Broad Left defeated at NUS Special Conference

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After years of inactivity and betrayal of the interests of students in the Further Education sector, the Broad Left majority of the NUS executive have suddenly discovered a new concern for these weakly unionised students.

At the Emergency NUS Conference, called in the face of opposition from the Broad Left, to discuss the government's latest proposals on student union finance and autonomy, the Executive claimed that "everyone was agreed" that these specific proposals should be rejected.

This was despite the statement made by Sue Slipmanex-NUS President-welcoming the proposal.

The alternative system that the Broad Left put forward reeks of collaboration and was not only thrown out by a very militant conference representing over 100 colleges but the Executive were censured for devising it.

National talks

The system hatched up by this alliance of Stalinists and left reformists would take negotiations over capitation fee levels out of the hands of local unions and into the hands of the National Executive.

This, they claim, will put the power of the national union behind the weaker colleges. This one-third representatives of the Committee of Local Education Authorities and one-third representatives of the Department of Education and Science.

Whatever this body decides will be binding on local unions and the NUS Executive will doubtless then be in the postion of enforcing the decision on its membership.

This proposal was defeated by 80,000 votes on a card vote.

Other amendments put forward by the SWP and the Socialist Students Alliance were also defeated. Both of these stressed the importance of defending student union autonomy but failed to put specific demands on the Executive to win the struggle. They also failed to put the crucial demand for capitation fees to be linked with a workers and students price index to keep pace with inflation.

Danger

The danger for student unionism now is that, despite the opposition from militants at the Emergency Conference, the Broad Left proposal might be accepted at the Annual Conference in Blackpool this weekend.

•Censures of the NUS Executive are not enough: they must be removed and replaced by those prepared to lead principled struggle if students unions are to be defended. ¡sation's classification of diseases (no. 302.0)-we must nevertheless have the perspective of fighting to defend gay: men and women as an oppressed minority.

At a time when the Labour government is striving to uphold the family through its new policy document on 'The Family' and the introduction of a minister for marriage we must take up a fight against the perpetuation of the family to serve capitalist ends. We see the fight against the cuts, which place more responsibility back into the family, as a perspective for doing this. But along with our fight to prevent the further oppression of women in particular, in this additional burdening of the family, we must also defend the right of gays to express their sexual preferences.

Yours in sisterhood Teresa Munby Editor's Reply:

We fully accept the point made on the need vigorously to oppose efforts by the capitalist press to exploit the Thorpe case for propaganda against gay rights.

We have made this point in our pages a number of times previously.

We would point out however that while this aspect of the case came to the fore in the second week of the trial, the lead article to which the letter refers deals solely with points emerging from the first week's proceedings.

There seems little doubt that the efforts by the press to sensationalise Norman Scott's evidence is related not only to attacks on gay rights but also to the desire by the capitalist class to blunt the impact of the political scandal unleashed by Bessell's evidence and the revelation of Thorpe's letters.

Editor.