Paul Williams comments on the 2008 CS conference

When entering any event in which debate will take place, one must always be willing to learn and take on board new ideas. With this in mind I can only begin to describe how splendid I felt on Saturday at the Communist Students Conference, when ideas and arguments of which I had not previously thought were bandied around in a truly democratic fashion. I think the conference was successful in two ways. Firstly, it showed that we as a small organisation could pull together a gathering which represented many shades of opinion and made decisions on important issues.

Secondly, it showed that we are committed to actually launching this organisation fully and being totally involved in student politics and working class politics in general. Both of these are important points, if you look at an organisation such as the Socialist Workers Party you can see clearly that different opinions are not encouraged and when differences emerge it usually results in name-calling and expulsions. We are a small organisation yet we have a whole plethora of opinions represented. This is in fact a strength and will only make us more appealing to a person wanting to get involved. On the second point, it is very important that we show people that we are dedicated revolutionaries, that we are wanting to contribute fully to any student and class issues that arise, and crucially that we are well organised and ready for whatever befalls us. All of these were shown in the conference and if we continue to nurture these ideals we will continue to grow.

The only faults were things that could not be avoided, such as the fact that the conference was so underground, with not many people attending. This possibly has something to do with the size of the organisation or perhaps lack of funds making it impossible to rent a bigger room. I am not too sure, but I do know that next time we put on a conference we should endeavour to make it more visible and get as many people involved as possible, at least in the debates. Other than these gripes I consider the Communist Students Conference a success.