{"id":61371,"date":"2013-08-21T06:00:06","date_gmt":"2013-08-21T05:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/sepiysse-challenges-greens-at-education-rallies\/61371\/"},"modified":"2013-08-21T06:00:06","modified_gmt":"2013-08-21T05:00:06","slug":"sepiysse-challenges-greens-at-education-rallies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/sepiysse-challenges-greens-at-education-rallies\/","title":{"rendered":"SEP\/IYSSE challenges Greens at education rallies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u00a0<\/h3>\n

\n By
\n our reporters
\n
21 August 2013
\n <\/h5>\n

Rallies and strikes were held yesterday at universities across Australia to protest the Labor government\u2019s $2.5 billion university funding cuts, announced in April. The \u201cday of action,\u201d however, was organised by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and National Union of Students (NUS) to promote the Greens\u2019 federal election campaign and head off any struggle by students and university staff against the Greens-backed minority Labor government.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Melbourne 1,000 university and high school students and university employees rallied in central Melbourne and marched to the offices of higher education minister Kim Carr, where a large number of police aggressively confronted several students. In Sydney, up to 150 university staff and students briefly rallied at University Technology Sydney (UTS), before marching to Town Hall. At the University of Melbourne and University of Sydney, academic staff took 24-hour strike action over enterprise agreements. About 200 people rallied in Perth and 40 in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

As happened at the previous NUS-NTEU protest organised against the budget cuts (see \u201cUniversity students and staff demonstrate against Labor\u2019s education cuts<\/a>\u201d), the organisers blocked members of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) from speaking, but provided a platform for Greens\u2019 parliamentarians to fraudulently pose as defenders of public education and students\u2019 interests. In Sydney, Greens\u2019 Senator Lee Rhiannon was the featured speaker, in Perth Senator Scott Ludlam addressed the protest, and in Melbourne the Greens\u2019 deputy leader and sole lower house MP Adam Bandt spoke.<\/p>\n

SEP candidates challenged the unions\u2019 promotion of the Greens. In Melbourne, Patrick O\u2019Connor, Senate candidate for Victoria, and other SEP members interjected during Bandt\u2019s speech. The Greens\u2019 MP, who has provided crucial parliamentary support for the minority government over the past three years through the Greens\u2019 de facto coalition agreement with the Labor Party, hypocritically spoke about university education becoming the preserve of those who could afford to pay for it. He called for increased university and education funding, and advocated lifting the rate of Youth Allowance for university students. O\u2019Connor called out: \u201cYou have voted for every budget brought down by this government\u2013you voted for the cuts!\u201d<\/p>\n

Bandt made no attempt to reply, and went on to claim that the campaign being waged by the NUS and NTEU would see the education cuts rescinded in the next budget. \u201cThat\u2019s a lie,\u201d O\u2019Connor responded. \u201cWhy don\u2019t you tell us why you have propped up this government in parliament for the last three years and voted for its budget cuts? What a fraud!\u201d<\/p>\n

A Bandt campaigner challenged O\u2019Connor, objecting that the education cuts were \u201cjust one budget issue\u201d and insisting that it was impermissible to trigger the \u201cfall of the government over one policy issue.\u201d The remarks underscored the Greens\u2019 complicity in the Labor government\u2019s right-wing, pro-business policies, as well as the minor party\u2019s overriding concern to ensure continued \u201cparliamentary stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SEP\u2019s challenge to Bandt\u2019s posturing clearly worried the union organisers of the rally. NTEU Jeannie Rea national president spoke after the Greens\u2019 MP and declared that students and academic staff \u201ccan\u2019t rely on political parties, or governments.\u201d She did not mention the Greens in her remarks, despite her union committing $1 million to back their election campaign. A glossy NTEU leaflet distributed at the rally featured a call to \u201cVote 1 Adam Bandt for Melbourne.\u201d Rea only indirectly urged a Labor-Greens vote by promoting \u201clesser evilism\u201d\u2013she declared that a Liberal-National coalition election victory would mark \u201ca very dangerous situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pseudo-left groups, that have played an important role in providing the Greens with a platform throughout the protests against the university cuts, then intervened. Socialist Alternative member Liam Ward spoke from the platform, introduced as a \u201cradical NTEU member.\u201d He effectively covered up for Bandt by resorting to \u201cno politics\u201d demagogy. \u201cI am not going to bore you with points about legislation,\u201d he declared in his brief remarks, \u201cI\u2019m not going to tell you about [election] preference deals or economics. I\u2019m just going to tell you one thing, tell you clear\u2013four words\u2013we have had enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

The desperation of the NTEU and NUS, backed by the pseudo-left organisations, to prevent any critical assessment of the Greens and their own collaboration with the Labor government was also on display in Sydney.<\/p>\n

SEP Senate candidate and IYSSE coordinator Zac Hambides was blocked from speaking by Omar Hassan of the NUS, also a Socialist Alternative member, and Genevieve Kelly, New South Wales secretary of the NTEU. Hassan declared that Hambides had not been involved in the campaign against the cuts and so would not be allowed to speak. An SEP member objected to this political censorship, with the NTEU providing a platform to promote the Greens, and by extension the Labor government. \u201cThey\u2019re not doing a perfect job, but they\u2019re actually involved in the campaign,\u201d Hassan replied.<\/p>\n

