Jesse, a 16-year-old high school student, attended the May Day rally in Sydney, held on Sunday, 7 May. It was his first May Day march. “I heard a lot of fuss about it on Twitter from Americans, and all over the world. The May Day march was really exciting!”, he said.
However, administrators at Jesse’s school didn’t agree, handing him a Saturday detention as punishment for his attendance at the annual march to celebrate the achievements of the workers’ movement. The letter to Jesse’s parents outlining his crime read: “Jesse did not attend the May Procession on Sunday 7th May, instead he went to the May Day protest march in the city”. The letter emphasised the gravity of his punishment, and warned that too many Saturday detentions would lead to the reconsideration of Jesse’s enrolment.
The May Procession is an annual event held by the school to celebrate its founder. Having attended the event last year, Jesse described it as a tedious affair, in which a statue of the Virgin Mary is paraded around the school’s quadrangle.
This year, according to the school’s website, students and staff at the May Procession heard from a Catholic educator whose speech was, in part, a nostalgic reflection on his experiences during the 1960s. “In the English speaking western world the anthem of the decade was Bob Dylan’s evocative ballad, The Times They Are A-Changin’ … the mood for change was much more powerful than the resistance … The mood for change was expansive, more desired than decried, and there was explosive energy around it”, he said, before lamenting the absence of a such a mood among young people today.
In light of the keynote speech, the irony of the school’s decision to punish him for attending a protest is not lost on Jesse. In a symbolic act of resistance, Jesse chose to read about the Marxist analysis of oppression during his detention.
“I’ll see if I can get an exemption next year, but even if I don’t I’ll go to May Day anyway. No amount of detention is going to stop me from going to protests”, Jesse said firmly. True to his word, a week later Jesse attended a protest against Scott Morrison in the early hours before school and, on the same day in the evening, the Nakba protest.

Angelica Fernandez

High school student cops detention for attending May Day march

<a name="Editing" id="Editing"></a> Hundreds of students and staff at Sydney University attended a “Halal not Hanson” barbecue on 14 September. The anti-Islamophobia, anti-Hanson event was organised by Students for Palestine, Sydney University Muslim Students’ Association (SUMSA) and the Socialist Alternative club together with the Social Justice department of the Sydney University Student Representative Council.
On offer were halal sausages along with Halal Snack Packs – which have become synonymous with the rejection of Islamophobia in general and Pauline Hanson in particular. Anti-racist messages were scribbled on a large banner while attendees bombarded a Hanson target with water balloons.
“It was great to see multiple groups on campus working together to create a great event that was met with wide support”, said social justice officer Kim Murphy, who chaired the event.
The timing of the barbecue could not have been better. Hanson gave her maiden Senate speech on the same day. It was riddled with poisonous racism, as you would expect. But SUMSA vice president Hasan Tahir told Red Flag that Hanson was symptomatic of a wider problem: “While challenging Hanson’s outspoken views is important, they are a mere reflection of underlying currents of rampant elitist institutionalised Islamophobia”.
The collaboration of the different student clubs at this event points toward the unity needed to combat Islamophobia in Australia. Students can play an important role in fighting against Pauline Hanson and the far right, as well as the racism coming from the government.
<img alt="Hanson BBQ" src="https://cms.redflag.org.au/sites/default/files/inline-images/hanson%20bbq2.jpg" />

High school student cops detention for attending May Day march

Sydney University students say halal not Hanson

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