DOCSLIB.ORG

Salt of the Earth Continued on Page 8 Astha Rajvanshi and Tom Gardner Investigate the Meteoric Rise of Socialist Alternative at Usyd and Beyond

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Salt of the Earth Continued on Page 8 Astha Rajvanshi and Tom Gardner Investigate the Meteoric Rise of Socialist Alternative at Usyd and Beyond Week 13, Semester 1, 2014 HONI SOIT TOUCH ONE, TOUCH ALL Legal aid p.10 funding cuts Arcade p.15 under fire ILLUSTRATION BY MACKENZIE NIX SAlt of the Earth CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 Astha Rajvanshi and Tom Gardner investigate the meteoric rise of Socialist Alternative at USyd and beyond. “Would you like to sign our petition the world not through running in said third year Arts student and SAlt Many speculate that the siblings against the education cuts?” elections, but rather by empowering member Anna Sanders-Robinson. were “parachuted in” from Monash people to “get out on the streets to University, as directed by an internal Student activists wearing ‘Fuck Tony fight for themselves”. Formed in 1995, SAlt has branches hierarchy within SAlt’s National Abbott’ shirts often approach the set up across Australia with an active Council, to recruit and expand the average student frequenting Fisher On campus, they regularly organise membership from the far left of the membership. library with this friendly request. protests, campaigns, and weekly political spectrum. They regularly They usually set up a stall on Eastern discussion groups around the history advocate for issues including same-sex The two have since been heavily Avenue with a hand-painted banner and theory of revolutionary socialism. marriage rights, refugee rights and involved in the Education Action hanging off the edge of the table. Following the Abbott government’s Palestinian liberation. Last March, Group (EAG), a cross-factional Copies of the fortnightly newspaper recent cuts to Australian tertiary SAlt merged with the Revolutionary education activism collective. The Red Flag are sold alongside a wide education, they’ve sought to revive the Socialist Party (RSP) on a national They, among others, were active collection of books, newspapers and old ways of activism that defined the level, leading to a surge in their participants in last year’s NTEU pamphlets on Marxism. sixties and seventies. membership. strikes against staff cuts. At the end of 2013, SAlt occupied the education These are members of Sydney Most SAlt members are Marxists SAlt, in its current form, was revived portfolio of the National Union of University branch of Socialist who are strongly disillusioned by on campus at the beginning of last Students (NUS) across the country. Alternative (SAlt), a revolutionary the current political system. “I year, allegedly by siblings Omar SAlt member Sarah Garnham was Australian socialist organisation. found [SAlt’s] analysis of the world and Ridah Hassan. Omar Hassan, elected to the position of National –that capitalism is a system that who joined Socialist Alternative in Education Officer, Chloe Rafferty to They hold strong anti-capitalist views privileges profits over people– as the late 2007, said, “I was considering NSW Education Officer, and Ridah that identify with Trotskyism and only analysis … that explains to me joining the anarchists, but was turned Hassan and Eleanor Morley (who was the Marxist tradition of “socialism entirely what is wrong with the world off by their lifestylism and cliquey recruited later) to Education Officers from below”. They believe in changing and how to overcome these problems,” behaviour”. at the Sydney University Student Representative Council (SRC). 3 Letters 17 International Students’ Column LETTERS 4-5 News recap for those living under a rock 18 E12 schools 6 More news! Newer news! 19 A letter to Ian Thorpe there. They ignore you completely. They pretend they cannot hear you. You are not 7 The Manning Files 20 Of (lab) mice and men A word from even acknowledged as a human being. You REPORTER CALL-OUT Contents 8 SAlt and spice 21 SRC Help Caccamo are a ghost. HONI SOIT 9 Profile: Anna Bligh 22-23 SRC Office Bearer Reports Dear Honi, Now imagine that, every day, for hours Can you wield a pen? Lots of ISSUE #12 10-11 Feature: Cuts to the Aboriginal Legal Service 24 Puzzles on end, for up to three weeks. It’s enough Thank you for your diligent reporting of to make people sob, it’s enough to cause 12-13 Coverage of the USU Executive elections 25 Survey Results! the post-election complaint process between breakdowns, it is the only thing that has spare time? Sick of only writing myself and Liam Carrigan. As I made clear ever made me feel truly depressed. 14 Race and film in the USA 26-27 Honey Soy to the Returning Officer, it would have letters? Apply to write for us! 15 We (can’t) exist: on trans* representation 28 Meet Dom “A Fucking Winner” Ellis, winner been better for the RO to have made their Because I am a person, and I do have of the inaugural Honi HackBet Challenge. decision and for Honi to publish the whole feelings. I campaign because I care about Details: tinyurl.com/report4honi 16 Opinion: protests and police story, rather than piecemeal reporting that people, and structural inequality, and only added to the stress Liam and I were using the university as a platform to create feeling. For everyone else’s knowledge; I did change. I care so much, I talk to strangers I’m sure all of us remember the protests not leak anything to Honi Soit, and in fact and get rejected, over and over and over but environmental policy, refugee policy, last year in which police were invited on am rather disappointed it was put in Honi again. I believe the candidates from welfare, women’s rights, queer rights, to campus and filmed engaged in punching, that early. Grassroots are truly different from