On 8 November, a National Union of Students “extraordinary conference” — the second in five months — met to rubber-stamp the attacks on democracy being proposed by the NUS leadership, including cuts to the size and lenght of NUS National Conference and a regressive reform of affiilation fees.
With fewer than 400 largely self-selected delegates the result was pretty much a foregone conclusion. We were told that the “reforms”, which are supposed to help NUS solve its financial crisis, could not wait until a properly representative National Conference next term. In fact, reducing NUS democracy has been a long-term political project of the right-wing, but one which they were not confident of winning at National Conference. The fight for democracy in NUS will continue.
