SOAS motions on Msex Phil campaign and Censure of Wes Streeting, NUS president

Two motions at SOAS UGM this Friday.

2. Save Middlesex Philosophy

Proposed by: Alexej Ulbricht
Seconded: Shanti Ulfsbjorninn

This union notes:

    2.1    That on April 26th Middlesex University executive decided to close its Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP), and in the course cut all philosophy programmes, undergraduate, postgraduate, and MPhil/PhD;

    2.2    That CRMEP is one of the most important centres for the study of modern European philosophy in the English-speaking world, and is well known for its social and political engagement;

    2.3    That philosophy is the highest research-rated subject at Middlesex, with the RAE rating 65% of its research as either ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’;

    2.4    That the MA programme in philosophy is the largest of its kind in the country, with 42 students admitted in 2009;

    2.5    That as such, the department also generates a substantial amount of revenue for the University, currently contributing close to half of its total income to the University's central administration;

    2.6    That despite all this the Dean for Arts and Humanities, Edward Esche, has stated that the reasons for closure where simply financial, and that the department made no ‘measurable’ contribution to the university;

    2.7    That a ‘Save Middlesex Philosophy’ campaign has been formed to oppose the closure;

    2.8    That this news follows a whole string of announced cuts around the country: at UCL, at Kings, at Westminster, and elsewhere;
 
 --

This Union Believes:

    2.1    That there is nothing to justify the closure of CRMEP;

    2.2    That this is a foreboding sign of the kind of pressures that are going to hit Arts and Humanities subjects, if even a university’s most prestigious department faces the axe;

    2.3    That taking action against these measures is fundamental to defend the quality of Higher Education not only at Middlesex, but nationwide;

    2.4    That allowing a precedent of this kind paves the way for further cuts to be implemented in other institutions;

    2.5    That the SOAS academic tradition has always been at the forefront in Arts and Humanities, and is as such incompatible with cuts of this kind;
 
 --

This Union Resolves:

    2.1    To formally support the Save Middlesex Philosophy campaign;

    2.2    To support every form of action that students at Middlesex are going to take against the announced measures;

    2.3    To send a letter to Dean Esche, voicing our opposition to these plans;

    2.4    To circulate the petition to save Middlesex philosophy in the next Union email;

2.5 To mandate the Students' Union executive to lobby the School to express its opposition to the damaging measures taken by Middlesex management.

==============
5. Condemn Censure at National NUS Conference

Proposed By: Elly Badcock
Seconded By: Symeon Brown

 --

This Union Notes

5.1  That Durham University Union Society planned, in March 2010, to invite the British National Party to a formal debate.

5.2  That the National Union of Student’s LGBT Officer and Black Student’s Officer wrote a letter to Durham Student Union requesting that they cancel the debate due to both the danger posed by inviting fascists onto campus, especially to black, LGBT, disabled and women students, and the NUS No Platform policy which they are mandated to campaign for within Student Unions. They stated in the letter that if the debate was not cancelled then they would organise a protest alongside Unite Against Fascism

5.3  That Durham Union Society cancelled the debate.

5.4  That Durham Union Society argued that the letter was threatening because of the line “if students are hurt around the event, responsibility will lie with you”.

5.5  That the signatories pointed out that this line was in reference to the statistically proven link between the BNP organising in an area and the rise in hate crime and violence.

5.6  That, subsequently, a campaign was staged at Durham to disaffiliate from the NUS, with a referendum voting narrowly for disaffiliation.

5.7  That at NUS National Conference 2010, a motion of censure was brought against both the Black Student’s Officer and the LGBT Officer, and was passed only against the Black Student’s Officer.

5.8  That Wes Streeting, current NUS President, as well as six other NEC members voted for this censure, and that the censure passed by exactly seven votes.

 --
 
This Union Believes

5.1  That wherever fascists organise in an area, hate crime and violence rises.

5.2  That fascists threaten the very right of black, LGBT and disabled students to exist and are extremely misogynistic.

5.3  That the BNP are a fascist organisation seeking a veneer of respectability, but that their comments belie their true fascist nature. Speaking about the Holocaust, their leader Nick Griffin stated: “I have reached the conclusion that the‘extermination’ tale is a mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie, and latter [day] witch hysteria.” On the subject of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, he said: ““Everyone down there knows he was notorious for taxing kids for their dinner money and he was a drug dealer. According to many people within the Metropolitan police, he was killed by another black – not a white racist attack at all.”