all the indigenous rights and all sorts of other kicking and shoving students. Such other factions, because Tom Raue went to political issues don’t matter and won’t be We acknowledge that Honi Soit’s office is located on the traditional lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. We would like to acknowledge incidents took place again on Thursday listened to. The response I’ve received is a mixture court over leaking documents for student the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work and pay our respects to the Elders past and present. evening, when the number of police officers of disappointment and confusion. Why safety and Bebe De Souza is running the was reportedly about equal to the number Students are in many ways uniquely complain at all? Why against Liam? first Sex and Consent Day at the University of protesters, and the violence of such placed to comment on the state of politics Essentially, this is what happened: with of Sydney. There is not a doubt in my mind officers was reported on and witnessed in our society. In my experience USYD evidence in hand that Carrigan may have that Edward McMahon will follow in the by the mainstream media. Yet never are students are an extremely diverse bunch broken the electoral regulations, bringing same tradition. we given any sense that the University coming from a range of different cultural his fair election into question, I decided to is concerned about the welfare of its and socioeconomic backgrounds. There are appeal to the RO with that evidence. Liam If you think people will willingly engage students. Never has there been any real people who’ve just finished highschool in responded to this, and the RO decided, in student politics you don’t know a thing acknowledgment of the violence suffered classrooms with people who have children based on his response, that he had not about privilege. Privilege is being able to by its students. Always are we given the in the same position. There are people like Letter of the week! broken any rules. That’s about it. I had go through uni you’re entire degree and sense that the University administration me who grew up in Darlington and people Editorial every right to complain about what I saw not fear homelessness when you lose your is against freedom of protest and on the who grew up in Darwin, or even Dhaka. as potential regulation breaches – a right part-time job. Privilege is never having to G’day Youngins, side of that old saying ‘might makes right’. Many students have experienced hunger, In many respects, this semester The desire to deliver breaking, others used almost excessively against think about whether you should buy food homelessness, mental illness, family other candidates. I had every right to or the text books you need for your course. will probably end as it started. student-relevant news has driven problems and problems with drugs and Well done today. It’s good to see that Uni Students still ensure that those that were elected did Privilege is never suffering a traumatic Elliot Nolan, Arts V (Hons) our editorial vision for much of this alcohol, and understand the value of social have the passion to demonstrate for what is right. so by the rules. experience of violence, and failing all your For the type of person who pre- semester. Reporting on the budget, subjects, because you couldn’t afford to support because of this. Students generally ordered their readers from the campus protests and all things see a counselor or therapist. That is why display a keenness for ideas and an open- Please pass on to the Organisers my compliments for the The only other contentious part of the Gender error? mindedness that are sorely lacking in the copy centre at the start of the year, Raue have occupied many of this story is Robby Magyar’s involvement. I campaign. You are privileged enough to way the March was conducted peacefully. It is difficult to not care about anything or anyone else, Dear Honi, rest of political discourse.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • RF177.Pdf (Redflag.Org.Au)
    A WORLD TO WIN REDFLAG.ORG.AU ISSUE #177 19 JANUARY 2021 $3 / $5 (SOLIDARITY) Still here Still fi ghting REDFLAG | 19 JANUARY 2021 PUBLICATION OF SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE REDFLAG.ORG.AU 2 Red Flag Issue # 177 19 January 2021 ISSN: 2202-2228 Published by Red Flag Support the Press Inc. Trades Hall 54 Victoria St Carlton South Vic 3053 [email protected] Christmas Island (03) 9650 3541 Editorial committee Ben Hillier Louise O’Shea Daniel Taylor Corey Oakley rioters James Plested Simone White fail nonetheless. Some are forced to complete rehabil- Visual editor itation programs and told that when they do so their James Plested appeals will be strengthened. They do it. They fail. These are men with families in Australia. They Production are workers who were raising children. They are men Tess Lee Ack n the first week of 2021, detainees at the Christ- who were sending money to impoverished family Allen Myers mas Island Immigration Detention Centre be- members in other countries. Now, with their visas can- Oscar Sterner gan setting it alight. A peaceful protest, which celled, they have no incomes at all. This has rendered Subscriptions started on the afternoon of 5 January, had by partners and children homeless. and publicity evening escalated into a riot over the treatment Before their transportation from immigration fa- Jess Lenehan Iof hundreds of men there by Home Affairs Minister cilities and prisons on the Australian mainland, some Peter Dutton and his Australian Border Force. Four of these men could receive visits from loved ones. Now What is days later, facing down reinforced numbers of masked, they can barely, if at all, get internet access to speak to armed Serco security thugs and Australian Federal them.
