Candidacy!

So I've nailed my colours to the mast, and launched an Independent campaign for NUS Delegacy.

First things first: this will be difficult. In order to be elected, I'll need 1/8th of the total votes in the NUS election. This might not seem like such a long shot, given I've previously managed to snag a bit less than 1/4 of the votes in Arc Board elections.

But this time, I'm all alone, against at least two organised campaigns.

Voice is running, of course. I was speaking to Os (who is running for President again), and was hopeful of getting a position with Voice for undergrad rep (electorate A), and potentially for NUS as well. However, it looks like the two Labor factions have stitched up a deal, locking out independents for the most part. I've yet to hear from any of the other Indies hoping to run for Undergrad Rep or NUS spots, but I'm not expecting all that much.

Socialist Alternative will almost certainly be campaigning as well. As the undergrad rep positions have been expanded to 12 (up from 6, after the Post-Grads split off), I wouldn't be surprised if they get a few positions on SRC next year.

Potentially, the Libs will also be running, though I'm not at all certain. Last year they worked with Unity, but Unity's back in Voice now.

I really do hope Voice wins the SRC election, and does so resoundingly. It's a good coalition. I can't be happy that Unity's involved, and still don't understand why there was any discussion with them. What were they offering? What threat could they truly pose to Voice?

But for NUS, well, the last few days have just re-confirmed my hatred for backroom deals. I'm not usually one to talk up my own record, but I have worked my arse off to try and make things better for UNSW students. My degree is all kinds of wonky due to putting more work into SRC than essays. I've been pushing reforms for an Equity Committee for a year now, and every single person I've spoken to about this has thought it a good idea, and something that should happen.

My 'reward', so to speak, is to be sidelined and not spoken to. Perhaps I thought my achievements didn't need to be said. Or perhaps it was simply that I was coming up against the forces of the NUS factions, and a confirmed Independent isn't something they want spoiling their deal-making.

Enough of it. I want to go to NUS, to try and make it better. Or if it can't be made better, to at least have tried. That's why I'm standing for election, as an Independent. My 'campaign page', such as it is, is located here.

As I said to start off, this'll be very difficult. But it's much easier to stand as independent on the NUS ballot, as it's separate to the rest of the ballots, and all candidates are listed.
Once I find out who the other candidates are, I may indicate my preferences. But it's very wait-and-see thus far.

Post-semester catchup

Well, I suppose I've been neglecting this. Nothing since the Board elections here, despite several things being of note. So let's go through them.

1) At the Arc AGM, the Post-Grad Council was created! Despite last-gasp attempts from one particular Board Director, who was opposed to the PGC for reasons I simply don't understand, it got voted through by well over the 75% required. I'm not yet sure just when and how the Council will be formed, but it will happen.

2) As a result of the above, Anh Pham will no longer be an OB on the SRC, as his position (Post-Grad Officer) has been abolished. Depending on how negotiations go with the PGC, he might end up holding an OB position there, or might not. His opposition to the PGC's creation, and unexplained absence from the AGM, don't exactly promise much.

3) Barring some really quite bizarre situation, Jess Mobbs will be the next Chair of Arc Board. The two other Directors who could run for it (Simon Bruck and Matt Ward) have both indicated they will not be nominating. In Simon's case, he's pissed off most of the Board with his actions regarding the PGC (see 1 above). Matt says he's much more interested in getting onto the Yellow Shirts OT.

4) As Jess will be vacating the position of Women's Officer, there will need to be a new OB coming onto SRC. I haven't heard anything about who that might be, or whether an election will be held early next semester, or anything like that. There's likely to be at least one other OB change for second semester, but I'm not at liberty to discuss that right now. Will likely be resolved one way or the other in the next week, and if anything happens it'll be on here.

