ference (April 9/May 1) was misleading either by inaccuracy or omission.
First, you accuse Socialist Orsariser of supporting theraen Return anti-Israeli magazine. This is untrue. At the • Easter 1990 NUS Conference, the Union of Jewish Students circulated a petition calling for Return to be banned.
Two Left Unity (LU) sup porters signed it. Neither LU nor Socialist Organiser backed the ban. Since then, LU has campaigned for the ban to be lifted. You should withdraw the acMc 0.
Second, your coverage of ›olicy debates was wrong Palestine was not up for debate except in the Gulf war debate. And GUPS, the Palestinian student group, does not argue for a democratic, secular state, but a 'two state' solution. You also failed to address such issues as the restructuring of the NUS executive.
Third, you took the wrong position on the NUS elections. I'd like to say how much I welcome the appearance of a paper on the left which appears to have a genuine commitment to lesbian and gay equality. The regular appearance of articles about lesbian and gay issues is excellent in this respect - keep it up!
On a minor point, the way in which my article for the 'in Person' column was edited led to a factual error creeping in. i did not speak at Labour Party conference four years ago (but I did come out very publicly).
If my memory serves me correctly, it was Sarah Roelofs who spoke. I actually proposed a resolution at conference in 1989.
Debbie Epstein Birmingham campaign to re-open nominaTIONS (RON) 'undemocratic manoeuvré'. It wasn't perfect, and NOLS dis credited themselves, but other options were worse.
When the conference did vote to re-open nominations, there was a choice between holding elections in June, when most students have exams; electing from the present executive by to-option or away he lacker the elctions straight away. The latter was most democratic.
In the executive elections, your slogan was vote left, transfer to RON'. This involved voting for the SWP before LU and Labour Party Socialists supporter, ( Mark Sandell, for reasurer, but vice versa in the FE Vice President election. There was a poor attempt to jus tify this. LU supports equality for part-time students in NUS but has a bad position on Pales tine!
This nonsense shows that you nave no grasp of what is impor ant in NUS, and a sectarian at titude to building an activist an activist student left. The strategy for NUS- their sole aim is recruitment. To support them is to fail to take NUS seriously.
Left Unity combines fighting for socialist ideas with address ing the issues that concern students. This is why all the major debates were around LU motions, and why we increased our representation on the NEC. You failed to register this.
By abstractly talking about organising 'rank and file students', you face the question 'how?'. In 1989 you were part of LU, vou walked out. Before that you were in Socialist Students in NOLS, and walked out. All this makes your claim of being in favour of building 'the broadest united front of forces for socialism' seem vacuous.
Paul McGarry for Socialist Organiser Students.