Nine months since the start of the genocide in Gaza, the horror still grows day by day.
In Australia, Albanese has sided with the Coalition to attack the Greens for supporting pro-Palestine protests. Foreign Minister Penny Wong absurdly claims that Australia is making “non-lethal” parts for the F-35 jets Israel uses to bomb Gaza.
Although management did not send in the cops, the student encampment at the University of Sydney faced repression, as other encampments around Australia have, with management sending “cease and desist” letters to intimidate campers and suspending two students for making lecture announcements.
Although all encampments except those at Canberra, Wollongong and Newcastle have ended, the Palestine movement has emerged stronger from the experience. Inspired by the movement in the US the encampments were a symbol of defiance that captured the imagination of the Palestine campaign on, and off, campus.
The sit-in at Melbourne Uni was the first to win any agreement for disclosure and set a benchmark for the encampments across the country.
At Sydney Uni, the Muslim Students Association (SUMSA) squeezed a few more crumbs out of management, maintaining the camp even after Students For Palestine undemocratically declared it was over. The Muslim encampment officially ended on Friday 21 June—a week after S4P decamped.
Management have now said they will start disclosing research ties with weapons companies from July. They have agreed to do more to combat Islamophobia on campus and will continue to meet with Muslim community leaders.
Management has also agreed to make steps towards establishing an Open Learning Environment exchange unit called “Experience Palestine” and will release a public statement calling for a ceasefire and reaffirm the importance of international law and human rights.
Without a mass student and staff movement on campus that makes business as usual impossible for management, we cannot expect more from them.
We commend SUMSA for eking out these further concessions from management. But management will do their upmost to delay and drop the agreed concessions.
We are a long way from winning our demands that Sydney Uni cuts ties and end its research relationships with companies such as Thales, Lockheed Martin, and Safran.
But the camps have popularised the aim of cutting ties with Israel and shone a light on the role universities play for military research. They’ve also shown just how integrated our university is with the government and how determined they are to maintain connections to arms companies and to Israel.
We still need to build broader support if we going to disrupt “business as usual” on the campus. That means leaflets, lecture-bashing, forums and rallies, and sit-ins and strikes with an aim to win and involve wider layers of students in the campaign. One important step will be the Student General Meeting early in second semester.
Every bit of resistance we build on campus needs to have the aim of strengthening this broader effort.
By Solidarity students Sydney Uni