    [Show full text]
  • Red Flag Issue8 0.Pdf
    Issue 8 - September 10 2013 $3 / $5 (solidarity price) REMEMBERING FLAG CHILE 1973 RED PAGE 17 Newspaper of Socialist Alternative www.redfl ag.org.au DISABILITY NO NORTHERN PLAN NOT TERRITORY WHAT IT SEEMS NUCLEAR DUMP Page 8 Page 13 WIPE THE SMILE OFF HIS FACE INSIDE: How we can resist Abbott’s attacks ALSO: ONLY MILITANT UNIONISM WILL HOLD OFF ABBOTT Jerome Small looks at the prospects for unions under the Liberals - Page 9 2 10 SEPTEMBER 2013 Newspaper of Socialist Alternative FLAG www.redfl ag.org.au RED CONTENTS EDITORIAL 3 How Labor let the bastards in Mick Armstrong analyses the election result. 4 Wipe the smile off Abbott’s face ALP wouldn’t stop Abbo , Diane Fieldes on what we need to do to fi ght back. now it’s up to the rest of us 5 The limits of the Greens’ leftism A lot of people woke up on Sunday leader (any leader) and wait for the 6 Where does real change come from? a er the election with a sore head. next election. Don’t reassess any And not just from drowning their policies, don’t look seriously about the Colleen Bolger makes the argument for getting organised. sorrows too determinedly the night deep crisis of Laborism that, having David confront a Goliath in yellow overalls before. The thought of Tony Abbo as developed for the last 30 years, is now prime minister is enough to make the at its most acute point. Jeremy Gibson reports on a community battling to keep McDonald’s soberest person’s head hurt.
    [Show full text]
  • Coversheet for Thesis in Sussex Research Online
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Sussex Research Online A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details Children of the Red Flag Growing Up in a Communist Family During the Cold War: A Comparative Analysis of the British and Dutch Communist Movement Elke Marloes Weesjes Dphil University of Sussex September 2010 1 Statement I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be, submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Signature:……………………………………… 2 Abstract This thesis assesses the extent of social isolation experienced by Dutch and British ‘children of the red flag’, i.e. people who grew up in communist families during the Cold War. This study is a comparative research and focuses on the political and non-political aspects of the communist movement. By collating the existing body of biographical research and prosopographical literature with oral testimonies this thesis sets out to build a balanced picture of the British and Dutch communist movement.