5) It's almost conference season! The many and varied student politics conferences will be held over the winter break. In the standard organising process of student life, most of them are being held simultaneously.
Queer Collaborations (QC) at the University of Wollongong 5th-9th July
Students of Sustainability (SoS) at the University of Adelaide 4th-8th July (the same week)
NUS-CAPA International Students Forum, University of Tasmania, 4th-7th July (... the same week)
EdCon (NUS mid-year conference) at the University of Tasmania, the same week, but only 7th-9th
Network of Women Students Australia (NOWSA) at the University of Newcastle 14th-18th July (the following week!)
In addition, there's also various factional pre-conferences before EdCon. Just how EdCon can be held at UTas is a mystery to me, given that last I heard UTas wasn't an affiliated campus. Very odd.
Strangely, only the International Forum is listed on the NUS website as occurring. At least theoretically, these are all supposed to be linked into the overall NUS framework - why wouldn't contact details at least be given? Not even EdCon?
There's also usually conferences for other groups - ALSA (law students), Amnesty etc. I don't know the details for any of those.
Plus there's actual education conferences.

[update] UTas are indeed affiliated, as of the December NUS meeting/January SGM.

Factional Futures

The following follows on from several previous posts, outlining the various factional standings. I'd suggest reading them first.

At the moment, NLS and Unity seem to be matched in power stakes, with SAlt holding the balance of power. The Big-I's look to have been absorbed into NLS - while this may not be formally true, the two groups are close enough.

Had Unity not undergone a state-to-state war at the January SGM, they would probably hold a great deal more positions than they currently do. They probably couldn't have seized national Presidency, but certainly several states worth. Time will tell whether these state rivalries will cause a collapse in Unity's structure, or whether they will be sorted out.

NLS is also looking like it might well split soon. This won't be a simple state-by-state split - it's far more fundamental. The differences between the 'hard' and 'soft' left go down to basic ideology.

The names themselves are perhaps misleading - the 'hard' left are generally a lot nicer in my experience, trying to help everyone. What they are 'hard' about are issues such as queer rights, women's liberation and indigenous rights.

The 'soft' left, I've found to be much more aggressive. Less prepared to compromise, less prepared to work with others. Less prepared to stand up for solidarity, more wanting direct control.

To step into UNSW, this division became apparent last year, around the time of working out the Voice ticket. Hard left got Welfare (James Still), Soft got Education (Helen Samardzic). In the past, these two positions were overseen by a single officer, and it was often seen as a stepping stone to Presidency. That hasn't been the case for a few years now (the last being Phuong Au, President in 2008), but the association is still strong in people's minds.

Both Helen and James have indicated an interest in becoming President next year. Both have been working with people on- and off-campus to try and get support for this. If NLS remains part of the Voice coalition, they can't both go for it - they would need to first get endorsement from UNSW NLS. That is, as long as NLS remains a single faction. Shoud it split, Voice will suddenly get a lot more interesting. And probably wouldn't remain in existence.

As for other factions: SAlt are looking up. I'm not happy about this, seeing as how I disagree with some of what they push, and have major issues with the methodology.

I truly believe a left-wing, non-Labor, non-Marxist faction is needed. To fill the void that GL left, something new needs to emerge. But I'm not sure it will - many if not most indies have switched off from NUS, after being ignored for so long. The main uni student environmental group, ASEN, was removed from the NUS Environment OB position at the January SGM.

Something needs to be done. We need a voice at NUS that represents non-party uni students. And we need it to be heard. Much as I hate to admit it, being a committed indie, despising the concept of the party structure - I think we need a Faction.

Independents, of all kinds

Next we come to the most confusing part of NUS, the two/three/four/many ‘independent’ factions.

The Independents (Big-I’s) started out as a split from Labor, because Natasha Stott-Despoja didn’t get preselection for an NUS position. So she started her own faction. For a time, the Big-Is ruled the roost in WA, simply because the other factions couldn’t be bothered to cross the Nullarbor.

Not around at UNSW, obviously.

It’s difficult to tell if they’re around right now. Over summer, they worked so closely with NLS they might as well have been absorbed.

The WHIGS, well, whether they even exist depends on who you’re talking to. Right-wing independents? East coast independents? Just a bunch of High Tories at USyd who managed to convince people that they’re actually a faction? The best description I’ve heard is that they’re Liberals who Want to participate in the NUS process (unlike ALSF).

At UNSW? Well, a group of right-wing indies were part of the Unity/ALSF coalition at last year’s elections. But I’m hesitant to call them WHIGS. Mainly because they didn’t.

If you can’t tell whether they exist, you can’t expect me to say where they’re going.

