International Union of Students
The International Union of Students is a worldwide nonpartisan association of university student organizations.
The IUS is the umbrella organization for 155 such students' organizations across 112 countries and territories representing approximately 25 million students. This is recognised by the United Nations Organization granting the IUS a consultative status in UNESCO. The primary aim of the IUS is to defend the rights and interests of students to promote improvement in their welfare and standard of education and to prepare them for their tasks as democratic citizens.
Aim and work areas
The aims of the IUS are spelled out in the 1946 preamble to the organization's Constitution:The purpose of the International Union of Students, which is founded upon the representative student organizations of different countries, shall be to defend the rights and interests of students to promote improvement in their welfare and standard of education and to prepare them for their tasks as democratic citizens.
According to the IUS's entry in the UNESCO Non-Governmental Organization list, the priority work areas of the IUS are: "Exchange of information, defence of students' status, peace, environment, development, human rights".
Activities
The IUS currently works through:- Issuing Student Statements
- Circular News Letters and Calls for Action to members
- Celebration of the International Students' Day on November 17
- Organizing Student Conferences
Logo symbolism
History
Early history 1946–1956
The International Union of Students was founded in Prague on August 27, 1946. Student organizations from 62 countries participated in its founding envisioning a more inclusive successor to the short lived 1941-1944 International Council of Students which was set up on the initiative of the British National Union of Students to maintain open lines of communication with student organizations in allied countries during World War II.From its earliest inception, the IUS was marked by a fundamental schism:
"The spirit of co-operation and the desire to prevent a resurgence of fascism in Europe brought together otherwise divergent groups. The main divisions, evident even at the founding congress, were between the Communist student organizations, which gained control of the executive bodies of the IUS from the beginning, and the student unions from western Europe, many of which were primarily interested in preserving the idea of a non-political international agency which would provide concrete services to the students of various countries"
In response to the increasingly partisan Communist course of the IUS and the broad powers of its secretariat and executive committee to initiate new policy programmes on behalf of the members, several non-Communist members withdrew their membership in the following years. Following which the IUS also referred itself as Independent Federation of Left-Wing and Alternative Student Unions.
Consequently, 21 such break-away national students organizations met in Stockholm in 1950 to form the International Student Conference as a nonpartisan rival organization to the pro-Communist IUS. Notable among these founders was the United States National Student Association though "Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavians and Dutch wielded the greatest influence ".
At the time of the formation of the ISC, the dominant view in later analyses is that the IUS had become Communist controlled to such a degree that it is often referred to as a Soviet Union Communist front organization with the IUS and ISC aligned along the Cold War fronts toward the Soviet Union and the United States of America respectively.
A dissenting view that the IUS was strongly influenced by socialism and communism but not de facto controlled by Soviet Communist interests, has also been expressed, however, by Trotskyist Lawrence Brammer:
"It is significant that several former IUS officers later became outspoken liberals in Czechoslovakia and in the French and Italian Communist Parties. The outward pro-Soviet orientation of the IUS often obscured real differences within the organization"
IUS activities in this period included Student Games held by the IUS Sports Council. The first such games were held in Paris in 1946 and were subsequently integrated into the World Youth Festivals which the IUS co-sponsored with the equally Communist oriented World Federation of Democratic Youth.
Such festivals brought up to 30,000 youth and students together for a social, cultural and sporting event.
IUS from 1956–1969
From 1956 onwards, the IUS and ISC competed to attract student unions non-aligned in the Cold War sense. Focus was on Latin America, Asia and Africa and recruitment of member unions from here resulted in a broader political base for the IUS.Activities in this period included among others regional student seminars, donation of duplication machines and cameras to help affiliates, the establishment of student Health Centres in India, international student conferences as well as the publication in German, Russian and Czech of the World Student News journal of the IUS, the Democratic Education journal of the IUS, and topical pamphlets concerning education. More spectacularly, the IUS continued to co-sponsor World Youth Festivals with the World Federation of Democratic Youth.
It was well known from the outset that the IUS was funded by Soviet and Czech government contributions:
"The cost of international meetings, large-scale publications, and the other activities in which they engage, are beyond the financial resources of university students"
However, the IUS's inability to win leadership in left-wing student movements in Europe despite its many activities caused the Soviet Union to re-evaluate its support.
The major challenge for the IUS in this period turned out to be its preoccupation with an ideological agenda rather than a focus on actual student concerns and affairs. As a consequence of this stance, the organization became detached from its student base and was circumvented by grassroots movements in, e.g. the planning of international anti-war demonstrations in relation to the Vietnam War. The major achievements of the IUS in this period were therefore firstly helping create national student unions in developing countries and secondly aiding student union members with information and idea exchange.
