The most authoritarian campus in the country looks quite nice. The University of Western Australia, situated at the edge of the Swan River in Perth, features Japanese, sunken and Shakespeare gardens, peacocks that strut through the tropical grove, and Romanesque sandstone buildings. 
Yet, far from an idyllic haven of critical inquiry and free debate, UWA managers are turning the place into a sort of Trumpian protectorate. They are imposing a suite of bans and restrictions that undermine progressive activism and free speech on campus—even banning some factual statements—while riding roughshod over clubs and societies in the process. 
The initial rules were announced before first semester began. On 12 February, the student guild and the university sent a joint letter to the Students for Palestine and Socialist Alternative clubs, announcing that putting up posters, handing out leaflets, using chalk on pavements and hanging banners were banned almost everywhere on campus. <a href="https://www.uwa.edu.au/about/leadership-and-governance/integrity-and-standards/conduct-and-integrity#:~:text=In%20doing%20so%2C%20the%20University,the%20Director%20of%20Student%20Life.">Lecture announcements were also forbidden</a>, with a few minor exceptions. 
Many rules were already on the books; the novelty is the move to enforce them. By doing so, university managers outlawed activities fundamental to political activism in one fell swoop. Students have engaged in these activities to promote support for the plebiscite on marriage equality, campaign for a Yes vote in the Voice to Parliament referendum and promote student climate strikes. 
Like any Trump-style offensive, the attack was sweeping and resulted in much collateral damage: the university inadvertently imposed severe restrictions on other clubs and societies that rely on posters, leaflets and lecture announcements to promote their events. 
New rules were also imposed on Students for Palestine and Socialist Alternative clubs. The university informed us that events need approval not just from the student guild but also from campus security and a senior university manager. Applications to hold events must be submitted with at least ten working days’ notice and must include a list of “measures that will be taken to ensure the safety of others” (political discussions now being treated like some fire-throwing festival). 
Ominously, the letters warned that clubs must “refrain from using phrases and slogans that are contrary to the university’s policies”. The university did not initially clarify what specific “phrases and slogans” were questionable. It soon became clear, however, that this was a measure to censor Palestine solidarity speech on campus. 
Students for Palestine organised an event on 19 March, at which activists were going to paint “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” on a banner. The university sent me an email the day before, warning that the slogan was “not a permitted use on UWA Lands”. I didn’t immediately see or respond to the email. So, in a move indicative of the censorious campus atmosphere, the head of security was directed to track me down on campus and deliver a printed copy of the email. The penalty for the banner painting was extreme: the university said that proceeding with it would result in “possible disciplinary proceedings and/or disaffiliation”. 
So while Israel carries out genocide in Gaza, and amid threats of imminent ethnic cleansing and forced displacement coming from far-right Israeli politicians, calling for justice and equal rights for all residents of historic Palestine gets you disciplined, or your club disaffiliated, at UWA. 
At UWA, facts are no defence from discipline. In follow-up correspondence, I inquired about the university’s attitude to the statements “Israel is an apartheid state” and “Israel is carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza”. Lisa Goldacre, director of student life and a senior manager, replied that the “use of these slogans even if objectively true, may still cause harm to others”, and, “if your club makes a particular statement (e.g. in an article, flyer, speech, banner, online post, etc, etc), then the fact that statement may be objectively true does not mean that your club’s use of that statement will not breach UWA Policy”. 
Again, it’s not just the Students for Palestine and Socialist Alternative clubs that are affected. Anyone who organises an event that crosses UWA’s red lines is a target. Palestine is one such red line. 
For example, in May last year, the Muslim Students Association was <a href="https://www.instagram.com/uwamsa/p/C6v3QUwP0dT/?locale=ru&amp;hl=am-et">forced to cancel an event featuring influential speaker Sami Hamdi</a> after the administration refused to approve their room booking. UWA disapproved of the speaker. Similarly, the Palestinian Cultural Society was <a href="https://perthvoiceinteractive.com/2024/10/24/students-claim-uwa-tried-to-block-speaker/">forced to cancel an event</a> featuring renowned author Vijay Prashad after UWA rescheduled their booking to a time that clashed with another of Prashad’s speaking events. 
These attacks are not limited to crackdowns on pro-Palestine speech and activists. They open the door to attacks on free speech in general. 
This was demonstrated at the end of March, when UWA disciplined a student for putting up posters related to freedom of speech. Finn Penter put up half a dozen posters at a monthly meeting of clubs and societies. The posters read: “Free speech is under attack” and “Clubs are under attack.” Penter is an elected student representative on the guild council and a member of the Socialist Alternative club. The university initiated disciplinary action against him for putting up the posters and used CCTV to monitor him. Shockingly, Penter was issued an official reprimand from the university for misconduct.
“No wonder students feel like we’re studying in an Orwellian surveillance state”, Penter said. “There are all these attacks against free speech, and if you speak up about it by, for example, putting up a poster, you get punished. This is extreme overreach, and it shows how insistent UWA is to put an end to activism on campus”. 
These attacks come as the Trump administration cracks down on Palestine solidarity activists in the US. Some have faced <a href="https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2025/04/16/protesters-denounce-abduction-of-another-palestinian-student-activist-by-us-immigration/">abduction</a>, threats of <a href="https://redflag.org.au/article/us-government-kidnaps-palestinian-student-activist">deportation</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/nyregion/columbia-protest-library-occupied.html">arrest</a>. Republican House Majority leader Steve Scalise has spoken about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/18/trump-education-policies">stripping universities of their accreditation</a> if there have been Palestine solidarity protests on their campuses. Columbia University has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-university-college.html">strengthened its campus security and anti-protest restrictions</a>, among other regressive anti-DEI changes, after the Trump administration cut $400 million in its funding. This is an intensified continuation of the crackdown that started last year. 
The attacks on student activism in the US are much more extreme than anything in Australia. But there is a goal that the managers’ offensive at UWA and the Trumpian crackdown on American universities have in common: eradicate progressive activism on campuses. And use a heavy stick to discipline anyone who does not comply.

