BY MATTHEW RICH & KYLIE MOON
MELBOURNE — In a victory for democracy in the student movement, activists at the University of Melbourne have quashed attempts from the ALP-controlled Melbourne University Student Union Incorporated (MUSUi) to evict the elected education officers from the union office. Officials backed down on the eviction proposal on May 22.
The successful defence campaign included a continuous occupation of the education office and a 600-strong student general meeting on May 15 condemning the attacks on education and refugee rights activists. Hundreds of students also signed petitions opposing the right-wing MUSUi bureaucracy headed by union president Darren Ray.
A petition for a referendum was launched at the general meeting. The referendum will demand: that Ray be dismissed and new elections be held; that quorum for student general meetings and referenda be one percent of the student body; and that all changes to the student union constitution so far in 2002 be declared invalid.
The MUSUi attacks have been aimed, in particular, at the Refugee Action Collective — the largest and most active collective on campus. RAC activists have been at the forefront of the campaign to democratise the student union.
The campaign so far has been extremely successful in mobilising students to defend the right to be politically active on campus — particularly the right to organise refugees' rights campaigns.
To take the campaign forward, Resistance believes that the democracy campaign should be combined with campaigning for the university to become a refugee safe haven. On May 16, RAC decided to endorse a Resistance proposal for a second referendum calling for this as well as for the union to donate money to escaped refuges.
With hundreds of people prepared to support the left's right to organise, we have a perfect opportunity to convince them of what we are organising around.
Tens of thousands of Australians have taken some form of action in defence of refugees. Yet on campuses, traditionally a base of radical protest, we have not seen huge protests. We know there is potential for such protest — we have a responsibility to lead campus pro-refugee campaigns, strengthening the refugees' rights movement as a whole.
The MUSUi attacks have attempted to prevent us organising a vibrant refugees' rights campaign on the campus — if we don't link the democracy campaign to the campaign to free the refugees, we will let Ray and his mates win. Linking the two, we can deepen the political understanding among students.
The refugee safe haven referendum campaign is a tool to do this. It brings the refugee campaign into the hands of students and asks them to decide: will they support the active defiance of the government's mandatory detention policy by assisting the underground network of escaped refugees?
The campaign could polarise the entire campus, initiating debates in tutorials and amongst friends: how far will you go to support refugee rights? Is a little bit of detention okay, or should the fences come down all together?
Declaring universities refugee safe-havens would be an act of symbolic mass civil disobedience against the government's racist refugee policies. Giving money to refugees would constitute a very practical defiance. It could also get media attention and force the government to respond. Refugee sanctuary networks could grow, students volunteering to assist refugees forced underground.
Imagine a national wave of campuses declaring themselves as safe havens for refugees — as if students throughout the country are waving a huge banner saying "Escaped refugees are welcome here".
It is a good thing that RAC has adopted the call for a referendum linking democracy and refugees' rights. Melbourne University activists must treat this as serious, and ensure that, through the campaign, we start to reinvigorate the refugees' rights campaign on campus.
[The authors are members of the socialist youth organisation Resistance and the Melbourne University RAC.]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, May 29, 2002.
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