The views expressed in this article are the views of the author and not the views of the Politics Society.
Wednesday 30th April saw one of the best attended UMSU General Meetings this academic year, second only to November?s spectacle of democracy. We?ve debated policies about war, finance, environmentalism and internationalism: a list that shows just how conscientious and politically active our members are, and one which leaves me speechless. Almost.
This year, the General Meeting, ?the supreme decision-making body of the Union?, has decided that it still quite likes Palestine and that it?s not too keen on global warming, which I’m sure most of us (except perhaps for next year’s supposedly right-wing Zionist Union Executive committee) would see as both laudable and worthwhile. It’s been presented, when it’s actually managed to achieve quoracy, with a further twelve undebated motions ranging in topic from the dire state of our bars to cold-blooded murder. Without being passed by the GM the union can’t take any real stance on these issues, which is a sorry state of affairs for the largest student union in Europe to get into given that we need less than 1% of our members to give up a few hours a term. It?s just not cunting (see http://www.umsu.manchester.ac.uk/pdf/MOTION_H_30.4.08.pdf).
Students, as is well documented by such unbiased and level-headed sources as the Mail on Sunday, are a lazy and apathetic lot. Gone are the days of a student activism to be reckoned with, replaced by egoism, self-absorption and only sitting in the debating hall when not doing so might mean that you can?t ?go on boats and get drunk” anymore. The same happened in November, when I commented that ?the very fact that we dropped from the largest GM attendance to below quorum after the first motion means that in fact we saw the largest display of self-interest in our Union?s history,? but hoped that the next General Meeting would be less of a farce.? Clearly, my hopes were in vain.
That said, it?s not as though I don?t have any personally vested interest in a quorate General Meeting. Wednesday was, by my reckoning, both the fifth time I have submitted a motion about LGBT Human Rights Abuse and the fifth that inquoracy has prevented it from being discussed. I’ve been asked why I keep bringing the same old issues back to the table if UMSU doesn?t care enough about them to give them a voice, but the answer is simple - the ’same old issues’ aren’t going away.
According to the statistics, between the quorate GMs seven more Trans people were murdered because of their identity and how they expressed it. In the same time, our government has tried to deport a gay man back to Iran, where homosexuality is a capital offence, and hundreds of people have been kept imprisoned for daring to be themselves.
Male homosexuality is punishable by death in seven world states (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Sudan and Mauritania) and is illegal in around eighty more, whilst female homosexuality is illegal in some forty, but only 14 countries accept asylum claims on grounds of homophobic and transphobic persecution.
The NUS, amongst many other campaigning organisations, is trying to protest against these abuses of basic human rights in the international community and the Love Without Borders motion proposes that we support this, quite frankly, essential campaign. Why can?t we? Because we can?t pass it through a GM. Because it?s sunnier outside the Main Debating Hall. Because Through The Keyhole is on the telly. Because Topman have got yet another sale on.
None of those are especially strong excuses ? the summer, BBC iPlayer and the 364 other Topman sales aren’t going anywhere.
If you didn’t bother to come to the GM, shame on you. But if you came and left after the military motion, shame is too mild a word- it’s thanks to you that UMSU isn’t supporting the campaign against the rape, torture and murder of people because of whom they are. The Love Without Borders motion will be making yet another appearance at the next General Meeting ? please come, give up a small amount of your time, and at least try and make a difference.
Here?s hoping the next General Meeting will be less of a farce.
Rob Tidy
yeah i agree with you rob, its a disgrace that the motion has yet to be passed. I also think that its time we stopped being afraid of ‘pointing the finger’. At the last GM, around 200 assorted students who have never done anything to help build the union, or pass through the motions you yourself comment are laudable, arrived simply to wreck the place. They simply turned up to vote down progressive policies and then STOPPED discussion of gay rights by all walking out on mass.
Sadly, the people who walked out have much the same views as the people who are on the exec next year-against free education, for the war, refusal to ever have anything to do with previous anti racism campaigns and campaigns which have fought the uni over our education rights.
This is why building general meetings now must go hand in hand with opposing the people who walked out of the last one. after all, the same people who stopped discussion of gay rights also blocked the union’s free ed campaign. So its time we realized that plenty of issues bring us together and that there wont be much advance on gay rights without also transforming the union back into one that fights for all of us.
“the people who walked out have much the same views as the people who are on the exec next year-against free education, for the war”
YES!! Here’s the link, just in case you missed it: http://www.manchesterpolitics.co.uk/jenko-free-education/
It certainly isn’t cunting state of affairs comrade, you’re quite right. =D.
I think Katan is largely correct regarding the last GM, but that dosn’t explain why this issue isn’t seen as important enough to get quorum any other time. It’s particually noteworthy that when Love Without Borders has been the first item in the priority ballot for a GM, it’s attendance has been little short of embarrassing.
Endemic homophobia? Lack of political will by the SU Exec?.
Maybe both, but this needs sorting out.. Now im presently witholding the temptation to rant, so i’ll be blunt and basic..
Student Union politics, as characterised by this university is agonisingly mundane. Real politics, discussion and democracy gave way along time ago to political point scoring, sectarian battles and slanging match playschool politics. What this university has become is an alienating game of who can muster the most friends to defeat or bolster a particular motion. No wonder it’s difficult to get university students to rally against tuition Fees, something that should be as easy as getting people to, well, condemn homophobia.. oh wait..
While I pretty much entirely agree, if the “At the last GM, around 200 assorted students who have never done anything to help build the union” didn’t turn up, no meeting would have happened yet again. While I deplore their selfish self-interest, not even Go Green would have been passed. Nor would the military motion without them, as it wouldn’t have been discussed. They scored a moral victory, but frankly, if they didn’t turn up, it wouldn’t have passed anyway. They managed to get enough opposition together, those who supported it couldn’t. As for Love Without Borders, it’s a vicitim of extremely apathy and laziness. Things that need to, unfortunatly, be addressed first.