    [Show full text]
  • The Red North
    The Red North Queensland’s History of Struggle Jim McIlroy 2 The Red North: Queensland’s History of Struggle Contents Introduction................................................................................................3 The Great Shearers’ Strikes of the 1890s ....................................5 Maritime Strike................................................................................................. 6 1891 battleground............................................................................................. 8 1894: the third round...................................................................................... 11 Lessons of the 1890s strikes........................................................................... 11 The Red Flag Riots, Brisbane 1919 ..............................................13 Background to the 1919 events...................................................................... 13 ‘Loyalist’ pogrom............................................................................................ 16 The Red North.........................................................................................19 Weil’s Disease................................................................................................. 20 Italian migrants............................................................................................... 21 Women........................................................................................................... 22 Party press.....................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Socialist Macro-Sect in the ‘Digital Age’: the Victorian Socialists’ Strategy for Assembling a Counterpublic
    tripleC 18 (2): 685-700, 2020 http://www.triple-c.at The Socialist Macro-Sect in the ‘Digital Age’: The Victorian Socialists’ Strategy for Assembling a Counterpublic By Ian Anderson RMIT, Melbourne, Australia, [email protected], jetpack.zoob.net Abstract: The Victorian Socialists (VicSocialists) are a socialist electoral organisation in Aus- tralia which has had some electoral success as a regional fourth party behind the Greens. This article seeks to address what kind of organisation the VicSocialists are, what communi- cative techniques the organisation employs in assembling a counterpublic or constituency, and what this case study illustrates in terms of the broader formation of counterpublics in the ‘digital age’. This article characterises the VicSocialists as a “macro-sect”, a new organisa- tional form. The macro-sect is something more than a socialist micro-sect and less than a mass party, while optimistically conceiving of itself as a proto-mass party. The macro-sect strategy is distinct from another 21st-century party-form, the digital party. Unlike the digital parties, which tend to fetishise digital media, the VicSocialists treat digital media soberly as just one tool in the formation and mobilisation of counterpublics, a tool with serious limita- tions. Additionally, digital media is complementary with face-to-face communication (such as doorknocking) in important ways. A study of a parallel US macro-sect, the DSA, similarly found that activists were ambivalent about digital media, yet strongly used it for promotion. This commonality with the DSA suggests the international emergence of a new organisation- al form, with a distinct communicative strategy for forming counterpublics in the so-called ‘digital age’ – one which necessarily uses digital media, yet does not fetishise it.
    [Show full text]
  • Socialist Education
    Hi Shaun and others My views of the Socialism Conference at Sydney Uni. are summed up below. This is a complaint about the student organisers. I guess they never reply to anything like this. See my critique of the platform of this Socialist Alternative movement later below. NO SHOW WITHOUT PUNCH: NO SOCIALISM CONFERENCE WITHOUT MAO NO OFFENCE BUT THESE KIDS APPEAR TO BE SERVING CRAZY US INTERESTS YOU DON’T FOOL THE CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION LIVING IN PALM BEACH OR IN THE REST OF THE COUNTRY (SHAPE UP KIDS OR SHIP OUT? THIS IS A WARNING.) Speaking as a 72 year-old Maoist grandma this Socialism conference lot appear far below my level. Let me tell you why as well as I can below in the time available. Feel free to stop reading and rest easy there is no continuing commercial connexion between us, US or not. When I went to China in 1976 on a students and teachers tour, the place was full of big pictures of Marx, Engels and Lenin. From the 1950s onward the barefoot doctors took contraception and abortion seriously as keys to women’s liberation, which they clearly are. To give an example close to home today, the fewer kids you have as a woman, the more you will be likely to be able to help them buy a place of their own to live in. Australia also has a history of good population planning since 1907 at least. Today, how could anyone organizing a conference called Socialism ignore such huge scale Chinese population planning and development? They appear US capitalist puppets.