Alevine Magila

University of WA bans statements that ‘cause harm’, disciplines student for defending free speech

At the end of 2024, the Australian National University announced $250 million in cuts as part of a “Renew ANU” program. According to figures published in the Australian Financial Review, this “renewal” includes $150 million slashed from salaries—the equivalent of 638 full-time jobs.
While hundreds of workers are facing the sack, it has since been revealed that new Vice-Chancellor Genevieve Bell was still taking an undisclosed salary from tech giant Intel well into her first year at ANU—on top of her $1.1 million university pay packet. Also, Canberra MP David Pocock revealed that Bell blew $1.2 million on external consultants to advise on Renew ANU after telling the Senate the university had spent just $50,000.
The fallout has been significant. In an unprecedented move, 800 ANU staff participated in a National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) vote of no confidence in Bell and Chancellor Julie Bishop. An overwhelming 95 percent voted in favour of the no-confidence motion. Bell’s response? To smear the vote as “sexist”.
It’s not just staff pushing back. Students have launched a “No Cuts at ANU” campaign linking staff working conditions to student learning conditions. Forums, rallies and a student strike have been held throughout the first half of 2025. The demands are simple: sack Bell and Bishop, get rid of the Renew ANU project and publicly disclose the university’s financial records.
Bell is one of many university bosses overseeing a national offensive against staff and students. At the University of Canberra, ex-Labor parliamentarian turned Vice-Chancellor Bill Shorten has ditched any pretence of supporting workers by axing 150 staff. Western Sydney University is gutting 400 jobs. The University of Wollongong has cut more than 100 subjects and slashed $21 million from salaries. Monash University is cramming more students into bigger tutorials while slashing staff numbers.
These attacks result from a system that treats education as a business and students and staff as cogs in the machine. With the Albanese government cutting funding and capping international student numbers, universities expect greater uncertainty in their profit margins and are making workers and students pay.
A fightback is underway at the ANU, but it is only the beginning. To defend our education, we need to take on not just vice-chancellors like Bell and Shorten, but the whole rotten system that treats our education like a commodity, and universities like businesses.

