Students activating the education campaign
By Michael Bramwell
PERTH — In an effort to strengthen the education campaign and establish a more representative student guild, a range of education, environment and feminist activists will be contesting the October 15-17 Murdoch University student elections on the "Activate" ticket.
Activate presidential candidate Phil Harold told Green Left, "In the current political climate we are going to need a strong guild which students feel is relevant to them and which fights for their interests. We can only do that by fighting against voluntary student unionism, increased HECS charges, attacks on Austudy and other issues on a campus and national level."
Activate's candidate for education vice-president, Luke Edmonds, sees the National Union of Students as an important battleground for the left: "NUS is an important vehicle for organising nationally, but it's been used by the ALP to build itself rather than the student movement".
Activate is running a candidate for a secretariat position focusing on environmental issues, and Resistance member Bronwen Blockley is standing for NUS and the women's officer position. The Activate ticket is also supporting the campaign to free recently jailed Indonesian pro-democracy activists.