James Crouch and Meg Drewett, Features Editors, slug it out over whether or not the Students’ Guild should offer their support for the NUS demonstration
James Crouch – NO
The NUS demonstration, to be held on 21st November, has a clear reasoning: to “educate the public” in the demands of the student body and really hammer home to “policy makers” student demands.
What anyone who may support this demonstration fails to realise is that it’s highly unlikely that anyone in government has forgotten student opinions on this subject. It wasn’t that long ago that a bunch of belligerent students smashed in the windows of HM Treasury. Quite frankly, any confusion on this ended months ago.
And, anyone who is delusional enough to believe another march – even a more peaceful one – is going to make the government U-turn on policy which has already been enacted should not be making the decisions.
What’s more is that the Student Guild’s job is not just to support the NUS, it’s to remind it that it should be doing the best job for students. And that means thinking of the best route to achieve policy change. We are in this government’s third year, someone tell me where the NUS’s current methods have got us? Nowhere.
Rather than angering the public by organising marches which drain police resources and damage property (as happened last time), they could become an ‘insider’ group. They could say that they are prepared to feed into government plans and suggest improvements to them. This would result in getting more done, rather than just citing a lack of common ground and demanding marches until they embarrass (if that’s the plan?) the government into retreating.
We should not be supporting the NUS in their children’s crusade. We should be saying ‘change tack, try something different’. Public gatherings don’t grab the agenda and we have clear evidence that they’ve failed. And the only possible success you’ll get is a new party in government, which will also ignore student needs unless you engage with it, not fight it.
James Crouch
Meg Drewett – YES
Let’s be clear: the National Union of Students’ ‘Demo 2012: Education, Employ, Empower’ march is about grabbing both the government’s and the public’s attention and reminding them that students aren’t just willing to sit around whilst their education is messed with. It’s fairly obvious that there isn’t going to be a massive change in policy following the demo and in real terms, it might not have that much impact.
But should the Guild support the march? Of course and here’s why.
It doesn’t matter if the march is ineffective in getting politicians to make a U-turn. What matters is that the roll of the Guild is to represent and facilitate students who stand up for what they believe in. If a selection of students wants to go and demonstrate, then the Guild should support them in doing so. These students shouldn’t have their voices quashed because another group of politically opposed students disagree with them.
And in addition to that, you don’t elect delegates, send them to conferences, vote for a march and then several months later turn around and change your mind. It’s utterly ridiculous to suggest that you can take part in a democratic process and then label the NUS a partisan organisation and claim that taking part in the march isn’t representative of all student views.
The Guild is part of the NUS and if we’ve helped steer them towards a march, then we should stand by them and our fellow students at other unis in seeing that through. You can argue all day and night about the nitty-gritty of the NUS and its political inclinations, so if anyone’s got better suggestions of how to get the public to hear what all students have to say about issues that matter to them, put them forward. But until then, the Guild is signed up to the NUS and owes it to our students to help them express themselves on a national stage.
Meg Drewett
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