East Coast Indies are sometimes bundled up with WHIGS, sometimes not. Most of them are from regional universities, many of which aren’t able to pay affiliation fees to NUS. So while they’re around, they don’t have much power at NUS beyond drawing attention to issues of constitutionality.

The independents (small-i’s, indies) aren’t a faction. They’re anyone who hasn’t joined a faction. Small i, because they aren’t the same as the (confusingly named) Big-I Independents. Sometimes includes East Coast Indies, sometimes includes WHIGS, sometimes includes GL. It depends what you accept as being a faction.

Obviously, they’re active at UNSW. Our president is one, so am I. Small-i’s have held the balance of power on our SRC for a few years now, and currently form a majority on council in their own right.

We’re not going to go away, because a lot of people don’t want to join factions. But on the other hand, it is very difficult to get anywhere in NUS without joining. Calling yourself an indie is inviting you to be recruited. For a lot of faction members, the concept of being indie doesn’t even exist.

Socialist Alternative (SAlt)

SAlt, I’ve already annoyed with my last Tharunka piece. Far left Marxist radicals, very in-your-face, gung-ho, black-and-white. Apparently a few years back they were part of GL, but split. The split looks to have done them good – they’re the most influential non-Labor faction these days. They currently hold both Queer NOB positions, yet seem unaware that there’s anything more to Queer Activism than fighting for marriage equality.

AT UNSW – you know they’re here. You hear them. They’re active. They’ve always got a stall going, even on Open Days. I suppose you could call them the ‘opposition’ on the SRC to Voice, in that they hold three voting positions on Council.

Where are they going? They’re influential, but very, very divisive. People typically either love them (mainly members) or hate them. I admire the passion, but I disagree with some of the goals, and also the methods. But in terms of NUS, they mobilise voters. And so gain votes, gain positions, gain power.

A note on terminology: Sometimes you hear them referred to as 'SA'. I've avoided this, as SA is also the abbreviation for the political party Socialist Alliance. SA and SAlt are opposed at both the theoretical level and in practice. So instead I'm trying to popularise SAlt as an alternative name.

Grassroots Left (GL)

GL have been an important minor player in NUS in the past, but don’t seem to be around much these days. They were made up of unaligned ALP members, greenies, environmentalists, queer activists and other groups who tended to work from a collectivist mentality, rather than hierarchical bureaucracy. For a number of years, they usually held one or two NOB positions through deals with NLS. However, this came unstuck at the 2008 conference, where NLS instead favoured Socialist Alternative, leaving GL with nothing. A lot of GL abandoned NUS following that, others lost courage and belief.

I’ve never found any evidence of a functioning GL group at UNSW. We’ve had a lot of student politicians who would most naturally fit within that faction, but for one reason or another never joined.

Where are they going? Well, are they even alive? I know a few True Believers, but in most people’s minds GL is dead and buried. Maybe another collective-based faction will emerge, but it won’t be the same group.

Australian Liberal Students Federation (ALSF)

ALSF, as the name suggests, comprise members of the Liberal Party. They are not supporters of NUS, and have pushed for the organisation to be disbanded. No-one from ALSF, to my knowledge, has ever held a position in NUS. However, their preferences have occasionally led to unexpected outcomes, such as at the 2006 conference (where a far-left Independent candidate became General Secretary, instead of the expected right-wing Unity candidate).

ALSF exists at UNSW, but only barely. Similar to the federal Libs, there was something of a civil war last year between ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ members of the faction. They’ve participated in SRC Elections, in 2007 by themselves, and last year in coalition with Unity.

Where are they going? I suspect they’re still laughing over the chaos that was last year’s NUS conference. Alternately, they’re annoyed none of their NUS delegates went along to the SGM in January, if only to call for a quorum count – which, I am led to believe, would have caused NUS to become legally defunct.

Student Unity (Unity)

Student Unity (Unity), despite the name, are the other main ALP faction – this time for the right-wingers. Under the ‘sweetheart deal’ between NLS and Unity, Unity get NUS General Secretary in return for supporting NLS for President. They usually also get the Welfare NOB, and a few other, ‘minor’ roles.

