National Broad Left

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The National Broad Left (usually the NBL) was a political grouping within the National Union of Students of Australia from 1999 to 2005. The faction was a loose conglomeration of various feminist, environmentalist, autonomist, trotskyist and independent left activists. Before its formation in 1999, the non-ALP student left had been divided between Left Alliance, the Non-Aligned Left, and Resistance. The catalyst for the NBL's creation was a decision early in 1999 by some members of Left Alliance to dissolve that organisation into a broad left structure. This decision to dissolve was shortly followed by a split within the other major non-ALP left grouping at the time, the Non-Aligned Left, that saw its more radical members join the NBL. However, the successful establishment of the NBL owed as much to the successful campaign against Voluntary Student Unionism in 1999, which led to a growth in the student movement that seemed to make a unified student left organisation possible.

The NBL was technically an alliance of individual students, rather than organisations. Nevertheless, with the exception of the Left Labor students, almost all of the left political organisations active in the student movement - such as Love and Rage, Socialist Alternative, International Socialist Organisation (ISO), Resistance, Workers Power, the Australian Greens - participated in the NBL at various times. Many of these groups participated as a bloc, which sometimes generated allegations of "stacking" and participation in bad faith. In the earlier days of the NBL, the primary fault line was between the large independent activist milieu that controlled the NBL (including at that time a significant radical feminist presence), and the Leninist Marxists (ISO, Resistance/DSP and Socialist Alternative). In the latter days of the NBL, as the radical activist milieu from the late 1990s dissipated, the main faultline was between Socialist Alternative, who came to control the NBL at a national level, and the Autonomous Groupings, including many environmentalists, pejoratively termed the "Swampies" by Socialist Alternative. This division led to the collapse of the NBL and the creation of separate factions for the 2005 NUS National Conference, with Socialist Alternative and the Grassroots Left sitting separately.

Radical left-wingers have long been active within student organisations in Australia and elsewhere. The Australian Union of Students, the predecessor body to the current National Union, was dominated by such activists. The propensity of such groups to splinter and fragment has meant that many different, often competing, groupings have occupied similar positions on the political spectrum within the student movement to that currently held by the NBL. Generally, the pattern has been that existing groups fragment when the student movement is weak, leading to the formation of new splinter groups (e.g. 1993 NAL, 2005 Grassroots Left), and reunify when the student movement is strong, leading to the formation of new unified groups (e.g. 1999 NBL, 1987 Left Alliance). Given their organisational discontinuity, however, the radical (or non-ALP) left has shown remarkable political continuity within the Australian student movement over the last 30 years.

The NBL was non-binding; that is, individual members were not required to follow caucus decisions on votes at NUS Conferences. It thus lacked the tight discipline exhibited by the Labor factions. Generally speaking its members co-operated fairly closely, however, and members were required to inform caucus representatives if they intended to vote against a caucus position (so that this could be taken into account when calculating votes).

The NBL was not interested in attempting to control NUS through bureaucratic positions such as President & General Secretary. Rather a strong emphasis was placed on NUS's activist departments - Queer, Women's, Education and Environment - usually attempting to have candidates elected to these office-bearing positions and using them as a base to run radical campaigns. The creation of the NUS National Queer Department, including two quarter-time Queer Officers, was a long-time objective of the NBL (and its predecessors) that was realised in 2000. The Labor groupings had previously opposed the creation of such a department, but changed their position in response to the renewal of gay, lesbian and queer activism in 1999-2000. Between 2002 and 2004, the NBL also successfully fought against moves by Unity and certain sections of NOLS to abolish the National Environment Department (which had been created in 1995 as a result of the efforts of the NAL). The NBL's National Office Bearers between 1999 and 2005 are listed below.

A strong mutual antipathy existed between the NBL on one side and Student Unity and the Australian Liberal Students Federation on the other. Unity in particular generally attempted to prevent NBL candidates from gaining office, and placed severe strictures on NBL office bearers' budgets. The NBL in turn, attempted to have left-wingers elected in preference to Unity candidates.

The NBL had a mixed relationship with the National Organisation of Labor Students. NOLS had a traditionally close relationship with the NBL's predecessor, Left Alliance, but this closeness was only partially transmitted to the NOLS-NBL relationship. During the period of the NBL's existence, NOLS's strategy for maintaining control of NUS was generally to play off the NBL and Student Unity, prioritising deals with the former in one year and the latter in the next. This strategy was generally successful.

NUS National Office Bearers from the National Broadleft, 1999-2005

2005

Education - Rebecca Barrigos

Environment - Anna Rose

2004

Education - Paul Coats

Queer - Tallace Bisset

2003

Education - Elizabeth Thompson

Environment - Bonnie Rivendell and Eli Greig

Queer - Rathana Chea

2002

Education - Camille Barbagallo

Environment - Matt Skellern

Queer - Emma Banyer

2001

Education - Kate Davison

Queer - Mark Pendleton & Melissa Venville (left NOLS for NBL mid-2001)

2000

Queer - Joanne Ball

1999

Women's - Geneveive Derwent (fmr Left Alliance)

Student unions of Australia
National: National Union of Students of Australia
Universities: ANU | Adelaide | Ballarat | Bendigo | Canberra | Charles Darwin | Curtin | Edith Cowan | Flinders | Griffith | James Cook | La Trobe | Macquarie | Melbourne | Monash (Caulfield campus) | Monash (Clayton campus) | Murdoch | New England | New South Wales | Newcastle | Queensland | QUT | RMIT | South Australia | Southern Cross (Coffs Harbour campus) | Southern Cross (Lismore campus) | Southern Queensland | Sunshine Coast | Swinburne | Sydney | Tasmania (Hobart campus) | Tasmania (Launceston campus) | UTS | Victoria | Western Australia | Western Sydney | Wollongong
Current Factions: Australian Liberal Students Federation | Grassroots Left | Independents | National Labor Students | National Liaison Committee | Socialist Alternative | Student Unity
Former Factions: Australian Labor Students | Left Alliance | Love and Rage | National Broad Left | National Organisation of Labor Students | Non-Aligned Left | Small + Regionals