This afternoon I read an open letter circulated by a small number of current and previous campus-level Indigenous student representatives with a certain level of shock and bemusement. Seemingly their charge was threefold: •To thoroughly denounce the legitimacy of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Department of the National Union of Students, past and present; •To feign offense at the Union’s recent decision to suspend honoraria for the National ATSI Officer due to serious ongoing and long-term budgetary constraints; and •To threaten wide-scale disaffiliation from the organisation, including withdrawing financial support, because apparently they disagree with the ATSI Department so much they want it to receive more money. To those familiar with unionism – these are the irrefutable claims of a politically motivated scab. For years, the National Union of Students has struggled to maintain its level of representation nationally because of falling revenues - generally attributable to the extreme left and the extreme right of student unions withdrawing financial support when their anarchist/conservative agendas aren’t realised on Conference floor each year. Many of the authors are familiar with these tactics. Also, to trash the history of the National ATSI Department, including its recent achievements, with unsubstantiated quips of condemnation is just too much to bear. The authors shamefully claim NUS has a history of undermining and exploiting Indigenous students – an insulting and insincere comment backed up with no evidence at all, and based purely on the very thing they’ve spent 1600 long and painful words decrying: factional and ideological bias. Fundamentally – how many Indigenous delegates did these individuals deliver to Conference? How many policy proposals did they submit? How many speeches did they make on Conference floor? How many participated in the consultation events NUS hosted regarding the urgent need to restructure? How many of them have contacted current, former or future National ATSI Officers about their ideas or concerns? The answer to all these questions will hardly surprise those in the national stupol community: none at all. Meanwhile, Labor Left and Labor Right continue to demand real outcomes for Indigenous students by ensuring a strong and viable National ATSI Department. Simply, we demand results before mindless romanticism. And we won’t apologise. I can only conclude that screaming from the sidelines must be a whole heap easier than being forced to silently swallow the politically expedient bullshit published and sent to me this afternoon. In the end, Indigenous students should take this faux-concern with a grain of salt.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 06:59:41 +0000
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