BY LUKE FOMIATTI
SYDNEY — Student elections at Sydney University last week resulted in a massive swing to the National Organisation of Labor Students (NOLS), a loose grouping of ALP students. This year's NOLS presidential candidate, Moksha Watts, seized back control of the SRC from the left, netting almost double the votes of her nearest rival.
Nationally this year NOLS has pushed a left-wing facade. At this election it ran on a variety of tickets, including an education cuts ticket (Arts Action), a women's ticket (Feminist Action) and a Labor left students ticket under the motto "Socialist — Feminist — Unionist — Democratic".
Meanwhile, after a year in control of an SRC that failed to reach out to students or deliver any significant student mobilisations or victories, the left split and ran as two factions.
The Activist Left ran on an Activate platform, which campaigned on vague activist slogans but lacked political depth or campaign focuses to differentiate it from NOLS.
Another Left ticket, Global Justice, was initiated by Resistance members. Daniel Ooi, presidential candidate for Global Justice, said the main problem with the Activist Left was its lack of understanding of the need to go beyond reformist election perspectives.
"The Activist Left's accommodation to electoral practices has led to a total misunderstanding about what participating in elections and winning student union positions means", Ooi said. "The most important aspect of positions in SRCs and NUS is winning the political leadership of the student movement, not as resource centres which campaigns can be run through."
This misunderstanding was demonstrated by the Activist Left doing preference deals with NOLS above the Global Justice ticket, justifying its opportunism by the need for the left to access SRC resources.
"Meaningful leadership can only come on the basis of mass mobilisation and student support, not simply electioneering, and if the SRC fails to involve students in campaigns, then it risks alienating students further from the SRC", said Rebecca Beirne, who ran for NUS and SRC on the Global Justice ticket.
The increasing alienation of students is shown by the fact that just over 3000 of 25,000 eligible undergraduate students voted. Students are becoming increasingly cynical about "student politicians" and the manoeuvres they engage in. The major task for the left at Sydney University is to rebuild support for the SRC and campaigns amongst students, and by doing this win students to progressive politics.
Meanwhile, Peter Robson reports from Newcastle that left-wing activists took several positions from the Labor student faction in the Newcastle University Student Association (NUSA) election.
Three tickets contested the elections: the Labor student ticket Focus, the Resistance-initiated Keep Left and the Newcastle Freedom Fighters, initiated by several independent activists from campus collectives.
Keep Left and NFF managed to take three of the five National Union of Students delegate positions. Last year, these forces only managed one. The NFF also won the NUSA president position. Resistance activist Troy Saxby was elected as a NUS observer.