Four Queensland University of Technology students were arrested on March 1 for expressing their political opinions on campus.
The four members of the Students for Social Justice collective were holding a stall demanding freedom for David Hicks and for an end to the "war on terror" when student union officials called on campus security officers to have the stall removed because the activists did not have a permit. The SSJ collective is affiliated to the student union.
When the activists refused to be intimidated by the security officers, the student union, which is led by the National Organisation of Labor Students, called police onto the campus. Ten police arrived and arrested the activists, charging them with disobeying a police order.
Lauren Mellor, one of those arrested, said this action was "a betrayal of democratic principles". "Students have the right to do and say what they want on campus without having armed men called on them", she told Green Left Weekly.
The students are refusing to be silenced by either the university authorities or the right-wing student union. Robert Nichols, who was one of those arrested, told GLW, "Students for Social Justice will continue with its planned events, including a forum on black deaths in custody, and will be running a free-speech campaign to demand the right to politically organise on campus".