By Kylie Moon and Mark Abberton
MELBOURNE — On January 18, Victoria's Student Unionism Network (SUN) met. More than 40 student activists from a wide range of Victorian universities and National Union of Students (NUS) state and national office-bearers participated.
The campaign against the proposed federal voluntary student unionism legislation was the main focus of the meeting. It was decided that a strategy day be organised on February 3 to discuss lessons from previous anti-VSU campaigns in WA and Victoria, and strategies to defeat VSU.
The meeting called on NUS to adopt March 31 as the date for a national day of action.
SUN also passed a motion to organise a state day of action regardless of whether NUS adopts the March 31 date. Some student activists argued for a national day of action in the first two weeks of the university semester, and others, including representatives from NUS, argued for it to be held in April or May.
A number of NUS representatives cautioned against a campaign that focused entirely on VSU early in the year, arguing that the time to rally was when the legislation was before the Senate, and that VSU was a "difficult issue" to explain to students. Student unions must publicise the benefits unions give to students before being able to mobilise students against the legislation, they argued.
Jacob Varghese, NUS national president, reported that NUS thought an anti-GST campaign was the best way to mobilise students early in the year and the best way to fight VSU.
Emma Murphy, welfare officer at Melbourne University Student Union and a Resistance activist, argued for "an immediate, nationally coordinated campaign against VSU, combined with other student campaigns, to demonstrate the role that student unions can play in defending students' rights. This requires — not some hopeful formula of when the campaign will peak and students can be pulled into rallying against VSU — but hard work to convince students to get active in defending student unionism now."
Melbourne University Education Action Group has already met and is planning to kick off the year with workshops, stunts and a student general meeting to initiate a broad anti-VSU coalition. RMIT Student Union is in the process of formulating a strategy to fight VSU.
[Mark Abberton is the education officer at RMIT TAFE and Kylie Moon is a member of Melbourne University Education Action Group. Both are members of Resistance.]