Fight the Power! – Democratic Upsurge at MMU
Enemies of Democracy - Manchester Labour Students
Manchester Metropolitan University Students Union has for a very long time been a safe seat for careerists, the student union has been run essentially under the leadership of Labour Students who trick, manipulate and fool students to a point where the students of MMU have no control and no influence over a body which is supposed to represent them. The unelected General Manager is now more powerful than the student executive, the student executive has been shrunk and can overrule any decisions made at the AGM.
Myself and many others have long despaired at the lack of response by the student body, however, since the occupation for Gaza, students have begun to fight back. Students attempted to call an Extraordinary General Meeting, only to find that the online edition of the constitution is out of date, and students cannot call general meetings anymore.
Students have decided to demonstrate and link up with the University of Manchester occupation demo on Wednesday 4th March. Manchester Communist Students fully back both demonstrations and urge as many students as possible to attend. See flyer below:
ironic that communists are complaining about lack of democracy?
Capitalism and democracy are not synonymous. In fact they are counterposed. The capitalist class rules through the rule of law constitutionalism, a standing army and state bureaucracy.
Every little bit of democracy you enjoy (including being able to post on this site) has been fought and won from below and is being constantly undermined by those who rule – let’s hope you are not a capitalist who is fond of photography given recent ‘democratic’ measures from the British state…
Communist Greetings
Ben
capitalism may not by synonymous with democracy but communism has no concept of democracy at all. Oh and having investigated the complaint against the union I find it ironic the the the lack of democracy in question is that students have to be engaged now to set union policy and I agree that 5% of students is undemocratic it should be at least 30%
Capitalist greetings
Capitalist,
Glad you accept my first point. As to your view that “communism has no concept of democracy at all” I would suggest you go away and read some Marx/Engels on democracy and the struggle for it. Even at a quick glance at one of the Communist Manifesto this should become obvious, they talk of the working class “winning the battle of democracy”. As Trotsky put it, “communism needs democracy like the human body needs oxygen”.
What you are doing is equating ‘communism’ and Stalinism – the victory of the counter-revolution which has brought with it a huge hollowing out of basic Marxist concepts such as democracy.
We are quite clear that democracy is at the heart of Marxism, and that ‘communism’ has nothing to do with the Stalinist horror that was the ectopic Soviet Union.
Have a look at the stuff we have written on this and take a look at Marx and Engels to see what communism is really all about.
Communist Greetings
Ben
Taking a look at these claims, it does look like you’ve been economical with the truth, for want of a better description.
You say that the SU undemocratically changed the constitution; but I have found the minutes (not online unfortunately) of the student council meetings that voted in the new constitution. According to them, the motion was debated at length with a number of amendments passing, and some falling (including one to set quorum in a referendum at 10%). The main vote was passed unanimously … twice!
This all happened in June. That’s right, nine months ago! Looks like you were so interested in the union that you hadn’t noticed this. I’m not even a student at the Met and I knew they had changed! But I guess you were waiting until the elections came about to make a noise about it!