BY SIMON BUTLER
SYDNEY — The 2001 National Union of Students (NUS) conference, held December 9-14, concluded in a frustrating farce. On December 13 the "left"-ALP National Organisation of Labor Students (NOLS) rammed through a motion overturning the Queensland NUS state branch election result, which gave control of the branch to Liberal students. The subsequent walkout by Liberal and right-Labor students ensured that the conference never achieved quorum again.
NOLS's factional manoeuvre meant that NUS passed no new indigenous or environment policy. Nor did the conference discuss motions tabled by the socialist youth organisation Resistance offering support for a royal commission into the treatment of asylum seekers, support for International Women's Day, and endorsement for the Easter Global Revolt, Global Links conference.
Unfortunately the largest faction to the left of the ALP, the National Broad Left (NBL), also voted for the NOLS motion. The NBL did not initiate the motion and doubtlessly some left delegates were caught by surprise. Many NBL members later indicated that they regretted voting for the motion since it closed the conference prematurely. Yet the incident underlined two key political problems of the NBL.
The first problem is a lack of clarity about how to defeat right-wing elements in the student movement. The Liberals' strong result in Queensland is certainly worrying but the question for the left should not be "do we have the numbers to overturn the election?". Instead it has to ask "how can we build political consciousness among students?".
If the left is to isolate conservative ideas then it needs to build its strength and influence through political campaigns that involve and mobilise students. No motion at NUS conference can substitute for that.
The second problem is that the incident showed how the NBL has become accustomed to tailing the lead of the ALP.
Despite having initiated the formation of the NBL in 1999, Resistance left it in 2000. It had began to accommodate to the 'game' of NUS where factional grandstanding and conference-floor posturing are all too often a cover for office-bearer deals, which put the "needs" of a faction before the best result for student activism.
Resistance argued that left unity needed to be based on common agreement — that of challenging the Labor Party's domination of NUS and transforming the union into a body that defends student and democratic rights and is democratically controlled by students. This is a position we still hold and we remain committed to work with anyone who agrees with this goal.
Today the NBL lacks a common political basis upon which to unite — substituting instead a vague left identification. The result is that it tends to sacrifice the long-term interests of the student movement (building a democratic, activist NUS) for the short-term goals of obtaining a handful of paid student officials.
During the 2001 NUS conference Resistance proposed the formation of an anti-war caucus. It aimed to unite delegates around a common political platform of support for political organising against war and racism, thus cutting across the factionalism of NUS. We proposed it be open to any delegate who agreed with the following four demands: 1) Stop the war; 2) No Australian troop involvement; 3) No racist scapegoating; and 4) No restrictions on civil liberties.
Representatives from most factions participated in the caucus at some time and a common motion outlining NUS's opposition to the phony "war on terrorism" was drafted. A heavily amended version was ultimately adopted by the conference.
The anti-war caucus demonstrated on a modest scale that a politically principled left intervention could be made into NUS. But if NUS is to become a relevant and democratic union then the left must build a real opposition to the dominant ALP factions. The way the left approaches NUS will be a very important question over the next period. At stake is the role the union might play in defending student rights and in building the growing movements against war, against the scapegoating of refugees, and against the ravages of corporate globalisation.
[Simon Butler is the national coordinator of Resistance.]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, January 16, 2002.
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