The dissolution of the IUS's rival organization the International Student Conference owing to lack of funds became a reality in 1969. The demise of the ISC were hastened by the 1967 revelation that the CIA had indirectly funded the ISC and recruited student representatives from the United States National Student Association to actively oppose Communism in the IUS. This undermined both the financial and student political support of the ISC leaving, once again, the IUS as the only worldwide student organization.
IUS from 1970–present
This period in IUS history is marked by the chairmanship of the same chairman from 1977 to 1986 under whom a flurry of international IUS activity took place in 1979.The most significant event of the period for the IUS, however, was the turmoil the organization encountered after the 1989 - 1991 fall of Communism during which the IUS lost most of its funding. Additionally, in August 1991, the Czechoslovak Minister of the Interior decided to expel the IUS and other Communist front organizations from Czechoslovakia. The reasons given for the expulsion were close ties with the old Communist regime and abuse of tax privileges granted during the old Communist regime.
Despite the hardships caused by the changing power dynamics of the 1990s, the organization elected a new leadership at its 1992 Cyprus Congress and initiated structural changes of its to renew itself and evolve beyond its Communist past:
"At the 16th Congress of the International Union of Students, which took place in January 1992 in Larnaca, Cyprus, the organisation underwent major changes, including the development of a new constitution. These initiatives were adopted to establish the basis for a more democratic, representative, and independent international student organisation"
The new leadership and its successors continued to make press appearances in, e.g., relation to International Students' Day celebration in Dublin in 1994 and the 1998 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education.
In August 2003, the International Union of Students marked a comeback by calling for a worldwide day of protest against the inclusion of Higher Education in the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services.
The IUS is still, however, struggling with its expulsion from its Prague headquarters as of October 2006:
"Most cold war institutions shriveled in the 1990s, along with their superpower backing. The big communist front outfits that fought propaganda wars, awash with cash and stuffed with spies, have fizzled away in a mixture of apathy and swindles. This week's court-enforced auction of a hulking concrete pile in the heart of Prague belonging to one of them, the International Union of Students, was halted amid squabbles among its dozens of creditors"
Members
The IUS has the following members:| Country | Member | Membership |
| Union of Afghan Youth | ||
| Union Nationale des Étudiants Algériens | ||
| Argentine University Federation | ||
| National Union of Bahrain Students | ||
| Bangladesh Students' Union | ||
| Bangladesh Chatra Federation | ||
| Students Unity of Bangladesh | ||
| Bangladesh Chatra League | ||
| Bangladesh Chathro Somite | ||
| Bangladesh Student League | ||
| National Student League | ||
| Guild of Undergraduates | ||
| Flemish Union of Students | ||
| Fédération Nationale des Étudiants du Bénin | ||
| Confederacion Universitaria Boliviana | ||
| Botswana Student Council | ||
| National Union of Students | ||
| National Student Coordinating Center of Bulgaria | ||
| Alliance Démocratique des Étudiants Pour le Développement du Burkina | ||
| All Burma Students Fedration Union | ||
| Jeunesse Révolutionnaire Rwagasore | ||
| Youth Association of Cambodia | ||
| Union Nationale des Étudiants Socialistes du Kamerun | ||
| Canadian Federation of Students | ||
| Juventude Africana Amilcar Cabral-Cabo Verde | ||
| Union Générale des Étudiants et Stagiaires du Tchad | ||
| Consejo Nacional de Federaciones de Estudiantes Chilenos | ||
| Student Council of Associations and Unions of Higher Educational Institutions of the CIS | ||
| Union Nacional de Estudiantes Colombianos | ||
| Union Nationale de la Jeunesse et des Étudiants des Comores | ||
| Union Nationale des Étudiants Congolais | ||
| Étudiants Congolais Progressistes | ||
| Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad Nacional | ||
| Pancyprian Federation of Students and Young Scientists | ||
| Turkish-Cypriot Student Association | ||
| Federación de Estudiantes Dominicanos | ||
| Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios del Ecuador | ||
| Federación de Estudiantes Politécnicos del Ecuador | ||
| General Union of Students of the Arab Republic of Egypt | ||
