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The Grassroots Left is a political grouping operating within the Australian National Union of Students and the Australian student movement. WikipediaManual of Style#National varieties of English.-->A political faction

The grouping is a small network of left-wing student activists. Grassroots Left has distinguished itself from the other left-wing factions of NUS by arguing that it should take direction from social movements which exist, such as the Australian Student Environment Network (ASEN). The Australian Student Environment Network (ASEN is the national network of many campus environment collectives in Australia.

Additionally, Grassroots Left is repulsed by what it sees as "sectarian and machinist" politics of the Labor Left factions and what it claims is the antidemocratic behaviour of Socialist Alternative. This article is about the Australian party faction for the Norwegian political party see Socialist Left Party (Norway The Socialist Alternative (often abbreviated as SA) is a Trotskyist group in Australia formed by a split from the International Socialist Organisation Members of the network include anarchists, members of the Greens, environmental activists, queer activists, members of smaller socialist groups (particularly Resistance), and unaligned left-wing members of the Australian Labor Party. The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is a Green Australian political party. Resistance is a Leninist -oriented socialist youth organisation with branches throughout Australia and its national headquarters in Sydney.

Grassroots Left and their predecessors have a traditional rivalry with Student Unity and are known for their disdain for the processes of NUS, which sets them apart from all other anti-VSU groups within NUS. Student Unity (also known as SU or simply Unity) is a factional grouping within the Australian National Union of Students (NUS Voluntary student unionism (VSU is a policy under which membership of &ndash and payment of membership fees to &ndash University student organisations is voluntary

Grassroots Left are strongest in New South Wales, as well as having a presence in other Eastern states, and the ACT. The 2005 NUS Environment Officer Anna Rose and Female Queer Officer Claire English were both involved with Grassroots Left, and Grassroots Left activists were elected as Environment Officer and Female Queer Officer at the 2005 NUS National Conference.

At the 2006 NUS National Conference, Grassroots Left won a seat on NUS National Executive and the following Office Bearer positions:

As of the 2007 National Conference, members of Grassroots Left hold the positions of Women's Officer (Claire Tatyzo) and woman-identifying Queer Officer (Bree Ahrens). National Labor Students (NLS is a factional grouping operating within the Australian National Union of Students.

Creation of the Grassroots Left

The predecessors of the Grassroots Left sat as part of the National Broad Left (NBL) up until the 2004 NUS National Conference, although divisions in the NBL had foreseen for years.

The final breakdown of the NBL unofficially occurred after NUS national conference 2004, where the faction appeared to be spilt into three groupings: Socialist Alternative, Solidarity+Socialist Action Group (former SA split) and the non-aligned, non socialist left.

The emergence of the Grassroots Left occurred during the second half of 2005, particularly surrounding the dispute within NUS over ASEN. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Members of ASEN, including NUS National Environment Officer Anna Rose, proposed the replacement of the NUS Environment Department, with ASEN taking over the role as the official voice of NUS on environmental issues, and the ASEN Convenor taking over the responsibilities of the Environment Officer. This proposal was met with concern amongst a number of parts of the student movement, but the response of Socialist Alternative, the other major grouping within the NBL, was seen by ASEN members as particularly vitriolic. Socialist Alternative attacked ASEN members as not even being committed to the most basic politics of unionism, argued that in the context of VSU, ASEN's proposal to set up a separate structure to NUS was akin to scabbing on the VSU campaign and the national union. The response of ASEN members was that it was quite possible for a representative student organisation such as NUS to exist alongside a grassroots activist network such as ASEN, and that many such activist networks had long existed. The only thing that differentiated ASEN from these previous networks, they argued, was ASEN's higher level of organisation, independent funding, and formal structure.

NOLS were also opposed to ASEN's proposal, however realised soon after that they had been political manipulated by Socialist Alternative and the moral panic they created.

In conjunction with this proposal from ASEN, a group calling itself "Green Bloc" was formed, predominantly consisting of environmental activists, who planned to operate independently of the NBL to achieve positive results for environmental activism within NUS at the 2005 Conference. While the ASEN proposal was later discarded, Green Bloc evolved into the Grassroots Left. It took in other activists who were outside of environment movement, and who were unhappy with the direction of the NUS, believing that NUS and its officials should be supporting social movement which involve students instead of furthering their own political careers, particularly with the Australian Labor Party.

