Motions condemning “war on Iraq” have been springing up in most students’ unions around the country, and London is no exception. On Friday 14 February, the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) held an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to agree a policy of anti-war, with resolutions to occupy the School’s buildings and then to attend the Anti-War national demonstration the following day. Imperial College Union has rejected a motion on war in Iraq at a meeting of the ruling Council a fortnight ago.

The previous day, Queen Mary Students’ Union (QMSU) held an ordinary Union General Meeting (UGM), which was scheduled to discuss wide-ranging Constitutional amendments, the Union’s finances and also a motion on bullying and harassment in the students’ workplaces. A motion condemning war had also been tabled, but this second motion had no reference to Israel/Palestine in it unlike the previous one taken to the October EGM of QMSU.

The general meeting started late as the Chairman waited for students to arrive and fill the seats in the meeting room. A substantial amount of publicity had been done over the previous two weeks to ensure that there was a good turnout, particularly in light that there were oodles of changes proposed to the Constitution, including the abolition of the rubber-stamp-like Student Representative Council and the reshuffling of the titles and duties of the Union’s Vice-Presidents. The look of the general meeting had also had a face-life, including the use of an overhead projector, soothing whale-humping music and a caption competition involving two student officers and a larger-than-life inflatable snowman.

The Constitution was presented, explained and rubber-stamped. The Union’s finance update was presented, this time with some questions and points from the floor. The President then updated the students as to the progress of the Union’s development, achievements and on the new student village. A request from the floor to re-order the agenda was then defeated narrowly after a vote. So, it was then time for the Motions.

Andrew Robbins, the anti-war motion’s proposer then spoke to his motion. There was no speech against. A request from the floor for another round of speeches was agreed, rather bizarrely considering there had been no speech against. The new speaker, a former member of the NUS’s National Executive Committee and committee member of the QMSU Friends of Palestine Society then spoke about the connection of the motion with the suffering of the rest of the Middle East. She stated that “any war on Iraq is also a war on the Palestinian people.” The speaker continued. Eventually, the Chairman requested that she speak to the motion and the contents therein. The speaker re-iterated that she would have done some amendments, but didn’t want to do this at the expense of the motion itself.

Suddenly, from out of the blue the Chairman ordered a count of numbers as a request had been made from the floor on a point of order. The meeting was then closed at it was found that only 46 students were present at the meeting. Some members from the floor then started heckling and demanding that there should be no need for a quorum.