Week Fifteen: Think Laterally

Monday, April 13th, 2009

As more and more universities are seeing a rise in left-wing extremism (often as a result of electoral alliances being forged between leftists and Islamists), party political societies are often stigmatised, penalised financially and even banned.

Sometimes this is overt: a CF branch might have its funding slashed or be banned from students’ union property. Usually it is more subtle: bureaucratic rules are invoked to prevent party political groups from having stalls at freshers’ fairs, membership drives or collecting signatures for petitions.

Often this behaviour is unlawful – both under the Education Act 1994 and under the Human Rights Act 1998. If a students’ union or university breaks the law, your first step should be to contact the YBF Legal Advice and Support Unit at info@ybf.org.uk.

You may be able to win students’ union elections to reverse the pernicious policies of leftists and self-styled progressives, or win a vote in a union council or general meeting.

If that doesn’t work then it’s time to think outside the box. Your opponents want you to give in. They want you to meekly surrender and for your only outlet to be for you to bitch and moan into your beer while you work for your degree. But as an activist you will want to overcome these hurdles. And by thinking laterally you can do so.

1. If party political societies are banned, form a Hayek Society or a Friedman Society to discuss economics. If your university has an economics or politics department, so much the easier.

2. Set up a Freedom Association branch, a libertarian society or an Adam Smith club. It will not be party political. For while many of the principles of the Freedom Association, say, may be shared by the Conservative Party, the Freedom Association is only too happy to say where it believes our freedoms are being infringed – whichever party is in government!

3. Set up or take over a debating society. If universities are to be places of intellectual enquiry then debates are surely a pre-requisite.

4. Set up a Hansard Society, a political club or a Law Reform Society open to all those interested in political discourse. This is easier if you have a politics department or a law faculty.

5. Set up a sports or social club such as tiddlywinks, beer tasting, frisbee or yodelling – whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day your goal is to show up your illiberal students’ union or university as being ridiculous in its attempts to deny you the right of peaceful assembly. If the beer tasting society simply happens to be full of libertarians who act just as a libertarian society ordinarily would do then what a remarkable coincidence!

If you ever encounter difficulties at your university with the students’ union or your university authorities as a result of your political activities or beliefs, contact YBF at info@ybf.org.uk immediately.