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It’s inevitable that general opinion within the National Union of Students will be against that of the Coalition government on policies such as tuition fees, but the organisation must resist forming close links with left-wing groups, writes Robert Smith.
The news from the National Union of Students today was that its’ President, Aaron Porter, will not be seeking a second term and will therefore not be standing in the next election. The obvious observation here is that he has stepped down due to the wave of criticism which has been fired at him concerning tuition fees and the related student protests. His critics believe he was ineffective at leading the student movement during the protests, with many saying he failed to provide his full backing.
While thousands of students filled the streets of London, they say he was nowhere to be seen. He was even chased by a group of students from Manchester, where he required a police cordon to enter a building safely.
Now, the many members of the NUS can condemn Porter for not being radical as much as they like, but the truth remains that it would have been foolish for him to have attached the organisation he was head of to a protest movement galvanised by the far-left. The National Union of Students is supposed to be a serious organisation which stands to represent students up and down the country, not just left-wing activists, but moderates and conservatives too. Many already feel uncomfortable with the prospect of joining the organisation because it stands too far to the left. A further alignment of the union to more radical left-leaning organisations would only leave people even more sceptical and alienated towards it.
Some students, notably Porter’s greatest critics, have even exclaimed that he is a ‘Tory’, in reaction to his somewhat lukewarm reaction towards tuition fees. This is of course complete non-sense. Aaron Porter is a public supporter of the Labour Party, and completely opposes what the Government plans for higher education. The truth though, is that he is cleverer than his critics; at least he realises that climbing on buildings and burning down bus stops is not the way to win the respect of the politicians in charge. But this does raise the question of whether the President of an officially ‘non-political’ organisation should publicly be able to support a political party. It’s easy to see why the individual leaders of the Union might want to make their views public, but it does damage the idea that the NUS is apolitical.
In reaction to the news of Porter standing down, the Education Activist Network and the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts have pledged to stand for leadership posts under a “united Left” slate. This could be damaging to NUS, as attaching itself to the left will only make the views of the organisation less legitimate. The elected politicians in charge will be more able to pass off it off as a ‘group of lefty students’ who ‘would oppose Conservative policies wouldn’t they?’. I hope the next President will be a moderate, pragmatic person who will not only campaign for what he/she believes in through the right channels, but also listens to the arguments for the reforms led by the government. They are being done for a reason; politicians are not just nasty people who want to cause harm. I worry though that the fierce opposition to the Coalition policies in this area will likely lead to a closer relationship between the NUS and groups like the Socialist Workers Party. If it does then, as for the NUS, I will still not be joining. Shame, I could do with that student discount card.
Robert Smith is Editor of Politiker. Follow on Twitter @RobertSmithUK
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