- by Denis Doherty
- The Guardian
- Issue #2115
A meeting of the campers at Sydney University in April this year.
The City of Sydney branch of the CPA has taken on Sydney University over their changed rules for demonstrating after the experience of the student camp at Sydney University. We, along with the students also object to the connection between the University and the arms corporation Thales. From April to June this year students set up encampments on many Australian University campuses. The Sydney University one was large and long-lasting.
The students were asking why and how SU was assisting Israel in its genocidal acts in Gaza. Arms behemoth Thales makes 155 mm shells at its Benalla plant in Victoria which could be exported to Israel. Thales has a partnership with the University of Sydney and a strong connection to Israeli arms companies. The Faculty of Engineering takes funding from Thales for projects and industry placements.
Acting on reports in the local paper that the University had changed the rules, we wrote to the Students Representative Council and congratulated them on hosting the camp: “We read with alarm a report in the local paper of the new rules covering protests in the University and agree with you that they should not be allowed to proceed and that every effort should be made to reverse the decision.
“University is traditionally a time and place where the young can question and test out issues of the day in relative safety and freedom from excessive harassment by law enforcement.
“The recent campsite at the University was a great act of political activism as it brought attention as to how Sydney University was complicit in the violence that is continuing in Gaza. It is evident that through a previous agreement made between the University of Sydney and the French arms company Thales that the University was complicit in the arms trade and indirectly in supplying weaponry to the Israel and other war fronts such as Ukraine.”
We also wrote to the Vice Chancellor Mark Scott, voicing alarm at the recent draconian restrictions on student protests, and reminding him of the need for openness about university deals with arms companies. We assured him of our support for full funding for education, and pointed out that the military get more funding each year than education.
In replying, the Vice Chancellor rehashed the familiar line that protests should be lawful and not cause any trouble. He did not respond to the issue of the level of funding for the University, or the morality of the presence of arms corporations in Universities. He did not comment on the need for community-wide campaigns to increase funding for education.
