BY GRANT COLEMAN
WOLLONGONG
Fifteen students from six local high schools came together on October
28 to form the Illawarra High School Student Social Action Network.
The network was formed to encourage students to call for human rights, equality and social justice to be a priority above profits, founding member Simon Cunich, who is an activist in the socialist youth organisation Resistance, told Green Left Weekly.
The network is the result of many months of campaigning by high school students in the Illawarra in support of refugees and against war and Third World poverty. Informal networking among high school activists began when students at The Illawarra Grammar School (TIGS), including Cunich, attempted to build an Illawarra-wide contingent to the June 23 refugee rights' protest in Sydney.
Following the June 23 protest the TIGS Social Action Group organised two events for the August 26 anniversary of the Tampa crisis, Cunich said. We organised a public meeting at school that attracted 400 students to hear from a refugee speaker. For the anniversary itself we organised a lunch-time commemoration with a school band and a speaker from a Sydney high school.
According to Cunich, the network got legs when TIGS students called for a high school demonstration on October 18. This is when we first really started attracting students from other schools. We got students from five schools to help plan and build the protest and it was a success, attracting 50-60 students. It was completely organised by high school students. We organised the bands, the speakers, the leaflets and the media. We even got coverage from radio station Triple J.
Although the October 18 protest was nominally organised by High School Students for Refugees, it quickly became clear that students wanted to act on other issues in particular, in opposition to a war on Iraq.
Cunich believes that all high-school students have a duty to stop this war. As young people we can't be complacent about something that could affect the future of peace so profoundly. We see a huge potential for the global justice movement amongst high-school students, so this is a perfect opportunity.
The network is organising a contingent to take part in Sydney protests against the World Trade Organisation on November 14. War is simply corporate globalisation with its gloves off, Cunich said. If the corporate rulers of the world can't get what they want through the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the WTO then they resort to military might.
The walkout will be a powerful message that high school students are willing to leave their classrooms and be a part of the movement that calls for an end to the ongoing war against the Third World.
Laura Ealing, another network member and student at TIGS, told GLW that there have been obstacles that we've had to overcome. Getting people involved and interested in the issue has been a challenge at times, but the network wants to lead the way for other young people to stand up for the things they believe in, and show that we do care, that we can think for ourselves and that we can make a difference.
From Green Left Weekly, November 13, 2002.
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