BY BEA BREAR
HOBART — Activists on the University of Tasmania's Hobart campus launched their campaign to encourage students to participate in the May 1 strike against corporate tyranny at a media conference here on March 8, announcing that they will ask people to nominate the corporations which they think deserve the title of "corporate scumbag of the year".
The National Union of Students in Tasmania has given its backing to the campaign, releasing a colour poster calling for a student strike, advertising the Hobart M1 Alliance's blockade of the stock exchange, and explaining the link between corporate globalisation and education.
NUS Tasmania education officer Shua Garfield pointed out, "Corporate globalisation is affecting all areas of our society, and education is not immune — cuts to public funding of higher education mean that corporations have more and more control over what is and isn't taught at university, and universities are being run more like businesses than educational institutions."
Three days before, at its March 5 meeting, the Tasmania University Union debated, and eventually passed, with considerable amendment, a motion to support the M1 protests planned for Hobart. The original motion, drafted by members of Resistance, and moved by members of the UTas Greens, called on the TUU to endorse a student strike for May 1, and support the Hobart M1 Alliance's planned blockade of the stock exchange.
Backers of the motion were eventually able to overcome some resistance from right-wing TUU councillors worried that a blockade would be "illegal" and, if any Tasmania University students were arrested, it would reflect badly on the TUU. The motion was eventually amended to replace references to "strike" or "blockade" with protest. The TUU committed itself to producing material promoting M1 but a commitment to fund buses to take students to the action was deleted.
Following the March 8 launch, activists from the campus M1 club took the campaign to the student body, distributing nomination forms and staffing a ballot box for the "corporate scumbag of the year" contest.
Organisers say that they will tally votes prior to the M1 protest and that the most popular "corporate scumbags" will receive a visit on the May 1 march through corporate Hobart. While voting is at an early stage, Nike and McDonald's are already looking favourites, with Forestry Tasmania also being targeted by voters.