No Platform
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No Platform is a policy of the National Union of Students (NUS) of the United Kingdom like other No Platform policies it asserts that no one considered Racist or Fascist should be able to stand in any NUS election or particpate in any NUS function. It was instituted in the 1990s to prevent British National Party candidates from standing in NUS elections. The NUS leadership stated that the reason for the policy was to prevent Lesbian and Gay people and people from ethnic minority backgrounds from staying away from NUS Annual Conference]] in the fear that they would be assaulted by BNP members. This point is highly disputable due to the fact that Lancashire police officers and security officials attend conference and would presumably eject anyone who was violent. However, it could be argued that due to the violent activities reported by Unite Against Fascism on anti-fascist campaigners and the rise of racially motivated assaults in the areas that the BNP campaign in as being reason enough to make debate with this organisation as incompatible with the aims of the NUS.
Some people who fall into the aforementioned categories have said that they are not scared of the BNP and do not need special protection, a BNP presence at conference would make them even more keen to attend so they could ridicule the often prejudiced arguments of the BNP. However, it could be argued that this is not respecting the rights of students that are not politically active but still expect an atmosphere that does not compromise their equality.
How the policy works
No Platform forbids any officer of NUS sharing a platform with a "fascist" which the NUS has interpreted to mean all public debate regardless of who is controlling the platform. This means that it is forbidden for NUS Officers to attend events at universities where extremist organisations are present and argue with them. Union Officers and in theory ordinary union members can be thrown out of the NUS for breaching these rules. The group Unite Against Fascism maintains that the NUS is not the appropriate place for such a debate and that if union officers were to engage in debates with extremists this would legitimise their arguments.
Organisations Currently Subject to No Platform
Hizb ut-Tahrir, British National Party., MPAC, Combat 18, National Front
Criticism of NUS No Platform Policy
At the moment NUS National Conference decides who should be deemed fascist or racist, however the NUS leadership want to give this power to a non-elected committee.[citation needed] Some have raised concerns that this could lead to No Platform being used by the NUS leadership to "no platform" organisations such as Respect in order to stifle opposition.[citation needed]
Some Unions such as Bilborough College Students' Union in Nottingham have attempted to bypass the policy. In an attempt to demonstrate that they believed the NUS no platform policy was an affront to free speech, Bilborough organised a debate between a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir and a member of the National Secular Society. Despite an attempt by some students to persuade the College Corporation to overturn the decision of the Union, the event went ahead. To prevent NUS from removing their NUS cards and therefore their right to represent their fellow students at NUS conference, the union executive did not inform NUS of the event. NUS eventually found out about the event though in order to prevent the debate around No Platform from surfacing they did not expel the Bilborough executive from the NUS.[citation needed]
In 2007 the Union of UEA Students mandated their executive to write a letter to NUS National President Gemma Tumelty opposing the policy, and decided to hold a referendum on the issue. The referendum question was 'Should UUEAS Support NUS No Platform policy?' The student body as a whole rejected No Platform by 74.5% 430 to 141 votes[citation needed]. Critics of the referendum have argued that a low turnout of 5% was unrepresentative[citation needed]. The Union considers a referendum to be valid if a quorum of 500 is reached.
In 2007 debate surfaced in Oxford University about the policy when BNP leader Nick Griffin was scheduled to appear on the University's student radio station, Oxide Radio - at that time, the station did not have editorial independence from its parent company, OSSL, the commercial subsidiary of the Student Union. OUSU backed the NUS decision, but in 2008 the Oxford Union invited Nick Griffin along with controversial historial David Irving to speak. Members of the Student Union picketed the debate and some protesters broke into the Union chambers before being ejected by security.[1]
Status of the Policy
The NUS, who remain dedicated to No Platform (as of 30/1/08) are including it as a policy in their governance review which is due to be voted upon at National Conference in Blackpool, 28-31 April 2008. At a recent EGM the membership of NUS voted overwhelmingly to include No Platform in the core constitution.[citation needed]