Students of Sustainability conference a success

Raising the West Papuan flag at the Aboriginal tent embassy as part of the conference. Photo: Alexander Brown.

Students of Sustainability (SOS) is an annual conference dedicated to environmental activism.

About 400 students travelled to the Australian National University in Canberra for this year’s event over June 30 to July 5. The event was organised by the Australian Student Environmental Network (ASEN).

The conference had guest speakers from environment and labour movements, international guests, and academics and activists from around Australia.

Unionist Jack Mundey presented a packed workshop about getting unions and workers involved in environmental politics. Mundey was one of the architects of the Green Bans movement — a series of industrial actions by the Builders Labourers Federation that saved many historical landmarks across Australia.

Other notable speakers included two prominent members of the Lock the Gate Alliance and the campaign to stop coal seam gas mining: lifelong activist and Greens co-founder Drew Hutton and environmental movements historian Dr Libby Connors.

A workshop hosted by Dr Matthew Rimmer on the Trans Pacific Partnership was also packed to overflowing.

More than 100 workshops, plenaries, films and other events were held, covering the practical side of fighting capitalism’s rampage of environmental destruction and the historical and theoretical aspect of this struggle.

Visitors could opt to stay at the Canberra Aboriginal Tent Embassy which started as a protest in 1972 against the federal government’s refusal to acknowledge land rights. It is now the world’s longest continuing protest.

Students also organised a protest against the deregulation and fees hikes at universities across Australia.

A Free West Papua action was organised within the week of the conference outside the Indonesian embassy after workshops on the topic decided to do a snap action.

Every year after the conference, ASEN organises a road-trip to a rural or regional area to support an environment protest. This year, the road-trip was to the Leard State Forest, which is threatened by a mine expansion.

Three recent victories for the green movement gave the conference a jubilant atmosphere. Anti-nuclear campaigners put a stop to a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty station in the Northern Territory, the Bentley community forced Metgasco to stop a coal seam gas project, and activist Natalie Lowry was freed from a Malaysian jail after being arrested for protesting against Lynas.

Lowry took part in an anti-nuclear workshop via Skype and received prolonged cheers from attendees.

At the end of the conference participants left inspired to continue the struggle into the next year and beyond for a just and sustainable future.

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