5.4  That fascists are not welcome in our Student’s Union.

5.5  That the Black Student’s and LGBT officers were right to request the cancellation of the debate, and to organise a protest.

5.6  That censuring a Liberation Officer for anti-fascist work sends out an extremely dangerous message that will be seized by the BNP as evidence that they are a legitimate party.

5.7  That censuring a black woman and not a white man for the same actions is disturbing at best.

5.8  That the censure of the Black Students’ Officer and attempted censure of the LGBT Officer gives the false impression that the NUS and (therefore NEC) does not support our liberation campaigns and their officers.

5.9  That these false impressions, if not corrected, have the potential to damage the organisation further, up to and including discouraging participation from Black and LGBT students and constituent members like ourselves who represent a high proportion of students from these campaigns.

5.10 That the Liberation Campaigns (Black students, Women, LGBT and Disabled students) are autonomous and should be mandated by and answerable to their members.
5.11 That it is shameful for seven NEC members to vote for this censure.

5.12 That the NUS must take a strong, anti-fascist stance and actively defend the case for No Platform.

 --

This Union Resolves

5.1 That we have no confidence in Wes Streeting and the NEC members who voted for the censure.

5.2 To pass a motion of censure from SOAS Union against Wes Streeting and said NEC members.

5.3 To call on the NEC to release a statement which re-affirms its support for the No Platform policy of the NUS

5.4 To call on the NEC to further include in this statement a re-affirmation of its support for both the Black Students’ Campaign, LGBT Campaign and all liberation campaigns

5.5 To affiliate to and continue our work with Unite Against Fascism

5.6 To implement a No Platform for fascists policy in SOAS Union

Fighting Fascism, and the case for No Platform -TMRW 22 April

I'm speaking at this very important mtg tmrw to defend Bell, to defend No Platform and to defend our students' unions from fascists.

Please do come along and show your support.
#uaf #bnp #edl #nusnc10


Thursday 22nd April, 6pm - 8pm

ULU, Malet Street

Room - 3A (third floor)

Nearest Tubes - Goodge St, Euston, Euston Sq & Russell Sq
This meeting has been called by UAF, the NUS Black Students’ Campaign and the NUS LGBT Campaign only two weeks away from the General Election on Thursday May 6th. Following the election of two British National Party fascist MEPs last June it is more important than ever that we as a student movement come together and oppose the rise of fascism within the UK.
The meeting is being held exactly one week after the censure of Bell Ribeiro-Addy at NUS National Conference for sending a letter to Durham Students’ Union. The censure was made on the grounds that Bell was “threatening” and imposing NUS’ No Platform on Durham. The reality was that Bell and Daf Adley (NUS LGBT Officer) successfully stopped two fascists (including ex-National Front leader Andrew Brons) spreading their racist lies on Durham campus.
This meeting will discuss the ways in which students can mobilise to stop the BNP and other groups like the English Defence League, and look at how No Platform for Fascists can be a very useful tool within Students’ Unions.
Book your place now – email bell@nus.org.uk and daf.adley@nus.org.uk

Speakers



Chair - Sabby Dhalu, UAF Joint Secretary

Hugh Lanning, PCS Deputy General Secretary

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, NUS Black Students' Officer

Daf Adley, NUS LGBT Officer (Open Place)

Clare Solomon, ULU President-elect

2 FREE Mutiny tickets up for grabs...

Love on Trial tickets nearly sold out. We have 2 up for grabs: just email us the name of Musa's fantastic jazz poetry collective to jointhemutiny@gmail.com

The first one drawn out of the hat at 10am tmrw will be emailed two free tickets. Good luck :-)

The line up is looking totally F.A.B. and we have lots of goodies and gifts for you. The activist packs were a winner last time.

We have a limited number to sell on the door for those who cant use
Paypal for whatever reason. These will be 1st come, 1st served.

http://lovemutinytickets.blogspot.com

Lots and lots of Love,

The Mutineers
http://jointhemutiny.org/blog

Love Mutiny tickets now on sale.

After a teriffic response from our first time Mutiny goers, tickets
are now on sale for everyone else.

I hope you're looking forward to our second event. You may buy as many tickets as you like :-)

Students/Concession £3
Standard £5.

Make sure you type your name into the correct bit for the guestlist.

