BY MARIA VOUKELATOS
SYDNEY Students at the University of Sydney are outraged at an unprecedented move by the university administration to prevent activists from publicising a public protest, the May 1 stock exchange blockade, and have vowed to launch a free speech campaign if harassment of activists continues.
Students' stand against university security follows an incident on April 26, when security officers told activists from M1 Sydney and the socialist group Resistance, who were holding a stall publicising M1, to leave campus.
The officers told the activists, a mix of Sydney University students and members of the public, that if they did not leave they would be arrested for trespassing. They directed the activists to stop handing out stickers publicising M1 and to take down all posters.
University administrators claim that the extreme measure is a response to posters, stickers and graffiti publicising May 1, which have allegedly caused damage to university property.
The move prompted an immediate, angry reply from student activists. National Union of Students national education officer Kate Davidson said, Universities have traditionally been a place that encourages critical thinking and political activity. This is clearly one in a succession of political attacks on students' rights.
Sydney University student and Resistance activist Daniel Ooi added, M1 is about demonstrating our opposition to a system we believe is unjust and needs to be changed. The vice-chancellor of Sydney University, who actively encourages corporate investment in education, is obviously threatened by the growing movement against putting corporate profits before the needs of society as a whole.
On the same day in Brisbane, Simon Butler reports, security at the University of Queensland took similar action against a Resistance stall publicising M1, claiming that university by-laws specified that only material approved by the vice-chancellor could be handed out on university grounds. It is the first time the by-law has been enforced in years.
Resistance activist Ewan Saunders told Green Left Weekly, It is not a coincidence that the uni administration decided to enforce this by-law just prior to M1. It is clearly an attempt to intimidate those campaigning for the student strike.