Curtin students and staff oppose war

BY GRANT COLEMAN

PERTH — Determined to take action against the US attacks on Afghanistan, 55 students and staff formed an anti-war alliance at an October 24 forum on Curtin University.

Addressing the meeting, Gavin Mooney, a health sciences lecturer at Curtin, pointed out that Bush, Blair and Howard were all elected by minorities and had no mandate to claim to be acting in "our names".

"We need a new world order, not the current world disorder", he said. "Bush acts like a cowboy, yet war is not the solution to terrorism."

Jane Armanasco, a member of the activist group Resistance and a Student Guild councillor, condemned the broader aims of the "war on terrorism", stating: "I want to see an end to terror, but I don't support a war that inflicts terror on Afghanistan. Such a war will not end terrorism it will spread it."

Both Mooney and Armanasco opposed Australian troops being sent to the region and backed the development of a worldwide peace and justice movement.

The forum was one of five organised as part of the Student Guild's Social Justice Day.

From GLW issue 469