Standard/solidarity £5.00 Student/concession £3.00

NUS president Wes Streeting stoops to a new low

Check back here soon for video of his remarks on Gaza & student occupations incl on occupations over education cuts. I can't work my YouTube uploader atm.

Please comment below or ask questions. I will try to get them answered.

NUS NEC member James Haywood writes on Wes Streetings latest comments

Wes Streeting stoops to a new low

People should hold their stomachs and read this Ha'aretz article about NUS President Wes Streeting's recent visit to Israel: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1137628.html

I was in two minds of whether to write something about this, it truly is so disgusting that most points don't need much coming back on, but actually some serious issues do come out of this.

Of course Streeting attacking the UCU is nothing new, first the planned strike last year was needed for students "like a hole in the head", and now this attack on the UCU's bravery in standing for the academic boycott (which has now been followed by the TUC). But then, hey, since when has New Labour ever been about supporting unions?

His quoted remarks on Palestine really are disgusting however. Livni, the politician responsible for the massacre in Gaza which will be mourned on campuses across the UK over the next month, was apparently "a really strange choice" for lawyers in the UK to seek arrest for war crimes. With no sense of irony he says this attempt to uphold international law must, "seem so really ignorant". mmm....quite,
so while we're on the subject of ignorance lets carry on with the article:

"my first impression of the West Bank was that it was just like the place on the other side.... The surroundings were the same, the people were doing the same things - there wasn't much difference between the two places." The Palestinian economy in the West Bank seems "to be a lot more stable and active" than he had assumed, he added."
The charities, religious groups, NGOs (including Israeli NGOs), Amnesty, they are all liars.....he didn't add.

What a pity he didn’t go 5 minutes from the Church of Nativity to Dhieshesh refugee camp where thousands of Palestinian refugees live in terrible conditions and survive on UN hand outs: not a stable and active economy. Or perhaps Streeting could have gone to Hebron, and seen the settler violence against Palestinians there and the destruction of the economy by the siege on the old city by the Israeli army. Or gone to Nablus to visit the huge graveyards, or Ramallah to Bir Zeit University to hear from students of the military lockdowns the campus has suffered consistently over the years.

But most normal people know this, so why bother raising it? Because actually this highlights a dangerous issue with this trip. This wasn't a holiday, which can be seen not just from his press comments but Ha'aretz reported that these comments took place, "after a meeting in the Prime Minister's office".
This trip was organised. By who?

Students in the UK have a right to know who organised this trip, and if it was paid for who funded it. Because whatever organisation did organise it are clearly not even interested in promoting a two state solution let alone a just solution. If the issues are so "complex" why did Streeting not visit officials in the West Bank? Why did he not meet the Palestinian student council? Or visit refugee camps? Or look at the illegal settlements and the violence perpetrated by settlers in the West Bank? Or villages being destroyed by the apartheid wall? Why no attempt to enter Gaza? Yet again we have the racist vision of Palestinians as invisible "problems" that need to be "solved", not human beings who have a right to live, let alone to education, health, housing and other basic things they are denied by the occupation.

We have a right to know who organised and funded this trip, and we should question whether such biased and frankly corrupt practises are acceptable in our National Union.
And if Streeting is genuine, then I have an offer for him: Goldsmiths are organising a trip to the West Bank in early April, he is now formally invited to come on the trip to see "the other side". I look forward to his response.


Haarerrz article

[Posted with iBlogger from my iphone ]

Students Fuming over Labour Party tricks-spot the difference anyone?

Alice Mahon who has recently left the Labour party wrote us this little leaving note. I have made a few changes-mine are underlined. Feel free to comment with any further suggestions.

==========================

It became clear to me during my insert number of years/18 years in NUS/parliament that, with the phenomenon called New Labour, two things would change the politics of the student/Labour movement forever.

One, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown would adopt with great enthusiasm the free market economics pursued by Thatcher and the US neo-cons. Two, they would have to change the structures and policies of the NUS/party to achieve their goal.

A machine was put in place to crush anything remotely connected to Old Labour. Conference was changed beyond recognition, any dissent ruthlessly stamped on by the new spin masters. Delegates were sought out and pressurised into supporting New Labour policies even if they were against what the local students' unions/party had decided.

This nastiness was a hallmark of New Labour and they exercised it at every level of the movement.

I have stood for conference arrangements committee twice and the party machine has moved in and spent enormous amounts of money supporting the candidates who would always support the leadership's bidding. No expense was spared when it came to defeating an independent voice. Opposition/Party members have effectively been banned from any decision making.

