UMSU Activist

Manchester students have experienced a whole number of victories this year, from fighting the University to building one of the biggest General Meetings of the decade. We have built a fighting Students’ Union that has a national reputation for radicalism, one that stands up against the University and one that campaigns against social injustice. Student Respect activists have been at the heart of all these struggles.

Despite this, the movement has suffered a defeat in one of the many spheres of its activity. The elections this year saw the Right winning almost every single Executive position. The purposefully gimmicky ‘Incredibles’ campaign united the Jewish Society, the Labour Club, and the Lib Dems (with various hangers on) into a reactionary bloc that managed, by hiding its real politics from the Union’s membership, to narrowly defeat the Left. On campus, those of us interested in building a political Union that can really fight on issues like peace, social justice and free education now have a new reality to adjust to. There are, however, a number of positives to take from the elections.

The size of the Left

For many years, the size of the Left vote on campus has steadily grown. This year was no exception. In a year when the Left led Union has built a movement that has successfully challenged the University’s priorities and forced it to deliver on things such as the Home Fees for Asylum Seekers, Divestment from the Arms Trade and a public debate on the future of Higher Education, the ideas of the Left have become hegemonic on campus, with an activist base that has dwarfed previous years. Those of you who remember the huge radical vote at November’s General Meeting – when over 1,100 students voted by a 2 to 1 majority to protect our twinning with Palestine – will realise that that huge base of radical students hasn’t disappeared. The excitement on campus that greeted the 15th October Occupation of the University’s Foundation Lecture, the massive turn-out at the Stop the War Teach-In, the whole array of protests, meetings and debates that mark our campus as the most radical in the country have given our movement strong roots. This year, that movement was defeated electorally because the Right could liquidate themselves into a big enough bloc to defeat a political Left vote. Even in doing so, they had to use our language and try to appropriate our ideas. All of which stands as a testament to just how strong we are on campus.

The political defeat of the Right

It was no accident that the Labour and Zionist inspired Right wing bloc had to hide its politic agenda in order to win these elections. On issues such as Free Education, freedom for Palestine, the Occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, Abortion Rights, Climate Change…you name it…the vast majority of campus agrees with us. That meant that the Right needed a gimmicky, lowest common denominator campaign that would skirt political debate in favour of crude logo recognition. Even with this, they lost the argument on campus and came within a handful of votes of losing the Gen Sec position, relying instead on the fact that they had the biggest communal bloc vote. The superficial left sounding rhetoric of the of the Right shows the power of our ideas but also contains the seeds of their downfall: the huge gap between that rhetoric and what they will actually do next year will undoubtedly give them trouble and will give the movement the space to regain control of the Union.

The push for Unity

This year, we have worked hard on building a broad Left slate. That slate stood on a set of clear political principles and for a clear vision of a fighting Union that brought together left activists from many different traditions and political shades. We also believe, however, that Muslim students on campus are integral to that project as one of the most oppressed groups in society at the moment and we consistently argued for the need for unity with them. Despite that unity being frustrated by a minority in the Islamic Society leadership, those Brothers and Sisters who stood with us showed the sort of grass roots cooperation we need to be able to fight against oppression and discrimination.

That push for unity was undermined by the sectarianism of the Communist Students/Hands Off the People of Iran group on campus who stood against the Left in the crucial position of Campaigns Officer, handing that position to the Right backed candidate and joining in the celebrations as a candidate who calls for ‘less war’, believes in ‘humanitarian intervention’ and equates Israel and Palestine was announced the winner. The HOPI candidate has no activist base on campus and represents a tiny sectarian political movement that ran an incredibly right-wing campaign, proved by the fact that their transfers mostly went to the candidate backed by the Right. The gimmicky corporatism and superficial communalism of that campaign nevertheless managed to muddy the waters enough and hand victory to the Right-backed candidate. The right-ward lurch of this group will only be speeded now that they seek bureaucratic positions in a Right led Union.

The Way Forward

The victories of the Left on campus this year have greatly strengthened our movement. Those victories are not erased by a single defeat in one set of Union elections. As a movement, we do not seek Union positions for our careers or for our egos but so that we can represent that popular movement within the Union bureaucracy. The academic year 2008-2009 will undoubtedly be more difficult because we don’t have that representation but it doesn’t mean our movement disappears. It will offer new opportunities for growth and new challenges for the way we operate but, in the final analysis, Manchester is our campus – a Left, radical campus – and the contradiction of a Right wing Union leadership on a radical campus is one that will not last. We must hasten its ending by building a large core of Left activists who can carry the fight into next year and reclaim our Union for its students.

‘And these words shall then become
Like Oppression’s thundered doom
Ringing through each heart and brain,
Heard again - again - again -

‘Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.’