It’s a sunny afternoon on Sydney University’s picturesque campus. The quadrangle clock tower casts a shadow over dozens of lifeless, blood-soaked bodies. 
These are students who this month took a stand against our university’s ongoing negotiations with far right think-tank the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation. 
In the tradition of anti-war activists of days gone by, we have doused ourselves in red paint and staged a “die in”. It is a visual homage to the less glamorous aspects of Western “civilisation”: genocide, imperialism and war. 
It’s clearly a discomfiting sight for the sons and daughters of the establishment. But it is an effective statement, drawing dozens of students to the spectacle, with many joining in. 
We march through the main thoroughfare of the university, hearing from a diverse array of speakers along the way; international students, Muslims, Indigenous people, university staff and anti-racists. All are rightfully angered by the prospect of the Ramsay Centre having a presence on our campus. 
Greens MP David Shoebridge speaks on academic integrity, and international student Decheng Sun delivers a searing indictment of the degree as a normalisation of white supremacist rhetoric.
The Keep Ramsay Out of USYD campaign has so far been an encouragingly successful one. The centre has been forced to stumble back over many of its initial chauvinistic statements. Vice-chancellor Michael Spence and his management are subject to a degree of scrutiny they did not anticipate and do not enjoy. 
The week before this protest, a forum to discuss the campaign was packed with staff and students. Sociologist Raewyn Connell spoke about the university’s role as a political tool and vehicle for indoctrinating students into the “ideology of empire”. 
Student Representative Council Education Officer Lily Campbell also spoke.
The forum was an important opportunity to raise awareness about the right wing’s offensive on our campuses. Importantly, attendees were given the opportunity to act on this knowledge by protesting the next week.
The march finished outside Spence’s chancellery. Banners and placards carried by the red-splattered crowd reveal the ugly truth that the Ramsay Centre hopes to sanitise and celebrate. 
One placard displays the image of Australian troops in Afghanistan flying a Nazi flag. Another, the chilling photograph of Vietnamese children fleeing a napalm bomb. 
“THIS IS WESTERN CIVILISATION”, the placards declare. It is all that needs to be said.

Maddie Powell

Protesting Sydney University’s Ramsay Centre 

Had you tuned into Channel Seven’s Sunrise at just the right moment on 13 March, for a second you might have thought that right wing commentator Prue MacSween cared about Aboriginal children and the abuse they face at the hands of racist politicians, mining magnates and police officers.
“We can’t have another generation of young Indigenous children being abused in this way”, she said.
Seconds later, MacSween – who previously said she would like to “run over” Yasmin Abdel-Magied for expressing empathy with refugees and victims of Australian imperialism – clarified her intentions.
“Just like the first Stolen Generation who were taken for their wellbeing, we need to do it again”, she said, to thoughtful nods of agreement from Sunrise host Samantha Armytage and radio presenter Ben Davis.
This all-white panel proceeded furiously to agree that Aboriginal children must be saved from rape, abuse and neglect by being taken from their homes and placed with white families.
For the likes of MacSween, Armytage and Davis, “rape, abuse and neglect” seem to be synonyms for “Aboriginal parenting”. But they are words that best describe the treatment that Aboriginal people suffer at the hands of successive racist governments.
The Stolen Generations never ended. More Aboriginal children are taken out of home now than ever. And many Aboriginal kids are already living with white people – often in abusive situations. Last October, a white foster carer was charged with physically abusing a 5-year-old Indigenous girl in her care.
If MacSween wants to fret about the “silent conspiracy” of child abuse, perhaps she should investigate paedophile rings in the Catholic Church, instead of falsified statistics from the Northern Territory Intervention, which considered Aboriginal children co-sleeping with their parents grounds for removal.
Davis pointed out his respect for Warren Mundine, a man “in the ear of prime ministers” and denouncing “PC madness”. It’s almost as if politicians will listen only to the very select Indigenous voices with appropriately right wing views.
Of the hundreds of Aboriginal people who visited Sunrise studios over the subsequent mornings to protest the show’s blatant racism, none will ever be considered a “community leader” by mainstream politics. For daring to demand justice and resist 230 years of genocide, they will be demonised as extremists who don’t speak for “ordinary” Aboriginal people.
There’s a small sense of vindication in the humiliating image of David Koch and Samantha Armytage nervously smiling with stock footage of Martin Place behind them to hide the protests, while their social media team neatly swept any traces of the segment from their official accounts.
But it is not enough. In the words of one protester, “Indigenous people are always scrutinised and accused of dishonesty, while white media outlets continue to deal in lies and racist myths”.

Sunrise host calls for new Stolen Generation

The number of state-run public bus regions in New South Wales is set to reduce to just three in July, following transport minister Andrew Constance’s announcement that inner west bus services will be sold to Transit Systems.
He boasted that the news marked “a great day for people who travel by bus”.
Constance should tell that to the 1,200 State Transit Authority drivers whose jobs, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, will be threatened by this development – almost a third of STA bus drivers face the sack. While Constance has given lip service to job offers and 18-month employment guarantees, the issues with privatisation don’t stop at job security.
Chris Preston, divisional secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, told the Herald that the privatisation will result in fewer stops, fewer buses and longer wait times. “That is exactly what has happened in Newcastle after the government sold off their buses. It will certainly happen here”, he said.
Commuters in Sydney are already angry. Just weeks ago, more than 1,000 people marched in a Fix NSW Transport rally, bringing together 28 community groups concerned about a range of issues. These included the Liberals’ WestConnex development, a road infrastructure project that has resulted in hundreds of western Sydney residents being evicted, and the outlawing of a planned RTBU strike that had garnered major public support.
Greens transport spokesperson Mehreen Faruqi is quoted in the New Daily as saying: “It’s clear [the Liberals] want to run it down … they’re punishing people … for not voting Liberal”.
This is more than just a petty electoral punishment, however. It’s part of a well-established pattern of privatisation, which will be most felt by working class people.

Protesting Sydney University’s Ramsay Centre

Sunrise host calls for new Stolen Generation

Anger as Sydney buses face privatisation

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