Lucy Chapman-Kelly

Fighting course cuts at ANU

Students at the Australian National University in Canberra have defeated an attempt by campus Labor clubs to abolish the environment collective. 
Almost 300 students attended a mass meeting on 26 March, at which the new ANU Students’ Association executive, representing both factions of the ALP student clubs, tried to amend the constitution to create a committee in place of the collective, strip 80 percent of its budget, place the new committee under strict executive oversight and strip students of the right to vote at meetings. 
The pretext for such a brazen assault on environmental activism came from an audit conducted by a consultancy firm last year. The firm, NFP Success, specialises in advising not-for-profit organisations on how to “reach new levels of excellence”. 
Yet student unions are not like other NGOs. Nor should they be. Student unions are activist bodies steeped in a democratic culture and shaped by leading fights for justice. The environment collective has a 50-year history of supporting campaigns such as the anti-war movement when the US and Australia invaded Iraq, the Woomera Detention Centre refugee breakout, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, the climate strikes and the Palestine solidarity movement. 
Auditors like NFP Success have no sympathy for this history, as its recommendations show. While the Gaza Solidarity Encampment was still active last year, its governance review claimed that there had been “too much focus on pro-Palestine campaigning” and argued: “[I]t is crucial the president avoids becoming too involved in divisive political campaigns”. 
The new ANUSA executive has its own reasons for opposing the environment collective. The ALP student clubs are stacked with careerist apparatchiks loyally promoting party policy, such as support for fossil fuel expansion and Israel’s war on Gaza. The consultant’s report provided a pretext for them to go on the offensive. They froze the collective’s funds earlier this year and drafted constitutional changes to abolish it. This semester, they have publicly argued that students can’t be trusted to run the collective. 
Our victory was not guaranteed. The traditions of activist student unionism are not as strong as they used to be. And anti-activist arguments cloaked in legalism can always find an audience on university campuses. The ANUSA executive had the resources of the student union behind it, sending out several official all-student emails. It also had sizeable social networks through which to call in favours. Supporters of the ANUSA executive were even found to be bribing students with offers of free beers in exchange for their votes.
The fightback coalition included Socialist Alternative members, students from the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, the No Cuts at ANU campaign and, of course, members of the environment collective. 
We handed out leaflets around the campus, put up posters, made announcements in lectures, called around stay-in-touch lists and built networks through WhatsApp group chats. 
We only needed 25 percent of the vote to defeat the attack, but we won 42 percent. Importantly, our vote represented students who were won to a vision of left-wing, democratic, activist student unionism. 
Those traditions are more important now than ever as we stare down historic staff cuts, the threat of a rising far right inspired by Donald Trump, and the rolling catastrophes of climate disaster and war.

Nick Reich

How we saved the ANU environment collective

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has put the future of its creative arts programs at risk. The university paused the 2025 undergraduate dance intake to conduct a review, which quickly expanded to include all performing arts courses. The review’s terms of reference note that performing arts degrees are “experiencing fluctuating student demand, attrition and research performance ... amid increased competition and national decline in interest in these study areas”. 
Meanwhile, performing arts students received an email framing the review as a way to “support our commitment to continually improving our courses and to meet student expectations and aspirations”. The reason for the review is likely to justify attacks on QUT students’ right to study specialised degrees.
QUT has been on the attack against performing arts courses and staff conditions since 2021, when it cut the dance performance degree and merged three faculties. QUT sacked up to 1,500 staff during the pandemic due to expected lost profits. In reality, QUT’s annual report recorded a $139.9 million operating surplus in 2021, $17.85 million of which came from reduced “employee-related expenses”. In other words, QUT saved millions through staff cuts and wage freezes.
QUT is the only public university in Queensland to offer specialised degrees in subjects like dance and technical production, which was cut to a minor this year. Cutting the dance degree would mean students in Queensland would be forced to travel interstate or pay for training at expensive private studios.
Staff at QUT are also under threat. After years of transitioning towards prerecorded lectures, bigger class sizes, and with staff squeezed by just ten minutes of paid marking time, QUT has turned its sights on the performing arts staff, too. 
The teachers and the staff who maintain the state-of-the-art facilities are now at risk of redundancies. Dance students are taught at a $60 million facility at the Kelvin Grove campus, which boasts specialised dance studios, black box drama theatres, concert halls and recording studios. Margaret Sheil, QUT’s vice-chancellor, seems willing to throw all of this away to prioritise profit-making. 
University managers are looking at other cost-cutting measures. The QUT Art Museum has had all planned 2025 exhibitions cancelled. There is no better explanation for this than the one provided by Sheil herself at a staff forum last year: “It’s looking at some of the nice-to-do things that had more benefits for the community than QUT”. 
This is the problem with university education being run for profit. For QUT managers, creative arts are “nice-to-do” and good for society but are not big moneymakers. Compare the treatment of the arts to the brand new $7.8 million Space Technology Precinct. There is cash to burn when the university can guarantee large research grants and outside funding.
The cuts are not isolated to QUT; cost-cutting is on the agenda across Australia. The threat posed to performing arts degrees is the canary in the coal mine. They set a precedent for future cuts in other faculties.
Students facing course cuts at any university have a responsibility to stand up. We should not only study whatever we want, regardless of how profitable, but also defend the rights of the staff that facilitate it. 
University education should be free, publicly owned and funded, and run for the benefit of students and society, not for vice-chancellors and administrations to make millions of dollars.

