Katie Cherrington, Wollongong
The Wollongong Undergraduate Students Association (WUSA) is organising a one-day conference of anti-war student activists on May 19 in an attempt to build networks to protest against Australia's support for US aggression against Iraq and Iran and prepare protests against the planned visit to Australia by US President George Bush during the September 2007 APEC summit.
The central themes for the conference are: Troops out of Iraq, hands off Iran, defend civil liberties and stop the racist scapegoating of Muslims.
Matt Barden, a student involved in the Wollongong Students Against War collective, told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly: "The anti-war movement has been very quiet lately, and with the current threats by the US against Iran, it is more important than ever that we are organised. I think that university students have a key role to play in the anti-war movement."
The conference agenda has two feature sessions — one focusing on Bush's global war as well as PM John Howard's "war on terror" in Australia. There will be space for workshops, and the conference organisers are calling for groups or individuals to volunteer to present these. The final session will be a student anti-war activists' roundtable — an opportunity to draw lessons from past and current struggles, as well as to plan joint action in the future.
WUSA president Jess Moore told GLW: "It is outrageous that the government continues to spend so much money on waging an unjust war in Iraq at the same time as they cut funding from higher education. Voluntary Student Unionism legislation, being introduced this year, is a direct attack on students' capacity to campaign for social justice. That is why we felt it was important to initiate this organising conference. We want money for healthcare and education, not for war and occupation."
Simon Cunich, global solidarity officer at Sydney University, said: "In the context of the government's uranium export agreement with China and the ongoing push for the expansion of uranium mines in the Northern Territory, included on Aboriginal land, this conference will be very important. Already students from Canberra, Sydney and Newcastle are expressing interest in attending. We need to expose the hypocrisy of the US's propaganda against Iran, and raise awareness of the ongoing unjust occupation of Iraq."
Non-students are welcome to participate and billeting for the conference is available upon request.
[The Wollongong Students Against War collective meets Mondays at 11:30am at WUSA. For more information on the May 19 conference or to volunteer to give talks or workshops, phone Karlee on 0401 664 858, Matt on 0437 603 381, Katie on 0401 976 153 or WUSA on 4221 4201, or email <wusa@uow.edu.au>]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, May 3, 2006.
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