BY FEDERICO FUENTES
Student activists at Melbourne University are determined to defend fellow students who face disciplinary action, even expulsion, over their part in an April 5 protest against university privatisation - and have appealed for support from everyone who believes in the freedom to protest.
Since the April 5 national day of action against the corporatisation of education, the Melbourne University administration has run a campaign of victimisation against the students involved.
At least 25 students have been suspended for six months from the university, and others are still awaiting a decision on their fate. Suspended students will not be eligible for the Youth Allowance, nor will they be able to continue using university resources for study.
The victimisation follows actions taken by some students at the April 5 action.
In protest at vice-chancellor Alan Gilbert's support for the continuing privatisation of the university, 80 students forcibly entered his office. The protesters attempted to use the ensuing media attention and campus commotion to broaden community opposition to the $280 million of public funding which has been diverted into the establishment of a private full-fee-paying university, Melbourne University Private.
Students also opposed the allocation of $11 million of public funding to a private, online university scheme: Universitas 21.
In a blatant attempt to silence student protest, the administration has used the "damage" done during the occupation to justify imposing academic penalties for political activity.
Having obtained the names of students involved in the occupation from police, the university administration has forced the students to face disciplinary hearings.
These hearings flout basic principles of justice - denying students the right to any representation and withholding information about the nature of the charges. The hearings are empowered to fine, suspend or even expel the students from the university.
This attack on the right to protest has been supported by a vicious media campaign, branding the protesters "vandals" and giving plenty of space to the university's unsubstantiated claim that the damage amounted to $200,000. The administration has since "revised" that figure to less than $100,000.
There has already been considerable debate among student activists about whether or not the action contributed to building the movement against university corporatisation. But differences on this question should not divert activists from fighting the very real threat posed by the administration's crackdown on student activists.
All students - regardless of whether they agreed with all the actions of the occupiers or not - should regard this as a very serious attack on student's democratic rights.
The administration, despite claiming that it is punishing "vandalism", not protest, has set out to punish these students for protesting. In doing so it is attempting to obscure and discredit the causes of the student protest.
The adminstration's "outrage" at the cost of repairing damaged property is hard to stomach, given that it spends $400,000 a week on repaying the loan which financed Melbourne University Private - which now faces financial insolvency.
The administration's campaign is designed to frighten students into abandoning protests (as well as to remove "troublemakers").
We must defend these students and continue to organise protests against corporate control over the education system. If we cannot win the right to freely express dissent, the campaign as a whole will suffer.
Melbourne University students, supported by the Melbourne University Student Union, have already begun a campaign in defence of the protesters. A defence campaign committee was set up following the occupation. It will begin to meet again following the semester break.
To get involved students should contact Paul Coates, Melbourne University education officer, on 8344 4808 or visit the student union on the first floor of Union House.
[Federico Fuentes is the Melbourne organiser of the socialist youth group, Resistance.]