Erin Milne

Queensland University of Technology takes aim at performing arts degrees

A student at the University of Sydney has been threatened with suspension for writing Palestine solidarity statements on a whiteboard using a non-permanent marker. It is the latest of dozens of misconduct charges levelled against activists by the university over the last year.
Luna,* a postgraduate international student, received a notice of misconduct from the academic registrar on 3 February, alleging that she engaged in “inappropriate and unreasonable conduct” by writing the following slogans in January:
USyd invest in weapons manufacturing (Thales, Lockheed Martin), USyd supports genocide in Gaza.
USYD Vice Chancellor Mark Scott supports Gaza Genocide.
From the river to the sea Palestine will be free.
As of 13 January 2025, 46,600+ dead in Gaza. USyd cut ties with genocide.
The university appears to have used CCTV footage and electronic student card tracking to identify Luna.
The Registrar claims that the conduct breaches several university policies, including clauses in the Campus Access Policy introduced at the end of last year in response to the Palestine solidarity campaign. 
In addition to purportedly prejudicing “the good order and government of the university” and “good name or academic standing of the university”, writing on a whiteboard also allegedly constitutes “protest activity on university lands”. Such activity must be “orderly and peaceful”, cannot be held inside any building, and requires 72-hours advance notice to the administration. 
The alleged conduct is also said to be an act of graffiti, which is defined as “the placement of posters, notices, advertisements and similar items” on any area that has not been “designated for official notices” by the university.
Basically, the administration has ruled that students who want to exercise their democratic rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and to protest must organise something that is nothing like a protest using means of communication that prevent any meaningful mass communication. Even writing on a whiteboard is beyond the pale.
The administration has told Luna that she will likely be expelled, suspended or receive a reprimand if she is found guilty of the alleged misconduct. It also warns that “the penalties applied will be more severe [bold in original] in the event that you deny the conduct, which is ultimately found to be substantiated, than if you admit the conduct at this stage”.
This threat—an attempt to pressure Luna not to defend herself against the allegations—is far from empty, given her visa status. As a transgender woman from a country that criminalises and punishes non-binary expressions of gender, she is currently seeking asylum in Australia. For now, she holds a student visa, which means her right to remain in the country depends on her continued enrolment. 
Luna wrote to the university on 24 February asking for more time to respond to the charges. Specifically, she requested an extension until after 21 March (when she will gain a bridging visa) so that she can “assess this matter in a clear-headed fashion without worrying about being deported to danger”. The university refused the request the following day, reaffirming that the “likely penalty if the conduct is admitted at this stage is suspension”.
In its initial misconduct notice, the university insisted that the entire process “must be kept confidential”; otherwise, it “may take disciplinary action”. This clause is ubiquitous in misconduct charges at Sydney University, supposedly to stop victimisation against complainants. It might make sense in cases involving accusations of serious abuse or violence. But it is illegitimate to include the clause in cases where the administration itself levels misconduct charges against activists. One can only assume the intention is to keep the spurious misconduct process opaque and free from external scrutiny. 
After the details of the complaint were made public on 5 March, the university quickly entered crisis management, publishing two responses on its website. The first claimed that the suspension threat was a simple “administrative error” and, finally, granted Luna a time extension to respond. 
The second stated that the administration had contacted Luna, “confirmed the likely penalty range does not include potential suspension” and “apologised”. The university refused to relent following private communication with Luna but quickly backed down (partially—the charges still stand) after being forced to answer publicly for its behaviour. 
This entire case is a farce. Student activism has historically included acts far more rebellious than scrawling solidarity messages on a classroom whiteboard. Sydney University appears determined to wipe out criticism of its dirty deals with weapons manufacturers and suppress support for the Palestinian cause—or at least to extraordinarily limit how such support can be expressed.
* Name has been changed at the student’s request to protect them from retaliation.