At UNSW, they’re around, but not in a major way. Up until 2005, they held Presidency and a majority of positions on the Guild (pre-Arc). Indeed, either NLS, Unity or one of their predecessors had held Presidency every year from 1992 until 2009. But nowadays, Unity are somewhat dampened at UNSW. Until last year’s election, they were part of the Voice coalition, but didn’t manage to secure the same deal again. So instead they formed an opposition ticket in a coalition with Liberals.

Where are they going? At last year’s NUS Conference they nearly seized Presidency. At the Special General Meeting of NUS (held in January to make up for the fact the December meeting completely failed to do anything) they came close to taking control of several state bodies, the deal only falling through because of internal Unity personality clashes. As a single bloc, Unity are looking close to taking full control of NUS. But there are internal clashes yet to be worked out.

National Labor Students (NLS)

NLS are one of the major groups. Born out of a merger between two former Labor groupings (Australian Labor Students and National Organisation of Labor Students, for those keeping track), it broadly contains those student politicians more inclined to the ‘Left’ of the ALP. By tradition, they always get NUS Presidency in labyrinthine deals, as well as several other of the National Office Bearer (NOB) positions (in particular, Education NOB).

As far as UNSW is concerned, they’re a big player. Before this year, NLS (or a predecessor) had held presidency since 2005. They’re part of the ‘Voice’ coalition which holds a majority of the SRC positions.

Where are they going? It’s a bit confused. Over last summer, it looked like NLS was about to split into two factions, ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ left. From where I sit, it looks like these tensions have been muted a bit, but they’re definitely still there, bubbling under the surface.

Ideas about NUS - Affiliations

This, and the next series of posts, were submitted to Tharunka for the next issue (#3). I've done a bit of editing to make it more presentable for this format. I'm not yet sure how much of this will be in the print edition, hence my posting the full-length article up here.

The Thinking Snake’s Guide to NUS

rory thomas

Last time I wrote, I presented a snake’s eye view of the members of our SRC. The SRC represents students at UNSW. It links up with other unis, both directly (eg our president talking to the president at USyd) and via the National Union of Students.

If you talk to students about NUS, you’ll get a finite range of responses. Some people will be absolutely effusive about it, regarding it as the best thing since sliced bread. Others hate it, and think it is complete and utter garbage. Then there are those who dislike the methods used, but still regard the concept of a national union as worthwhile.

Of course, these three groups are dwarfed by the group of students who will simply shrug at the name, say they’ve never heard of it, or might think you’re talking about the National University of Singapore.

NUS claims to represent every university student in Australia. Or at least, it draws representation from every affiliated undergrad university student organisation (there is a separate national body for Post Grad students, called CAPA). Arc@UNSW is an affiliated organisation, through the SRC. Similarly, USyd students can get access to NUS through the USyd SRC, Newcastle Uni students through NUSA, etc. (For quickness, I will henceforth refer to ‘student organisations’ as ‘SOs’)

Affiliation can be a big deal. Whether and how much money an SO pays in affiliation fees determines much of the pecking order at NUS. Smaller regional university SOs are usually less able to pay fees, so get less say in how NUS works and what it does. Several SOs are completely unable to pay any fees – so are without say as to what NUS will focus on.

This may well seem to you a sensible system. He who pays the piper calls the tune and all that. But in the age of Voluntary Student Unionism, it can become somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy: a small SO collects less money from members, so pays less to NUS, so NUS gives less attention to that campus, so the SO gets less attention, so gains fewer members, lather, rinse, repeat.

Affiliation, as such, can be a major issue for an SO. If you aren’t getting anything from NUS, why maintain membership and continue paying large amounts of money? Particularly if you need to keep all your money on-campus simply to avoid bankruptcy?

The other side of the NUS coin is, of course, the factions. The next series of (short) posts will look at the various factions currently operating: who they are, where they sit, what they're doing, and where they're going.

A brief excursion to Queer Politics

The National Union of Students has two Queer Officer positions. These are elected (usually) at the December meeting. For the past few years, the positions have been dominated by members of Socialist Alternative, who have focussed more-or-less exclusively on the issue of Marriage Rights.

