SU23 - Aidan Moran for Campaigns and Engagement officer

Aidan Moran

I would say I got involved in political campaigning pretty young. Before I’d come to university, read a page of Marx or bought a razor, I was going to demonstrations against austerity, confronting fascist organisations on the street and getting involved in food and clothing banks with solidarity initiatives. By the time I turned 18, I knew enough to lead campaigns against the far right in my area and organised a wildcat strike against my employer who had attempted to steal two weeks’ worth of wages from myself and my fellow workers.

Following on from this, it seemed only natural that the next step was to go to the West Bank to engage in nonviolent direct action against the Zionist Occupation. After three months of arrests, demolitions, sniper fire and tear gas, I returned even more determined to set things right.

Over the course of my university life, I was involved as President of Student Action for Refugees, I was a founding member of the Student Renters’ Group and the Climate Action Group, I led the referendum campaign to support the UCU strikes and worked as the Environmental and Ethical Trading Officer. Following the university’s decision to switch entirely to online learning, I also created the Autonomous Students’ Group, amassing 800 students and building a movement that made the university reconsider its decisions.

These strategies and tactics were what helped me in the role of Campaigns and Engagement Officer. We’ve spent months engaging with students, bringing people into campaigning who had never considered it before. We’ve empowered groups and societies to take radical action to fight for their liberation. We’ve gone to the university with a referendum counting nearly 2,000 votes, showing management that students are very clearly willing to support and participate in radical action to undermine the university if the economic crisis isn’t taken seriously.

I’m not going to pretend that it’s been plain sailing. Coming into the job was a massive learning curve for me and my optimism was temporarily hit by apparent realism. However, seeing so many students willing to put in the work to make better lives for themselves and their fellow students was awe-inspiring. I’ve definitely regained my faith in the student movement and its capabilities to achieve more than what cynics on Twitter seem to be suggesting.

This role isn’t about sitting in powerful rooms hidden away from students, making decisions that shouldn’t be heard. Our Union is stronger when its members are involved with the movement but not as meat shields for officers to then take credit for. Our members need to be involved in every level of decision-making and should absolutely have the avenue to hold officers to account for their actions or inactions. We need to be creating open forums where every student can come and question officers about their projects and suggest alternatives. We need to publicise when Councils are taking place, the results from them and how to submit motions.

We’ve seen the power of the student movement when going up against the university but they aren’t the only institution exploiting students. Landlords will leave houses in unliveable conditions and bosses will drive students to the brink of their mental health over a minimum wage job. We need to be using our strength in solidarity to rise up against these figures and hold them accountable for the power that they have over students.

Despite the Gender Violence motion being passed last year, we haven’t spent enough time addressing it. As it wasn't in my manifesto last year, it wasn’t within my remit, however, I do feel the success of our strategies in other areas should be applied to this. The fact is that there is an epidemic of sexual violence, not just at QUB, but everywhere. We have a collective body of students that can be organised and we need to make sure that as many people throughout the student body have the skills and training to handle situations where there are clear warning signs and provide the necessary support for survivors while they receive support themselves.

We’ve built up the biggest student movement in years. We need to ramp up this effort and build a better culture and university for us all.

To see all the candidates running, visit the Queen’s SU website.