Students protest take-over
LISMORE — Six students occupied a balcony of the heavily fortified administration building at Southern Cross University overnight on May 15. The students and their supporters below were demanding that the administration relinquish control of the Student Representative Union, seized on April 23 for six months to review supposed financial and constitutional problems.
After the occupation, and a rally of 200 students and staff on May 8, the administration met with student union representatives on May 16 to offer some concessions, including more student representation on the administration-imposed union management committee and narrower powers for the committee. Students will discuss their response this week.
Picket demands Vanunu's freedom
SYDNEY — A lively protest on May 12, outside an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Israeli state, demanded freedom for Mordechai Vanunu. Vanunu has been jailed for more than 10 years for exposing the Israeli nuclear weapons program. The action was organised by the newly formed Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu.
Indonesia and East Timor solidarity
LISMORE — In the first 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly-sponsored event in Byron Bay, 60 people attended a screening of the documentary on the Indonesia democracy movement, There is only one word — Resist! on May 10. Participants expressed interest in supporting the campaign to free the Indonesian political prisoners and donated $150 for the campaign.
Nestle boycott continues
CANBERRA — The Australian National University student union voted overwhelmingly on May 7 to continue the ban on Nestle products in its retail outlets on campus. An earlier Student Association general meeting also voted to support the ban.
The boycott is part of an international campaign to pressure Nestle to stop its unethical marketing of infant formula. A recent report by the Interagency Group on Breastfeeding confirms that companies continue to violate the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. These violations mean that millions of infants in the Third World are vulnerable to more illnesses than if they were breast fed and contract more water-borne diseases as a result of the formula having to be mixed with unclean drinking water.
Freedom for East Timor
MELBOURNE— University Students for East Timor picketed the offices of BHP on May 14. The action followed an eviction notice presented to BHP by USET 28 days earlier which advised BHP to quit the Timor Gap, cease stealing the Timorese people's oil and end its dealings with the Suharto dictatorship within 28 days or face action to "recover damages".
Feminism and socialism seminar
BRISBANE — A lively discussion of past and current problems of women's liberation was held at a Democratic Socialist Party seminar on May 10-11. A feature panel on " Our bodies, our lives!" included long-time pro-choice activist Unna Liddy and JM, the lesbian whose recent court victory over access to fertility clinic services provoked outrage from the right wing. The concluding panel, titled "Women fight back!", featured Katie Steenstrup, ACTUQ women's officer, and Kathy Newnam, a Resistance member and student activist.
Other talks covered the origins of women's oppression, and feminism in the past, present and future. Workshops covered women and the Latin American revolutions, women, race and class, market feminism versus Marxist feminism, and pornography and censorship.
Students protest education cuts
WOLLONGONG — More than 100 high school and university students joined a rally at Wollongong University on May 13 organised by Resistance and High School Students Against the Cuts. The rally demanded a reversal of the government's education funding cuts, and no cuts to Austudy or Abstudy. An effigy John Howard was burned.
Speakers included Resistance member Tessha Mearing, Bulli High School student Ashley Forbes and Carol Berry, president of the Wollongong University Students Representative Council. Mearing emphasised the importance of high school students joining the campaign against the cuts — "After all, it is high school students who will be disadvantaged in the long run".
Week of action launched
SYDNEY — A public meeting attended by 60 people at the Resistance Centre on May 17 launched a week of action for democracy in Indonesia and a free East Timor.
Speakers included Nico Warouw from the People's Democratic Party in Indonesia, Fretilin representative Harold Moucho, Resistance member Amy Phillips, who visited Indonesia last year, and John Gauci from Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor, which is organising the week of action.
Visiting East Timorese activist Naldo Rai also spoke, recounting the atrocities inflicted on the East Timorese people by the Suharto regime and its racist policy of forced integration. The discussion was followed by screenings of the films There is only one word <>97> Resist! and Bitter Paradise.