I have to say, I do think marriage is something worth fighting for. But the language used in the debates often comes across as suggesting that marriage is the one-and-only issue in which queers are oppressed in modern Australian society.

As a person living as Genderqueer, I find this to be, frankly, bullshit. The following series of emails, reposted from the NUS Queer e-list, will hopefully go some way towards explaining why.

This email was sent out to the e-list from the newly elected National Queer Officer Bearers (hereafter referred to as NOBs) three days ago.

Hi All

This is Kath Larkin and Phoebe Kelloway, your newly elected National Queer officers for the National Union of Students (NUS). We've been centrally involved in the equal love campaign to repeal the ban on same-sex marriage, particularly on the campuses, where we've been working with students. We look forward to continuing that work this year as well as making NUS more relevant to students.

Last year's Queer Officers Heidi Claus and Liam Byrne did great work in building a profile for NUS and keeping it relevant to students by immersing themselves in this campaign. The demand for same-sex marriage rights has overwhelming support from students and we hope to build on that this year; the national year of action for same-sex marriage. Equal Love has called 2010 the year of action, so as to use the election year as an opportunity to place real pressure and demands on our government to repeal the homophobic ban.

We made a great start yesterday at Pride, the annual march which concludes Melbourne's Midsumma festival - a celebration of the LGBTI community. . We marched with the equal love contingent, because while it's fantastic to be able to celebrate who we are, it also really important to continue to fight for equal rights, the reality is that homophobia continues to kill people today. Rudd's ban on same-sex marriage enshrines this homophobia in law.

The contingent drew a diverse range of people (not limited to Victorians), including many students. The contingent was lively and vibrant, getting a great response from the crowd as we chanted. As part of the contingent we handed out thousands of leaflets advertising the next rally (details bellow) and got 100's upon 100's of signatures on the equal love petitions demanding same-sex marriage rights.

It was fantastic to have an NUS presence at this important community event- to show NUS's continued support for queer students. Phoebe was even interviewed by Joy FM!

Next Rallies
Sydney
March 20: Rally, 1pm, Sydney Town Hall
Melbourne
March 13: Equal Love rally, 1.00, state Library of Victoria
Brisbane
March 20: Rally, 1pm, Queens Park

It'd be great if you could all come along to the speak-out for same-sex marriage, this Friday 12^th of February on the corner of Bourke and Swanston sts at 5.30pm.

Looking forward to a year of campaigning
Kath and Phoebe

So they've put out their plans. Okay, they're focussing on marriage (and don't seem to have got the memo that people really should be talking about 'marriage equality', not 'same-sex marriage').
They've also used the word homophobia a lot. Now, this is something of a matter of debate, but generally among queer groups (as the NUS queer e-list must surely be presumed to be) it's become much more standard to use the term 'queerphobia' when referring to discrimination against all queer people, with 'homophobia' being reserved for specific discrimination against gays and lesbians (ie, the homosexuals).

So I decide to respond. Politely. I do try to give people the benefit of the doubt where I can. Or maybe I just want to give people enough rope to hang themselves. One of the two.

I was wondering, since it didn't seem to be covered at all in your email, what plans you have for campaigns for the rights of sex and gender diverse people?

There's a response from Kath:

We're keen to take up issues that effect sex and gender diverse people, there's going to be someone representing one of the transgender organisations in melbourne speaking at the next rally.
Do you, or anyone else on the list have any ideas or initiatives they'd like to suggest?

-Kath, national queer officer for

Which, while respectful, suggests to me they haven't got any ideas, and I really wonder whether they'd have even tried to come up with ideas if they hadn't been prodded.

There's a bit of to-and-fro, one of my colleagues down at Wollongong uni pointing out the complete lack of consultation by the Queer NOBs as to what they would be focusing on this year. Within a reply to that, from Jason Virgo (who, I gather, is involved with the marriage rallies down in Melbourne), is this paragraph.

I think the equal marriage is a campaign that is growing momentum and as it is one of the biggest issues nation-wide it should definitely be a priority and take up resources of the nus queer officers, of course anti-discrimination laws are also important but if we can't get our own government to stop discriminating against us (ie not allowing us to marry) i hardly doubt they are going to put in solid anti-discrimination legislation.

