.
As well as copious amounts of political debate, clear outcomes were achieved that will have a significant impact on millions of students around the country. Perhaps the greatest resolution was the decision to adopt the much talked about NUS Extra Card. With an expected £700,000 deficit this year alone, NUS is now pinning its hopes (and economic fortunes) on this discount card. Discounts will be stripped from traditional union/ NUS cards. In their place will be the Extra Card, offering a greater array of offers and discounts at an annual cost of £10.00, with the hope and aim of boosting the ailing finances of NUS and its university unions.
The most contentious motion of the conference, to re-allow the radical anti-Semitic and homophobic Hizb-ut Tahrir (HT) movement back into the NUS fold, showed how divided the union can be, not aided by its numerous factions seemingly tearing it apart. After hours of leafleting from both sides and a heavily drawn-out debate, it was decided that HT would remain on NUS's 'No-Platform' policy.
An issue that seems to forever crop up in student politics – how to deal with Coca-Cola – reared its head in Blackpool again this year. So controversial the subject, it seems, that a fight broke out on the balcony and two delegates jumped up and started yelling in the middle of the conference floor. The motion to boycott Coca-Cola was rejected in favour of a policy of 'constructive engagement' with the company.
Aside from the political drama and high-tension on conference floor, the outer hallway was decked out with stalls from all manner of organisations, there to tempt delegates' political sensibilities. These ranged from the political to the religious, from the international cause to those simply trying to get their man or woman elected as NUS President. Caucuses and fringe events were held throughout conference. The aforementioned supposedly "far-right" political movement known as the Conservatives boasted a talk by the ever-popular Boris Johnson.
Meanwhile, the entrance to the conference hall was constantly filled with shouting activists, often armed with a megaphone, and keen to get their voice heard. Who said that this generation was politically apathetic? Confronting the most contentious of issues, this bunch of students showed that they are enthusiastic to step up to the task.
This feeling was matched by fighting talk from Gemma Tumelty, the new NUS President-elect, promising "an innovative, united education campaign which is no longer reactive to destructive government policy but prepares to fight and win". But coming out of one of NUS's darkest periods with financial instability, diminishing political influence (shown most acutely by the passing of legislation on top-up fees) and with a noticeable lack of unity on show in Blackpool, Tumelty will need the sunny optimism that has gained her popularity within the student movement. NUS (and now its all-important Extra Card) still has a lot to prove.
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