    [Show full text]
  • Australia's First Socialists
    Australia’s First Socialists Jim McIlroy 2 Australia’s First Socialists Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................3 Beginnings ..........................................................................................................................5 Chartist influence — 5 l The Eureka Stockade — 7 l Democratic Association of Victoria — 10 l Australian Socialist League — 11 l William Lane — 13 l ‘State socialism’ — 15 l Movement in Victoria — 16 l Rapid growth — 17 l Internationalism — 19 The Industrial Workers of the World .............................................................21 US birthplace — 21 l IWW clubs in Australia — 22 l Chicago IWW 1910-14 — 24 l What the IWW stood for — 26 l Who were the Wobblies? — 28 l Challenge to racism — 30 l Supporting women workers — 31 l IWW organisation — 32 l Politics of ‘class war’ — 34 l Critique of Laborism — 35 l Direct industrial action — 37 l Opposing the war — 38 l Trial of the Sydney 12 — 42 l Banning the IWW — 43 Founding the Communist Party .........................................................................47 Fierce debate — 48 l 1920 conference — 49 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................51 © Resistance Books 2003 ISBN 187664639X Published by Resistance Books, 23 Abercrombie St, Chippendale NSW 2008, Australia Printed by El Faro Printing, 79 King St, Newtown NSW 2042, Australia Introduction
    [Show full text]
  • Australia's Democracy Pp 128-140
    MAKING A DEMOCRACY the people wanted, who could get results and lead them to greatness—and put down the communists and any other group that threatened the unity and strength of the nation. In 1933 Germany came under the control of the fascist Nazi party led by Adolf Hitler. This was a fascism more savage than Italy’s. Hitler put all his opponents in concentration camps and planned to purify the German people by getting rid of the Jews. He was determined to have his revenge for the defeat of Germany in World War I. Before World War I democrats believed that the whole world was moving to democracy. Now democracy was being rejected and new and terrible forms of tyranny were being established in once- civilised countries. This was also the time when democracy came under threat in Australia. Dealing with revolutionaries In Australia during World War I, small groups of radical unionists and socialists flew the red flag at their meetings. The red flag was the flag of the workers worldwide; those who flew it showed they were loyal first to all workers rather than to their country. Red was also the colour of revolution, the flag of blood. The new communist government in Russia adopted the red flag and added to it the hammer and sickle: the hammer for town workers, and the sickle for country workers, the peasants, who used the sickle to harvest the grain. To fly the red flag in the war was to show that you did not believe in the war. Socialists said that the war was a bosses’ affair, fought over markets and territory; the workers should have nothing to do with it.
    [Show full text]
  • The Free Religious Fellowship, the Great War and Conscription
    95 CHRIS WADE Practical idealists: the Free Religious Fellowship, the Great War and conscription In 1911 a small group of progressive Christians established the Free Religious Fellowship under the leadership of Reverend Frederick Sinclaire, a radical, non-conformist minister, formerly of the Unitarian Church, Eastern Hill. The Fellowship was an active part of the broad coalition of groups opposed to World War I in general and to conscription in particular. The records of the Fellowship are located in State Library Victoria’s collections along with its journal, Fellowship. This article draws on these and other records to tell the story of the fellowship with a particular focus on Sinclaire’s contribution to the anti-conscription campaigns of 1916 and 1917. In the early 20th century, there were few politically or socially progressive church groups like the Free Religious Fellowship in Australia, apart from Charles Strong’s Australian Church.1 The Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian denominations were firmly established as conservative religious voices. These churches contributed to a range of social reform movements, such as campaigns for temperance and six o’clock closing of public houses, viewing these campaigns as vital to the spiritual renewal of the nation. In this context, the Free Religious Fellowship was an unusual and unconventional voice of faith and reason. Frederick Sinclaire was born in New Zealand in 1881 to farmer parents who had migrated from Ireland. Sinclaire won scholarships to Auckland Grammar and Auckland University and subsequently trained for ministry in 96 the Unitarian Church at Manchester College, Oxford, inspired by the New Zealand Unitarian minister, Reverend William Jellie.2 At Oxford, Sinclaire graduated with first-class honours and developed his socialist world view.
    [Show full text]
  • The Significance of Political Colours
    Red, White and Blue, What Do They Mean to You? The Significance of Political Colours Marian Sawer The political meaning of colours is a tantalising subject, something with which we may feel very familiar, but which also includes mysteries and controversies. Colours have long been important symbols of political parties or social movements. For centuries people have worn colours to show they identify with a cause and colours have also been part of the emotional life of social movements. When we see television coverage of election night in the United Kingdom at the declaration of the poll in different constituencies on election night in the United Kingdom (UK) we see the candidates lining up wearing their huge campaign rosettes. They are red for Labour, yellow (gold) for the Liberal Democrats, blue for Conservatives, and green for Greens.1 This particular alignment of colours with the political spectrum tends to be taken for granted in much of the world—leading to cognitive dissonance over recent developments in the United States of America (USA) where the strongholds of the (conservative) Republicans are now described as ‘red states’, while the Democrats have become blue. The discomfort caused by this seemingly arbitrary assignment of colours underlines the fairly stable meanings accumulated by political colours in much of the world. These meanings are reinforced by the stories told about them by social movements themselves—now available on numerous movement websites. These websites are the source for much of the following overview of meanings accruing to the colours red, black and green. Red and its dangers By the late nineteenth century red was being appropriated by the socialist movement.
    [Show full text]