The results of the MMUnion executive elections have been announced, and Students First took all the offices they stood for. Viva MMU! didn’t manage anything more than space in the NUS delegation, so the constitutional changes are safe for a year at least. Unfortunately though, the next executive will almost certainly follow the same path as the current one, when it takes office in July.

The new structures for governing the union will, with any luck, be fully up and running for the start of next year, which should go some way to letting ordinary students take their place in the union, but I really hope that all of the officers-elect realise that they have to do more than a Student Engagement Strategy that focusses on those living in halls. Instead of reaching down to the students from lofty positions, I challenge next executive to throw out the bureaucratic ‘management’ style of doing things, and let MMUnion become the hub of student life at MMU that it ought to be.

Getting the basics right, and making the building somewhere people want to be should be a priority. Stepping out of the office and simply being students like everyone else should also help. Becoming recognisable and known, while not becoming distant, must be at the forefront of every new officer’s mind, because this is what will allow the rift between normal students—that is, those students who aren’t really interested in the rampant political careerism which consumes most of us who are ‘into’ student politics—and the officers to close up, and go some way to healing the ailment that produced Viva MMU! .

I realise that I’m writing all these things as I near the end of my term of office at MMUnion, and I haven’t been the best officer I could have been, but I’ve learnt a lot about how people perceive the executive, and the way in which the constitutional changes have been implemented, so it just seems sensible to write some of it down.

Ok, two things to say before the rest of this post: first, I’m writing in a completely personal capacity, and my views here should not necessarily be taken to be the views of the MMUnion executive; and second, the contents of this post will make little sense to most people, just be content that it’s about student politics, and it’s something I care about.

Right now there are elections for the next executive committee of the students’ union at Manchester Metropolitan University, and the way things are going, I’m pretty sure that eighteen months of careful work to make the union more accountable to students, and better at doing the things it’s meant to do are going to be ruined next year.

As a bit of background, MMUnion is in the final stage of a series of constitutional reforms which have replaced the student council and non-sabbatical officers with a referendum system and the capacity to have groups set up to campaign on issues where there is a demand for those issues to be campaigned on.

This might seem un-democratic, but while the old system looked fine and dandy on paper, it was a bit of a shambles in reality. Turnout in elections was so low that in 1st year I was elected to council with just one person voting for me, and the resulting council was stuffed with political careerists (and I should probably include myself in that group) who could pretty much ensure that whatever motions they wanted to pass would win enough votes.

Suffice to say, I’m familiar with the new constitution having voted on it as a student councillor, and been involved in its implementation as an officer, and I support it wholeheartedly. So why is all this work going to be ruined? Well this is where things get difficult for me. I was a member of People & Planet from when I founded a group at high school in 2003/4, until late last year. I quit because I was spending most of my time trying to explain the constitutional changes and the impact they were having on other major projects in the union to the people who’d taken control of the group. Try as I might, they wouldn’t listen to me, and I was even treated to the accusation that I believe in proper procedures too much! So come election time, this group, plus a few others and a support base that seems to be based at Manchester University, formed a slate under the name Viva MMU!.

Viva MMU!’s list of complaints against the union is a combination of lies and spin. I won’t go into the details of each point here (this post is getting long enough as it is), but the slate is running the very pinnacle of a populist and thoughtless campaign.

Now I should make it clear that I won’t be affected by whatever results from this election. I’m nearing the end of my final year at MMU, and already looking at halls and societies at my next university, but I don’t want to see the constitutional reforms wrecked. Sadly that is what will happen if Viva MMU! takes seats on the executive.

If I’m so against Viva MMU! why don’t I just campaign for Students First (the slate of current exec members, which I was part of last year)? Well, I’m not completely smitten with them either. The best analogy is found in national politics. Only Labour or the Conservatives can form a government in the current system. I’d always prefer a Labour government over a Tory one. And so with MMUnion, I’d much prefer a Students First led executive to an executive which wants to push back the constitutional changes. But I don’t necessarily like the idea of a Students First executive.

From what I have seen as an officer, there is not enough of a culture of really involving students. As individuals, the candidates are great people, but their collective political culture is far too much like the ‘business as usual’ politics which goes on everywhere. Voters matter at election time. Outwith elections, continued involvement does not seem to be required.

It reminds me of Rousseau:

The English people believes itself to be free; it is gravely mistaken; it is free only during election of members of parliament; as soon as the members are elected, the people is enslaved; it is nothing. In the brief moment of its freedom, the English people makes such a use of that freedom that it deserves to lose it.

What do I do then, as someone who supports the constitutional changes, but doesn’t really support Students First? I’m stuck. And that’s what is really getting me about these elections. I can’t vote to protect the constitutional reforms without also ensuring another year of officers who will keep students at a distance.

Congratulations for getting to the end of this post. Eight hundred and forty six words is a lot of words for me to end up no clearer on student politics at MMU than I started. Maybe some clarity will come in the comments.