The renaissance of student activism?
P&P Director Ian Leggett reveals developments in charity guidelines that will have a big impact on People & Planet's work in universities
Rose Bruford Green Society members staff their Freshers stall
Image © Georgia Munnion
Students are the changemakers of the future. Within a few years the students of today will be holding key positions in the private and public sectors. Some will be running their own companies, others will be doing ground-breaking research and some will join an increasingly active civil society and will be running campaigns to influence public policy. Students both create and reflect broader changes that are happening in society.
If the role of students as changemakers is not in doubt, what is less clear is the role of student unions. Do the staff and officers who lead student unions see their union as an agent of change, able to harness the potential and the passion of students to articulate and campaign for a vision of the kind of society we want to see? Do they have a role to play in seeking to inspire and enable students to influence public policy?
Because of the ultra vires rule, student unions have in recent years tended to be relatively cautious about the extent to which they feel able to support and enable student activism. There has been a widespread view that student unions and their constituent societies cannot ‘be political’. This self-restraint and a corresponding driver to increase income has had the effect of transforming the very spirit of student unions. The role of student unions as powerful agents of debate, challenge and critical analysis has been eroded and weakened. But recent changes in the guidance on campaigning by charities might lead to a renaissance in student activism on campus.
Over the last year or more there has been intense debate within the charity sector about the rights of charities to campaign, and in particular to campaign for changes in the law and public policy. These changes have involved a wide range of organisations and the new guidance was recently scrutinised by a parliamentary select committee. There is every reason to think that the new guidance on campaigning will define the legal context in which student unions work for the foreseeable future. For this reason alone, all student union officers and managers should know what the new guidance says.
In recent years a clear distinction has developed between campaigning and political campaigning. Campaigning is a very broad term, but for student unions as charities campaigning means activities that are aimed at awareness-raising, or to educate or involve the public by mobilising their support on a particular issue. It also includes activities designed to influence or change public attitudes, or to ensure that existing laws are observed. Examples of campaigning might include:
- a refugee charity calling for Government to enforce existing legislation that supports the rights of refugees;
- a human rights charity calling on a government to observe certain fundamental human rights, and for the practice of torture to be abolished; or
- a charity concerned with poverty and the environment campaigning against investment by some banks in fossil fuel extraction projects.
Provided the issue is relevant to the organisations overall purpose, there are no limits or restrictions on campaigning, and a student union and its member societies can support or carry out as many campaigning activities as they like. A student union, like any charity, can campaign even if its constitution does not give it an explicit power to campaign.
This means, for example, that People & Planet groups at universities and colleges around the country can confidently seek the support of their student union to encourage students not to open bank accounts with NatWest because its parent company, Royal Bank of Scotland, is one of the biggest financial backers of oil investment. This is because campaigning against a company is not political campaigning.
The new guidance is also a big step forward in making it crystal clear that any charity can become involved in campaigning and in political activity which further or support its charitable purposes so long as:
- there is a reasonable likelihood of it being effective;
- the activities are a legitimate and reasonable way for the charity to achieve its purposes;
- political activity does not become the only way in which a charity pursues its charitable purposes; and
- the activities are never party political.
At this point it might be helpful to be clear about what the Charity Commission means by political activity, because it is an interpretation rooted in law rather than the common usage of the term.
Political activities are those activities which are aimed at securing, or opposing, any change in the law or in the policy or decisions of central government, local authorities or other public bodies. Political activity might include some or all of:
- getting students to complete postcards urging their MP to abolish top-up fees;
- activities designed to change the government’s policy on the war in Iraq; or
- activities seeking to change the policies of the UK government or the World Bank on climate change.
Charities are free to work with politicians and political parties, provided they are open about it and preserve their independence. The one thing they need to steer clear of, because it can never be charitable, is explicitly supporting a political party or being seen to be politically partial. Student unions must protect themselves from the risk that politicians might try to use their name and reputation for party political ends.
Charities that want to be freer to campaign have welcomed these changes. The old guidelines were peppered with references to risk which created an atmosphere of caution and self-censorship. The new guidelines unequivocally endorse the right of charities to campaign, and that should give student unions the confidence, once again, to be active on a wide range of debates on social, environmental and economic justice, and to champion and support movements and campaigns that are seeking change in our society.
For twenty years student unions have been hesitant, sometimes fearful, of being seen to be involved with campaigns which had a relevance beyond the narrow confines of student interests. The new campaigning guidelines should help to transform this context. If student unions want to play a dynamic and positive role is supporting activism on issues that have a global significance, they can do so in confidence.
Ian Leggett, People & Planet
Further reading:
Report of the Advisory Group on Campaigning and the Voluntary Sector, chaired by Baronness Helena Kennedy.
Charity Commission: Guidance on campaigning and political activity by charities.