We need a socialist NUS education officer who’ll stand up for Palestine
There’s a lot the National Union of Students, the peak representative body for tertiary students in Australia, should be fighting for. We are witnessing a genocide in Palestine, a housing crisis that has particularly affected young people, unfolding climate and environmental crises worldwide and the horrifying growth of the far right.
Right now, Labor governments—federally and in most states—are continuing arms shipments to Israel, approving planet-destroying expansions of fossil fuel projects and refusing to cap rents or pour desperately needed funds into public housing. We need the NUS to campaign against governments that have picked the wrong side of every major political question facing students. That means overturning the pact struck by student members of the Labor Party to block Palestine solidarity activists from holding office-bearer positions in the union.
The genocide in Gaza hasn’t ended. In fact, the entrenching of Israel’s occupation of Gaza is underway, and the Israeli military carries out atrocities daily. Some 350 or more Palestinians have been killed since the “ceasefire” was signed. Just last week, two young brothers, 8 and 10 years old, were killed in a drone strike while gathering firewood. The assassination of Fadi and Juma Abu Assi is just one more heart-wrenching reason why the campaign for Palestine needs to continue.
We have a democratic mandate to continue to fight for Palestine. Polling over the last two years has shown a huge increase in the number of people who believe that the Australian government failed to act adequately to prevent Israel’s genocide in Gaza. More than two-thirds of people think Israel should stop its attacks on Gaza. Substantial majorities support Australia stopping all arms trade and agreements with Israel, and allowing peaceful pro-Palestine protests without penalties, according to recent YouGov polling. Young people are significantly more likely than other sections of the population to be critical of the government’s failure to act against the genocide.
Students have an important role to play in fighting for a free Palestine. Universities are up to their necks in the genocide. Every major campus in the country has partnerships with weapons companies and Israeli institutions involved in carrying out the genocide. University managers have spent the last two years implementing new anti-protest laws that restrict free speech, as the people’s inquiry into campus free speech has clearly demonstrated.
Yet Labor students in the NUS are demonstrating that they would prefer, like their fellow Labor members in state and federal governments, that we forget about Gaza. Some of these Labor students claim to oppose the genocide. But the fact that they are willing to defend a right-wing plan to lock Palestine solidarity activists out of union positions, based on their criticisms of the government, tells the real story.
This is why Socialist Alternative is campaigning for the education officer position in the National Union of Students—and it’s why I want to use that position to keep building our history-making movement. The education officer position could be used as a national coordination hub for campaigns to kick weapons companies off our campuses and to pressure our government to cut ties with Israel. If the current deal between the Labor student factions to lock out Palestine solidarity campaigners stands, we know that the union will lead no such campaigns. The failure of Labor students to use their numerous positions to make any serious criticisms of the Albanese government is evidence enough.
It’s impossible to engage with students on the political issues that matter if you aren’t willing to fight the government currently causing the problems. Albanese’s government continues to make weapons deals with Israel, like the $20 million “iron fist” agreement with Elbit Systems this year. There have been at least 68 shipments of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel since October 2023, according to Declassified Australia.
And Foreign Minister Penny Wong recently told Sky News that US President Donald Trump’s disastrous plan for the occupation of Gaza “has been the greatest contribution to peace in the Middle East for a generation or more”. The appalling right-wing positions aren’t limited to the question of Palestine, either. The Labor Party demonstrates the same approach when it comes to questions of ending climate destruction, addressing the housing crisis and adequately funding higher education.
This year, we’ve had a chance to see what we can achieve when steadfast pro-Palestine activists hold offices in the NUS. Students for Palestine activists held the education, queer and vocational education officer positions, and used them to engage and mobilise students in campaigns against weapons ties and Australian complicity in the genocide.
Political institutions like the NUS must be prepared to take controversial and dissenting stands against the prevailing line in the political mainstream. In doing so, they can help give others the confidence to stand with us. We are going to need more of this attitude in a climate of increasing repression on campus and in society more broadly.
We need a national union that’s up to the challenge. The NUS could spend the next year as a cheer squad for the Labor government. Or it could highlight the role our universities are playing in the injustice in Gaza, fight for the rights of students and staff to speak up about Palestine without fear and organise student protest action. This means standing up against the growing far right, which wants to push back movements against racism, and fighting the government, which has backed Israel’s genocide from the start.
