NSW student anti-war activists forge links

Wednesday, November 17, 1993 - 11:00

Katie Cherrington, Wollongong

On May 19, 35 student anti-war activists from universities in Canberra, Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong attended a cross-campus Students Against War conference hosted by the University of Wollongong Undergraduate Students Association. The aim of the conference was to strengthen links between student anti-war activists in NSW and the ACT.

The first plenary discussed the global situation, including Washington's drive to get international backing for a future Iraq-style war against oil-rich Iran, as well as the need to fight racism and attacks on civil liberties here in Australia.

Workshop topics included the anti-nuclear movement and an eyewitness report from Palestine.

Action proposals discussed in the final plenary session included building mass protests against US President George Bush's visit to Australia for the 2007 APEC summit; building anti-war protest actions on Hiroshima Day (August 6); organising protests against the G20 summit being held in Melbourne on November 18-19; and calling a coordinated day of anti-war action across campuses in September. This would be one year before Bush is due to visit Australia, and could take the form of rallies, debates, forums, speak-outs, counter-recruitment stunts or other actions.

A number of participants at the conference will be attending the national peace conference being held in Melbourne on May 27, and will be seeking endorsement for these initiatives.

Chris Doran, a lecturer in the geography department at Newcastle University who presented a workshop at the conference, emphasised the need for a unified movement to get troops out of Iraq. He told Green Left Weekly that one of his major concerns is revealing Australia's role in post-war Iraq. "In particular, exposing Australian complicity in war crimes and their attempts to consolidate an ongoing neoliberal economic occupation to replace the current military occupation."

From Green Left Weekly, May 24, 2006.

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