| Union of Democratic Egyptian Youth | ||
| General de Estudiantes Universitarios Salvadoreños | ||
| National Union of Eritrean Youth | ||
| University of the South Pacific Students Association | ||
| Union Nationale des Étudiants de France | ||
| National Union of Gambian Students | ||
| National Union of Ghana Students | ||
| Asociación de Estudiantes Universitarios | ||
| African Youth Amílcar Cabral | ||
| Student Council of the Progressive Youth Organization | ||
| Fédération Nationale des Étudiants Haïtiens | ||
| Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios de Honduras | ||
| All India Students Federation | ||
| Students' Federation of India | ||
| All-India Students Bloc | ||
| Radical Students Forum | ||
| Chatra Janata Dal | ||
| Organization of Democratic Youth and Students of Iran | ||
| General Union of Students in Iraqi Republic | ||
| National Union of Iraqi Students | ||
| Jamaica Union of Tertiary Students | ||
| All-Japan Federation of Student Unions | ||
| National Union of Jordan Students | ||
| Student Organization of Nairobi University | ||
| Kiribati Students' Association | ||
| Korean Students Committee | ||
| Kurdish Students Society in Europe | ||
| National Union of Kuwait Students | ||
| Lao People's Revolutionary Youth Union | ||
| Union Nationale des Étudiants de l'Université Libanaise | ||
| Students' Representative Council | ||
| Liberia National Students Union | ||
| General Union of Great Jamahiriya Students | ||
| Comité Démocratique des Jeunes et des Étudiants de Madagascar | ||
| Organisation de la Jeunesse Révolutionnaire du Parti d'Avantgarde de la Révolution Malgache-Arema | ||
| Malawi Students Union of Lesoma | ||
| Young Students' Movement | ||
| Mauritius Union of Student Councils | ||
| Council of Students & Youth Movements | ||
| Coordinadora Nacional de Estudiantes Mexicanos | ||
| Union of Mongolian Students | ||
| Union Générale des Étudiants du Maroc | ||
| Associaçao dos Estudantes Universitarios de Moçambique | ||
| Mozambican Youth Organisation | ||
| Namibian National Student Organization | ||
| Nepal National Federation of Students | ||
| All Nepal National Free Student Union | ||
| Nepal Progressive Student Union | ||
| Dutch Student Union | ||
| Unión Nacional de Estudiantes de Nicaragua | ||
| Union des Scolaires Nigériens | ||
| National Association of Nigerian Students | ||
| National Union of Oman Students | ||
| Democratic Students Federation | ||
| Jeay Sindh Taraqui Pasand Student Federation | ||
| Sindhi Shagird Tehreek | ||
| Baloch Students Organization | ||
| General Union of Palestine Students | ||
| Federación de Estudiantes de Panamá | ||
| National Union of Students | ||
| Unión Estudiantil de Paraguay | ||
| Federación de Estudiantes del Perú | ||
| National Union of Students of the Philippines | ||
| Polish Students' Association | ||
| Puerto Rico Pro-Independence University Federation | ||
| Mouvement des Étudiants et Étudiantes du Québec | ||
| National Union of Independent Students | ||
| Association Générale des Étudiants de l'Université Nationale du Ruanda | ||
| Student Bureau | ||
| National Student Council | ||
| University of South Pacific-Alafuna Campus Students Association | ||
| Jeunesse du Mouvement de Libération de Sao Tomé et Principe | ||
| National Union of Students of Saudi Arabia | ||
| Union Démocratique des Étudiants de Dakar | ||
| Seychelles People's Progressive Front | ||
| National Union of Sierra Leone Students | ||
| South African Students Congress | ||
| Congress of South African Students | ||
| National Union of Somali Students | ||
| Estudiantes Progresistas | ||
| Unión de Estudiantes | ||
| Coordinadora d'Estudiants d'Ensenyament Mitjà de Catalunya | ||
| Sri Lanka National Union of Students | ||
| United National Party | ||
| Democratic Front of Sudanese Students | ||
| Surinaamse Studenten Unie | ||
| VSS-UNES-USU | ||
| National Union of Syrian Students | ||
| National Union of Tanzanian Students | ||
| Dar Es Salaam University Student Union | ||
| Mouvement National des Étudiants et Stagiaires du Togo | ||
| Guild of Undergraduates | ||
| Makerere Students Guild | ||
| Uganda National Students Association | ||
| Asociación Social y Cultural de Estudiantes de la Enseñanza Pública | ||
| United States Student Association | ||
| Vanuatu National Union of Students | ||
| Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios de Venezuela | ||
| Federación de Centros Universitarios | ||
| Union Nationale des Étudiants du Vietnam | ||
| Sahrawi Youth Union | ||
| Supreme Student Committee | ||
| Central Council of Yemeni Students | ||
| University of Zambia Student Union | ||
| Zimbabwe National Students Union |