James Ketteringham, tells us how we must embrace activism to forward our agendas.

We are all members of a society plagued with problems; poverty, deprivation, repression, discrimination, environmental degradation. As students of the LSE we are all members of an organisation with the founding aim of ‘The Betterment of Society’.

I have never taken a class in ‘The Betterment of Society’, there are no lecturers on the subject and there is no degree program in for students to pursue it. Yet this is the School’s founding aim. I don’t blame the School for this gap in the syllabus. ‘The Betterment of Society’ cannot be done in lectures, classes or the library. But I believe it can be done and should be done. As students of the LSE we are all automatically members of the Students’ Union. I believe through the Students’ Union we should be struggling for change in society because we are able to recognise that society needs changing.

Change is done most easily by those in command of organisations with power over society; but we are not in any government, we are not on the boards of any of the multinational company and we do not have a majority on Westminster City Council nor the Council of the LSE (the LSE’s governing body). This means that we cannot commission change by a single order or by winning a single vote.

Without direct access to the mechanisms of power; activism is the way for us to change society for the better. We will need to research, write, report, march, campaign, petition, leaflet and even sit-in to apply pressure to those in power. We must be active to ensure we, and our concerns, cannot be ignored.

Achieving change through student activism is a long, difficult and controversial task. We might not win every fight and we will only achieve change in small steps. But this does not make our concerns less valid, nor improving society less important, it just makes it harder. Since change will be difficult we will must work together in an organisation designed to push for change.

This is why the Students’ Union becomes important; it is a vehicle for change. The students union has the resources, the funding, the size and the organisational structure to facilitate our campaigns and allow continuity - to allow the next generation of LSE students to carry on our campaigns. It is a vehicle to better society of students; a way of improving life for LSE students through providing support, counselling, guidance and representation.

Moreover, the SU is our vehicle for change, it belongs to its members and its aims are solely to serve its members. This means that it can be changed by its members; the best recent example would be the proposals to introduce microwaves to the quad. This isn’t betterment of global society, it doesn’t end poverty or climate change - but it makes the LSE society better.

The microwave proposal was introduce through a passing a motion at the Union General Meeting. This is the procedure for altering union policy. A motion is not an end in itself, it can only change the internal policy of the SU. But it can be used to change internal policy of the SU to campaign for bigger change; those concerned by low pay used UGM motions to obtain SU support for a Living Wage for LSE cleaning staff , those concerned by climate change introduced a annual global climate change week. These are only two of the recent campaigns given union backing by the UGM, anyone can submit a motion - it is the means to direct the Union for the betterment of society.

The SU will never end poverty or climate change; that will take innumerable hours of work and the support, not only of those in power, but of hundreds of millions of others. The SU can take steps which bring these ends closer; for instance Climate Change Awareness Week and its support for a Living Wage. Indeed these are small steps, but they are our contribution to the fight.