By Keara Courtney
SYDNEY — Adair "Bear" Durie, elected president of the Sydney University Students' Representative Council last year on the conservative Students First ticket, has been removed by an electoral appeal.
Late last year, an appeal against defamatory material distributed during the election by Students First led to Durie's removal from his positions as SRC general representative and National Union of Students delegate.
On March 10, Durie was disqualified from the presidency because he exceeded the SRC constitution's strict election campaign spending limits and distributed beer without a liquor licence.
Since then, Students First has disrupted SRC meetings to discuss the appointment of an acting president and the by-election which has been ordered.
SRC vice-president and Resistance member Marina Carman told Green Left Weekly: "While it is good to have a left-wing acting president — Louise Buchanan — until the by-election, electoral appeals are not the best way for the left to combat the right wing on campus.
"Students First bases itself on student apathy and conservatism. It argues that the SRC should be an 'apolitical body' which 'represents' students, rather than fighting for students' rights. But university life isn't hermetically sealed from the rest of society. Most threats to students' rights — racism, sexism and government funding cuts, for example — don't start or stop at university gates. If the SRC separates 'student' issues from 'external' issues, its ability to defend all students' rights will be extremely limited."
Carman explained that Resistance has been part of exposing the politics of Students First through debates in the student newspaper and in the SRC. "But if we are going to win the fight against the right", she says, "Resistance and the rest of the SRC left have to continue building active campaigns for students' rights which involve more students."