Eleanor Morley

Sydney University threatens to suspend student for writing on a whiteboard

The University of Technology Sydney has marked International Women’s Day by banning a poster asking the question: “Why are teenage boys so misogynistic?”. 
The meeting was called to discuss rising sexist attitudes among, and the broader right-wing drift of, young men. Numerous indicators point to this reality, including a recent King’s College London survey showing that young men are far more likely than young women, and even older men, to say that men have it tougher than women today. In the United States, Donald Trump increased his support among young men by 15 percentage points last year compared to the previous election; in Australia, young men support Liberal leader Peter Dutton in much higher numbers than young women. Also, a recent Monash University study found that female teachers are facing a rise in misogynistic behaviour everywhere—and many are quitting the profession because of it. 
One woman who attended the meeting told the audience that in her first-year business tutorial, the tutor had to tell off men in the class because they were rating every woman who spoke in the discussion in the zoom chat.
Most universities have put up posters celebrating women and our contributions to society. But the UTS administration has sided with Andrew Tate and Donald Trump stans. 
UTS was alerted to the poster by at least one male student on campus, who also emailed the UTS Socialist Alternative club complaining that he feels “unwelcome and stereotyped” by the mere presence of a poster advertising a campus meeting about the growth of the far right and its expression in the political attitudes of young men. 
For years, the political right called the left “snowflakes”. People wrote hundreds of books and articles lamenting the “coddling” culture in universities and about how the political left and progressives can’t cope with ideas they don’t agree with. Right-wing provocateurs such as Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson made famous phrases such as “facts don’t care about your feelings”.
How the tide has turned. It seems that young men from the political right, like those at UTS, are now the ones who might start campaigning for safe spaces and trigger warnings. 
The Centre for Social Justice &amp; Inclusion handles complaints relating to sex, gender identity, race and disability discrimination. According to its equity policy, it seeks “diversity, fairness, social justice and ethical treatment of others”. The policy seems to have been written with oppressed groups in mind, so it’s remarkable to see it being used against women on campus. 
The directive to remove the poster is also related to the university fad of introducing policies to protect the “psychosocial safety” of staff and students, which were initially designed to silence Palestine solidarity activists. The feelings and emotions of those in positions of power are being protected while those trying to address injustices face disciplinary hearings. 
A staff member from Activate, which manages campus life, instructed the club to remove the posters during a phone call with Yasmine Johnson, UTS Socialist Alternative club president and the woman who hosted the meeting.
“He said to me, ‘You followed all the correct procedures, but unfortunately you are going to have to take these down. This has gotten around the uni top level very fast—the deputy vice-chancellor, the equity department, everyone knows’”, Johnson recounted to Red Flag. “He even said that the deputy VC instructed that the posters be removed as they violate the UTS equity policy.” 
That university management is worried about some men being distressed because people are discussing sexism tells you something about the political shift that is happening. 
Johnson reported being mobbed by Trump supporters while she handed out leaflets for the meeting. They loudly professed their love for the racist and sexist president of the United States. They were precisely the sort of young men who have been politically drawn to the far right and influenced by the violent misogyny of the sex-trafficker Andrew Tate. They are much more confident to express their bigoted attitudes, which will only become worse as institutions like UTS support them.
By not wanting to trigger any boys on campus who have trouble distinguishing between fact (young men are pretty sexist) and their feelings (a poster made me sad), the UTS administration has silenced the free speech of young women who are trying to fight back against the growth of a global far right.

Anneke Demanuele

University of Technology Sydney stands with boys with big feelings

The People’s Inquiry into Campus Free Speech on Palestine is a grassroots initiative bringing together students, activists, academics and legal experts to assess the state of free speech on Australian university campuses in relation to Palestine. 
The People’s Inquiry has been initiated in response to the worsening climate of repression and censorship of campus-based Palestine activism.

Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi, who is a patron of the People’s Inquiry, announced the launch in a <a href="https://greens.org.au/news/media-release/peoples-inquiry-campus-free-speech-palestine-launches-today">joint statement</a> with members from the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN), the Jewish Council of Australia, Students for Palestine and the National Union of Students. 
“University campuses should be political spaces where students and staff are encouraged to speak out on issues of social, racial and environmental justice, not shut down”, wrote Senator Faruqi in the statement.
“The People’s Inquiry is a critical pushback by and for the people against the suppression of free speech and the criminalisation of solidarity with Palestinians”, APAN wrote. “Advocating for an end to Israel’s decades of oppression of Palestinians is not hate speech—it is a fight for justice and liberation.”
Just as they have in social justice movements of the past, university students have played a prominent role in the Palestine solidarity movement, marching in the streets, organising historic student general meetings and establishing protest encampments. This has, in turn, made university campuses sites of intensifying repression and censorship. Students and staff have found that even expressing support for the Palestinian people can attract threats of disciplinary action. 
The University of Sydney shut down a bake sale fundraiser for Gaza under its draconian Campus Access Policy, introduced in response to last year’s Gaza solidarity encampment. Three students at RMIT were told by the university that their keffiyehs posed a safety risk by provoking “anticipatory anxiety”—whatever that means.
A page on Monash University’s website titled “A proud history” reads: “In the 1970s the foundation campus at Clayton became the centre for student protest in Australia, and this philosophy of challenging the status quo permeated the University”. But nine Monash students who challenged the status quo of their university’s links with weapons companies at the Monash encampment were not even allowed to set foot on a central part of the campus, let alone permeate it. 
The People’s Inquiry aims to shine a light on these concerning attempts to curtail freedom of speech and assembly.
It will convene while the Labor-led joint Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities is piling pressure on universities to restrict political expression and protest activity. For instance, the commission has recommended that universities adopt a definition of antisemitism that “closely aligns” with the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition, which includes calling the state of Israel a “racist endeavour”. On campuses in the United States and United Kingdom, the definition has been used as justification to shut down criticism of Israel and brand it as hate speech. 
Similar scenes have played out in the United States, where university heads were hauled into Congressional committee hearings and grilled over their failure to crack down on pro-Palestine students swiftly and severely enough. Since returning to power, President Donald Trump has launched investigations into antisemitism at five US universities and has called for the deportation of foreign students who participate in pro-Palestine protests.
Students, university staff members and organisations are invited to make submissions via the inquiry’s <a href="https://www.palestineinquiry.com/">website</a>, where more information can be found. In particular, the inquiry is interested in submissions relating to the infringement or restriction of political communication or activity concerning Palestine on university campuses. The panel will include Lama Qasem, executive member of APAN; Professor Linda Briskman of Western Sydney University; and Professor Gill Boehringer, former head of the Law School of Macquarie University. 
James McVicar is the 2025 education officer for the National Union of Students and is a panelist for the People’s Inquiry into Campus Free Speech on Palestine.