For a lot of people, this wouldn't seem like a big thing to say. I suspect Jason Virgo didn't think about the implications in this paragraph. Well, hopefully he's now considering his next move, because I finally got my rant on with this reply.

To reduce all government discrimination against the queer community to one issue is to ignore the many and varied ways discrimination works. In particular, to put this single issue forward as the *single main* topic of discrimination is incredibly short-sighted. It comes across as at least being cis-privileged.

Let me make it plain to you, and to the others reading this. Every time I fill out a form, including legal governmental forms, I am forced to make a choice. Do I put down my gender identity, and risk having my application being denied on the basis of not answering a required field in an acceptable manner. Or do I lie, tick the box that says 'man' or 'male'.
This is not a light decision. It is not easy to make. One choice involves continuing to live in the closet, somewhere I swore I would not return to. The other involves trying to deal with often quite transphobic policies, and people that simply cannot understand the concept of gender diversity.

For me, this is a far more fundamental human right that is being denied. Far more fundamental than marriage. And to be told, time and time again, often by the people who have promised (and are getting paid) to advance the cause of queer rights, that I just have to wait until the latest popular cause is done with, strikes me as a betrayal.
It makes me wonder just how these people dare claim to represent queers when they seem to only have the interests of cis-gendered gays, lesbians and *some* bisexuals at heart.

In many ways, I'm a lot better off than many other people within the umbrella of 'sex and gender diverse', in that I don't need to deal with the medical community.

But don't you dare tell me that marriage is the one and only matter of discrimination queers need to worry about. If you continue to do so, then I will have no regrets in calling you a transphobe.

~~~
The NUS Queer e-list can be signed-up-to here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nus_queer/

It has sometimes been a rather volatile list, since queers are hardly a single bloc. We've all got different ideas on how to achieve equality/equity/freedom/liberty/domination (delete to suit). In the past, there have been massive, sprawling debates on a few different issues. Perennial favorites include: the ethics of sex work and/or exotic dance; arguments between radical feminists (particularly lesbian separatists) and transpeople as to what gender means; and as the above shows, debates on what rights are important to fight for.

ideas

I've got a few different ideas for what to write about in the next little while. So I thought I might as well see what people want to see (and, by-the-by, work out who's actually reading this).

1. 'What is a councillor?'

2. Explanation of the factions - where they come from, where they're going. Probably a series of posts.

3. 'what is a small-i'

4. looking at how the SRC fits into the overall Arc structure

5. looking back over the fiasco that was last year's NUS conference, then the various deals and collapses involved in the SGM. This one I'd like to leave a bit, see what else comes to light. Plus I would be very surprised if one of the Tharunka editors doesn't write about it themself.

6. explanation of the SRC election methodology - forming tickets, the process of voting, 'what is a valid vote' etc. Almost definitely a series of posts, way too big to fit into one.

7. The proposed Post-grad council - who's in favour, who's against, how the whole shebang is meant to work, and why it's all taken so long.

8. Anything else you'd like me to take a look at?

Let me know.

The Thinking Snake's Guide

So here I am, starting something that might just crash and burn in a few days. Or it might continue for a while. We'll see. My first serious attempt at a blog.

So, after two years, I'm no longer a member of the UNSW SRC. I've been a Tharunka editor, then an Office-bearer, and last year I did one last roll of the dice trying to get preselection for President. Obviously, that didn't happen. But it doesn't mean I'm not still involved, in my own way. I'm around a lot, I talk to various people, I get emailed documents that may or may not have been meant to be confidential.

Pretty much, I'm trying to clear the air somewhat on how student politics works. It's too important to leave to the student politicians. I'd love to see more and more people getting involved. Without having to be a member of any party or faction.

Since it's where I am, I'm mainly going to be looking at UNSW (the SRC, the coming Post-grad Council, plus also uni-based elections). I'll also do some commentary on the ever-changing bizarreness that is NUS, plus also quite possibly some things about what's going down at other unis.

I'm doing a bit of writing for Tharunka this year. Anything I write there will end up here as well, but after publication. (If an article gets rejected from there, it'll still end up here regardless).
Also, it should go without saying that this is all personal opinion, and some of it will get very personal. That, after all, is the point of this being a blog.