BY HELEN SLANEY
MELBOURNE — Six hundred outraged students attended a student general meeting at Melbourne University on May 15, protesting against the recent attacks on campus political activism by the Melbourne University Students' Union Incorporated (MUSUi), which is currently controlled by right-wing student faction Real Students.
Since being elected unopposed in a controversial election late last year, Real Students officials have been involved in a number of attacks on student democracy. They have harassed and attempted to evict the elected education officers, who were forcibly prevented from printing pro-refugee material.
MUSUi president Darren Ray appointed mate Pete Marczenko as general secretary. Despite his term expiring in March, Marczenko, has refused to leave the position. In mid-May Ray sacked the union's general manager, sparking a staff strike.
Real Students have also inserted a clause in the MUSUi constitution stopping funding to any campaigns which do not "exclusively benefit Melbourne University students".
The open-air meeting attracted many on-lookers, including a bunch of Liberal supporters who heckled the crowd from a balcony.
Ray, like other Real Students officials, was absent from the meeting. These officials attempted instead to prevent the meeting going ahead, deciding at a previous MUSUi council meeting that if the union PA was used, the police would be called (it was and they weren't).
Had the extremely well-attended meeting been held before Real Students changed the MUSUi constitution, it would have achieved quorum. Unfortunately, a general meeting must now be attended by 3500 students to get quorum.
Nevertheless, students at the meeting unanimously supported a series of motions supporting democratisation of the student union.
The meeting also launched a petition, calling for a four-day referendum in second semester to demand that: Ray be dismissed and new elections held; quorum for student general meetings and referenda be 5% of the student body and that all changes made in 2002 to the MUSUi constitution be declared invalid. Activists must obtain 1900 signatures in order to force the MUSUi to hold the referendum.
A Refugee Action Collective petition was also circulated, calling for a referendum to: have the union declared a refugee safe haven; donate $5000 to the underground network of escaped refugees; resource the refugee sanctuary network; and return the funds to the campus activist collectives.
When asked whether the students were opposed to the governments' policy of mandatory detention, an overwhelming majority of students raised their hands and cheered. The meeting culminated in a march to the campus administration building and then to the MUSUi offices.
Throughout the afternoon the first floor of the union building was filled with students painting banners, and making stickers in support of the democratisation campaign.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, May 22, 2002.
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