Four days before a rally to demand the resignation of Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, Monash University Malaysia emailed students threatening to take disciplinary action if they were caught attending. The email read:
“You are advised not to participate in any illegal gathering/related activity that contravenes Malaysian laws. Any student found to be participating in such gathering/activity or who is arrested by the authorities for doing so may be subjected to disciplinary proceedings.”
Students at Curtin University, Malaysia, received similar warnings not to attend “illegal gatherings”.
This is a direct attack on students’ right to protest. It is unprecedented for private universities in Malaysia to act on behalf of the government, disciplining students for engaging in political activity.
The email was sent during a broader crackdown by the Malaysian government in the wake of allegations that Razak embezzled up to $1 billion from a state investment fund. Critics of Razak have been jailed, and online media sites that covered the corruption scandal have been blocked.
On 18 November, the chairperson of pro-democracy group Bersih 2.0 was arrested and charged with “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy”. The group was organising the protest to demand Razak’s resignation.
Monash University has come under sustained criticism from students, as well as human rights NGOs and legal groups. It has since published two further statements. The first, issued on 16 November, stated: “The welfare of all our Monash Malaysia students is of paramount importance to us”. The second, issued the following day, apologised only for the university’s supposed lack of clarity and reiterated, “students need to be aware of the consequences of undertaking unlawful activities”.
Neither statement retracts the threat to discipline student protesters.
Monash and Curtin’s intimidation of students expressing political views represents a new authoritarianism on university campuses. The Monash Student Association (Australia) has demanded Monash retract its threat and extended solidarity and support to Malaysian student protesters.

Tess Dimos

Malaysian students threatened by Monash University

The radical left has won a big victory in student union elections at Monash University. The Left Action ticket won all the positions it contested – two positions in the Environment and Social Justice office, one seat on the Monash student council and two delegates to the National Union of Students.
With Left Action having held the Environment and Social Justice office in 2016, Monash has become one of the most progressive student unions in the country. We organised a street occupation for refugee rights in front of the department of immigration and a student protest against a Liberal Party fundraiser, and pushed the union to mobilise students to attend rallies throughout the year.
We’ve held regular forums on political issues ranging from Black Lives Matter to a debate on Capitalism vs. Socialism, which attracted more than 80 students. Our union has provided support for students in Papua New Guinea under attack from police, and workers on strike in Australia. We sent pizza to striking Coles workers and organised the Monash bar to boycott CUB beer after the company sacked 55 workers.
In contrast to other tickets arguing that the National Union’s primary role is to lobby politicians, we campaigned for a union that will mobilise student resistance.
In the recent elections, Left Action won the Environment and Social Justice office by a margin of 70 percent. We received the most support for our campaign to stop the deportation of Monash University academic Dr Biswajit Banik, who was denied permanent residency because his son has autism and was deemed a burden on Australian health services.
Mobilising more than 200 students and staff and getting wide media coverage was crucial to winning the family permanent residency, demonstrating the importance of having socialists in the union and the strategy of involving large numbers of students in activism.
This year, Left Action won two delegates to the National Union of Students by the largest margin yet. We campaigned in the election for a National Union that takes a stand against federal attacks on student rights, and broader political issues including the barbaric treatment of refugees, neoliberal attacks, police violence towards Indigenous people and the oppression of LGBTI people.
In contrast to other tickets arguing that the National Union’s primary role is to lobby politicians, we campaigned for a union that will mobilise student resistance.
Student unions have the potential to be some of the most progressive institutions in Australia. In order to do this, we need socialists elected who will push them in this direction. We look forward to another year of organising progressive activism and creating a space for left wing politics on university campuses.

