The University of Western Sydney Bankstown Resistance activists Mia Sanders and Ian Escandor have been elected to the Bankstown Student Campus Council (SCC) and the campus magazine CrUWSible editorial board. The results were announced on October 31.
Sanders told 91自拍论坛 Weekly she believes students related to the 鈥淩ES Out West鈥 ticket because it emphasised fighting the federal government鈥檚 education attacks and rejecting discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people, women and refugees.
鈥淥ur call for solidarity with oppressed minorities also appealed to the very multicultural campus.
鈥淩esistance has gained support from students, and even staff, for a range of campaigns but especially against the education attacks, for refugee rights and justice for Palestine.
鈥淛an Falloon, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) branch president at UWS, congratulated us on our perseverance in even getting our nominations registered, and running the campaign. We鈥檙e looking forward to pushing forward in the campaign against Abbott鈥檚 education attacks and it will be good doing this with the NTEU鈥檚 support.
鈥淥ur call for queer, women and education officers on each campus 鈥 something that would go a long way to allowing minority voices to be heard 鈥 has also had good support.
鈥淲e urgently need greater student control of campus clubs. This was made evident by our struggle to form the Education Action Group, or the Students for Palestine group, which are still not recognised by the corporate entity on campus 鈥 Campus Life which 鈥渕onitors鈥 student activity and decides which club is allowed to be formed.
鈥淲e need a progressive student voice 鈥 a campus that comprises many progressive students.
鈥淲e discovered that the SCC disaffiliated the university from the National Union of Students (NUS) this year without consulting students, or even notifying us after the fact. This is concerning 鈥 especially now as the Coalition pushes its massive education cuts and deregulation. Our campaign highlighted the need for UWS to reaffiliate to NUS as one step to build a stronger fight-back.
鈥淯WS Bankstown once had a very active student council and a rich history of student activism. It was one of the first campuses to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. But, despite a struggle, the student-run Student Representative Council was abolished in favour of Campus Life in the late 1990s.
鈥淏ankstown UWS students are very political 鈥 but the organising structures which might allow students to express this on campus are weak or non-existent. In general, political students are hindered, rather than encouraged to network and collaborate.
鈥淲e want to change all this, and encourage much greater student involvement in the issues of most concern to them鈥, said Sanders.
Escandor told GLW that the student elections were not only a win for the Resistance club and progressive politics, but 鈥渁 win for student voices and student action鈥.
鈥淚 speak with many students who are interested in politics but, unfortunately, feel disempowered and therefore unwilling to get involved in social action. I understand how they feel, and hope that by building stronger and more active student-led campaigns on UWS next year they will get more involved in activism.鈥
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