Across the country yesterday, students walked out of their schoolrooms and lecture halls and flooded into the streets to protest against Pauline Hanson and her far-right political project.
As many as 4,000 marched in Sydney. Two thousand in Perth and Adelaide and 1,000 in Brisbane. In Canberra, 500 students protested at the Australian National University campus and 200 turned out in Wollongong. High schoolers spontaneously organised protests in Shoalhaven, Lismore, and Albury. In Melbourne, where I was, the march was colossal—about 5,000 people—and the mood was absolutely electric.
The chants rang out with righteous rage: “Too young to protest? We call bullshit!” and “High school, uni, teachers too; Pauline Hanson, we’re coming for you!” Undoubtedly the most popular was a two-word refrain: “Fuck Pauline!” Sometimes less is more.
The homemade placards were funny and indignant and withering. “I love naps but I stay woke”. “Still got a better attendance rate than Hanson”. “Orange is the new evil”. On the ground I spotted a papier-mache Hanson head that, from the looks of it, had had a run-in with a few too many shiny black shoes.
Anyone over the age of 25 knows what it’s like to be roasted by teenagers. Gen Z sarcasm is one of the most devastating weapons humankind has ever known. So just try to imagine how Hanson must be feeling right now.
All she could muster as a response was a post on X: “If you want to protest something, protest why your parents’ wages are going backwards and the cost of everything is going up ... Whether you know it or not, One Nation and I are fighting for you”. Please don’t hurt me, kids, I’m actually on your side! Pathetic.
The students were protesting against the increasing entrenchment of far-right politics in Australia being spearheaded by Hanson and One Nation. It’s clear to them that Hanson’s reactionary agenda only serves the big end of town. It’s not just Gina Rinehart: more and more wealthy backers are swinging in behind One Nation.
Hanson’s project to demonise migrants and attack the rights of women and workers helps to prop up a society where the few rule over the many. Odessa, a High School Anti-Capitalists member from Huntingtower, hit the nail on the head in her speech: “We know she’s a servant for the wealthy”.
At the same time, the mainstream parties have ceded more and more ground to One Nation. The Liberals are doing their level best to rebrand as One Nation in neckties. Labor politicians are planning to announce substantial cuts to migration. They too want to run a system based on extreme wealth inequality, hard borders and minority rule, so we cannot count on them to stand up to the far right.
One Nation’s rise is part of a broader global shift in politics. Aero, an international student at RMIT and member of Socialist Alternative, spoke about President Javier Milei in Argentina, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Italy, Nigel Farage in the UK and Donald Trump in America. Students know what’s going on abroad and know it needs to be fought. “Australia does not need our own orange clown”, read one placard.
Around the world, capitalism has less and less to offer people but wage cuts and declining living standards. As governments pour more and more money into war preparations, welfare and social spending are being slashed. The far-right’s authoritarian politics, their championing of social hierarchy and oppression—it all fits the bill for our rulers.
In the middle of the State Library forecourt, the haughty statue of Supreme Court judge and first chancellor of Melbourne University Redmond Barry became a rostrum for unruly teens calling out “Pauline Hanson is a fascist!” Old Redmond would have had a fit. The other two statues outside the State Library—St George slaying a dragon on one side and a triumphant Joan of Arc on the other—seemed a little more the vibe of the day.
This was a protest of students from schools and universities across the country, but the high schoolers were the heroes of the day. I spoke to students from Melbourne High who reckoned there were 40 of them marching. Another 50 from both Northcote High and Coburg High. There were thousands more, including students from as far away as Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo. Sixty schools were represented at the Sydney rally. In Perth, rally organisers say students from 120 different schools contacted them about joining the strike.
Plenty of high schoolers had to fight for their right to even be there in the first place. I’m reliably informed that a Canberra vice-principal tried to stop students from getting on a bus taking them to the protest. But I’m also reliably informed that said vice-principal failed miserably.
I’m told one inner-city Sydney school locked the gates to keep students away from the strike. But I’m also told that the students at that inner-city Sydney school are quite handy climbers. Top marks for problem-solving skills.
A very honourable mention is owed to the students at a Brisbane school who couldn’t get over their locked school gate so had to dig under it. People like that are the kind of people who change the world.
Judging from the numbers, this student strike was even bigger than the nationwide high school walkout against Hanson in 1998, when she first came to prominence. In Melbourne, the Guardian interviewed a man who was part of that walkout nearly 30 years ago. He was at the strike yesterday with his 13-year-old daughter Charlie.
“I think that everyone should have the same rights and everyone should be able to be treated the same way”, Charlie told the Guardian. That’s a pretty straightforward idea—and absolutely right—but it’s one that every institution of capitalism (including the education system) tries to convince us can and will never happen.
At universities and in high schools, this nationwide strike was organised from start to finish by socialists. We think a world of genuine equality—without oppression and exploitation—is possible and necessary.
There’s a power in collective resistance and solidarity that, if only it can be organised, could flush away Hanson and her ilk into history’s septic tank. Yesterday, students pointed the way forward. The “kids” are more than all right—they’re schooling us all.
