Union Emergency General Meeting votes in support of sit-in action

The sit-in received official support from the Students’ Union after the Emergency General Meeting on Thursday, with 83.5 per cent of students in attendance voting for the motion.

A record number of students attended this EGM, with 376 students present at the start of the meeting and 334 ballots cast. 279 ballots were in favour of the resolution, 45 against and there were 10 abstentions. It was the highest turnout since a 400-strong General Meeting was called in 1999 to discuss the issue of Top-up Fees.

The number of students present far surpassed the Union’s expectations, and resources were stretched to accommodate everyone in the lecture theatre.

Barnaby Pace, one of the students behind the sit-in, commented on the number of students attending, saying, “No matter what the result tonight, it’s a win for Union democracy”.

Prior to the debate, the mood amongst students was optimistic. John Moore, a first year Philosophy student, said: “I came to show support for the protest and support for student democracy”.

Once the debate commenced the mood became much tenser. There was a sizeable minority of students opposing the motion, primarily because of confusion over whether supporting the action of the sit-in meant supporting its demands and its politics as well.

Daniel Mumby, a speaker against the motion, argued that the motion was deceptive. He said, “I want to dispel the idea this is completely about peace. There are clear political implications.” He said the protesters had shown a “complete disregard for the democratic structures of the Union and University” and had been “blackmailing” the University.

Andrew O’Brien added that if the Union supported the motion it would “implicitly link [us] to all demands of the campaigners”. He said it would be “foolish” to hand over support to a movement the Union had no control over.

Chris Rossdale responded to these objections, saying the resolution was in the past tense so that it was “in support of what we’ve done in the past, not future” and would serve to “give us clout in the negotiations [with the University].”

The atmosphere became increasingly heated, and chair Asen Geshakov had to repeatedly ask students to refrain from clapping or pounding on the desks because he had received notes that students were feeling intimidated. After the meeting opponents of the motion admitted they felt unsafe. Alexander S, a first year PPE student said, “I definitely felt threatened.”

Three amendments were raised to the motion. The first proposed amendment was to add “Students’ Union and University regulations” at the end of the resolution. The second was to remove “staging a sit-in in SO.21”, whilst the third was to insert “right of” instead of “action taken by” in the first line. These were all rejected.

There was also an attempt to postpone the EGM or bring it to a close. Hugo Volk, a Business School student argued, “Everyone here does not represent the whole Students’ Union or student body… There is no point in having this meeting”.

SU president, Stuart Thomson, contended that “Ideally this would be taken to referendum, but [the attendance] is as many people as we’re ever going to get in here”. The resolution to postpone the meeting was also rejected. Thirteen students left in protest.

Despite the various objections and issues of contention, the final vote was a decisive endorsement of the sit-in. The Union will now act as mediators between the campaigners and the University next week as they pursue their demands.

### Motion resolution

This Union resolves:

1. To support the action taken by the students staging a sit-in in S0.21 in solidarity with the victims of the Gaza conflict, within the bounds of UK law.
2. That the Union shall not take a stance on the Israel/Palestine situation, but remain non-partisan in order to ensure that none of our students feel isolated or intimidated as a result.
3. That the Union expresses its sincerest sorrow for the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza and offers its support to any of its members that have been affected by it.