James McVicar

People’s Inquiry into Campus Free Speech on Palestine launches

This year has experienced the largest campus mobilisations for Palestine in Australian history. Thousands of students have marched, walked out of class, organised occupations and taken part in mass meetings to demand an end to the horrors we’re witnessing in Gaza. 
We attend classes at universities with direct links to companies profiting from genocide. At times this fact confronts us starkly, for instance University of Queensland students who might, between classes, wander past the Boeing Research and Technology Centre—run by one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers and a major supplier to Israel. Elsewhere, complicity comes in the form of hidden partnerships and investment portfolios. All of this has sparked justified outrage. 
The first major student actions were nationwide walkouts, organised by Students for Palestine. These started in November last year when thousands of high school and university students ditched class to rally in the city. More than 1,000 students occupied Melbourne Central mall, raising Palestinian flags and chanting to demand that the government drop its support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The strikes continued this year in every major city in Australia. Why should students attend class as usual when every school and university in Gaza has been shut down? 
The right-wing media and politicians campaigned vitriolically against us. After the first student strikes, the Daily Telegraph wheeled out a psychologist to tell us that we couldn’t possibly understand what was happening in Gaza: “Young people’s brains aren’t fully developed yet”. The Victorian and NSW premiers told students that if they wanted to understand and change the world, they should stay in school. We didn’t listen. 
Next came the wave of Gaza solidarity encampments. Brave students at Columbia University in New York fought the Biden administration, university management and the police to maintain their encampment. Students for Palestine activists at Sydney University followed suit, pitching tents and sparking a movement that spread across the country. This movement was about the crimes of the Israeli government. But it was also about the crimes of universities that produce the research for weapons companies that arm Israel’s genocide and partner with the Israeli institutions that produce the propaganda required to generate support for it. 
On every campus where an encampment sprung up, there was an outpouring of community support. Fresh meals, snacks and toiletries were never in short supply. But support didn’t come just in the form of provisions. It was also made visible by the many people who mobilised when our camps were under attack. At Monash University, a dozen pro-Israel thugs attacked the camp on the first night. When they returned the next week, 70 supporters turned out to defend the encampment. At Sydney University, a planned pro-Israel rally of 200 right-wingers was met with a Palestine solidarity demonstration of more than 500 people. 
At Deakin University, management demanded that students leave under threat of disciplinary action after only six days. Students held out and kept their encampment going strong until the end of the trimester. At ANU, management called the police on students, who were then surrounded by a human chain of security guards and threatened with mass arrests if they refused to pack up the encampment. Students held an impromptu meeting, deciding to defend their camp and calling out for community support. Solidarity won out—after a long stand-off, the police were forced to retreat. 
The camps sprung up across the world. In Sydney, we woke one morning to find a video of a young boy holding a sign, hand-painted on a piece of cardboard, reading: “Thank you for the students of University of Sydney. Your voice have reached Gaza”.
More university students got involved in the movement for Palestine in semester two, as student general meetings swept the country. Everywhere they happened, hundreds of students turned out to call on their universities to cut ties with weapons companies and Israeli institutions. 
The University of Queensland kicked things off. On the night of the meeting, the registration line stretched across the campus, and by the time the vote was called students had filled two huge lecture theatres. More than 1,500 students voted to support Palestine and demand the university cut ties with the major arms dealer Boeing. When the meeting finished, students marched to the chancellery in what was probably the biggest ever campus demonstration for Palestine. 
Other campuses followed suit. More than 800 students mobilised at Sydney University, and 300 at the University of Western Australia. Two hundred attended at the University of Adelaide despite the right-wing student union’s attempt to stop the meeting altogether. A similarly obstructionist student union leadership couldn’t prevent 600 students from showing up at Melbourne University. On many campuses, students had to defy management’s attempts to stifle organising attempts. At Queensland University of Technology, university administrators called the police, who told activists they would remove from campus anyone who didn’t fit into the official meeting rooms.
The huge numbers at these meetings demonstrated that support for Palestine has grown rapidly over the past year. But we still have a major fight on our hands. 
Universities have cracked down hard on pro-Palestine activism—dozens of students have faced university disciplinary proceedings due to their activism this year. Now, under pressure from the Australian government and Zionist organisations, vice-chancellors are introducing harsh new rules like the campus access policies at Melbourne and Sydney University. These limit free speech on campus by restricting students’ right to organise protests. We now have less freedom of expression at university than we have in the streets. At Sydney University, the recent Hodgkinson External Review, commissioned to determine how to better repress dissent, recommends banning lecture announcements, the displaying of banners and protesting inside. 
The past year has proved that students won’t give up easily. Gaza has shown us the lengths our government and universities will go to shut down opposition to their support for Israel during a genocide. That they feel compelled to repress the student movement shows us that we are having an impact. We won’t stop fighting for Palestine.