A win for left at Monash Uni

Labor factions in the National Union of Students are seeking to put significant resources into the 2016 federal election campaign. The goal is to emulate the 2014 We Are Union campaign, which was pivotal to the election of the Victorian Labor government under Daniel Andrews.
We all want to see the back of the Liberal government. The student movement has campaigned hard, and successfully, to defeat its attempt to deregulate higher education.
But there are two problems with the proposal to be part of a broad campaign to elect the ALP.
First, Labor has shown itself to be no friend of students. It was the federal Labor government, when last in office, that tried to push through $2.3 billion worth of cuts to higher education. It currently supports the Liberal proposal to transform a $1,000 biannual government scholarship for impoverished students into a loan, adding to the already massive debt burden of students.
Second, the Victorian model on which the proposed campaign is based has not delivered for the people it was supposed to. Up to 5,000 rank and file unionists and union organisers mobilised to door-knock marginal seats, volunteer on phone trees and campaign against the anti-worker incumbent Liberal government.
Labor’s campaign put workers at the forefront. But premier Andrews’ record in office has not been true to the efforts of those who put him there. In particular, he has refused to come good on his promises to the United Firefighters Union, which made up a large part of the campaign. Victorian UFU state secretary Peter Marshall explained to Red Flag:
“Seven hundred and twenty firefighters were on polling booths on election day. Picking 12 marginal seats, they door-knocked 43,000 homes, they were involved in 23 door-knocks on top of those that Trades Hall Council organised … They put massive resources into changing the government here in Victoria to get a better deal, and they’re being sadly let down.”
Andrews promised to end the Liberals’ war on firefighters. However, the UFU has been locked in a dispute with the state government, which is attempting to make savings in infrastructure and training that could significantly compromise firefighters’ safety, while simultaneously slandering the UFU in the press for making “unrealistic” demands.
Victorian firefighters have gone for more than two years and eight months without a new EBA, seeking one that doesn’t undermine safety or refuse a decent wage increase. Marshall explains, “Daniel Andrews, 11 days before he became premier, told the firefighters that he valued, honoured and respected the work that the firefighters did and would make sure that happened. But the reality is that he hasn’t.
“The Andrews government’s prior election commitments and promises of bargaining in good faith, respecting, valuing and honouring the work that firefighters do, were no more than political rhetoric for the sole purpose of getting elected.”
Despite this, the NUS proposal lists “important legislation for firefighters” as a key outcome of the state election, claiming this as a reason to repeat such a campaign federally. In reality, as Marshall argues, the treatment of firefighters has been “a disgraceful exercise”.
NUS must learn from the experience of the UFU, whose members ultimately were betrayed. Students should not think that we won’t also be tossed aside if Labor is elected.
Running a federal election campaign that all but calls for a vote for Labor will undermine the ability of NUS to defend the rights of university students by taking resources away from building an active and independent campaign – the very thing that is needed to rebuild the student movement.

Students should not become foot soldiers for the ALP

About 50 furnishing workers arrived at Canterbury Windows and Doors on 28 May to find that management had locked them out of the Clayton South factory where they work. The workers, members of the CFMEU, are in a dispute with management about terms of a new enterprise agreement.
The two-day lockout notices were issued after workers voted to reject an “insulting” wage offer of 1 percent extra a year (up from 0 percent at the start of bargaining). A week earlier, the workers stopped work for two hours in protest at management’s hardline approach.
The shop floor at Canterbury Windows and Doors is fully unionised, and the workers said they won’t allow the company to starve them into submission. In response to the lockout, the union set up a picket line with union flags, deck chairs and a barbecue, important symbols of the workers’ determination to stay. Management could be seen peering out at the picket from their offices.
Speaking to Red Flag, CFMEU organiser Colin Vernon said the workers were proud to stay at the job site rather than spending the two days off at home. “The company is trying to break their resolve”, he said. 
All of the workers Red Flag spoke to said this was the first time they have been involved in industrial action. Most had worked at Canterbury Windows and Doors for years and argued that they had better pay, conditions and safety standards because of the strong union presence at the site. In past bargaining rounds, management had generally made a “reasonable” offer on wages.
This is the first time workers have been asked to take a pay cut in real terms. They say they won’t accept it.

Malaysian students threatened by Monash University

A win for left at Monash Uni

Students should not become foot soldiers for the ALP

Furnishing workers reject pay cut

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