Students rally despite opposition

By Bernard Wunsch BRISBANE — About 300 high school students walked out of their classes on October 18 and rallied at the Roma Street Forum in protest against Australian uranium sales to France and French nuclear testing in the Pacific. The walkout and rally were organised by the socialist youth organisation, Resistance, in the face of aggressive opposition from the education department, the establishment media and Queensland Teachers Union president, Ian Mackie. While the turnout for this action was smaller than one two weeks before, it was nevertheless a vibrant protest against the Australian government's hypocrisy on the nuclear testing issue. Many high school students were threatened with disciplinary action if they attended the latest rally, yet were angry enough to defy the threats and stand up for their right to protest. Compared to the previous high school rally, the students' demands were more focussed against the Australian and French governments, displaying a better understanding that it is a minority who makes the decisions in France to test nuclear weapons as it is, in Australia, to mine uranium. Following the rally which heard from various students and Resistance activists, the students marched through the city — to the applause of bystanders — chanting "No Bombs! No Tests in the Pacific!" and ended up at the French consulate. There a die-in was staged as a symbol of the human destruction caused by nuclear weapons. A French flag was then burnt and the protest ended on a positive note with students vowing to keep up the struggle, and calling on the whole community to stand up against nuclear testing. Media attention, in the lead-up to the rally, focussed on the fact that students would miss classes, and charged that Resistance was manipulating students to leave school and protest. The most vocal proponent of this slander was ALP member and QTU president, Ian Mackie. He was reported as saying that was pleased by the small size of the rally and that students had "acted responsibly" by staying in class. The previous week Mackie had been campaigning to persuade parents and teachers not to support the rally. High school Resistance member, Karen Tinambacan, disagreed with this: "I think students have a right to protest. It's a way to express what we feel and I don't care what people say about it."