NEC, 1 May 2020
A meeting overshadowed by a motion not debated. In the papers for this meeting — received the preceding Friday — one motion stood out. It called for members of NEC due to step down from the committee at the end of the month — either because they’d stood for reelection but not been reelected or because they’d reached the end of the three-term limit — to be allowed to continue indefinitely as members, with full speaking voting rights, and also be allowed to attend this year’s postposed Congress as delegates, i.e. with full speaking and voting rights. The motion noted that, because of Covid-19 and postmentment of Congress, ‘the democratic principles of our union are under threat’. But this, to me, sounded like a case of defending democracy by suspending it. I shared my concerns on Facebook on Sunday, as did Mark Pendleton on Twitter.
In the event, UCU’s president, who chairs NEC, ruled the motion out of order, expressing his shock at a approach that would ‘undermine’ union democracy. Mark and I received a light rap on the knuckles for sharing the motion on social media: apparently an unhelpful practice that can undermine the reputation of the union.
The meeting itself was relatively uneventful. We passed lots of motions— but with little appetite for genuine discussion on the issues we’re currently facing — the sector’s response to Covid-19 and the situation in the Four Fights and USS pensions disputes — and no attempt to seek consensus. Some motions were, in my opinion, more helpful than others. Instructing the union to ‘provide branches with updated guidance on how to support trans and nonbinary members and students’, for instance, is important. So is calling for more inter-union solidarity and campaigning against the hostile environment, especially given universities’ role in producing such an environment.
But motions — which passed easily — asking our general secretary to write to the prime minister calling on him to cancel Trident, increase its foreign-aid budget and to support UN efforts to effect ‘international ceasefire’…? As a teenager I was active in CND and the peace movement; the women’s peace camp at Greenham Common formed part of my political generation’s political imaginary. But… these motions seem like distractions.
