Most students started on campus a week after John Howard decided to send more troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. With the government under growing pressure to bring David Hicks home, the surge against the war and the so-called war on terror is growing rapidly on all campuses.
Given this, Resistance believes that anti-war activists' main contribution to ending the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the power of US (and Australian) imperialism, is to organise a more united, and stronger, movement. Two well attended events at the University of Sydney last week — a speak-out against the army recruitment stall and a forum addressed by former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib — showed students' willingness to get involved in the movement.
The March 17-18 Iraq invasion anniversary rallies are the next major focus. While the recent protests against US Vice-President Dick Cheney's Sydney visit were vibrant and the numbers good given the short notice, they were still too small. If the movement is to have the political clout needed to force the government's hand it has to become a lot bigger.
It's unfortunate then that some University of Sydney activists insist on organising in separate anti-war collectives — Students Against War and the Anti-War Action Group. This is largely due to the refusal of two socialist groups — Socialist Alternative (involved in SAW) and Solidarity (involved in AWAG) — to work together. They have elevated building their own organisations above the needs of the movement.
Solidarity argues that it had to set up a new anti-war group because of disagreements with the way SAW operated. Last year, Socialist Alternative, the strongest socialist group in SAW, did often run the meetings undemocratically. Socialist Alternative is now refusing to cooperate with AWAG because "SAW was here first". At a recent SAW meeting, Socialist Alternative members even opposed endorsing or jointly organising an anti-war speak out initiated by AWAG.
AWAG wants to prioritise campaigning against the new pro-war research institution, the US Studies Centre (USSC), which aims to "build an understanding" of US foreign policy. Activists from SAW believe that the priority should be organising students to be a part of the troops out and free David Hicks campaigns.
But there is really no counter-position, only a difference of emphasis. The campaign against the USSC is not a distraction from building the broader anti-war movement: it can be a stepping stone to involving more people in the movement. But it must take up both.
While there are always different perspectives on the next steps in a campaign, it's important to have this debate in a united way or we risk driving new activists away altogether.
Resistance has been active in the anti-war movement on and off campus since before the invasion of Iraq. We have also criticised the lack of democracy in SAW. But the problems can be solved politically — by winning the argument for democratic meeting procedure, organising more dynamic events and for the inclusion of all new activists. Proceeding this way will benefit the movement as a whole and reduce the ability of any single political group to dominate.
[Simon Cunich is the Sydney Resistance organiser and an activist in the Sydney Stop the War Coalition. Resistance members at Sydney university are active in both SAW and AWAG.]