First National Day of Action on anti-VSU Campaign : Melbourne Indymedia

An anti-VSU (Voluntary Student Unionism) rally was held on Thursday, 28th April across many metropolitan and regional centers in Australia.

The Melbourne rally, with reportedly between 3,500 and 5000 attendees, was successful in getting people on the streets to pay attention. Yet as the first National Day of Action organized by the NUS (National Union of Students) and student unions of university campuses across Australia, it is rather disappointing that the mainstream media has largely steered clear of comment on the issue. Self-respecting indymedia readers would agree on the lack of credibility of tabloid publications such as the Herald Sun, notable for its lack of any comment whatsoever in its Friday edition, including editorials and letters. Yet if a campaign against what could be argued as a sure-thing legislation for a majority Liberal House of Reps and Senate in Canberra is to succeed, it needs to be visible in as many sectors as possible. Turgid rags like the Herald Sun cannot be denied their sway in shaping the opinions of the supposed silent majority.

The rally in Melbourne was attended by students and some academic staff from Melbourne University, La Trobe University, RMIT, The Victorian College of the Arts, Swinburne University, Monash University and many other universities (including Deakin students going against the wishes of a politically inert union) as well as contingents from trade unions such as the CFMEU (Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union) and NTEU (National Tertiary Education Industry Union). It began at the State Library at approximately 2PM, where several passionate and well spoken orators representing student and trade unions helped to stir the crowd. Many of the speeches helped to contextualise today’s anti-VSU struggle. They reminded us that it was part of a long and successful history stemming back to the 70s, and a descendant of the unionism influenced by the historical 8 hour working day Labour movement, which was instigated by workers building part of Melbourne University’s grounds in the 19th Century and quickly swept around the globe.

At 3PM approximately, the crowd began to march down Swanson Street, chanting lines such as “You say VSU, we say FUCK YOU.” While perhaps crude and unsophisticated these do well to demonstrate the anger and vitriol inspired by John Howard and Brendan Nelsons’ draconian policy. The march turned up Bourke Street, and was briefly slowed by several of its constituents confusing Parliament House as its natural conclusion, helped in part by a paltry gathering of young Liberal representatives supporting Nelson’s legislation as if he were sent from the heavens. (One ridiculous placard pictured Nelson with a halo). The unfair bias in mainstream media representation was highlighted by the disproportionate number of cameras and boom mikes trained on the miniscule gathering of at most 20 conservative demonstrators in contrast to those trained on the comparatively epic anti-VSU march. Thankfully, led by a creative Victorian College of the Arts float, the human tide was able to find its correct passage down to the Treasury Gardens, where a student union festival kept the vibrant crowd entertained until about 6PM, with performances and a barbeque.

As I was marching with my peers, a Swiss tourist came up to me and asked me what we were marching for. Once I explained it to him he continued on in our march. While the support of a single tourist without any democratic voting rights in our country is perhaps not a huge win, it is a telling anecdote of how protest action on the streets can have a real educational effect on the people out there. I noticed several other passers-by and onlookers being swept up in our rally, and this was really positive. A friend of mine had printed out a really informative and well reasoned flyer which we were able to hand out to many onlookers with "what is this all about" looks on their faces. I am confident that our protest noise and action, coupled with handouts like those my friend and others were giving, will have made a real difference to those people. They are at least more informed than the looks on their faces previously indicated.

The speakers from CFMEU and NTEU who expressed solidarity between their unions and ours, indicated that our fight was their fight. This reminded me that the VSU legislation is symptomatic of a general right-wing, anti-welfare-state, anti-democratic policy that the Liberals have been able to push since little Johnny Howard's coming to power in the mid 90s. It reminded me that there are so many other people that are going to be affected by these policies in the long run. We are going to continue to see a decline in services like Medicare, we have already seen the abolition of ATSIC, and the ABC is continually under threat, with funding cuts every year. The treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in our country is a matter of shame and a real human rights issue. Our fight is symbolic of the fight of so many other people in this country against multitude unfair policies being instigated by Howard and his cronies. It would really help the anti-VSU cause if we could tap into other groups to help us in future rallies, to bolster the message that the trade union reps gave on Thursday: that the students are not the only ones pissed off about VSU!

