Free speech under attack at UWA
Last Saturday I prepared to give a speech about political censorship to a peaceful Perth protest against Israel’s massacre in Gaza. Barely were the words “Israel’s supporters are determined to silence criticism” out of my mouth, when a supporter of Israel lumbered towards me, shoving protesters out of the way. “You’re full of shit!” he shouted repeatedly, as he attempted to wrench the megaphone from my hands. The timing was impeccable.
As Israel’s actions become harder to justify, its supporters are moved to greater lengths to silence criticism. The previous week WA Police blocked us from marching to the end of the mall.
At the University of Western Australia, Socialist Alternative has come under sustained attack for our opposition to Israeli war crimes.
The UWA Socialist Alternative Club had decided to hold a meeting entitled “Why Israel is a terrorist state”. After initially approving the meeting poster, the Student Guild sent an email suggesting that we change the title to “something like ‘Meeting to discuss the Israel-Palestine conflict’.”
On the day of the meeting, we received another email informing us that all posters advertising the meeting had been removed from Guild property.
The Guild has previously approved – and defended –posters featuring former members of the Israeli Defence Force, the organisation which has just killed more than 1,900 Palestinians.
Not content with silencing discussions about Israel’s war crimes, the Guild has embarked on a witch-hunt against Socialist Alternative that would make Joe McCarthy proud. On 13 August, we received an email from the Guild secretary informing us that our “club privileges” had been “suspended”. Those “privileges” include our right to put up posters in Guild areas, access funding and hire Guild rooms to hold meetings. These actions are in blatant violation of the Guild’s regulations.
The allegations justifying these measures are a mixture of right wing opinion (“a student taking offence at the UWA Socialist Alternative Club’s t-shirts with ‘F*** Tony Abbott’ printed”), vague and unsubstantiated insinuation (“general reports of confrontational and aggressive behaviour”) and blatant lies.
Included as evidence is the poster entitled “Why Israel is a Terrorist State”, which was approved by the Student Guild. Other gems include an accusation of “swearing” made 18 months after the alleged act. Anything resembling a court would throw out these charges. Yet the Student Guild has seen fit to judge us guilty before an investigation has even begun.
These are not the only instances of pro-Palestine sentiment being silenced on campus. A Muslim student informed us that a poster for the UWA Muslim Students Association’s Barbeque for Gaza, which was raising money for charity, was taken down by campus security. The student was told by security that complaints had been received about the poster and that it had been deemed “offensive”.
When the student challenged security, they were asked for their student number and told that it was the job of security to take down anything the vice chancellor didn’t like. Socialist Alternative’s information stalls have also been harassed by campus security, one of whom is a former member of the Israeli Defence Force.
This censorship comes at a time when students should be banding together against the Liberal government’s attacks on higher education. We were dismayed to find that not only pro-Palestine posters, but also posters for the 20 August National Day of Action against the Liberals’ higher education cuts, were systematically taken down from the Guild precinct on 14 August.
If we have any chance of defeating the Liberals, student guilds need to put their time into organising a fightback, rather than silencing student activists.
