Vote YES in the referendum on democracy (Feb 2nd - 5th)

Since the start of this academic year Goldsmiths Students’ Union has
operated under a governance system that only allows elected Officers
(sabbaticals like me for example…) to vote on matters within the Students’
Union. That means 20 of us have decided on behalf of 8000 students what
their Union looks like. Because I am elected does it make my views
sovereign? No. Does it mean I am representative of all students? No, this
would be an impossible task. Why should an Officer, simply because they
have been elected, hold sole power over every decision that effects
students, whilst excluding all other students from the democratic process?
This is not parliament and I do not aspire to be an MP.

Last year we had Student Meetings, where every student could vote, debate
matters and decide whether they were For or Against any given motion. The
sizing down of democracy has been incredible - this year it has been 20
Officers making those same decisions. Out of about 30 motions submitted to
the Assembly (the body that has replaced the Student Meetings) 28 were
submitted by only 3 Officers; the new governance has proved to be a system
open to exploitation by a dominant few who are not guaranteed to represent
the majority. It has effectively centralised power and homogenised the
political climate of the SU (albeit now acclimatised to the Left, I am
still not in favour of simply debating with myself). It has failed in such
a glorious style that not even I (someone against it from the beginning)
would have predicted.

One Course Rep on the Assembly was elected by a single vote (their own) –
so out of everyone in Visual Cultures, one sole student can vote within
the SU on behalf of their entire department of hundreds of students. Last
year, by contrast, all Visual Cultures students were allowed to vote in
the Student Meeting.

Twleve Course Reps/Officers were uncontested in their elections. Is
allowing any elected individual (myself included), however well
intentioned, to have absolute power on all aspects of a Union, a decent
form of democracy? No. Should we, a small elite, be able to determine
every aspect of your Union? I would argue it is absurd.

Let’s not pretend that a Referendum (like the one about to commence) is as
democratic as Student Meetings. Unless you do as we did and gain the
support of 500 students before taking action, the former are largely
top-down affairs, where students cannot change the content of what they’re
voting on. They must simply register a Yes or No reference, whereas in
Student Meetings all are free to interact, discuss and alter any part of a
motion.

Over 500 students last term signed a petition in support of bringing back
the Student Meeting at Goldsmiths, triggering this referendum. Vote YES in
the coming elections to re-instate the Student Meeting and let’s have a
Student’ Union that reflects not simply elected Officers, but the
political diversity of ALL students.