Student Broad Left

Today the leadership body of the National Union of Students (NUS) failed to unite against racism and fascism in a new low for the student movement. The vote was close and a heated debate took place. This article includes the full text of the motion and how all of the NUS NEC members present voted.

There is no other candidate better qualified to lead the NUS International Students’ Campaign than the current London Met SU VP Education, Syed Rumman.

Syed is standing to take on the Tory government’s vicious policies against international students, their racist scapegoating and their savage cuts which are destroying Britain’s education system and public services.

The NUS leadership, led by Labour Students, built a right wing coalition at Conference which succeeded in rejecting all proposals that NUS lead a fight-back against austerity. Candidates that support NUS doing nothing to defend students won all of the full time elections at the conference – including the NUS Presidency and all of the Vice President positions.

Whilst the student left did not leave this year’s conference victorious, we did succeed in polarising NUS National Conference around the key issues facing the student movement. The key dividing lines were:

· Should NUS accept or fight cuts to education? · Should NUS stand for free education or a lifetime of student debt? · Should NUS remain silent or challenge the rise of racist scapegoating?

Cambridge Union have taken the disgraceful decision to invite French fascist Marine Le Pen to give a speech at the debating society next Tuesday (on 19 February), in a move that has been slammed by anti-fascism campaigners.

Unite Against Fascism, the NUS Black Students’ Campaign and Cambridge students are organising an emergency protest outside the event if the society doesn’t pull its invitation.

Student Broad Left is proud to support founder of the Bring Back EMA Campaign and NUS NEC member, Matt Stanley, for NUS Vice President Further Education. Here we share his draft manifesto and initial supporters list. Please contact Matt directly to add your name to his supporters list and volunteer to join his campaign team.

"I am pleased and excited to announce that I will be standing for NUS Vice President Further Education at this year’s NUS National Conference, taking place in Sheffield this April.

I’m standing to turn NUS around. We need a national union that fights to defend students against the enormous assault we are facing from the Tory-led government.

As NUS VP Further Education I would take the fight to the Tories – uniting our movement behind a serious campaign to force a government u-turn to bring back EMA. I stand for an NUS that actively builds massive opposition to cuts and fees – and for the student movement to link up with other progressive movements in fighting racism, inequality, climate change and war.

Join the protest organised by Unite Against Fascism 12 Noon Saturday 19 January Greek Embassy, London (1A Holland Park, Notting Hill, London, W11 3TP)

The rise of the fascist right, racism and xenophobia across Europe is frightening. Nowhere more so than in Greece.

The Golden Dawn Party is unashamedly anti-Semitic. It is directly involved in attacks on immigrants and the Muslim community, which are happening daily. Critical journalists and oppositional politicians have also been targeted.

Golden Dawn doesn’t seek to hide its neo-Nazi credentials or regalia. Yet it is in the Greek parliament and third in the polls despite one of its leaders physically assaulting two women MPs on television before polling day.

Operation Black Vote has initiated a petition to the Secretary of State for Education calling on them to reconsider the decision to remove Mary Seacole from the National Curriculum. The government's decision to remove Mary Seacole from the National Curriculum is an attempt to re-write history by denying the role of a prominent Black person in British history.

The next Student Broad Left national planning meeting takes place on Saturday 17 November, starting at 1.00pm in the Firebox Café, central London (near Kings Cross – directions below).

The meeting will be an opportunity to discuss how we can continue to build campaigns against austerity, fees, racism & war and in support of Latin America’s twenty first century socialism.

The next steps in the student fight-back against cuts, fees, racism and war – for free education, equality, peace and twenty first century socialism.

Come along to the next Student Broad Left nationally planning meeting on Saturday 1 June at the University of London Union from 1pm – 5pm.

Today (Monday 22 April 2013) marks the 20th anniversary of the murder of Stephen Lawrence, a Black student, brutally cut down in his prime and murdered by racists in 1993.  Read more

Book your place at the Unite Against Fascism National Conference, ‘Stopping the rise of fascism and racism’ which takes place on Saturday 2 March at the Trade Union Congress Centre in central London.

Click here to register.

Yesterday was Holocaust Memorial Day 2013 - marking the anniversary of the day the Nazis' concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by Russian soldiers in 1945.

In the Holocaust, the Nazis murdered six million Jewish people, along with millions of others who the fascists considered to be “undesirable” or “inferior”, including Roma people, gay men and lesbians, disabled people, Black people, non-Jewish Polish and Russian people, socialists, communists and trade union members.

It is important to remember these horrifying crimes against humanity and make a vow to never let this happen again by redoubling our efforts to drive back fascism today.

Student Broad Left National Planning Meeting - Saturday 2 February, University of London Union

The government's reactionary policy on immigration is deterring international students from studying at British universities, causing serious damage to Britain's higher education system and international reputation. The following article by Anna Fazackerley first appeared in the Guardian on Monday 7 January.

NUS Black Students’ Officer, Aaron Kiely, has led a successful campaign to stop life long fascist and former British National Party organizer Kevin Scott from speaking at a debate at Cambridge University on Thursday 29 November 2012.