lithium
8th April 2007, 02:50
I was recently elected as webmaster to a society in my university that addresses social, economic and environmental issues. The idea behind the society is to educate people on both sides of a particular issue and let them make up their own minds, but thankfully we seem to be leaning very much to the left ;)
So we've been selling Fairtrade goods on a regular basis, joined up with other societies to promote Fairtrade and let people know about corporative power and stuff, we've ran music events to raise money for various social and economic causes, and I hope to get some film showings in the next few weeks (An Inconvenient Truth and The Road to Guantanamo) in association with other societies. I also have a couple of ideas - such as an anti-Guantanamo demo outside the US Embassy, with lines of people in orange jumpsuits and black bags over their heads - that I'd like to run with other groups in the university.
These are not particularly revolutionary activities. But holding radical events in this uni will only serve to distance the leftist movement from the "regular people" At least this way, I feel that people are choosing to take part in events, learning stuff for themselves, and eventually realising that there is an alternative. Maybe they'll begin to speak up for it and become Socialist themselves...
Also, I've managed to raise the idea of abolishing the students' union with a number of people who are heavily involved with student politics. Let me explain how politics work in my uni first: every class/course elects a class representative. This class rep represents his/her class group on the Union Council. A class rep can be withdrawn from office and a new rep elected in place, if it is felt that he/she is not doing the job well enough. Now, the SU Executive Committee works closely with the Union Council (some people in the SU Exec are automatically members if the Union Council committee). The Union Council deals a lot with matters in the Union Constitution, as well as taking on matters that deal with events in the university, educational stuff, etc etc.. The Students' Union (not to take away from the hard work they do) get paid to organise events, provide some educational and welfare services and so on. My proposal was that there is nothing that the SU Exec does that the Union Council and any dynamically elected committees cannot do. For example, a committee is set up to run the Christmas Ball or whatever, another is set up to represent the students on academic council meetings... It frees up money that could be spent on whatever the Council chooses.
Some of the class reps and Exec members said that it was a good idea (and if I proposed it, they would second the motion and it would go to a vote), some others said "it'll nevar happen lol!!!!!1". Either way, I got them talking and thinking. Who knows what'll happen, if anything at all. Personally I think that the current system will hold for a while anyway, unless someone else comes along and actively pursues what I've suggested (I'm in my final year and leaving uni soon).
Our SU is pretty well established, so I dunno how this might work with new unions... But always worth a shot if anyone wants to try it/cause a little trouble :P
So we've been selling Fairtrade goods on a regular basis, joined up with other societies to promote Fairtrade and let people know about corporative power and stuff, we've ran music events to raise money for various social and economic causes, and I hope to get some film showings in the next few weeks (An Inconvenient Truth and The Road to Guantanamo) in association with other societies. I also have a couple of ideas - such as an anti-Guantanamo demo outside the US Embassy, with lines of people in orange jumpsuits and black bags over their heads - that I'd like to run with other groups in the university.
These are not particularly revolutionary activities. But holding radical events in this uni will only serve to distance the leftist movement from the "regular people" At least this way, I feel that people are choosing to take part in events, learning stuff for themselves, and eventually realising that there is an alternative. Maybe they'll begin to speak up for it and become Socialist themselves...
Also, I've managed to raise the idea of abolishing the students' union with a number of people who are heavily involved with student politics. Let me explain how politics work in my uni first: every class/course elects a class representative. This class rep represents his/her class group on the Union Council. A class rep can be withdrawn from office and a new rep elected in place, if it is felt that he/she is not doing the job well enough. Now, the SU Executive Committee works closely with the Union Council (some people in the SU Exec are automatically members if the Union Council committee). The Union Council deals a lot with matters in the Union Constitution, as well as taking on matters that deal with events in the university, educational stuff, etc etc.. The Students' Union (not to take away from the hard work they do) get paid to organise events, provide some educational and welfare services and so on. My proposal was that there is nothing that the SU Exec does that the Union Council and any dynamically elected committees cannot do. For example, a committee is set up to run the Christmas Ball or whatever, another is set up to represent the students on academic council meetings... It frees up money that could be spent on whatever the Council chooses.
Some of the class reps and Exec members said that it was a good idea (and if I proposed it, they would second the motion and it would go to a vote), some others said "it'll nevar happen lol!!!!!1". Either way, I got them talking and thinking. Who knows what'll happen, if anything at all. Personally I think that the current system will hold for a while anyway, unless someone else comes along and actively pursues what I've suggested (I'm in my final year and leaving uni soon).
Our SU is pretty well established, so I dunno how this might work with new unions... But always worth a shot if anyone wants to try it/cause a little trouble :P