NEC, 19 June 2020

A 3-hour meeting. One report by the general secretary — an important part of NEC’s business, which is recorded and should soon be available to all members. Twelve motions proposed — including an emergency one, responding to the government’s decision to scrap long-overdue reforms to the Gender Recognition Act. Only three motions discussed.

My Twitter-thread summary is here.

1. We passed a motion offering solidarity to the family of George Floyd and to Black Lives Matter. Important, but the motion also reiterated UCU’s support for Stand Up to Racism, an extremely problematic organisation, that Black Lives Matters, feminists and others have warned activists against. Most recently, see this.

2. A much stronger motion on this was submitted by migrant representative Dima Chami. This sought to address systemic and structural racism in further and higher education institutions, including offer support to the nascent Free Black University. This motion was ‘remitted for discussion’, i.e. kicked into the long grass. Dima’s thoughts are here: ‘To say I am disappointed is an understatement.’

3. We passed a motion, proposed by disabled member rep Elane Heffernan that will establish an independent inquiry into past cases of sexual harassment within UCU (where survivors request this). It’s worth reading Elane’s Twitter thread about this; and also these comments here and here.

Nine motions fell off the agenda for lack of time, including the emergency one and the motion submitted by Claire Marris and me, asking the general secretary to prepare a report exploring proposals for NEC accountability and transparency in this report.

As I write these brief notes, I see that the Free Black University today reached its £57k funding target — without UCU’s support.