Student underground papers: 1968-6
Secondary students in dissent Student underground papers: 1968-6
By Natasha Simons "This news sheet ... is an attempt to make students realise that there is another attitude to the [Vietnam] war besides that of the government and their great and powerful friends [and] that some people, including high school students, believe that thousands of innocent people are being killed pointlessly, in a senseless and totally unjustifiable war." So begins the first issue of
Student Underground, produced in September 1968 by High School Students Against the War in Vietnam (HSSAWV). Twenty six thousand copies of the first issue were distributed at more than 80 schools in NSW, marking the beginning of a
Student Underground movement. HSSAWV, formed in 1968, was boosted by a 400-strong secondary student teach-in on the Vietnam War, organised in conjunction with Resistance.
Student Underground, which hit the streets shortly after, called for mass anti-war demonstrations and the immediate withdrawal of all troops from Vietnam.
SU's focus was to involve as many secondary students as possible in demonstrations against the war. Each issue advertised anti-war teach-ins, demonstrations and organising meetings, secondary student conferences and university actions. Other news sheets were published in schools across Australia.
The Spark, published by HSSAWV at Cremorne Girls in 1969, was one of the most successful. Each issue was sold for 5 cents and by the sixth edition half of the 600 students there were buying it. In Melbourne, a group called Secondary Students in Dissent published
Tabloid Underground, which sparked a proliferation of underground news sheets. The first issue made clear its appeal: "Underground newspapers ... are giving students the opportunity to express their views on school, social, political and other matters without fear of
censorship. They are outlets for criticism — constructive or destructive — and endeavour to involve students in affairs which affect them." Names like
The Spark, Ubique Underground, Fallout, Pravda, Sentinel, Tirade and
Student Power showed students' originality and by October 1968 news sheets were being produced on 15 Melbourne schools. The papers were "underground" because of their radical content. They were full of radical and revolutionary ideas about changing the education system and overthrowing capitalism and ran articles on struggles around the world from Bolivia to Bougainville, from the history of May Day to the role played by French high school students in the May 1968 revolt.
Treason, published at Melbourne's Highett High, adopted the slogan "power comes out of the barrel of a gestetner". Their student production group consisted of the Labor Club, atheists, Trotskyites, Maoists, anarchists and the Ho Chi Minh fan club. Reading through the papers you get a real sense of the frustration of a generation of young people who wanted to break free of the restrictive education system which assigned them particular roles and enforced rules on what to think and how to act.
Tabloid Underground #3 said: "Though it may not be immediately apparent to all secondary students, the education system is but a part of the whole capitalist social structure, and as such is designed to condition those who pass through it to supporting the basic principles upon which it rests".
Fallout, published by Mentone Girls High, reflected young women's frustration with the narrow education system: "This year you, and thousands like you, will emerge from our education machine. But where will you go from there? As a teacher to a school where you will turn out thousands more of 'education department' brand sausages? To the stimulating intellectual atmosphere of Coles or Big W? Or will you simply vegetate as a suburban housewife? Whether you want it or not this is the role that the education department and our society want you to play."
Ubique Underground, produced by Melbourne University High students railed against their Monday morning assemblies. "Students are told ... that they must 'perpetuate the great traditions, study hard and succeed' (whose values?), 'work towards becoming respectable and responsible citizens'. "Whoever heard of Monday morning crap time (assemblies) devoted to the question of student revolution, or the nature of capitalism? The only social problems the illustrious (Principal) and Co. would dare mention are those which do not bring into question basic fundamentals of our society." While today's issues of
Student Underground argue for sex education, AIDS awareness programs and the installation of condom vending machines in schools, underground newsletters of the late '60s argued against compulsory religious instruction. Issue #3 of
The Spark challenged the argument that "going to scripture makes you broad minded". "Broad mindedness implies letting other people think as they wish and accepting their right to do so." Singing "God save the Queen" was also questioned. The September 1, 1969 issue of
Peace from Port Hacking High asked if students really believed that the Queen needed saving. "If so, from what?" It went on: "Unlike two thirds of the world's population, she has enough to eat. She is socially and economically secure and being the Head of the Church of England her spiritual needs are more than adequately catered for." Students were obviously frustrated at the lack of power they had over their lives in and out of school. Prefects were particularly hated, because they symbolised hierarchy and were seen as puppets of the school administration.
The Spark in October 1, 1969 criticised the role of prefects who had just been given the power to hand out detentions and were taking action against radical students, including frisking people for
SU's at the school gates. "The only useful task prefects fulfil is to prevent people from being trampled to death in the tuckshop line ... On the whole, the prefect system exists to increase the prestige of the popular and successful elite while fostering in the rest an unjustified sense of failure and inadequacy." Students from Mentone Girls High in
Fallout said that "the prefects are really representatives of the staff, not the students". The undemocratic nature of Student Representative Councils (SRC) and their powerlessness to change things was a topic of debate. Peninsula High's
Pravda, which printed motions calling for the abolition of the SRC, said "The SRC is big brother's method of fooling the student body." On the other hand, Caulfield High's
Folklore argued that students needed to become active in the SRC in order to change it. Despite their anger with the education system and school administrations, students did give thought to the role of teachers in changing society. The first issue of
Ubique Underground (UU) invited teachers to join in the struggle against the establishment. It said that teachers are "virtually powerless to do other than cooperate with the society which ... makes their profession simply a task of preserving the inherited traditions and culture of centuries." School authorities' reactions to underground papers and radical students as "outside agitators, manipulating young minds" hasn't changed much from 1968 to today. For instance, University High's
Ubique Underground reported a special assembly at which students were told that "
UU was a ridiculous, ill-informed news sheet, and on the other that they were being manipulated by a sinister outside plot". The revolutionary content of underground newsletters made their distribution at school very difficult. Newsletters were commonly confiscated and incinerated by teachers, and the students caught distributing them were punished, suspended or even expelled. But this didn't stop them. After it was banned
Ubique Underground #7 ran an article defending the publication of unofficial news sheets on schools. Under the heading "Don't read this if you are afraid of being manipulated", it said "Mr (teacher) has declared that effective student dissent within UHS is now a serious offence, the school will not tolerate any challenge to its monopoly of the mass media." "If Mr (teacher) is so concerned about 'manipulation' and 'gullible' minds why hasn't he warned the student body about the dangers of reading the
Herald of the
Sun? ... Is this democracy or a manifestation of an antiquated system which is afraid that it will not survive criticism?"
UU stated defiantly that it would continue to come out and asked for students' solidarity. "Write on blackboards, start your own news sheets, write to SID, contribute to
UU, write to newspapers, call demonstrations, strike." Following this attack
Student Underground in Sydney printed an article "Students know your rights" which included extracts from the NSW Teachers Handbook on rules for expulsions and suspensions, detention and corporal punishment.
Circus at Chatswood High drew up a list of student rights, most of which secondary student activists are still fighting for today. They include: freedom of speech and discussion, and the freedom to form groups of any kind — political, religious or otherwise — and freedom of dress and personal grooming.