Yasmine Johnson

A year of student activism for Palestine

Sydney’s Condell Park High School recently banned a year twelve Palestinian student from his school formal for wearing a keffiyeh to his graduation ceremony. 
On the school’s website, the <a>principal’s message</a> reads: “We are proud of our diverse student population”. So proud that he is disciplining one of those students for displaying an item of immense cultural significance.
In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, the student said he was being punished for “making a political statement in a public school”. The Department of Education that ordered the keffiyeh ban and Condell Park administrators who enforced it are making a political statement of their own—that it’s not acceptable to express solidarity with those suffering a genocide, even if they’re one’s own family and friends. 
The ban caused outrage amongst students and staff at the school. High-schoolers and Uni Students for Palestine, with support from the affected student, called a protest outside Condell Park High on Tuesday, 26 November.
Noura, a Palestinian year twelve student and protest organiser, told Red Flag that she was protesting “to put pressure on the school to demand an apology for the student and let him go to his formal. He’s had to endure watching his family back home experience a genocide. He deserves to go to his formal wearing a keffiyeh”.
A year nine student at the rally said to Red Flag: “It feels amazing to be here! Everyone posted a photo online to say bring the keffiyehs, wear it on your bag. And if you get in trouble, don’t listen to them”. 
Eva, a year twelve student and activist with High School Students for Palestine who spoke at the rally, pointed out, “This is not the first time institutions are repressing support for Palestine. The NSW State Library security removed me for wearing a keffiyeh this year!”
School administrators attempted to deter people from protesting. They pulled students into meetings, and warned staff not to join the rally, ordering that the school would be under lockdown until 6:30pm. The affected student made a point of blaming the Department of Education, not the regular staff or students, who have no say in this and have been intimidated into silence. 
Despite these measures, the students were not cowed. The day before the rally, about a third of all senior school students wore keffiyehs on their bags in protest of the ban. More than 50 Palestine supporters joined the rally; as school finished, students flooded outside wearing keffiyehs and waving Palestinian flags. They held handwritten placards that read: “We all belong” and “Say no to racism”. Students riding the school bus chanted out the windows in support. 
But the Department of Education and Condell Park have doubled down. The affected student prepared a statement for the rally that said he had been told he could attend the formal only if he did not wear the keffiyeh, and that the school refused to apologise. Later, he was told that he must apologise in order to attend the formal (he refused). Dozens of students who wore keffiyehs to the event in solidarity with the student and Palestine had them confiscated at the door or were refused entry. 
Students made it clear that they will not be intimidated. They will continue to wear their keffiyehs with pride and speak up for Palestine.

Gina Elias

Condell Park High School students protest keffiyeh ban

One hundred and thirty-seven staff at the University of Wollongong are facing the sack by Christmas. According to information provided to the National Tertiary Education Union local branch, these sackings are the first of three rounds. To add insult to injury, the union was told that some staff will receive their letters on 20 December. 
On 8 November, students received an email from management announcing that 25 study disciplines were facing cuts under the “UOW Transformation” plan. These cuts are being forced through under the managerial leadership of Interim Vice-Chancellor John Dewar. The former chair of Universities Australia has a notorious track record of slashing jobs and streamlining courses, including sacking hundreds of staff at La Trobe University when the pandemic hit. Dewar also helped implement the “Melbourne model”, in which 96 undergraduate courses were reduced to just six when he was provost of Melbourne University in 2011.
The UOW Transformation plan stipulates that cuts will be made to entire study disciplines, such as cultural studies and human geography. Languages will no longer be offered in 2025, forcing an entire cohort of staff out of a job, and leaving students already enrolled in language courses in the lurch. Additionally, the university plans to reduce subject offerings and jobs in disciplines including history, maths, statistics, physics and engineering. 
These cuts are part of a longer-term plan to overhaul UOW’s degree structure. This overhaul, set to be implemented by 2026, will create a new type of “comprehensive” degree for non-accredited courses. The degree will be more generic and standardised, and follow an 8-8-8 subject structure: all students enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts will be required to study eight of the same core subjects, regardless of their chosen major and minor. This will limit the amount of specialist subjects the university needs to offer at any given time. Disturbingly, the document outlining the restructure flags a potential “no-major option” for degrees. The university is likely to cut professional staff numbers as part of this process, citing that the current degree structure is “complex for UOW staff to administer”. 
These attacks are part of a longer-term trend in the commodification of degrees and the corporatisation of universities. Scandalously, Dewar is a partner in consultancy firm KordaMentha, the same firm that has been awarded two contracts to advise the UOW in its slash and burn policies. Universities function like any other corporation, primarily interested in raising revenue, undermining staff pay and conditions, and gaining lucrative research partnerships. Citing a loss in revenue of $35 million less than forecast due to lower international student enrolments, management is attacking staff and students to boost margins. 
NTEU members held a rally to protest the cuts on 20 November to coincide with the university’s academic senate hearing. Student activists are planning to fight the cuts into the new year.
Follow @fight_uow_cuts on Instagram to get involved in the campaign.

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