A turning point has been reached in the culture wars on British University campuses.
Just a while ago, universities in Britain were seen as a lost cause for anyone to the right of the hard Left. Faculty members, rabid feminist societies, the National Union of Students with Malia Bouattia as their leader, local student unions – all of them declared open season on free speech and anti-PC culture.
According to Spiked Online’s 2016 University Free Speech Rankings, more than 90 percent of universities in Britain censored speech and expression. From no-platforming allegedly controversial (ie conservative/liberatarian) speakers and “racist sombreros” to dancing to Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines – university activists have ruined campus life.
But a British campus renaissance is underway: groups of young and diverse students are connected in their loathing of censorship and campus radicalism.
Heat Street spoke with Danial Mirza, a first year student and a founder of the Young British Heritage Society – whose launch event (attended by Heat Street) was described as “upbeat, diverse, and numerous in its clientele” by Standpoint Magazine.
Milo speaks at our launch event pic.twitter.com/jpSXghq2oS
— YBHS (@YBHSociety) August 16, 2016
He claims that the organisation has seen “unprecedented membership growth rates” exceeding any of their initial expectations – showing young people are tired of radical left-wing politics on campus. Some credit must also go to Milo Yiannopoulos, who helped to launch the society and currently sits on its advisory committee.
Mirza didn’t mince words when asked what he wants to achieve this year: “We want to broadly tackle political correctness in all of its various manifestations. Whether it is radical feminists or radical Islamists, both groups have been known to use political correctness to change the course of discussion to serve their own ends.”
The organisation sees the National Union of Students as perhaps the single biggest threat to free speech on university campuses.
“As a result, we will certainly be pushing for widespread disaffiliation from the NUS at universities where we have chapters,” he said.
In the long term, the founder aspires to see his society replacing the NUS as a national student body.
Pushing back against the NUS is a common theme found among new anti-hard left and free speech groups.
NUScape is another organisation set to make noise this year on university campuses.
Its website uses a winning slogan – “take back control” – and they have the backing of well-established think-tanks like the Quilliam Foundation and their #RIGHT2DEBATE initiative.
Heat Street spoke to Luke Nash-Jones, a co-founder of the organisation, who told us that their goal this year is to have at least 10 universities cutting ties with the NUS.
Stuff like this just makes me even happier that @Hullstudent managed to successfully disaffiliate from the NUS. https://t.co/nhj0NUe1i3
— Joshua McMullan (@JJMcMULLAN) September 18, 2016
He and the organisation believe the NUS is not fit for purpose. It’s “undemocratic” and its radical leader, Malia Bouattia, “allegedly has a problem with Jewish people.”
To achieve success, NUScape will organise workshops to help students campaign and will pool resources to ensure the effectiveness of the campaigns. He stressed that he wants to highlight how the NUS policies breach the Education Act in Britain, thus having a legitimate and legal basis for disaffiliation.
It was a great please of mine to lecture tonight with @YoungLibbers @NUScape on importance of countering extremism and promoting liberalism. pic.twitter.com/lr9OlwPaJi
— Haydar Zaki (@HaydarZaki1) September 19, 2016
But students aren’t waiting for a platform for free speech to arrive – they just do it. The London School of Economics Free Speech Society – Speakeasy – is proof of that.
The society was established last year to fight what some students saw as virulent anti free speech attitudes on the LSE’s campus – like banning the Sun and the Daily Star newspapers and closing down the rugby club over “sexist pamphlet”.
It aims to promote free speech by “staging campaigns against no-platforming and censorship. We hope to spark positive discussion on free expression and wider social controversies, and celebrate freedom of speech.”
Without a hint of irony, triggered students of the LSE have already tried to ban the free speech society – only to prove how important these societies are in today’s campus life.
LSE’s Free Speech society serves as an inspiration for other university students – how they can organise themselves to facilitate freedom of speech on other campuses.
LSE Students' Union today discussed if @LSESU_Speakeasy #FreeSpeech society should be banned.
Most opposed, I hope. pic.twitter.com/vahqCIa9Gq
— Hari (@_har1_) February 25, 2016
British universities have sometimes seemed like a lost cause in recent years – but this year university faculty members, left-wing activists, and ban-happy student leaders are being challenged: all-out culture wars will be brewing on British campuses and free speech campaigners are better prepared than ever.
