BY CHRIS ATKINSON
& PAUL BENEDEK
SYDNEY — Supporters of free speech have vowed to repel a severe campaign of harassment, intimidation and censorship of left-wing political activists at the University of New South Wales.
Having held regular campaign stalls — opposing war, defending public education, supporting refugees — for many years on UNSW, members of the socialist youth organisation Resistance now find themselves the target of unofficial, and now official, harassment.
Unofficial harassment has come from pro-Israel students at times when Resistance has raised support for a free Palestine. On several occasions, groups of up to eight anti-Palestine students have surrounded and harassed Resistance members staffing a campaign stall. This harassment has including verbal abuse and the ripping up of copies of Green Left Weekly.
UNSW security guards have approached the Resistance stall on many occasions, saying they have received "complaints", and demanding that the stall be shut down. This has been done on the pretext that no UNSW student was present, yet people on other stalls were not asked for proof of student identification.
The university registrar, after lobbying by pro-Israel students, has informed Resistance members that they must phone UNSW security on each occasion that they want to set up a stall.
UNSW Student Guild executive officer Scott Carn has informed Resistance that the group has no right to hold a stall on UNSW. When issues of free speech were raised, Carn — supposedly appointed to facilitate the rights of all clubs and societies — alleged that Resistance was opposed to free speech! The Student Guild is controlled by a right-wing student faction of the ALP.
Carn, in discussions at the guild office, said that it was "good" Resistance was facing harassment. He also alleged that Resistance is "anti-Semitic".
Resistance was informed that it must lodge an "application", 10 days in advance, with the Student Guild each time it wants to set up a stall. This is the first time such a requirement has been imposed upon the Resistance club.
After an "unbooked" Resistance stall was shut down by security, Resistance members asked those staffing other stalls whether they had had to comply with any booking requirements. None were aware of any booking requirement.
A Resistance stall held at UNSW on July 30, during the first week of second semester, was shut down by three UNSW security guards.
While the Resistance club faces censorship for daring to raise support for the oppressed Palestinian people, the Australasian Union of Jewish Students — an influential pro-Israel club with many members in the Student Guild — has placed posters around the campus depicting the Bali bombing and a bombing in Israel and bearing the slogan, "Two nightclubs, two countries, two suicide bombings — one global problem: Islamist terrorists".
"Such ignorant and racist ideas need to be combated", Tamara Pearson, a UNSW student and member of Resistance, said. "But censorship — even of ideas you oppose — is no solution. We are confident that our ideas of justice can win out over anti-Muslim racism, and we want the freest discussion and debate for this. The question for those censoring us is — what are you afraid of?"
Resistance has initiated a free speech campaign to oppose the growing censorship at UNSW. Anyone who wants to lend their support to the free speech campaign should call Chris on 0401 260 439 or Tamara on 0405 224 070 or email <sydney@resistance.org.au>.
From Green Left Weekly, August 13, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.