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Salient. Official Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol 40 No. 23. September 12 1977

A. A. Milne dies

page 2

A. A. Milne dies

Despite large amounts of publicity around the campus, the great "Why am I pissed off with NZUSA forum" seemed to suffer the same fate as the great Cafe forum. Bugger all people attended and, despite brilliant repartee on the part of the Irish Intellectuals, the cross-fire between leaders and led never amounted to any staggering conclusions on questions such as: Is NZUSA at a low ebb? Why are people pissed off with it? What is it? How could it work better for us?

Instead of describing lucidly that very lack lustre affair, yours truly started thinking about ways of following up the question in a more general way.

Do we need NZUSA? Often organisations perpetuate themselves even if the reason for the organisation has dissappeared. This is obviously not the case with NZUSA. The need for a National Student Body is great, firstly the role of a political force, and secondly, as an organisation which provides services to its members (these are mainly travel, although NZUSA acts as an advisor to individual students in the course of its work).

What are the political reasons for a National body? If you are of the opinion that New Zealand is in the shit in a big way, then you will soon see that groups in society need a protective/fighting wing to ensure that the groups rights are protected. Rights directly threatened as far as students are concerned are: the right of free access to classes after gaining UE, the right to an allowance which can sustain full-time study, the right to a free health and welfare services and the right to organise themselves politically.

VUWSA and the other local student associations simply do not have the muscle to protect these rights.

Students are also known for their concern over international and national issues. That's probably why we spend hours at SRC debating the Middle East situation. Many students also feel an affinity to what is happening in their own country. They have been, in the past, the vanguard of civil rights movements and have often joined with workers when unions have clashed with the state.

To co-ordinate and develop these activities, a national body is essential. It can't very well be a trade union for students-the conditions are very different. But it can still organise students around issues of common interest such as described earlier.

In NZUSA's case, this is not an easy task. By geography they are isolated from six of the seven campuses and they rely heavily on campus officers to prepare the groundwork.

But how well do they do?

NZUSA has changed dramatically over the last few years. The end of the "youth revolt" meant a change in the way NZUSA operated. This was aided by the enlargement of the National Office. The net effect was that slowly NZUSA was becoming like a 'bureau for students instead of a 'spark' to set the masses alight so to speak.

Luckily this bad trend has been spotted and now it is agreed that NZUSA National Office will have to work on consolidating and strengthening the union by adopting a campus profile—organising the members at a level appropriate to the situation as it is now. When NZUSA gains back the confidence of the members, then it will have the base to capture the imagination of the student masses and act in a style appropriate to our historically fine student movement.

Above all, NZUSA must lead. To lead, it must represent. To represent it must be in touch with members.

Some people make out that NZUSA is a dead organisation. Personally, I think passivity would describe it more adequately. The July front, the bursaries campaign and the work done in Overseas student cutbacks show that the student movement is still in fine fettle.

With a slight change in emphasis, style and attitude, NZUSA could inspire us all next year. We need it next year and so does New Zealand.

David Murray.