When I tell people that I am an officer in the National Union of Students, nine times out of 10 they roll their eyes. The normal response is usually that student politics is about a bunch of political wannabes playing politics, arguing over nothing and that it’s a waste of time.
For some, student politics is either the occasional demo that is on the news, or an old hobby they sometimes indulge in (there are more than a few old hacks in the Westminster bubble who check the NUS election results – you know who you are).
Too many people think that the student movement is neither relevant nor effective. To be honest there are times that I think they might be right. Arguing at the NUS NEC about expropriating the banks made me want to first check a thesaurus and then promptly concuss myself with a hardback copy of the communist manifesto.
But actually that is a tiny snapshot of what the student movement is.
Labour Students’ living wage campaign, fighting and winning a living wage on campuses across the country, is the furthest thing from being insular or irrelevant to society. I’m sure if you asked Nick Clegg the NUS fees pledge feels pretty relevant to British politics.
For me one of the best examples of what student politics can do was NUS LGBT’s Equal Marriage campaign. Over the past year we have been empowering students to work with local communities, reach out to a wide range of faith groups and campaign to make a real difference to the lives of LGBT people. Through our ‘Daddy loves Santa’ campaign we received thousands of cards and messages of support from every type of person you could think of, from Rabbis to lecturers. But it was more than just the symbolism; the letters we got were from parents telling us how they had learnt to be proud of their LGBT child or from students telling us they had found the courage to come out. This made me realise the kind of impact we can have. Watching students lobby MPs, seeing the transformation of LGBT students who hated politics turn into activists showed me the impact the student movement can have. When the bill finally passed, knowing that we contributed to making society a little bit more equal, made all those eye rolls worth it.
The equal marriage campaign didn’t accept conventional wisdom about who or what was political. It was relevant and it had a tangible effect on peoples’ lives. Labour Students and NUS understand that true radicalism is in changing lives, not in empty rhetoric which only seeks to make us feel better about ourselves.
New Labour was in government for 13 years because we understood that we must combine relevance with radicalism. Watching my world in Belfast change around me throughout those New Labour years was what made me believe that politics can make a difference.
In government we were radical, but it wasn’t an empty radicalism of ideological dogma. It was the kind of radicalism that matters; the kind that doesn’t fear challenging convention and doesn’t simply use the same old tired tactics to solve every problem. It was a radicalism that was imaginative, tangible and that changed lives.
I’m proud to be Labour because of that radical spirit. Whether we are breaking down barriers to build a better politics or standing up to vested interests in the media or in the banks, Labour today is beginning to articulate a vision for the country that isn’t afraid to question the status quo.
The Labour party and the student movement have something in common; staying relevant to the lives of those people we represent is a constant challenge. In overcoming that challenge we must ensure that the radical spirit behind our greatest successes remains at the core of our approach to politics and at the heart of our desire to win.
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Finn McGoldrick is vice-chair of Labour Students and the NUS LBGT officer. She tweets @FioMcG
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This OK but it’s a shame that when the move from student to politician is made the being radical is dropped to conform to party logic, appeasement or make sound-bites for personal gain
I think the future breed of candidates should come from working-class types doing apprenticeships in trades – plumbers, for example. Not middle-class, out-of-touch students.
you think the last Labour government was radical!Ohh… you mean when they started the moves to privatise the NHS, or Academy schools, or when the freed up the banking system …….
To be clear, the line about “expropriating the banks” which Finn mocks isn’t just something which was dreamed up by an NEC member. It’s official NUS policy, one which was voted for democratically by the NUS membership at the national conference, and one which her fellow NUS officer Dom Anderson promised to prioritise in the coming year (the actual line is: “we should fund education by taxing the rich and expropriating the banks”).
But then, I have never known Labour Students — or New Labour in general — to have any particular respect for the democratic wishes of the people they were elected to represent. Finn’s sneering contempt is all too familiar.
The word ‘radical’ is used over and over – without expressing ANY policy that is radical. Time to reach for that thesaurus again, and then Finn McGoldrick may understand what he is not.
One thing that Finn is not, is a he! She is a bloody hard working officer who works tirelessly for students.