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October 2001
Contents: General Election, June 2001. Sheffield University. Over the Summer. Getting off to a good start.
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here for our press contact details Dear prolifers, Welcome to the first Student LifeNet newsletter of this academic year, especially if you have just joined the mailing list. This is a chance to recap on all the things that have been going on over the summer and to bring you up to date with the latest student prolife victories. Please note that slifenet@btinternet.com is our new email address - we will be ceasing our AOL account shortly General Election June 2001. Way back in June, five of us from universities at London, Cambridge, Oxford, Warwick and Manchester stood as ProLife Alliance candidates in the general election, in order to defend human life. For some of us, the idea was novel at first but quickly became the logical thing to do, not only because it is one of the most effective ways to speak to a large number of people about prolife, but also because the election is little short of a joke without candidates who believe in the basic right to life. Challenging the electorate to forget the superficial promises and put human life first was exhilarating and the response from many people was positive. Many people were impressed with our conviction, or were at least interested in knowing more. Despite the difficulties of standing to be Members of Parliament on a limited budget at possibly the busiest time of the year with exams in many universities, none of us were deterred. We each secured a couple of hundred votes and brought the prolife message to many more. With the appeal against the censorship of the ProLife Alliance party broadcast coming up at the end of January, we will have yet another chance to convey the truth about abortion to the public. For the ProLife Alliance manifesto and all the latest news and press releases, check out: www.prolife.org.uk Sheffield University. At the same time as the general election, Sheffield student union was busy discriminating against their students. On the basis of some not very convincing accusations and contorted logic, they managed to ban students from using their own union facilities on the grounds that this obstruction would ensure freedom of speech! Prolife students at Sheffield wrote a measured defence of their position pointing out that the union were basing their discrimination on little more than prejudice. Sheffield Union have only just been forced into an humiliating climbdown when prolifers pointed out that it is against the law for the union to discriminate against students wishing to set up a group. This means that no student union should be able to discriminate against students wishing to use union facilities. This is not an isolated incident as Kent prolife students were prevented from having a stall at freshers fair. It is clearly a situation that needs to end. Get in touch if you need help opposing your union. Over the summer, Student LifeNet investigated student unions affiliations to the National Abortion Campaign (NAC) following the Cambridge prolife society's campaign last November when over 3,000 students voted to disaffiliate. Our investigation revealed that student unions affiliating to the NAC is illegal, since it breaches the student unions' charitable status. Kent prolife society, who had opposed affiliation to the NAC last year and had called a referendum, immediately informed the student union president and received confirmation that the union had disaffiliated. Chalk up yet another one for prolife students! There are still student unions who are giving money to this extreme organisation and Student LifeNet is calling for their immediate disaffiliation. Find out what the situation is in your university and let us know. Help us stop this illegal and offensive use of students' money. Getting off to a good start. Congratulations to all of you for your work at freshers fair. Some societies managed to recruit over a hundred new members. If you didn't manage to have a freshers fair stall, don't worry, you can still get lots of new members by sticking up posters and by word of mouth. Check out our SLN guide to setting up a prolife society or get in touch. We're here to help you. Do get in touch and tell us what is happening at your university or if you would like to help in any way. More campaign news to follow shortly, but for now, good luck with all the prolifing. Fiona Pinto Director, Student LifeNet |
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