Something to Be Proud of

This month one thousand students gathered in Blackpool's Winter Gardens centre for our annual conference. For the past 84 years, students have been agreeing National Union of Students (NUS) policy and direction at meetings - albeit in slightly different ways.

Delegates came from across the further and higher education sector, their politics varied as much as their race, class, sexuality, background and experience. For many it was the first time they had attended a political conference for others - myself included - it was an oft-repeated event.

As well as electing their new national executive committee to lead the movement for the next year, hearing from numerous guest speakers and attending an eclectic mix of fringe events, they also debated the policies that will direct our work for the next year.

This year the spectrum of debate was as wide as ever, from those that perhaps can be expected - top-up fees, the Education Maintenance Allowance and the Foster review, through to Venezuela, Hizb ut-Tahrir and fair trade policies. They provoked varying degrees of passion, debate and tension on the conference floor as fired-up activists fought their corner.

But this year's biggest debate - about a fizzy drink - ended with cries of "murderer", a possible stage invasion, and the immediate closure of the visitors' balcony.

Coca-Cola and its international practices, particularly in relation to Colombia, have been steadily rising up the student movement's agenda. This year Blackpool was the stage for the official showdown between the boycott and constructive engagement campaigns.

It's well known in the movement that I seem to have an addiction to Diet Coke, but that's not the reason I don't support a boycott. Neither is it because I am hugely worried about the financial impact on local student unions.

My view on Coca-Cola has always been based on the wider politics of the situation. I, like other trade or student unionists, am hugely concerned about the situation that faces my counterparts in Colombia.

Between 2002-04 an estimated 47 student leaders were murdered, 12 more "disappeared" and many more were imprisoned simply because they were involved in an attempt to organise other students.

We are affiliated to Justice for Colombia, a coalition of British organisations working in support of the Colombian people and trade union movement in their campaign for basic human rights and peace with social justice. Over the next year we intend to organise a national speaker tour of Colombian trade and student unionists, and step up our calls for an end to British military aid until a just and peaceful settlement is reached.

My politics on Colombia are taken from the politics of the Labour movement and the Colombian TUC, and that's also where myself, and later the NUS conference, based their position on Coca-Cola.

They, like the vast majority of trade unions in Colombia, the UK and globally, oppose a Coke boycott. Since the first boycott call in 2003, no evidence has been found to link Coca-Cola to the assassination of workers in Colombia. Focusing on Coca-Cola, rather than on human rights atrocities committed against the Colombian trade union movement, is simplistic reactionary response at best.

The idea that removing Coke from the shelves or bars of our unions would have more impact than holding Coca-Cola to account through a constructive but critical engagement struck me as contemptuous nonsense and I said so. The notion that a fizzy drink boycott would end the murders, the violence and the oppression of students and workers in Colombia was said, but equally misguided. After an impassioned debate, the boycott call was overwhelmingly rejected and real action on Colombia agreed.

Reflecting on the debate it strikes me that whatever side of the debate you were on that day, it showed our movement at its best - passionate about what we do, the future and our impact.

We punch well above our weight, and the fact that any student from our 5.2 million membership can prioritise the discussion in their own union, then prioritise the debate at NUS annual conference, and then prioritise my time for three weeks is something that we cannot lose sight of. The fact that we can have an open, honest, political discussion, the fact that we are political, democratic, student led and student-run has to be more important than the outcome of any one debate.

Student unionists in the UK are privileged. Our brothers and sisters in Colombia are unable to debate, discuss and decide together never mind organise, fight and win together. That's why over the next year we will proudly be prioritising Colombia and internationalism, making the links, directing the pressure where it can impact most and demonstrating simple support and solidarity.

That's what we were set up to do in 1922 and long may it continue.

· Kat Fletcher is the president of the National Union of Students