Федерация консервативных студентов: история и противоречия

Former British Conservative Party's student wing

The Federation of Conservative Students (FCS) was the student organisation of the British Conservative Party from the late 1940s to 1986. It was created to act as a bridge between the student movement and the Conservative Party. It produced several magazines, and had regular Assembly meetings in which motions would be voted on. It had supported some controversial actions, such as the legalisation of various drugs, and the privatisation of the Trident nuclear missiles. There was continual tension between central party, which funded the organisation, and the Federation – which often used the funds on exploring unconventional policies. in reference to then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and to Militant, an entryist group active in the Labour Party at the time. The FCS was then broken up by the Chairman of the Conservative Party, Norman Tebbit, after one of its members had accused previous former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan of war crimes in extraditing Cossacks to the Soviet Union. The FCS was replaced by the Conservative Collegiate Forum.

The organisation was originally founded as the Federation of University Conservative and Unionists Associations (FUCUA) in January 1930 with Col. John Buchan MP (later Lord Tweedsmuir and Governor General of Canada) as its first President. FUCUA was renamed the Federation of Conservative Students in 1967. From the 1980s onward it became a more controversial group.

The policies of Margaret Thatcher had a polarising effect on British politics and the student left moved towards radicalism in their response to them. Many students' unions would pass motions instituting a policy of "No Platform for Racists or Fascists". Starting in the early 1980s, the organisation adopted a more confrontational approach toward the left leaning National Union of Students. Leaders, most notably from Scotland, started advocating "voluntary students' unions". They organised campaigns aimed at disaffiliating individual students' unions from the NUS to weaken the so called block vote, and deprive it of taxpayers' money which the NUS used for various causes. Posters and other publicity material became much more provocative and hard hitting.

The authoritarian faction centred on the student Monday Club, and was not particularly well known compared to the much larger Libertarian faction. It was linked with traditional British nationalism, an isolationist posture in relation to foreign affairs, opposition (as espoused by Enoch Powell) to immigration, scepticism about liberal economics, and staunch support for the Union.

The Libertarian faction (the "Libs") was closely linked to the Libertarian Alliance run by Chris Tame, and the Adam Smith Institute, run by Madsen Pirie. Under Glendening, elected Chairman in 1984, the FCS became more controversial than ever as it embraced social liberalism in addition to the already established endorsement of economic libertarianism; issues such as supporting the legalisation of drugs were no longer taboo. Robbie Gibb, and Douglas "Dougie" Smith. John Bercow and Andrew Rosindell were once also members, although they had also been part of the authoritarian faction.

The Moderate faction had controlled the FCS until 1980. Some of them were members of the Tory Reform Group (TRG). Eight prominent members of the moderate faction including several former chairmen joined the SDP in 1981.

In the 1980s, the FCS was noted for being more radical than the main party, more Thatcherite than Thatcher – ministers invited to speak at conferences were routinely chastised for not going far enough. The Federation made badges with the words "Nicaragua Must be Free". Some Labour students began wearing them without realising their origin and intended meaning.