How far would you go to get what you wanted at UCL Union? Kidnap a child? Drown a kitten? Blackmail someone? Before you laugh off the above as actions of a deluded nutter with too much time on their hands, consider that the third option is exactly the action which has been taken by someone at UCLU recently.
Threatened
The recipient of the blackmail threat was Education and Welfare Officer Andy Fernando, who was told that dire consequences would follow “should you decide to pursue a referendum at Union Executive”. Not only was he threatened with losing his Honorary Life Membership (HLM) nomination, but the writer also threatened to “publicize” Fernando’s “breech” [sic] of policy at the recent NUS Conference, and to make things difficult for him at subsequent union meeting.
It seems that the email is from someone who really doesn’t want a referendum – perhaps a totalitarian political group, or someone wanting to dismantle democracy at UCL Union? Erm, not exactly. Curiously, the email came from the address “SDUCL Source” – SDUCL being the group which was set up to “reassert meaningful democratic control over the Union’s activities and governance”.
So let’s get this straight: someone claiming to represent ‘Students for Democracy’ at UCL is not only trying to influence the voting decision of a sabbatical officer (a trick similarly used in ‘democratic’ Zimbabwe) but also to dissuade him from pursuing a referendum – which would give students a forum in which to exercise their democratic right. Bizarre? Very.
Cowards
SDUCL’s website notes that a Students’ Union is meant to politically represent its students, and that “to revive the students movement… we need to allow every student to take an active role in the union’s decision making process directly, and make it easy for them to do so.”
Perhaps SDUCL feel that the most effective way for students to take this active role is by making cowardly threats from behind a computer-screen.