For those of us on the left, the weekly parliamentary Labour Party meetings were not a happy event.

I remember asking for a motion at the NEC/two-day debate on the Iraq war and the sky almost fell in. The Blairite foot soldiers ran out to brief the press and sure enough on the front pages the following day it was reported that I and other usual suspects had been opprresive to minority students causing inaccessibility/ridiculed and "roundly booed" for opposing the Wes Streeting's/leadership position.

There are very few of what I would call real Labour candidtaes/MPs in the student movement/Parliament.

I stayed in the movement/party hoping that with a new leadership we might go back to being a really progressive and caring party. In the event I could not have been more wrong. Under Streeting/Brown things are just as bad. The decision to privatise the student fees/Royal Mail is inexplicable and simply wrong. We said in our 2005 manifesto we would not give up the fight for Free Education/privatise Royal Mail; we lied.

His/That manifesto promised real democratic change/a referendum on NUS activity/the European Constitution, we renamed it the Governance Review/Lisbon Treaty and reneged on that promise also.

Now we find out that Ednet/Facebook/NUS websites/NUS mailing lists/a website was to be set up in our name whose sole aim was to smear members of the opposition and their families. Well not in my name and, from the response I am having to my decision to resign, not in the name of many party activists either.

I have spent most of my life working for and representing the Labour Party. I always took the view that I should stay and fight within, but New Labour have done such a good job of demolishing our democratic structure (with a Governance Review) that I realised there was nothing I could say or do to change things from within.

There was only one thing for me to do and that was to resign.

NUS President supports student occupations NOT!

Wes Streeting cries all the way back to NUS HQ after discovering that he was misquoted saying, basically, that he supports the student occupations!!

Damned journo's, how's he gonna get a job in the Labour Party now? Erm....sorry Wes for ruining your career!

http://gazasolidarity.blogspot.com/2009/02/uk-student-occupations-national.html

Dear National Union of Students

I just wanted to let you know that student activism is only dead if you leave it to die, or kill it, just like you have tried to do.

I will continue this letter once i am out of mourning. Good job we have SEVEN student occupations on at the mo with many more to come or i don't think i would ever get over it.

Yours no more,

Clare Solomon

National NUS President et al play dirty games still...

The disgraceful behaviour from your NUS President towards Bell, the Black Students Officer comes just a day after the announcement during an NEC meeting that he will be "writing to the LGBT Campaign to register his disgust" at LGBT's vote to be anti-Governance Review, because, in his words, the committee is "unrepresentative". Shocking and ridiculous words from a man who believes that two extraordinary conferences is representative of students' wants.


Read the whole exchange in one long document at http://deepermindfield.blogspot.com/2009/01/below-you-will-see-ive-pasted-in-text.html

NUS Black Students' Officer condemns the failure of the NUS National Executive to condemn the slaughter in Gaza

please circulate widely

 
As Israel's overwhelming military attack on the people of Gaza continues with devastating consequences, NUS should do all it can to support those working to end the military onslaught.
 
Unfortunately, at an NUS National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Wednesday, a majority of NEC members refused to clearly oppose Israel's overwhelming acts of military aggression and commit NUS to taking action to bring an end to the violence in Gaza.
 
Instead NUS NEC has adopted a policy that fails entirely to acknowledge the disproportionate, brutal slaughter of the people of Gaza, the fact that over 1000 Palestinians, including at least 322 children, have died since the conflict began, and the humanitarian crisis that has developed in Gaza with its borders sealed imprisoning the population and reducing supplies of essential medicines, fuel and food to far below the minimum necessary.
 
The NES NEC has also failed to support any of the protests called in opposition to the war in Gaza, failing to represent the views of the great majority of British students who are horrified by the carnage they see every day on TV. 
 
Bellavia Ribeiro-Addy, NUS Black Students' Officer said: "The position of the NUS NEC is in stark contrast to the views expressed by United Nations officials, British MPs, the British trade union movement, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UNICEF and numerous aid agencies.
 
On Wednesday the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, Richard Falk, stated that "There is a well-grounded view that both the initial attacks on Gaza and the tactics being used by Israel are serious violations of the UN charter, the Geneva conventions, international law and international humanitarian law."
 