The rally was then addressed by the Greens\u2019 Lee Rhiannon and NTEU general secretary Grahame McCulloch, who stated: \u201cWhile we condemn the Labor Party for these cuts, be under no illusion as we face a federal election that if Tony Abbott wins government, and particularly if he wins control of the Senate, the scale of the cuts and the burden that will be borne by students will be deeper again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speakers from the NUS limited their remarks to demagogic sloganeering and chants.<\/p>\n

SEP and IYSSE members distributed a statement<\/a> at each event across Australia, calling on students and university staff to support the SEP\u2019s election campaign and take up the fight to unify the working class on a socialist program, as the only viable perspective for the defence of public education. \u201cThe International Youth and Students for Social Equality insists that it is impossible to wage any genuine struggle in defence of public education outside of a complete break with the unions and the formation of rank-and-file committees that will unite staff and students and turn to other layers of the working class, on the basis of a political fight for a workers\u2019 government and socialist policies,\u201d the statement explained.<\/p>\n

WSWS reporters interviewed several people attending the rallies in Melbourne and Sydney.<\/p>\n

Sagar<\/strong>, a political philosophy researcher at the University of Melbourne, said he was concerned about the high levels of staff casualisation. \u201cI received a research grant from an external organisation but the grant is provided to the university,\u201d he explained. \u201cAlthough it\u2019s for three years, I have no formal contract but go from timesheet to timesheet. The university could choose at any time to get rid of me and use the grant funding for someone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of teaching done by casual sessional staff, because it\u2019s cheaper. There\u2019s no money made available for permanent lecturing positions. Instead sessional staff are hired for short periods to do the same job for less pay\u2026 The attacks on teaching are international. Governments are spending less on education. There is a need for an internationalisation of the struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben<\/strong>, a University of Melbourne PhD student and casual tutor, said: \u201cI\u2019ve worked as a casual tutor since 2005. There are lots of people who do a few hours a week and have another job on the side. You used to get paid to go to lectures and for consultations, but now you\u2019re not, so it\u2019s really two hours less pay per week.\u201d He said that few casual staff members were involved in the NTEU\u2019s campaigns. \u201cI went to an NTEU meeting and I was the only casual staff member there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jon<\/strong>, a Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) administrative worker, said, \u201cThere\u2019s been many gradual cuts. I hate the Gonski [secondary school] reforms. Last week they removed funding guarantees for migrant students.\u201d He explained that he was one of few staff members on permanent positions: \u201cI\u2019ve worked there for seven years. It\u2019s really difficult to move across to any other position in education. Every time you find a position, it\u2019s a fixed-term contract or casual. There was one permanent position I applied for recently. Out of two positions, there were 300 applications.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked to comment on the Greens\u2019 backing for Labor\u2019s attacks on education over the past three years, Jon said: \u201cYeah, that [the minority-government deal between Labor and the Greens] wasn\u2019t good. Now the Greens have become quite a conservative force. It\u2019s like with Labor\u2013they\u2019ve become the same as the Liberals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan<\/strong>, a 19-year-old RMIT international studies student, said: \u201cIt\u2019s going to be harder with these cuts. This will be detrimental for future generations. What\u2019s a society without education?\u201d Commenting on the federal election, he added: \u201cI was all for Labor before the cuts and the recent Papua New Guinea refugee policy, but I won\u2019t be voting for a party that\u2019s doing that. I\u2019m not going to vote for either of the two major parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freya<\/strong>, also from RMIT said: \u201cIt\u2019s like the United States or the UK. I don\u2019t know why we want to go down that path. Education is expensive. Big business doesn\u2019t want to pay. It is as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Sydney, Aislyn<\/strong>, a first-year physics student at UTS, said: \u201cI think the cuts are quite atrocious, because it\u2019s cutting everyone\u2019s futures. There\u2019s children out there today who when they see these cuts are going to think, well what\u2019s the point? And for people who are already in this situation and who don\u2019t necessarily have the money to pay for their own education, we\u2019re just going to be kicked out\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the American system, where students end up with huge student loans. At least with HECS [Higher Education Contribution Scheme] we can pay it off when we make a certain amount. In the US, they have to pay it back instantly, so there are students who are working 2-3 jobs on top of their education just to survive and that\u2019s ridiculous\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI can barely afford my own education. I support myself. I live away from my parents and I can barely afford to do so. I do it so I can go to university, even if that means travelling three hours every day to get to university. If these cuts go through that\u2019s it, I\u2019m gone. I\u2019ll have to stop my education and find a full-time entry level job. It\u2019s that simple. I\u2019ve supported myself since I was 14. I got my first job at 14, not because my parents made me, but we were too broke to do anything else. Because we grew up in Mount Druitt, we had no money!\u201d<\/p>\n

Authorised by Nick Beams, 113\/55 Flemington Rd, North Melbourne VIC 3051<\/em><\/p>\n


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…read more<\/a> <\/p>\n

Republished from: World Socialist Web Site<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 By our reporters 21 August 2013 Rallies and strikes were held yesterday at universities across Australia to protest the Labor government\u2019s $2.5 billion university funding cuts, announced in April. The \u201cday of action,\u201d however, was organised by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and National Union of Students (NUS) to promote the Greens\u2019 federal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-61371","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}