Student unionism in Australia
Campus unions in Australia

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Student councils in Australia

Adelaide | Australian Catholic | Australian National | Ballarat | Canberra | Monash: Berwick, Caulfield, Clayton, Gippsland, Parkville, Peninsula | New England | Newcastle | Notre Dame | QUT | South Australia | Southern Cross: Coffs Harbour, Lismore | Southern Queensland | Sunshine Coast | Swinburne | Sydney | UTS | Western Sydney | Wollongong
National student organisations in Australia

Australian Liberal Students Federation | Australian Union of Students | Australasian Union of Jewish Students | Grassroots Left | Independents | National Labor Students | National Liaison Committee | National Union of Students | Socialist Alternative | Student Unity | Australian Labor Students | National Broad Left | National Organisation of Labor Students
Australia's universities are home to a variety of different Student union groups providing a range of political commercial and other services to students The Adelaide University Union (AUU was founded in 1895. Until 2006 the AUU funded seven affiliated bodies The Deakin University Student Association ( DUSA4U) in Victoria Australia is the representative association of Deakin University 's student body The student union one of several student organisations at the University of Melbourne, Australia, is divided into two parts Arc @ UNSW Limited is a not-for-profit public company based in Sydney, Australia, serving as the Student union at the University of New South Wales The UQ Union is the central student organisation at the University of Queensland. The RMIT Student Union Council commonly known as the RMIT Student Union, is the representative body for all students enrolled at RMIT University The University of Sydney Union ( USU) commonly referred to as The Union, is the student-run services and amenities provider at the University of Sydney The Tasmania University Union Inc (TUU is the Students' union that represents tertiary students attending the University of Tasmania. UTS Union Limited is the peak service provider at the University of Technology Sydney. Victoria University Student Union (VUSU is the Peak body representing and supporting all students at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia The UWA Student Guild is the premier student representative body at the University of Western Australia. The SAUA (Students' Association of the University of Adelaide was a Students' Representative Council like body that existed for students at the University of Adelaide from Monash University Berwick Campus is a campus of Monash University located in Berwick, which is a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, in the state Monash University Caulfield campus is a campus of Monash University located in Caulfield, which is a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, in The Monash Student Association (Clayton Inc (MSA is located at the Clayton campus of Monash University in the Campus Centre building The Gippsland campus of Monash University is located in the town of Churchill 142 km east of Melbourne The University of New England Students' Association (UNESA was the representative body for undergraduate students at the University of New England, Australia. The Newcastle University Students' Association (NUSA represents undergraduate students at the University of Newcastle, NSW Australia The QUT Student Guild is the student union at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane UniLife is the peak student representative body in the UniSA Spread across its four metropolitan campuses is the Centre for Regional Engagement, encompassing Whyalla and Swinburne Student Union (SSU is peak student representative body of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. The University of Sydney Students' Representative Council (SRC is the representative body for undergraduate students at the University of Sydney. The University of Technology Sydney Students' Association is the representative body for students at the University of Technology Sydney. The Australian Liberal Students' Federation (ALSF is a student group informally associated with the Liberal Party of Australia. The Australian Union of Students was the precursor to the National Union of Australian University Students - as a representative body and lobby group for Australian University The Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS is a federation of Jewish student societies at Australian and New Zealand universities and other higher Students who politically organise on an independent basis can be classified into two groups National Labor Students (NLS is a factional grouping operating within the Australian National Union of Students. The National Liaison Committee ( NLC) is a national faction in the National Union of Students of Australia. Socialist Alternative (often abbreviated as SA) is a Trotskyist group in Australia formed by a split from the International Socialist Organisation Student Unity (also known as SU or simply Unity) is a factional grouping within the Australian National Union of Students (NUS The Australian Labor Students was a Political faction within the National Union of Students. The National Organisation of Labor Students (usually known as NOLS, was a factional grouping operating within the Australian National Union of Students
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