Nus Student Council at Margate

The end of the NUS council at Margate a week ago saw a large number of individual unions present at a meeting to discuss disaffiliating. How strong these demands to get out of an introverted union are, will remain to be seen but it is clear that the mood of disillusion and confusion sweeping through the ranks of progressive students at Margate cannot be ignored. The structure report - the result of a year's work by a structure comission under the chairmanship of Jack Straw of Leeds University saw the emergence of a simplified structure . The majority of proposals with the exception of the one council a year were supported by the radical element. The NUS executive had put amendments to all the major changes as all these needed a 2/3 majority, because they involved a change in constitution, there was a chance for people to block proposals by not letting them get the necessary majority and so maintain the status quo. This is exactly what happened over the voting system. The commission had recommended that the Single Transferable Vote system | 6TV) be used in elections at NUS, rather than the present Multiple Transferable System (MTV) as at presént. SIV allows for representation of minority groups and tends to counter the 'ticket system', which has been a recognised part of NUS elections in the past. After two members of the Executive on the Commission resigned over the technicality. They then went back to the platform to speak against the STV Council and were subjected to the usual blasting from the Executive over the "danger" of allowing political "extremists" to run NUS. The vote showed that 60% of the Union wanted to change to SIC, but once again the $ majority was narrowly missed. Thus we have the ridiculous situation where the majority of the union want the present voting system changed but a small minority can block progress. The council also decided to stay in the Dutch-based International Students! Conference, despite the disclosure by an executive report that some of this body's finances used to come from the C.I.A. Here again, the executive were able to sway the unaligned by stressing that to leave ISC now would be a cowardly act. The unfortunate aspect of the whole ISC debate was that so few people knew much about the background of the ISC. The claims of those, who as usual, wanted to "talk about Education" fuiled to see that by staying in the ISC they were only prolonging the issue to another council. The remainder of the council meeting was occupied by the usual debates on student housing, examinations, etc., etc. The debate on grants was interesting because the Council had put to it, for the first time, the proposition that students should be paid a wage or a salary. Although the proposer, Digby Jacks of Woolwich Polytechnic, did not expect the adoption of the wages system by the Government in the near future he wanted it to be adopted as long term policy. Even though the idea was heavily defeated, mainly on the grounds that it was unworkable, it is encouraging that a motion such as this can even be discussed on the floor of council. Perhaps the idea that students have a right to be treated like other young people will come to be excepted from now one Was there anything to be encouraged about at the council? The radicals may not have been victorious in actaully having motions accepted by the Union, buth they certainly were not defeated. As long as unions which feel stroncely about the reform of the NUS stay in and prepare to fight then there is a chance that our union can become representative of all student opinion. Disaffiliation is not the answer,