91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳

BY SIMON BUTLER

It's now been a year since Pauline Hanson's advice to turn away boatloads of desperate refugees became Australian government policy. But the unjust treatment meted out to refugees has sparked a movement of anti-racist solidarity among growing numbers of people.

Most recently, the movement has gathered momentum on universities as student activists campaign in defiance of government laws to declare their campuses centres of refugee solidarity, sanctuary and aid.

On August 21, activists from University of Newcastle Action for Refugee Rights (UNARR) successfully organised a general student meeting to vote to call for a student referendum around refugee rights. The referendum, which is to be held from September 16 to 19, will ask students to vote to declare their campus a refugee safe haven.

According to Peter Robson, an activist in UNARR and the student union education officer, the open air event was more like a student rally than an ordinary meeting. “It's one of the biggest student protests that has happened on the University of Newcastle for many years”, he told Green Left Weekly. “A hundred and fifty people turned up to decide whether their uni could become a refugee sanctuary. Only one person voted against.”

The success of the meeting has been a welcome shot in the arm to the refugee rights campaign on the university. Recently, a National Tertiary Education Industry Union delegates' meeting on the campus voted to support the campaign and they are looking at how to run their own ballot for staff on campus. “The whole campaign has shown that there are quite a lot of students and staff who think that the refugee rights movement is important and are willing to take a stand on the question”, said Robson.

“The next step is the actual referendum. We need this to be as big a statement of support as possible. We'll be bringing the human face of refugees to students and asking who they believe — do they believe in [immigration minister Phillip] Ruddock or do they believe in human rights.”

Earlier this year, activists on the Australian National University in Canberra were part of a similar effort to declare their campus a refugee safe haven. Members of the ANU Refugee Action Collective attracted 130 people to a student general meeting to vote on the issue. The decisions of official SGMs are binding upon student unions or student representative councils.

Important breakthrough

According to Stuart Munckton from the ANU Refugee Action Collective, the meeting was an important breakthrough. “On ANU, student general meetings are held every term but in the last few years they have been small. They haven't been forums where students can make democratic decisions about their own affairs.

“But when we discovered that a new meeting was to be held in a week's time we made a snap decision to build it around declaring the campus a safe haven and it was the biggest SGM on campus for many years. We managed to pass a motion that the official position of the student association would be opposition to the government's policy of mandatory detention.”

The motion to publicly declare ANU a refugee sanctuary failed to get up. Nonetheless, “during the week-long campaign we got hundreds of dollars in donations from students and secured the support of numerous campus clubs — from the environment collective to the ANU Muslim Association. Now, after hearing about the success on Newcastle University, I'm convinced we can go all the way [and make the campus a safe haven] next time”, said Munckton.

In coming weeks, students on a number of other campuses will be urged to mobilise in defiance of the Howard government's inhumane treatment of refugees. Activists from Melbourne's La Trobe University and from the University of Western Australia are organising their own student general meetings on refugee rights on September 3 and 4 respectively.

“At the moment we're campaigning hard to make La Trobe a refugee safe haven”, said Ben Zala from the La Trobe Refugee Action Collective. The collective plans to submit four motions to their upcoming student general meeting:

That students declare their university a refugee safe haven.

That the Student Representative Council provides financial support for escaped refugees by holding a fundraising concert.

That free education for temporary-protection-visa (TPV) holders be provided by La Trobe University.

That La Trobe University make a declaration that under no circumstances will it cooperate with any private corporations involved in the system of detention.

Zala told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly that he expects the September 4 meeting to attract hundreds of people. “The response so far has been fantastic from students and staff. We've distributed a broadsheet that outlines the motions. We've campaigned with mass leafleting and lecture announcements and we've been applauded for what we are saying in the lectures. It's been very positive.”

Anti-racist activists from the University of Western Australia Refugee Action Network (UWA RAN) are aiming for a minimum of 100 people to attend their September 3 SGM in order to make the decisions binding on the Student Guild. UWA RAN is calling for the university to be declared a refugee safe haven and for the Student Guild to donate $2000 to assist escaped refugees.

One of the main successes of the initiative so far is that it has made the government's policy of mandatory detention a constant topic of discussion and debate on the campus.

Excellent response

“The response overall has been excellent”, said Claudia Quinnell from UWA RAN. “I was in the [campus] cafe today and I noticed people I didn't know discussing it as I was walking through.”

The Wollongong Refugee Action Collective is also agitating for a student general meeting that would allow students to voice their condemnation of the government's refugee policy, declare the University of Wollongong a refugee safe haven, and allocate money from the student union to assist refugees in need.

“The primary purpose of our safe haven campaign is to raise awareness on campus about refugee rights and further mobilise students against the government's scapegoating of refugees”, said Grant Coleman, a student activist in the Wollongong RAC. “I think the adoption of this proposal by a number of universities around Australia will be a massive blow to the legitimacy of the government's policy. It will be a clear statement of student solidarity in the face of the government's racism.”

Members of the Melbourne University RAC are busy collecting the 1900 student signatures required to force a hostile Student Representative Council to organise a campus-wide student referendum around refugee rights.

“The petition has been a great staring point to engage in discussion about why students should support their campus becoming a refugee safe haven”, said RAC activist and Melbourne Uni student Helen Slaney. “We found that very few people have actually contested the demands on the petition. When we've explained what the campaign is about people are really positive. We've gone into big lectures, handed the petition around, and have had just about every student put their name down.”

Meanwhile, members of the University of Sydney Refugee Action Collective have decided on a campaign to get the university administration to fund and provide English education classes for refugees on TPVs. According to Jemina Mowbray from the Sydney University RAC, the next step will be to present a motion to the upcoming University Senate meeting in October. Students will be asked to show their support by demonstrating outside.

The most strident opposition to the refugee rights movement on campuses has come from right-wing student union officials. “We've encountered a lot of opposition to the campaign from the student administration here on Melbourne Uni”, said Slaney. “There's a chance [the SRC] may try to stop the referendum even if we get the signatures required by the constitution. But if they do that we'll go ahead, organise the referendum ourselves, and work to get the majority of students to declare the campus a safe haven anyway.”

Young Liberal opposition

The Young Liberal-dominated SRC of the University of Wollongong has already moved to quash the safe haven campaign. An SRC meeting on August 30 passed a motion declaring the petition being used by Illawarra RAC to be unconstitutional.

“It's pretty clear that the Young Liberals are going to try to sabotage our campaign. Our petition has been written to the letter of the constitution and we'll be waging a battle to have this decision overturned. It will simply make it clearer for students to see why they should support the campaign and attend the general meeting. We can't let Howard's proteges get away with this sabotage”, said Coleman.

One of the main objections raised by the Young Liberals is that it may contravene the law for students to openly declare that their campus welcomes refugees — escaping detention or otherwise. This is an argument that is rejected by refugee rights activists across the country.

“I'd say that what the government is doing to refugees is illegal and irresponsible and what we are doing is responsible, it's the right thing to do”, said Quinnell.

“We are not going to accept it as a valid argument”, Illawarra RAC activist Eliza Barwick insisted. “The whole point of the campaign is to oppose the [government's bad] laws.”

The threat of “illegality” didn't sway Stuart Munckton from ANU either. “It's a moral issue that is worth more than any law. In every struggle for justice bad laws have had to be broken. It was Martin Luther King who pointed out that everything Adolph Hitler ever did was 'legal'.”

From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, September 4, 2002.
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