Comments on: Statement on Jasmine Freemantle’s expulsion

By: Kyanna

Kyanna — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 00:47:22 +0000

THX that\’s a great aneswr!

By: Joel Cosgrove

Joel Cosgrove — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 10:38:58 +0000

WP Admin [sic]:
There was no expectation of anyone being a puppet, Wellington members are much to independent to be cowed in that manner. We’re too busy to do that sort of micro-management anyway.
Jasmine was elected on a platform of opposing the change proposal put forward that year, that I was involved in. I campaigned heavily for her on that basis to reverse what had been started.
She made every staff member bar one redundant and saw the largest turnover of executive [at one point there weren't even enough to make quorum] since she was last on the executive.
Jasmine was elected as a WP rep, she had a responsibility to students but also to the political organisation she belonged to.
I was not generally useless or offensive, I still get students talking to me on the street or on the bus about what they’re up to, having been a class rep, member of a rep group, student from the bar, or someone I’ve come into contact with over my time at VUW.
I helped fight off closing the Gender and Womens studies school, tried to help the stop the cull at the Education Faculty, helped get $100,000 in compensation for the students of Unicomm hostel. Look at what’s been happening in the last year and a half and you’ll see the difference a militant student president can have. I made a lot of mistakes, no doubt about that, but I had more success than failure at VUW.
You might well live in the politico bubble at Vic, but the majority of alienation I encountered was amongst the small group of people who surround VUWSA and Salient. Most students wouldn’t know what you were talking about.
I have little interest in debating an uninformed troll, but I object to baseless slurs.

By: Byron

Byron — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 03:06:12 +0000

The above comment is not by the real WP Admin (obviously).

To the above commenter: You are making a straw man argument, no one expected every VUWSA decision to be run by the WP, but we did expect a student president elected after running on a Workers Party ticket not to make people redundant, cut their sick leave entitlements etc. I think its pretty obvious that no socialist organisation can let that happen.

Also please note the comment policy: “comments containing racist or abusive language will be deleted.” Your use of the word ‘retard’ (as well as the swearing, and a baseless attack on an individual) are borderline. If you continue to comment in this manner you can go to Kiwiblog to do it, they love that sort of thing. We don’t.

By: WP Admin (sic)

WP Admin (sic) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:07:14 +0000

God, you guys truly don’t get it do you? Don’t you realise that you cannot expect your members to be WP puppets in Vuwsa, that is just fucking crazy. If a young Nat had been elected president and was expected to run all VUWSA decisions past the National Party caucus, you deluded fools would be going crazy. The real issue is that Jasmine Freemantle is beholden to us, the fucking students, NOT the workers party.

I don’t know if you realise, but Joel’s general uselessness and offensiveness has alienated a lot of otherwise receptive students at Vic, as has your heavy-handed response to Jasmine not doing exactly what you want. Good luck for the future you misogynist retards

By: WP Admin

WP Admin — Thu, 28 May 2009 22:51:23 +0000

“No I admit I didn’t, but if by going on her word that those sorts of practices are overlooked (as is addressing gender imbalance at all times) then it’s worth mentioning.”

Yes, and the party supports free childcare. The questions were over practicality, not whether to offer childcare in itself – legalities at conference, whether to offer to casual members, how to arrange it for branch meetings etc. We can’t really afford to contract it out. We worked out a system with Jasmine, but that’s partly because she was comfortable with having other branch members playing babysitter.

By: Daphna

Daphna — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:28:32 +0000

I think Adam you see it as bigger than it is.

Jasmine was not involved with the party for many years, and
when she it was on the periphery mostly. Her no longer being a member has had no impact on the work we do.

We have more important and more interesting things to get on with.

Regards
Daphna

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:27:19 +0000

This is really sad to see and a pity it could not be handled better from both sides. This is disappointing and destabilising. Two weeks on and it still is just a big mess.

By: Jared

Jared — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:43:13 +0000

Hi Byron.

No I admit I didn’t, but if by going on her word that those sorts of practices are overlooked (as is addressing gender imbalance at all times) then it’s worth mentioning. I’m sure you’ve ratified those practices and I wish you well with them.

Don, keep your knee under the table mate!

Jared

By: Don Franks

Don Franks — Thu, 28 May 2009 01:41:50 +0000

Jared, your sanctimonious comment about childcare was not necessary; the accusation is baseless, as are most of the other accusations.

By: Liam

Liam — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:18:51 +0000

Well, I’m off to write an outrageous blog, smearing as many people as i can, in an attempt to grab some attention and drum up some sympathy in a desperate attempt to hang on to my elected power. I expect everyone who took the blog mentioned above seriously to offer me the same courtesy