BY LUKE FORMIATTI & SIMON BUTLER
BRISBANE — The Labor-controlled University of Queensland Student Union has taken drastic action to prevent students from organising against the US war drive.
After the University of Queensland Socialist Worker Student Club (SWSC) held a September 14 meeting titled "Terror in the US: Bitter fruit of US foreign policy" it has been prohibited from using student union photocopying resources without approval from the clubs and societies officer. All clubs have been barred from using union resources to produce any material which refers to the United States without approval from union president Juliana Virine.
"It's pretty clear that the National Organisation of Labor Students are politically opposed to what we're doing", SWSC spokesperson Emilie Aubrey told Green Left Weekly. "NOLS is not prepared to take a position against the racist scapegoating or to demand that there be no further bombings. NOLS members have attempted to bureaucratically manoeuvre to block us from organising around this issue.
"It really disgusts me that they are using the student union to stop people fighting against racism and war."
National Union of Students Queensland women's officer Jo Ball condemned the union's actions. "The SWSC is simply trying to give its opinion for a strategy forward, this opinion is a wish to eradicate racism and make a stand against the killings."
Virine denies that the restrictions are politically motivated. She told GLW that, although the union received no written complaints, the leaflet put out by SWSC was "insensitive".
Similar incidents have occurred at other universities. Melbourne Resistance organiser Federico Fuentes reports that a September 13 RMIT meeting organised by Socialist Worker on a similar topic was denied access to a student union room, despite a booking.
Islamic students at RMIT report a rise in racist attacks. In one incident a woman had her veil forcibly removed. Students attending the meeting decided to call a broadly organised anti-racist speak-out on campus.
Earlier that day two police officers turned up to another forum on the same topic at Melbourne University.
Islamic students at La Trobe University have also suffered attacks, and nearby Arabic shops have been defaced. La Trobe Resistance activist Kylie Moon told GLW that a rally against racist scapegoating is being organised on the campus. Moon commented: "It is completely outrageous that Islamic students have been intimidated from coming to university. The university should be sending a clear message that any racist scapegoating of students will not be tolerated."