Over 100 MPs have signed a motion which "expresses outrage at Israel's overwhelmingly disproportionate use of force in Gaza which continues to inflict massive civilian casualties, particularly amongst children and which has involved strikes on aid convoys, United Nations schools and medical personnel." MPs have called for meaningful action to be taken – including calling for an arms embargo, and for the EU to demonstrate that its trade agreement with Israel is conditional on Israel respecting human rights.
 
The European Union has also taken action, suspending further negotiations on upgrading its relations with Israel, as the head of the European Commission delegation to Israel suggested it was "not appropriate" to continue discussions while Israel was "using its war means in a very dramatic, in a powerful way in Gaza."
 
Over 570 Jewish signatories have placed an advert in The Times, calling for action, including an immediate ceasefire, end to the blockade, investigation into possible war crimes, the suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement and an arms embargo to Israel.
 

Read more including the motions submitted at: http://deepermindfield.blogspot.com/2009/01/continued-nus-black-students-officer.html

Wes Streeting, NUS president, censors Black Students Campaign. Plz msg me if u have more details

Ok, so here we go:

Here is the initial email that Bellavia Ribeiro-Addy, the National Black Students Officer sent: http://deepermindfield.blogspot.com/2009/01/bells-original-email.html

And the one Wes Streeting, National NUS President countered it with to ALL sabbs (even those who didn't get Bell's original message): http://deepermindfield.blogspot.com/2009/01/wess-response.html

It needs to be questioned to him at extraordinary conf.

And a further esponse to Wes from Bell: http://deepermindfield.blogspot.com/2009/01/further-response-to-wes-from-bell.html

This is all the info i have at the moment. I am working on getting more. i will update this post directly once i have more info...

This is an email from one of the officers at SOAS:

Dear Wes,

I wish to strongly express my dismay and disgust at what I have learnt took place last night with regard to the infringement of the Black Students' officer's autonomy. The Black Students' officer is an elected member of the NEC, with a mandate to represent their constituents. This is similar to the office holder/constituent confidentiality that exists within many other forums and representative offices.

To hear that she was locked out of her private email address, whilst the officer was rightfully emailing a legitimate list of students in the NUS Directory, is nothing short of a disgrace. Further to this, before the officer was able to email the list fully, to hear that you actually sent a reply to various additional lists is nothing short of scandalous.

I would like to add that whilst I received your email, SOAS hadn't received any email from the Black Students' Campaign and I feel as a representative of all students in the country, you should in no manner be inhibiting our rights to receive information from this campaign.

I wish to call for an independent investigation into this matter, as this is a very serious cause for concern. What are the proper channels for me to go through with this?

Regards,

Join the picket outside the NUS exec mtg THIS Wednesday

The number of dead in Gaza continues to rise. 908 Palestinians have been killed since the massacre started in late December, of whom 277 are children. Israel says 13 Israelis have died (as of 12/01/09).

Tens of thousands of people across the world have taken to the streets against the invasion of Gaza.

The statement released by the National Union of Students makes it sound like a war between two peoples and that there is some sort of equivalence in the suffering, failing to note the 60 years of Israeli occupation. It also says nothing about putting pressure on our government to stop the crisis.

The NUS should support demonstrations against the attacks and demand an end to the Israeli bombing campaign. It should also call for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador unless Israel immediately ends the siege, bombing and invasion of Gaza.

- Stop the massacre
- Israel out of Gaza
- Expel the Israeli ambassador

10.30am – 12.00 - Wednesday 14th January
ULU, Malet Street, Central London
Stop the War Coalition
www.stopwar.org.uk - office@stopwar.org.uk - 0207 278 6694
Stop the War Coalition
PROTEST AT THE
NUS EXEC MEETING
Stop the War Coalition

NUS lgbt committee opposes bullshit governance review

At fridays lgbt committee meeting - we managed to pass the policy against the governance review (a big step on from them voting to support it last year, and even from the last ctte meeting). All attempts by aaron porter to remove parts were defeated, with the final vote being 7-2 in favour of the motion (if daf wasnt chairing and lucy chairing instead the vote would have been 8-1)

The nus lgbt officers will now vote against the review at extraordinary conference

Continuing the fight for a Diverse, Campaigning and Democratic NUS!

Possibly the most boring thing in the world: A Beginners Guide to Compositing

Drafting Commission/compositing for NUS Extraordinary Conference 2008.

My very first video coming soon (as soon as i figure out how to upload it)...

Done it-wee hee! Sound quality a bit poor but well done to luddite me anyway. Check out all the fancy effects :-)

SOAS calls for NUS president to resign!!

