This morning at the University of Queensland, hundreds of students protested management’s attacks on our student union. A proposed “transition plan” would result in millions of dollars of students’ money (collected through the Student Services and Amenities Fee) being channelled away from democratically elected student representatives to bureaucrats who answer to the university’s administrators.
This is a huge attack on students’ right to politically organise on campus. Currently, the student union is independent from the university, which gives it the ability to criticise and stand up to the administration when it attacks students. Increasing fees, cutting courses and raising rents on student accommodation are common measures taken by the university to make more money at students’ expense. An independent student union can organise students to oppose attacks like these.
Student unions can also organise campaigns about important political issues students care about, such as supporting Palestine or opposing Pauline Hanson. For example, in 2024, 1,500 students demanded the university cut ties with weapons companies and Israel in a meeting called by the student union. University managers despised this rabble-rousing because it called into question their right to take money from companies facilitating the Gaza genocide. The university views protests like these as harmful to its public image and, therefore, to its ability to do business.
The radical potential of the student union is exactly why the university wants to shut it down. Students standing against injustice and preventing the university from doing whatever it wants is a huge thorn in the side of the university bosses.
Unfortunately, we don’t see the union’s radical potential put into action nearly enough. This is a result of it being dominated by moderate Labor students who want to stay on the good side of management. While students are increasingly squeezed by the cost of living, increasingly indebted to the university and facing a hostile world of far-right maniacs, the union has refused to put up a fight. Years of this passive, moderate leadership have led to the present situation. The university is confident it can get rid of the union because few students even know what it is.
We need to fight to defend the union, but it also needs to be rebuilt into a fighting left-wing body that students know will stand up for them. Today’s protest was the first step in what will be a long campaign to defeat the university’s attacks. Convincing students of the importance of the student union and mobilising them to fight back is the best way the union can defend itself.
