'Slow-burn' anti-VSU campaign

By Bronwyn Jennings

MELBOURNE — The Student Unionism Network held a teach-in on fighting voluntary student unionism on February 3. The final plenary session was a discussion about strategies for fighting the government's attack on student unionism.

RMIT TAFE education officer Mark Abberton said: "The campaign against VSU needs as many students as possible involved in the campaign, and mobilised on the streets, if we are going to defeat this attack on student unions. While it is important to link attacks on higher education (such as up-front fees, course closures and ancillary fees) with VSU, because of the role students have played in criticising government policy, we need to be campaigning on the ground immediately to gather as much support against VSU as possible."

The National Union of Students' Victoria branch has proposed a "slow-burn campaign" which focuses on simply demonstrating the role of student unions to students in the first few months of semester. It has proposed that a serious campaign against VSU be started later, just before the national day of action against VSU planned for May 5. Resistance has called for the national day of action to be brought forward to March 31.

From GLW issue 349