For the online version with links, see the ENS website:
 http://www.free-education.org.uk/?p=184#more-184

DON'T LET THE BOSSES DIVIDE US!

Despite NUS’s official position of support for the NATFHE/AUT dispute, the pressure of supporting a prolonged industrial struggle is beginning to tell.

NUS has always been less than forthright in its support for the dispute, and NUS President Kat Fletcher has previously expressed “concern” at the AUT’s decision not to set dates for exams as part of its assessment boycott. However, the union has now gone a step further. In a recent press release the NUS said it “condemned” the AUT’s decision not to set exams, and would “put pressure” on them to do so.

This comes in the context of the publication in the Independent of a letter signed by 20 sabbatical officers from various students’ unions attacking the NUS for its position of support for the dispute. (available here)

Although some pro-strike officers admirably responded with their own letter (available here), a groundswell of anti-AUT feeling is clearly developing. It needs to be combated.

To this end, ENS is calling for signatories to the following statement. You can add your name by emailing  volsunga@gmail.com.

Whilst it is unfortunate if students’ degrees are disrupted, we cannot allow university bosses to divide us by playing the interests of students off against the interests of workers on campus.

A quality HE sector staffed by well-motivated and well-paid workers is in all our interests. That means we have to support every struggle towards it, even if that means facing some disruption.

NUS’s demands on the AUT to call off aspects of their assessment boycott will have the effect of weighing into the dispute on the side of the bosses.

If you want well-paid lecturers, and if you want an NUS that offers full and unconditional support to workers in struggle on our campuses, please add your name to this statement

Signed:
Daniel Randall, NUS NEC
Sofie Buckland, NUS NEC-elect
Heather Shaw, Bretton Hall Officer, Leeds University Students’ Union
Keir Lawson, President, Glasgow University SSP
Pat Yarker, University of East Anglia
Josh Robinson, Queens’ College, Cambridge
Laura Schwartz, University of East London and Students Against Sweatshops campaign
Kate Ferguson, Oxford University Students’ Union executive committee
Mike Wood, York University
Louise Gold, Sheffield University
Ruth Cashman, Newcastle University Union Society Council
Heenal Rajani, Lambeth College
Dave Smith, King’s College, Cambridge
Mike Rowley, Ruskin College, Oxford
Anna Longman, York University
Thomas Lalevée, Pembroke College, Cambridge
Leonie Ratty, Oxford University
Katja Kurbus, University of East London
Edward Maltby, St. Johns College, Cambridge
Keith J. Baker, De Montfort University, No Sweat
Michael Hance, Reading University
Richard Wyatt, Lancaster University
Alasdair Thompson, Edinburgh University, Union Executive
Jacob Bard-Rosenberg, Robinson College, Cambridge
Riccardo Pantone, University of East London
Houzan Mahmoud, Birkbeck College, UK representative of the Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions in Iraq.

Please post on relevant websites and elists and forward to sympathetic people!