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The National Broad Left (usually the NBL) is a political grouping within the National Union of Students of Australia. The faction is a loose conglomeration of various left-wing, trotskyist, environmentalist and other groupings of the radical left. Their common nickname, often derisive, is the Trots.
The NBL is technically an alliance of individual students, rather than organisations, nevertheless, members of the NBL are generally associated with organisations such as the Socialist Alternative, International Socialist Organisation (ISO), Resistance (the youth wing of the Democratic Socialist Party), Workers Power, the Australian Greens, and other groups. The main faultline within the NBL currently is between the Socialist Alternative, who make up a large portion of the group's numbers, and the Autonomous Groupings, of mainly environmentalists, known as the Swampies.
Radical left-wingers have long been active within student organisations in Australia and elsewhere. The Australian Union of Students, the predecessor body to the current National Union, was dominated by such activists. The propensity of such groups to splinter and fragment has meant that many different, often competing, groupings have occupied similar positions on the political spectrum within the student movement to that currently held by the NBL. The NBL was formed out of the remnants of its predecessor organisation, the Left Alliance, in 1999.
The NBL is non-binding; that is, individual members are not required to follow caucus decisions on votes. It thus lacks the tight discipline exhibited by the Labor factions. Generally speaking, however, its members co-operate fairly closely.
The NBL has placed a strong emphasis on the Queer, Womens, Education and Environment departments of the NUS, usually attempting to have candidates elected to these office-bearing positions and using them as a base to run radical campaigns. A strong mutual antipathy exists between the NBL on one side and Student Unity and the Australian Liberal Students Federation on the other. Fistfights and violence between the NBL and Liberals are not unknown. Unity in particular will generally attempt to prevent NBL candidates from gaining office, and place severe strictures on NBL office bearers' budgets. The NBL in turn, attempts to have left-wingers elected in preference to Unity candidates.
The NBL has a mixed relationship with the National Organisation of Labor Students. The two groups will often co-operate to frustrate Student Unity, with NOLS allowing the faction to wield an influence disproportionate to its numbers. The NBL however regards NOLS as insufficiently radical and treats it with suspicion.
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