A motion was passed at last weeks UGM calling on NUS (National Union of Students) President Wes Streeting to resign over his handling of racism at NUS events. apparently, and understandably, this has caused quite a stir at NUS headquarters!

The motion also called for disaffiliation from the NUS. I argued for and won the vote to remove this part. The NUS needs to be a strong, fighting, more political body and this will only happen with strong, fighting, political constituent members within it.

Read the London Student newspaper report here

Student radicals at national conference

Ok, so Student Respect is slightly redundant now but this video is great and still relevant anyway.

We came, we saw, we conquered and we will be back!

Racism in the Student Movement

From Black Students Campaign on Ednet.

http://www.educationet.org/messageboard/posts/1175528850.html

At an NUS training event this week, Chris Mullan, President of Kings College London Students Union questioned encouraging more students from the local Black community to attend a university, as he thought the presence of such students would increase gun and knife crime and so require more security. He then went on to say that there should be thought put into whether they want such 'undesirables' at the university. In the same session another student officer, Craig Cox, Education Officer of the University of Nottingham, thought it would be funny to hold up a poster saying 'BRING BACK SLAVERY'!

It is unacceptable that Black students should have to put up with blatant racist stereotypes at NUS events. It is unacceptable that slavery can be treated as a joke; it is one of the greatest crimes in human history and the root cause of modern racism that has left us with a legacy that continues to mar the lives of Black people today.

Furthermore, it is unacceptable that nothing was done about this by the NUS NEC present, and it was only when the Black Students Officer was involved that action was taken. This only happened because a distressed Black Student who felt it hadn't been dealt with immediately contacted me. I advised her that the offending students must be made to leave as they had contravened the NUS Equal Opportunities policy. This whole process took nearly 3 hours, and included me having to contact the NUS President again. Some Black students were so upset that they left and others intend to boycott future NUS events. I urged them to stay – no Black Students should ever feel so ostracized and insulted by comments and actions that they should have to leave an event. Incidents of racism should be dealt with immediately.

Last term Black students were enraged to hear that the NUS VP Welfare had been told by a member of the NUS NEC that her brother's name was 'too foreign sounding' to be used in promotional materials for the NUS discount card. The National President expressed regret for these comments and his own failure to challenge them at the time. And yet on Thursday, no action was taken until a series of complaints, including my own, were made. This is simply not good enough!

Unfortunately this is not the first time that the needs and concerns of Black students have been ignored. I have already called on the National Secretary and President to ensure that Muslim students are not excluded from training following an event earlier in the summer, where practising Muslim students were forced to eat their dinner behind a screen, separated from other delegates, as a non-alcoholic venue had not been provided. One Muslim student accidentally ate a dessert unaware that it contained alcohol. At NUS 'Liberation' training I was told by the National Secretary that no action could be taken against a student advocating support for the fascist BNP because the NUS 'no platform' policy did not apply to training events! Only when I insisted he leave, was any action taken on this. What do we have to say or do before the needs of Black students are addressed?

These incidents send out an alarming message to Black students and are part of a wider culture where our needs are sidelined. Following the offensive comments regarding the discount card last term, NUS agreed to demands from the Black Students' Campaign for compulsory equality training to be given to NEC members. We have now been in office for nearly two months and it is only now that this is being arranged. Black students have had to fight for years for proper representation in NUS. But clearly we still have a long way to go. It is not good enough for officers of NUS to pay lip service to anti-racism while they pander to racism in practice.

The NUS Black Students Campaign will to continue to fight every manifestation of racism in society, in our colleges and universities, our students' unions and in NUS. We are not taking these incidents lightly. Discrimination requires immediate action. I encourage all Black students to get active in the Campaign and all those genuinely committed to driving back racism to join us in this fight.

I urge you to join us in calling for the following :

1. Support for Black students to holding officers to account Sabbatical Officers who make racist comments.

2. All NUS events to have a clear statement against racism made clear to all participants.
3. Compulsory Equality training for NEC - including how to deal with incidents of racism amongst NUS members and officers - for this to be an a part of the induction for all new members of the NEC.
4. Equality training at sabbatical training events.
5. Call on the National Secretary and President to ensure that no event is organised to the exclusion of Muslim students, as happened earlier this summer with a training event.
6. All students to join our campaign for 3 minutes silence to remember the brutal legacy of slavery and colonialism.