By Marina Carman
SYDNEY — A decision by the appeals committee at Sydney University has ruled that the Student Representative Council's current president, right-winger Adair "the Bear" Durie, be removed from office. The ruling follows an appeal by the left that Durie had issued defamatory material during his election campaign and broken campaign expenditure rules.
Durie's removal raises the question of how best left-wing student activists can combat the growing right-wing presence in student unions and SRCs.
Over the past two years, the right has won some key office-bearer positions previously held by the left, or won a majority on SRCs.
At the University of NSW, for example, the right-wing ticket "Everybody" won the last two elections and has been a conservatising force on campus, refusing to endorse any of the national days of action against education cuts and fees.
At Sydney University last year, the conservative ticket "Students First" won the presidency from the left ticket which had held the position for around eight years. This was achieved through barbecues, beer off the back of a truck, people running around in bear suits and claims that the left had wasted money on issues "not directly affecting students" and "external political causes".
The SRC is not just a body for representing students on various other bodies and arguing for their academic and education rights, nor is the university an island, separate from the rest of society.
Improving student rights, to education and more generally, can not be achieved within the university walls. This understanding informs SRCs' traditional support for a range of political causes.
A lot of debate has occurred amongst the left at Sydney University about how to combat "Students First". The problem is bigger than simply who the president is. The left majority on council has been whittled away over many years. The left now has only one vote.
The truth is that the right was more successful than the left in getting its message out to students last year — however wrong that message might be. Rather than being inward-looking, the left needs to involve more students in its campaigns and take the politics of the SRC and the battles within it out to students.
Whilst Adair's removal is a good thing for both the left and the SRC, the main task — combating the growing influence of the right on Sydney Uni — is still largely untouched.
In the end, bureaucratic battles or quibbling over electoral appeals will not win the battle for the left. In some cases these tactics may damage the left, because many students are turned off by what they perceive as undemocratic, bureaucratic wrangling.
Reaching out to students and convincing them is not the easiest way, but it is the only really effective one. The left has to learn how to fight politically, not bureaucratically.
[Marina Carman is the vice-president of Sydney University SRC and a member of Resistance.]