Tag: Ralph Parker

Additional Evidence From Concourse On Stafford Demo & Keele UGM, Plus Ashley Fletcher’s Recollections Of That UGM Rumpus, Mid November 1984

I really should read everything before I do anything! After writing up the events of mid November, including a demonstration in Stafford and the UGM at Keele…

We Interrupt This Keele Student’s Union Sabbatical For A Short Visit To London Including A Bagel Hunt And A Heap Of Ringroad Show Rehearsals, 16 to 23 November 1984

…I discovered, in my pile of papers, a “Concourse Freebie” that wrote those two events up.

The demo write up, in excruciating detail to my more senior eyes, made Page One of the Freebie (see headline image). The UGM made Page Five. It was written up by Ralph Parker & Martin Whatley. Several passages in that report (see below) made me smile out loud. Well writ, fellas.

Ashley Fletcher’s Take

Ashley Fletcher’s forthcoming paper on the miner’s strike includes the following passage about the rumpus at that UGM. Reproduced with Ashley’s kind permission below:

University of Life

Somewhere around this time (the exact chronology is difficult to pin down), the local university students’ union at Keele was to debate a motion to ban promotion of the strike and related fundraising as ‘Ultra Vires’.  The motion put forward by the Federation of Conservative Students (FCS) was part of a conservative defunding campaign described above.

We had allies and affiliates on campus and although barred on the one hand, I had been awarded life membership of Keele Students Union and so was able to contribute to defending both the principle and the benefit to campaigning there.

The meeting on the 19th was perhaps the busiest I had ever seen and was deeply polarised and mutually antagonistic.  Some local miners from Silverdale and even a couple of Hucknall strikers from Nottinghamshire with student siblings there, came with us and galvanised and provoked in equal measure.

At the debates peak, the FCS leader, (deadnaming me as a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain!) claimed that when challenged by him, I had refused to condemn the use of violence by striking miners.  I had to resort to bureaucratic procedural ‘points of order’ to gain access to the microphone stating first the obvious “is it not a fact that I am not a member of the CPGB but a revolutionary anarchist communist?” to jeers and cheers. 

Agreeing that, I followed with “is it not a fact that I did not say I refused to condemn the violence of striking miners but instead, condone it and support its use and extension across the coalfields against the violence of scabs and the police occupation”.  The room erupted with both sides lunging, throwing beer and insults leading to a short recess before the vote.  The FCS motion and consequent ban were resoundingly defeated.

What The Paper Said Forty Years Ago: Concourse Articles On & By The New Union Committee, June 1984

Kate Fricker

I kept copies of Concourse from the tail end of my Keele career – I have most if not all from 1984 and the first half of 1985.

I’m glad I have copies of these papers, as they are very helpful memory joggers for that Students’ Union heavy period of my Keele time.

I shall be peppering Ogblog with extracts from Concourse as well as my diaries as I write up this period.

Concourse Writing On The New Sabbaticals, June 1984

The following two page spread from the June 1984 issue of Concourse was a preview piece about the four sabbaticals who had just taken office for 1984/85:

  • Kate (formerly and latterly known as Susan) Fricker – President;
  • John S White – Secretary;
  • Pady Jalali – Social Secretary;
  • Me – Education & Welfare.

Re-reading that material after all these years, I think Ralph Parker gave us a warm-hearted preview and a fair amount of leeway for our “honeymoon period”.

There was an element of editorial line involved, I sense. The previous committee had been much criticised for being disorganised and self-serving. Seeking extra pay at the end of their tenure didn’t help their cause with either the media or the Keele masses. Hence there was a prevailing view that the new lot couldn’t be worse and needed some space to grapple with the issues…

…writing this in July 2024, it reminds of the mood regarding the change of government in the UK!

Further, the Concourse line was somewhat celebratory about the new committee containing so many Concourse folk past and present: both John White and Ali Dabbs were on the Editorial Board when elected and I was well-known to have been a Concourse writer for several years…as well as, unbeknown to them, undercover gossip columnist H. Ackgrass.

Concourse Writing By The New Committee, June 1984

Quentin Rubens – granting us space

Putting aside my June 1984 H Ackgrass column, which I shall publish separately, here are the three articles that Concourse Editor Quentin Rubens generously granted to his old pals in that issue. Would he have given me a full half page had he known that I was also H Ackgrass? Would he have even spoken to me?

First up, a page containing John White’s report on a campus fire incident and Ali Dabbs’s investigative reporting (which it seems had been ongoing for some months) about that perennially important student issue: bar licence extensions:

My piece was more in keeping with the notion of guest space for committee members with something to say to the students. Mine was about the grant cuts and academic staffing.