Dozens of University of Sydney (USyd) clubs, societies and groups held stalls on campus on July 31 to oppose management’s draconian new Campus Access Policy (CAP).
CAP explicitly bans students and staff from having stalls unless they get permission 72 hours beforehand from university management.
It also bans postering, sit-ins, the use of megaphones and other sound projecting equipment and protests held without permission and 72 hour’s notice.
Ishbel Dunsmore, from the USyd Students Representative Council (SRC), told Green Left the Unauthorised Stalls Day was organised to “defy” the CAP.
“[The CAP] was pushed through, from the top, with no consultation with students or staff. It was essentially a response to the Sydney Uni Palestine encampment.
“The sweeping changes are totally unprecedented for any university across Australia.”
She said it is “a real attack on free speech” and activism on a university that, historically, has been very socially conscious “from the Vietnam Moratorium, to the Freedom Rides and now the Palestine solidarity campaign”.
Markela Panegyres, an academic and member of the National Tertiary Education Union at USyd, told GL that the new “outrageous” rules would also impact staff. “It’s an attack on our free speech.”
A member of Students for Palestine said the CAP “may breach human rights law, according to Amnesty International. It said the CAP “breaches the obligations of the University under the Principles for the proper management of assemblies” set out by the UN Special Rapporteur.
The UN Human Rights Committee said requiring students and staff to apply for a permit to protest “undermines the right to protest”.
Amnesty International is urging “universities to uphold their campuses as spaces where freedom of expression, academic freedom, and the right to peaceful assembly are embraced, safeguarded, and protected”.
A representative from Legal Observers NSW told GL it is “important to push back” against this repression. The CAP allows university security to detain alleged “offenders” before handing them over to NSW Police.
Angus Dermody, from Students Against War, told GL the CAP attacks “all of us who want to see the university run in the interests of the students and the workers who make it run”.
Dunsmore said the SRC welcomed the variety of groups participating in the stalls protest, which included the Taylor Swift Society and the Board Game Society, noting that “the CAP does not just affect activist groups”.
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Students in the university’s Psychology Society said: “We believe in student wellbeing and we don’t think having such ridiculous guidelines that encroach on freedom of speech promote that.”
The French Society said “student expression on campus is very important” and “we should have the right to speak up”. “It represents the French spirit of protest and of manifestation [demonstration].”
The USyd Queer Action Collective said: “These new laws mean we wouldn’t be able to protest against transphobia, queerphobia, for gay rights — there are so many important protests that would not be able to happen under the CAP.”
A group of students who organised a bake sale for Gaza said even these require 72 hour’s notice and permission.
Victor from the Madrigal Society said their impromptu singing events would be banned. “University security is probably not going to kick us out, but we believe in the principle of solidarity, touch one, touch all.”
Victor, also a member of Young Labor Left, told GL he was “disappointed” in Labor’s position on Israel’s genocide. He said the recent NSW Labor conference “voted down a motion to repeal the anti-protest laws and the youth bail laws”.
“We will not stop until these unjust laws are repealed and Palestine is free,” he said.
Students are preparing for a Student General Meeting on August 7. Two pro-Palestine motions will be voted on; the first demands the university cuts all ties with Israel and weapons companies and the second endorses a “one-state solution” and affirms Palestinians right to resist.