There have been renewed attempts by the government to get universities to spy and report on ‘suspicious' students. But is the NUS ‘no platform' policy the right way forward? By Dave Isaacson A year and a half ago I wrote an article for the first edition of Communist Student entitled ‘Defend Muslims!' It was a response ...
All democrats, socialists and democrats should reject efforts by student unions to actually increase state censorship. By Shelley Martin The NUS has an automatic ‘no platform policy' in place, which bans all members of the British National Party and the Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir from standing in NUS elections on any levels. It also bans them ...
The sectarianism and economism of the left has prevented a united challenge in the NUS elections. By James Turley Sofie Buckland, it seems, is very annoyed indeed. Buckland, member of the Alliance for Workers' Liberty (AWL), its student front Education Not for Sale (ENS), and the NUS's ‘block of 12' (a part-time group of officers), had been ...
No to sanctions and war, no to the theocracy! Free the Iranian students! By Benjamin Klein In early December 2007, dozens of socialist Iranian students were arrested for taking part in the National Student Day demonstration. This demonstration has a long history and can be traced back to the 1950s, when three Iranian students were killed ...
The original motion pushed by the Alliance for Workers' Liberty displayed its soft position on imperialism (No804): "Conference believes: That the current chaos, sectarian conflict and corporate plunder consuming Iraq proves that American (and British) military adventures in the Middle East have almost inevitably disastrous consequences" (my emphasis). This slippery formulation has been changed at the ...
Benjamin Klein interviewed Mahsa, an Iranian supporter of Hands Off the People of Iran who is currently living in Italy There are some people on the anti-war left in Britain who are saying that the students protesting in Iran are actually in favour of military intervention. The left student movement in Iran has always struggled against the ...
By Michael Jones The debacle of the March 14 elections to the Iranian majlis (parliament) is a vivid example of the extremely undemocratic political system in Iran and the growing gulf between the mass of the (overwhelmingly young) Iranian population and their theocratic rulers. An apt metaphor for the regime's desperate attempts to legitimise the elections ...
As Israel's brutal blockade of the Gaza Strip continues and Palestinian despair intensifies, what should be the response of the left? By Ken Crisp The desperate suffering of the people of Palestine was again brought to the world's attention on January 23, as thousands of Palestinians broke through the border wall at the Rafah passage and ...
The NUS women's officer campaigns have been marked by their economism. By Anne McShane The election of a women's officer has importance in a period when women's rights are under attack. Chief among these is the threat to abortion rights. Now women can have an abortion up to the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, with the ...
Ted North interviewed Camilla Power of the Radical Anthropology Group Could you briefly sum up your view on the origin of humanity? From a materialist point of view, the great problem of human evolution is how mothers fuelled the increasingly large brains of their offspring. Our brains are extraordinarily expensive in terms of energy - three ...
Communist Students leaflets for NUS conference 2008
Dan Randall of the AWL responds to Mohsen Sabbagh's report on the left slate discussions in Sheffield.
The results are in, and Ted North reports on Communist Student's election campaign in Sheffield. Communist Students stood two candidates in last week's elections to the Sheffield Student Union executive; Laurie Smith for President and Ted North for Education Officer, both of whom also ran for delegation to NUS conference. Voting was by STV where candidates are ...