By Alex Robinson
PERTH — Guild elections were held at the University of WA, September 7-10. The broad left ticket, Activate, won the positions of women's officer and environment officer.
Most positions, including guild president, were won by the apolitical incumbents' team, STAR (Student Team About Results).
Around 2200 students, 12-15% of UWA students, voted. The primary vote for the three main tickets was 900 for STAR, 600 for Spirit and 500 for Activate.
All the tickets, including Activate, attempted to appeal to "ordinary students", who supposedly have no interest in political activism.
Members of the socialist group Resistance participated in the Activate ticket in an attempt to unite the left at UWA and reach out to as many students as possible. Most other Activate participants believed this could only be done by downplaying left policies and undemocratic means were used to marginalise the ideas and initiatives of Resistance members.
Campaign publicity was produced by two people, with no input from the rest of the ticket. Photos of candidates were substituted with silly cartoons. Trisha Reimers, Activate's candidate for women's officer and a Resistance member, had her photo replaced with a picture of a doll that resembled Barbie.
These shenanigans reached the height of absurdity when a "secret" preference deal was done, without consultation with Resistance activists, to encourage students to vote for a Funky Squad (Labor left-aligned National Organisation of Labor Students) candidate before the Activate candidates.
Reimers was elected women's officer with 560 votes, to the next candidate's 420 votes. This was a major victory for feminism on campus. A prominent women's rights activist, Reimers was seen by students as a real alternative to the clique that has been operating the UWA Women's Department this year.
Reimers told Green Left Weekly she plans to use the resources of the Women's Department to get more women involved in feminist campaigns.
Other positions won by the Activate ticket were environment officer (Julie Fielder) and guild councillors (Giovanni Torre, Juliana Koh).