By Sean Healy
SYDNEY — On November 15, the National Union of Students NSW branch conference passed a motion limiting the role of the activist Cross-Campus Education Network (CCEN). This is a significant shift away from the state branch's previous practice of encouraging activist networks and recognising their role in directing NUS campaigns.
The motion, moved by members of the Non-Aligned Left (NAL) faction and supported by the National Organisation of Labor Students (NOLS — Labor left), establishes a state education committee, limited in size, which will sit above the CCEN and exercise many of its functions.
These include approving publicity and deciding on the date, time and themes of NUS-sponsored rallies.
Proponents of the motion argued that this was necessary in order to involve activists from small and regional campuses and to ensure that the NUS state branch retained control of its own decision-making, rather than ceding it to a "non-official" body like CCEN.
Further, they argued, the motion "rectified" supposed problems in the CCEN's functioning.
Opponents of the motion argued that such a committee, which would meet seven times a year and include only one person (at most) from small and regional campuses, was hardly likely to involve more activists. They said that any worries about CCEN's "accountability" to NUS bodies could be dealt with by state executive, which has jurisdiction over all areas of the branch's campaigns.
While the CCEN hasn't been without problems, it has generally functioned effectively and has organised many rallies and actions.
An alternative motion was moved at the conference for the CCEN to have policy and strategy discussions every few months with the aim of strengthening local campaigning collectives and addressing the issue of small and regional campus activists' involvement.
The logic of the motion to establish the state education committee and severely restrict the activist network was clarified by a subsidiary motion which would have so restricted the CCEN's role as to make it useless.
For example, the subsidiary motion stipulated that activists present their student IDs before being able to vote, thereby excluding high school and TAFE students and non-students who wanted to campaign against attacks on education. Time limitations prevented this motion from being debated and put.
The NAL-NOLS attack on the CCEN was accompanied by baiting of the left groups most active in the CCEN, including Resistance, Left Alliance and the International Socialist Organisation.
The conference also elected office-bearers and committee members for 1998, the NAL-NOLS coalition taking almost all of these positions.