2nd NDA Against VSU : Melbourne Indymedia

1,500 students attended the second anti VSU National Day of Action rally in Melbourne on August 10th, according to estimates from The Age. This is considerably less than at the rally in April. The initially freezing Melbourne weather could well be to blame. Weather reports might have even scared some away, as there were warnings of snow!

The rally began at the steps of the State Library, with a variety of speakers, then marched to the Liberal Party headquarters on Exhibition Street, just off Little Collins Street. A few protestors expressed their anger at the Liberal Party responsible for the anti-student organisation legislation, with harmless paint bombs. While a few coppers got a bit blue in the face (with paint splashes) the action did not really hurt anybody, it would seem.

Terminating at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets, the demonstrators paused to lay out an agenda for the continuing campaign. Amongst the motions that were unanimously agreed to (as indicated by waves of shouting, clapping and hooting) were to continue to build this campaign on the campuses, to continue to stand out against any form of VSU, and to launch another NDA very soon.

On a sour note, it is worth mentioning that as with April's rally, a paltry group of about 10 pro-VSU Liberal Student demonstrators enjoyed favour in TV news coverage not justified by their comparatively insignificant numbers. Several cameras were poised on them as they awaited the arrival of the immensely larger anti-VSU group marching towards their post at the corner of Bourke and Exhibition Streets. Yet according to some eye-witnesses, no such TV coverage seemed to be targeted at the actual rally at all. This amounts to considerable evidence of skewed and biased information gathering on behalf of our news media.

Another potential analysis of journalists' actions here could be that most started at the rally, then quickly assembled near the Liberal student demonstrators, awaiting the next 'event' in the narrative. Anyone witnessing or partaking in the rally would agree this type of journalistic narrative construction is just as misleading as the former imbalance in coverage alternatively proposed.

Nevertheless, as demonstrators dispersed at the end of the rally near the steps of Flinders Street station, there were resounding cheers and applause as the Channel 7 newscrawl above Young & Jackson contained a reference to the events of the day. It is a shame that it often takes negative protest cliches like 'violent scuffles' in Sydney which provided the headline, before the news institutions decide to run with stories that so many find significant.

The rally was also marred by several aberrant occurrences. A large socialist alternative group seemed to think that listening to the final speaker at the rally in its initial congregation was pointless, and quite rudely began to march, and chant as they began to head down Swanston Street. The speaker was still trying to get his point across. This led to confusion, and a growing trickle of followers, until the speaker rushed through his speech and the consensus became to follow the lead of the red-flag bearing SA contingent. This raises the question of what purpose the SA hoped to serve in so clearly causing division, confusion, and disruption in a demonstration that is meant to be in support of unionism.

Also, at the final congregation one of the last speakers (who may have been the same speaker who was interrupted in the intial rally) was unfortunate enough to have NUS stickers being pithed at him by an onlooker. This led the maligned speaker to get rather embarassed, understandably, and lose his cool.

These two occurrences are the kind of thing that undermine the notions of solidarity, collectivity, and community that unionism is built upon, and these ideals should be those that the campaign against VSU should be upholding. It is a real shame that the actions of a few people did quite a bit to undermine the efforts of everyone else trying to actually make a coherent statement out of our collective demonstration.

Nevertheless, hopefully the third National Day of Action, set for August 25th, will be a more considerable success. There was a push for people to try and bring three friends.

Also, anti-VSU flash mob actions are still being planned. The Melbourne flash mob group has 80+ subscribers currently, and is poised for action. To join, email stopvsu@gmail.com and quote your mobile number if you want text message notification of mob events.

More info: http://au.geocities.com/stop_vsu