Approximately 4500 people in Melbourne, 6000 in Sydney, 15000 Australia wide, protested on Thursday. Yet the mainstream media reaction to this has been woefully tepid. It is a disgrace on behalf of rags like the Herald Sun, and socially irresponsible. Yet I am not surprised, as the mainstream media have clearly lost any sense of true journalistic integrity, or any sense that the news is meant to actually reflect what is happening in the real world of the present. They report on our protest as if its some kind of inert thing that just happened without context and give it no sufficient analytical attention. It's as if to say "yeah this happened, but it's not really important". We have to fight against that kind of editorial apathy and/or any hidden agendas it may be masking! More effort needs to be made by us to get the attention of the press.

We were reminded by several speakers on Thursday’s rally, that back in '94, the anti-VSU campaign was a continual, ongoing, and seemingly active crusade. It wasn't just one big protest rally largely ignored by our media. There was a whole series of protests. Now we have opinion pieces like this one in the age titled 'Mild In The Streets' (http://theage.com.au/articles/2005/04/25/1114281482045.html) which goes to lengthy efforts to craft a narrow stereotype of students as apathetic, too comfortable in their fragmented postmodern consumer lifestyles to be bothered participating in activism like in the 70s. This is the kind of hegemonic rhetorical rubbish being peddled by the mainstream news that we have to fight against. We have to invent new and more
creative and original ways of getting people's attention. A huge rally like on Thursday is excellent and invaluable, and I hope we have more like this, only bigger and better. Yet it shouldn't just stop there. We can always do with reminders that we need to do more, and escalate our efforts!

One disturbing element of the Age article, is that Melbourne University’s Union President was paraphrased saying that international students who may disagree with VSU are afraid to protest for fear of violating visa restrictions, and that other students are afraid that being seen in a protest may hurt their future employment prospects. It is irresponsible of the author to publish nonsense comments like that. It just works in a hegemonic way, pushing the supposedly 'common sense' notion that protesting is wrong and unacceptable in straight society, Nevertheless, the Melbourne University’s Union President may have shown real insight into why there are gaps in who is being represented out of our student bodies at protests. There may in fact be a lot of people who are afraid to protest. We need to let these people know that they have a democratic right to protest in a peaceful fashion like we did on Thursday, despite evidence that the government may even want to try and take away that basic liberty.

Every little gesture will help to raise awareness, as we all know. From wearing the campaign T-shirts at every available opportunity both on and off campus, wearing the
campaign badges, talking to students and others at every available opportunity, every little thing can make a difference. These actions, and more, will hopefully mean that future major rallies such as that coming up on May 11 will have more people than Thursday’s first National Day of Action, not less.

In this spirit, I say go out there and make your own protests, no matter how small. Get a bunch of your friends together with some placards, and go to the steps of Parliament House, Federation Square, or Flinders Street Station. Hand out some informative and well-reasoned flyers in simplistic terms, hold up your placards and raise your voices. Climb a tree and tip off someone in the media! Get a large group of friends and march through the city! Hand out flyers on trains and trams and have your own mini-rallies to a captive audience.

Let's all continue to focus on the big protests, and support those with our own individual efforts at the smaller end of the scale. It is both forms of visible street protests that will prove invaluable in raising public awareness, and hopefully convince the mainstream media to pick up this issue in a more serious manner. When that happens, an unstoppable impetus will grow and drive the anti-VSU campaign efforts onward and upward.

I am currently formulating a plan to network students who are interested in protesting using Flash Mobs, and hope to get the support of several student groups. Most people have heard of this admittedly rather been-and-gone phenomenon, which popped up in the last few years, but if not, there is some information available here http://www.flashmob.com/faq.html. There is a wealth of rhetoric supporting the belief that Flash Mobs, or Smart Mobs as their protest/activist counterparts are more commonly known, are useless and downright silly. However, there is also a wealth of rhetoric out there that VSU is a good thing and that its legislation will pass through the houses of parliament unchecked, yet this is exactly what we are fighting. So ignore the negative rhetoric!

Imagine a Smart Mob designed to get the attention of one of the media outlets guilty of treating our issue with little regard, such as the Herald Sun offices in Melbourne. One minute, in the lobby there is typical corporate sterility and stillness. The next, a wave of Smart Mobbers rushes into this privately owned space of propaganda and begin shouting the catch-cry "You ignore VSU, we say FUCK YOU". If they stay there for 5 small minutes, you can imagine the stir it would create. If there were a whole series of these types of mini demonstrations strategically staged in numerous different, yet highly visible and well-populated corporate, governmental and public locations, surely the cumulative effect would be quite awesome.

Keep an eye open on university campuses particularly around Melbourne in the coming week for more information as to how to get involved in anti-VSU Smart Mobs. Please remember, this fight is not just the fight of the students! All those with a social conscience should let their voices be heard.