NTEU rally protests attack on higher education

BY MARCUS PABIAN

MELBOURNE — On August 21, 300 members of he National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) were joined by delegates to the ACTU congress in a protest rally against the Howard government's proposed changes to university funding which include new anti-union measures.

ACTU president Sharan Burrow, who chaired the rally, denounced Howard's attack on the NTEU as being in breach of rights set down by the International Labour Organisation.

The many other unions supporting the rally declared they would defend the NTEU in its campaign against Howard's new anti-union attack. "Touch one, touch all!", Damien Eley, a construction union delegate, told the rally.

"We support the basic right to education ... for all working class people to have an education that is provided by the government. Don't we pay taxes for these things!", Eley told Green Left Weekly.

Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia delegate Beth MacPherson described how only one of her two children could stay on at university because the family could not support the attendance of both, concluding that the higher education system "locks out working class families from higher education".

Privatisation of universities was seen by many as the government's reason for the current restructuring of university funding and the increasing of student fees.

Jonathon Hill, NSW secretary of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, told GLW the Howard government was motivated to privatise universities "simply because private industry can make money out of it". Hill said privatisation would deny working people the "opportunity to participate in determining the outcomes of education".

NTEU national president Carolyn Allport told GLW that the NTEU opposed the government's attempt to impose individual contracts on its members "and we have the full support of the labour movement".

The next protest in Melbourne against the federal government's proposed changes to higher education will take place at the State Library in the city at 3pm on August 27.

From Green Left Weekly, August 27, 2003.

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From GLW issue 551