Resistance proposals for National Union of Students

Resistance is putting up motions for NUS to prioritise a year-long campaign, initially under the slogan of "Education for all, not just the rich!", with a large national budget.

We are calling for student general meetings to be held on every campus in the first few weeks of semester to plan for a national day of action on March 27, for a national broadsheet to be produced to inform students of the issues and a national newsletter (and more regular national phone hook-ups) to facilitate communication between activist groups. We are also calling for state branches to set up organising coalitions which bring together students, staff, high school and TAFE students.

We see the NUS restructuring debate as a way to tackle the problem of NUS seeing itself as a "student parliament" focused on policy development and services. With the threat of VSU and the Liberals' cuts, it is not enough just to "represent all students".

NUS should actively seek to win students to the principles of fairness and equity in education and to the importance of student self-organisation. Its failure to do this since its formation has led to many students not even seeing the point of a union. The best way to "represent all students" is to campaign in the interests of all students, involving students in campaigns and in the union. Government lobbying and the career prospects of student politicians have to come second to this.

Resistance is in favour of more decentralised structures that concentrate power closer to students and more open structures to facilitate student involvement. But any structure is only as good as the political direction and commitment behind it. We have put up a range of proposals including that more funding remain in state branches, for more regular state delegates' conferences, for office-bearer positions to be more moulded around political organising roles, to make decisions by simple majority vote, for more recallability of office-bearers and representatives on the national executive.

We also feel that it is important for the union to take up and actively support other issues such as campaigns around International Women's Day and in support of pro-democracy activists recently jailed in Indonesia.

From GLW issue 255