Academics targeted for backing free speech campaign

Academics are the latest to be targeted by an increasingly rabid campaign against free speech and left wing activism on university campuses. Nearly 100 (from 19 different tertiary institutions) who publicly opposed the deregistration of the Monash Socialist Alternative Club have been peppered with emails from Zionist student bodies accusing them of supporting anti-Semitism.

The academics in question have signed an open letter titled “Defend Free Speech – Reinstate the Monash Socialist Alternative Club”. The letter says, in part: “The decision [to deregister the Monash club] was made four days after the federal education minister Christopher Pyne wrote an article in the Australian, calling on universities to clamp down on Socialist Alternative student clubs because of their promotion of “radical” ideas.

“This represents an attempt to silence the students who have been at the heart of the campaign against the Liberals’ unpopular budget and, in particular, their attacks on higher education.”

Shortly after the letter and list of supporters was made public, signatories reported receiving emails which labelled their support for the club “highly offensive”, akin to support for religious discrimination and serving to “alienate Jewish students”. In what was clearly a coordinated campaign of harassment, many reported receiving similar emails from three ostensibly separate parties within an hour. Some continued to receive emails even after they asked for contact to cease.

Unsurprisingly, one of the emails was sent by Matthew Lesh, spokesperson for the young Liberals (Australian Liberal Students’ Federation) as well as the Australian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS). Another came from a Monash University student associated with the AUJS Monash campus affiliate club.

Shamefully, others were sent by Monash Student Association office bearers Amy Fitzgerald and Andrew Day. Fitzgerald and Day used the MSA logo in their emails, giving the slanderous and malicious campaign the appearance of having the imprimatur of the student association when it did not.

Daniel Taylor, president of the Monash Socialist Alternative club, described the emails as outrageous. “This is clearly an attempt to intimidate the many academics who have stood up for free speech and our right to organise on campus.”

As a Jewish student, Taylor said, the lies about anti-Semitism are “particularly infuriating”. “AUJS has no claim to speak for all Jewish students”, he said. “I’m disgusted by its tactics and the campaign against left wing activists.”

To see the full list of signatories and add your name please visit: www.facebook.com/pages/Defend-Free-Speech-at-Monash.