Mancunian Blues
Created | Updated Apr 6, 2006
The State of Democracy
An effective and representative democracy is a delicate balancing act.
Peter Cook showed in 'The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer' that when
you include the unwashed masses in every decision, people soon tire of
having the power and apathy breads dictatorship. The students of the
University of Manchester have allowed apathy to produce an
unrepresentative student council for entirely a different reason.
Manchester University's Islamic and Socialist Workers Societies have
combined to take a large chunk of the executive positions in the
Student Union in the recent elections. Given that most of the 35,000
strong student body are not Muslims and certainly not socialist
workers, this should be a surprise. But it isn't. It is a product of
apathy.
The Socialist Workers Society are a prize winning contradiction in
terms. Given that they are students, quite how they claim to be
workers is beyond me. Unless they plan to use their 16 years of state
education to get a job down the mines or on the docks after
graduation, I feel they are hardly going to be representative of the
working classes.
In recent years they have tag-teamed with the Islamic Society to turn
most Union Council sessions into a fight with the Jewish Society over
issues like 'are Israel the most evil country ever' and 'should the
Union make formal links with a university funded by terrorist
organisation Hamas'. Debating these issues and the whether the Iraq
war was just is all well and good in a politics lecture, but does it
have any bearing on the lives of the average student. No.
The average undergraduate, if they took and interest at all, would
assume that student politics is just a 'who can urinate higher
competition' between a couple of religious groups with the communists
cheering them on (and the occasional neo-Nazi stinking up the already
pungent mix). Issues that matter like increased access to the library,
more accountable academic staff and better student safety and
facilities don't get a look in.
This idea that student politics has no relation to everyday life has
lead to a mass apathy. This combined with a slate system where groups
of candidates campaign together means that the winner of most
positions will be the candidate from the largest society.
Last year the Equal Opportunities Officer apparently turned up for
none of the Equal Opportunities Committee meetings, this year I don't
expect some of the student representatives to be much better.
The election for editor of the student rag came down to a contest
between a regular contributor and an Islamic guy who had never even
read, let alone written for, the paper. Even though he had no
experience of or ambition for journalism and newspapers, and the I-Soc
said he wasn't the best candidate, he won. I predict he will find
himself at the beginning of term having to produce thirty pages of
content a week and finding that the regular writing, design and
production staff will have nothing to do with him. Strangely, the
paper printed a piece on student apathy about 5 or 6 years ago. They
left most of the front page blank as a protest over low voting turn
outs. Fast forward a few years and it may come true. A cynic would
say it is probably the most accurate bit of journalism that the
Student Direct have ever published. I know that many members of the
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender group are worried about how
much coverage they will get if the rag actually does make it off the
ground.
Given that the axis of I-Soc and Socialist Workers had the arrogance
to put up a totally unsuitable candidate for that position, I wonder
how seriously other electees such as faculty officers, who are meant
to be a student's first contact when they need advice, will take their
roles.
My limited experience with student politics was gained in a futile
attempt to run for UMIST's Communications Officer in 2001. In UMIST,
the council was dominated by crew from the Rag and Events Standing
Committees. They even managed to get an extra seat on the council by
forming a Radio committee, run by the same people as Events. In the
years that I was there, it never even got a broadcast licence! It was
through the council's support and having high priced barristers for
fathers that three members of the events crew were found, contrary to
the evidence produced by an investigation, to have not used
association property for their own profit. I was up against one of the
three accused. In our election we managed to get a threatened
law-suit, a suspected case of ballot rigging, a re-run election,
another threatened law suit and the only member of the association who
was actually findable (the president who was hardly ever in her office, and the education officer, who was another member of the Rag/Events clique, quit his elected position to go and work elsewhere soon afterwards) was fined half his remaining wages by a rather angry bunch of Rag/Events councillors after the re-run election meant that the Events guy who won the President's position first time round was beaten in the re-run. Me, I got 20 votes in both ballots and retired from
politics!
And it isn't just individual university's politics that have no
bearing on students. The National Union of Students is just as
pointless. The National Conference seems willing to allow stalls
handing out pamphlets on 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion' which
is offensive anti-Semitic propaganda. The leaders of the NUS
traditionally go on to figure in the Labour party. In the late 1990s
the leaders of the NUS were so busy brown nosing St Tony, the new
labour prime minister, that they didn't mail an attempt to protest the
introduction of tuition fees until it was too late. The days of the
NUS being the outspoken voice for social justice are long gone. Any
bar that is in a NUS union has to buy spirits from an approved
supplier. The white rum has to be Bacardi, who support the trade
embargos of Cuba.
Ray Davis claimed in the 1980s that the universities were turning out
young conservatives. Sadly now they are turfing out young cynics.
Apathy with student politics can easily grow into apathy with all
politics. In an age of sleaze, spin and broken promises, we see apathy
leading to the growth of extremist parties encouraging xenophobia,
racism and sympathising with terrorists. Both Universities and the
major political parties need to do something to invigorate the voters
and make elected officials feel accountable again.
Until next time
Love peace and blues
tjm
