RE: “CUSA decision to reject No Means No ‘not politically motivated,’ ” Oct. 4-10, 2012
In last week’s edition of the Charlatan, Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) vice-president (student services) Fatima Hassan decided to submit a letter to the editor that is, at best, disingenuous, and at worst, insulting to the intelligence of her constituents. While her description of the process to defederate from the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) was correct, and her complementary description of the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSE) as being “arguably the most effective student organization in Quebec” was absolutely welcome, there was a fastness and looseness with facts in her letter that is entirely characteristic of this executive.
It begins with the rather ridiculous idea of saying CUSA’s “dislike of the CFS [is] not politically motivated,” which both mistakes and misrepresents the definition of the term, and tries to frame a partisan ideological position as neutral. In her letter, she herself writes that the “decision to remove CFS material [from CUSA spaces, including service centres] was not because [the executive thinks] the material is inherently bad [but rather] it is because [they] think the organization behind the material has lost its way.” Now, ignoring temporarily that these materials were being used by students to fight against racism, homophobia and transphobia, rape culture, and ableism, and that the materials were removed without any replacements, the statement demonstrates that the executive knows that the materials in question might well have merit. It further demonstrates that the choice to remove these materials was made due to the political position of this executive in relation to the CFS — the executive doesn’t believe the CFS is a worthy cause to support.
The term “politically motivated” is ment to describe a decision that is made for political reasons, that is to say, reasons that relate to the conduct and/or ideology of the organization. This decision was made precisely because of the ideology of this executive, and the red herring here is in the claim that the CFS “has lost its way.” The reality, though — which the red herring seeks to cover up — is that the executive has been making overtures indicating its intention to join the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA). CUSA president Alexander Golovko and vice-president (finance) Michael De Luca attended a strategy conference earlier this year at UBC (which was sponsored by the new health plan provider), and the executive is planning to attend the CASA lobby week (as indicated in a quotation from the vice-president student issues provided for an earlier Charlatan article).
Since honesty is the foundation of any good relationship, perhaps the executive would be willing to be honest enough in order to earn our trust as their constituents. It’s not that the CFS “pits student against student, community against community, and [divides] our campus,” but rather that the CUSA executive is hellbent on making decisions for students, not with students. The only students marginalized by CFS campaigns and materials are those seeking to promote racism, homophobia and transphobia, rape culture, and/or ableism, and my Carleton does not include those students.
And by the way, ASSÉ operates on a general assembly model at the faculty level, a fundamentally different structure than that of CUSA or the CFS. It has an entirely different mandate and purpose, and might be better known to the Carleton community as CLASSE, the most militant student association in support of the Quebec student strike. As someone who wears their red square proudly, I am glad the executive has recognized just how effective direct action campaigns are, despite CASA’s disavowal of them.
—Arun Smith,
seventh-year human rights and political science
