Kent Union leadership elections are approaching – heralded this year by a controversial image.
Leaflets advertising the upcoming leadership elections, which are currently being handed out all across the university campus have caused quite an uproar amongst the student body, due to a depiction of googly-eyed Joseph Stalin on the cover. The event, a Union Takeover of campus that is set to run from 3rd to 7th of February, is traditionally a time for the student body to become more aware of the politics of the university, and spark conversation and interest among the pupils.
This year’s advertisement has certainly done the latter, eliciting numerous calls for the brochure to be removed from circulation. Amongst them is Union Councillor George Hopkin, condemning the poster as “disturbing”, and further explaining that he doesn’t “think it’s right for a charitable organisation with a political arm to be associating itself with a murderous tyrant like Stalin.”
The students’ widespread reaction to the picture is one of disgust and disbelief, outrage being openly voiced through various social media. One student posting a picture of the brochure titled it as ‘a disgrace’, while another urges that “they should be pulled immediately.”
Meanwhile, Kent Union has released a statement here on the debacle, defending the brochure as intending to ““promote and spark discussion”, and that it “is not aimed at aligning the organisation with any particular political campaign.”