On the third day of EdCon, the schedule showed a queer office plenary but the socialist students running it had a different plan. When students started calling it the “free speech plenary”, a third of the whole plenary stood up and left the conference resulting in quite a bit of chaos as the socialist faction yelled “why are you leaving?” The labour right faction had decided to boycott the conference.
In the short time we had left for the plenary, the speaker spoke of the attacks on students’ rights for free speech and the freedom to express oneself. “I see no issue that could be more important at this time.” It was felt that the recent sparking up of protests and encampments around the country for Gaza has led to the worst attack on students’ rights in our history. The speaker stated that we must fight against it.
Students continued to leave throughout the plenary as queer issues had still not been mentioned and weren’t throughout its entirety. One by one, every faction started to leave until I heard word from one of the organisers that every workshop had been pushed back for the day and that the conference had been suspended until further notice.
During the suspension, I went around and talked to people from different factions to get an idea of what was happening and why. I found out that two boys from the socialist alternative group had “put their hands on” the president of the NUS on the second day of EdCon although this accusation was contested by others from the same faction. Apparently the confrontation happened inside the plenary when the president went to take the microphone away from one of the socialist boys and, without ceding it, they both struggled resulting in some tension. The socialists were suspended and didn’t return until the last day.
To resolve the tension between the NUS and the socialist alternatives, a press conference was called during the lunch break after the failed plenary, outside the lecture theatre. Two NUS representatives, the president and the women’s officer, and two of the social alternative representatives, answered questions on their stance on the Gaza solidarity encampments and stated their ongoing support to 7 News, 9 News and Sky News reporters. A snippet of the interview can be seen on the Tert’s Instagram and Facebook pages.
After that, the conference proceeded as intended with just a few minor timetable changes.