• Mark Jasen At this years NUS conference the lead ership of Labour Students managed to gain a mandate to press ahead with proposals for a graduate tax.
They have organised a all delegates "consultation' period against them. which unsurprisingly took place during the Easter oreak to which they aim to bring back proposals to the special conference later this month. Student grants are already at levels way below those of un- system. employed people, and the vast majority of students finish Higher Education with massive debts.
It is quite clear that the Labour government. agenda of the Labour lead• Ricky Paul ership of NUS, rather than fighting for the interests of students, is to prepare the way for further attacks on higher education under a Labour government.
Students must organise to oppose graduate tax proposals at the special conference, and mandate to vote and tired.
Whatever the outcome of the special conference though, we must organise a fight not just to defend the current poverty levels, but for adequate funding for the entire education We must organise a fight education? on the basis of the needs of students - whether that means taking on a Tory or The rocont NUS conforonco, lad by Blair's babios in Labour Studants, signalad a furthor rotroat in the fight for a docont grant and accoptad the possibility of a graduato tax.
A tax? Yes there've been loads! Attacks on the level of our grant for the last 16 years, the Increasing reltance on the student loan and the overdraft from the bank manager, pressure to work all hours at the supermarket rather than the llbrary, while the llbrary is empty of books and resources. Staff look strained Attacks all round and now another one? The Idea that I'll be able to that I'll be able to walk into a well pald job at the end is just that - an Idea dreamt up by govemment ministers. Graduate debt, graduate unemployment - both are rising. So why Is the NUS not fighting these attacks on students and higher An Important reason is the unreal world of NUS conforence where political groupings on the "left" and right attempt a victorlous struggle for power. the fight for grants: ions on' campuses. The right, In the form of the careerist leadership of Labour Students, have their eyes firmly set on the house of commons tearooms. It is Jim Murphy, the Labour president of NUS, who has led the retreat In On the left there Is 'Left Unity' which is clear in Its ambition to try and take control of the NUS executive. The problem is that It Is completely undemo cratic and exclusive to one political group. It Is also solely focused on just trying to win electons and on doing deals Inside the NUS hierarchy. Instead students nood a left in NUS that reflects the real concerns and struggles of students on the ground: a broad left which is democratic and not dominated by one current. This kind of grouping needs to link up to students that are involved in lots of different campaigns in colleges (from campaigns agalnst cuts to campaigns for environmental sustalnabllity). It should also bulld alllances with trades unIf NUS Is golng to be changed to fight for a proper grant and proper funding - I.o. If Labour HQ's stranglehold Is going to be weakened - then bullding a demo cratic, participatory left alllance In NUS is vital.
• Labour • Cantona • PJ Harvey Can Labour make Don't • Jonathan Joseph defence, The revision of Lacohemes. bour's Clause IV Is cism and so on. an apt symbol of the 1990's.
Gone is the commitment to things many people took for granted -full brutal world. employment, the welfare Wing to this. state, workers' solidarity. Now the Party is committed to the free market, the ER... CAN WE CLEAN YOUR, ER... KNIFE FOR YOU? (GULP!) 'CHELO SUCKER; family, religion, nuclear of the working class and slave-labour the trades unions. Clause inequanty, IV represented their aspiAs the rations. Its statement on welfare state society common ownership does breaks down, young peo- not necessarily equal sople are growing up in an cialism, but it does allow increasingly unstable and the working class to have Labour's more say in how society is leadership are capitulat- organised.
Blair wants to end this.
The Labour Party stands He wants to turn Labour for the self organisation into a US style Tory cratic' Party that repre sents business interests instead. He wants to change the class character of the Party and relate it to tne new bosses Europe.
Young people have never known Labour government. This means people wrongly look to Blair as the only alterna'Demo- tive. But things change role quickly when we struggle. Many Americans sup ported Kennedy in the 1960's only to become radicalised by the civil rights movement and Kennedy's own Vietnam War.
We can and must fight back. The election of a Labour government would create great expectations after so many years of It would give workers and youth more confidence to fight for their rights. This would help break up the political consensus Blair thus far to somi-famo. enjoys.
Organising against Blair's 'modernisers' would be a start. Liberation! is involved in groups like Young Labour. As things develop these groups can be broken from Blairism and linked to the fight back. We therefore demand: * For. the Labour Party to fight on issues of pay, unemployment, housing and trade unTion rights! * For and end to youth discrimination, ra cism, and hetrosexism!
For the defence of the welfare state. An end to cuts and privatisa by their lyrical message. tion!
No to Labour's bosses Europe! For a united socialist Europe! In the past couplo of yoars PJ Harvoy has rison from the undorground hardcoro music scono Her March gig at the Town and Country Club in Leeds was one of many sold out on her recent tour. After reluctantly forking out an extortlonate entry fee, I consoled myself with a pint and surveyed the venue in anticipation. The crowd consisted mainly of young people who didn't conform to any obvlous style, instead taking bits from punk, goth and rock etc and diluting them In the mix. The women were definitely more stylish than the men. There was a high proportlon of women in the audlence, Includ ing a number of strikingly dressed "50 foot queenies" (In the spirit of the P J Harvey song).
Support band "Tricky" were not very exciting: slow, sparse and lacking in energy. They obvt ously had something to say, but the young black rapper and female singer didn't deliver it very well. The band seomed to be trying to fuse rap and amblent sounds with slow rock, but they lacked musical Inspiration, being more motivated PJ Harvey appeared on stage like Isabella Rossellini singing "Blue Velvet" In the David Lynch fllm of the same name: heavlly made up with red lips and blue eye shadow (!) In a glamor. ous red dress, with backdrop.
Oozing Into the set, the band maintained a re-
What's ba Martin Rowson
a difference? lony -Portrait of a Serial Moderniser... ER... HELLO TONY! «
hold for models John Kipling reviews P J Harvey at the Leeds Town and Country Club