1991: the warnings have been vindicated as fewer apply house also confirm that students from the more deprived social backgrounds are now even less likely to apply for a place, leaving Universities as the preserve of children of the well-to-do. Up until now NUS leaders have managed to get away with this, many of them being later rewarded for their services by becoming MPs. But are Labour Students now beginning to lose their grip?
Disaffiliate
Recently the University of Manchester Institute of Science. and Technology (UMIST) decided to disaffiliate from NUS, taking the view that their affiliation fees were wasted on a union that refuses to fight for the interest of students.
Whilst the strategy of disaffiliation may not be the best way forward, it represents a much wider disaffection with the NÜS leadership felt throughout the country.
Over the last month students at the University of East London and Goldsmiths College have rejected NUS strategy, adopting a much few days the university had granted most of the students demands. At Goldsmiths college 8 students were expelled for refusing to pay their fees, as part of a non-payment campaign. Around 300 students went into occupation to demand that the letters of termination be withdrawn, that no students be excluded due to their inability to pay, and that the Student Union be informed of any demands for fee payment sent out by the university. As we go to press the occupation has ended in. what appears to bé a complete These occupations have shown that, even as an isolated universities, militant action can win students' demands.
To win much broader goals students need such militant action coordinated across the country.
This means challenging the donothing policies of the NUS leadership and ultimately replacing Labour Students with a leadership that is prepared to organise such a fight.