Resistance role in campaign defended

By Bill Mason BRISBANE — Letters to the editor in the Courier-Mail newspaper indicate widespread rejection of attacks by a minority of public figures on the role of Resistance in the high school walkout here. "Quotes from educators about students being 'set up' by outside socialist organisers to protest on nuclear issues took me back to the Joh days when any original dissenting view was blamed on sinister left-wing forces", wrote Sandra Hogan of Shorncliffe in the October 7 issue. "Thank you. It is a rare day when a teenage daughter acknowledges her mother's wisdom, but your front page (October 2) certainly boosted my credibility", wrote Brigid Houston of Dutton Park, in the same issue. "... I predicted that the hoary old scapegoat of 'Reds under the bed' would be used to divert attention from what appeared to be gross mishandling of a relatively simple situation at Aspley [High School]. I was proved correct ... "That Ian Mackie, president of an ALP-affiliated union, has chosen to add his two cents' worth to the Red-scare campaign increases my sympathy for those young people who no longer see the Labor Party as holding the promise of a more socially just and fair society and thus look elsewhere." Mackie, president of the Queensland Teachers Union, has led the red-baiting campaign against Resistance. "The QTU is very concerned at the claims of Resistance that they continue to insist on students disrupting the authority of the schools and principals", he was quoted as saying in the October 5 Courier-Mail. "Their suggestions have only proved to be divisive and exposes their motive as being unrelated to nuclear protesting and more related to anarchist motives", Mackie added. Brisbane Resistance organiser Zanny Begg replied: "The real issue is nuclear testing, and that is why so many students came out in protest. If Mr Mackie is so keen on playing by the rules, what would he say to the members of his own union if they wanted to go on strike? Stay at work because you might disrupt society? Thousands of students went on strike yesterday because they wanted to stop nuclear testing and Australian uranium sales to France." The Anti-Nuclear Alliance, the coalition which has organised most of the protests against French nuclear testing in Brisbane, has adopted a resolution supporting the right of high school students to take action on their beliefs, and the right of Resistance to organise among students and other young people on the anti-nuclear issue.

From GLW issue 206