PARTISAN!

Nathan Kats discusses the student struggle at the University of Melbourne in solidarity with Palestine.

---

On a miserable Wednesday morning, comrades marched in solidarity with students facing persecution for their involved in University divestment campaigns. We were forced into action because of the University of Melbourne’s bread-breaking with war criminals. Whilst they profit from genocide, students are dragged away from their studies and hauled into kangaroo courts.

The crime of allying with those who gleefully massacre Palestinians is seemingly lesser than the crime of peacefully protesting. Although the fact a liberal an institution would side with a profitable genocide over the will of its students and basic morality is hardly surprising.

The outcome for this persecution remains to be seen. Any severe punishment to the students risks stirring up further agitation. Investigations into the University’s potentially illegal surveillance of students has begun. And, whilst media may not care 200,000 killed Palestinians. They do care about the 21 students attending the University.

In my mind, the most important revelation to come from this is that of the criticality of unions to the student movement. I was involved within the movement shortly after the encampment began and stayed involved until after the sit in at Mahmoud’s hall. After this, I’ve participated in various other forms of opposition to Australia’s support of genocide, such as disrupting the Victorian budget hearing, picketing weapons manufactures, leafleting and disrupting Jerry Seinfeld’s comedy show in Melbourne. I’m bring this up not to brag or show off but instead give credence to my next statement.

The movement for Palestinian liberation would not have gotten nearly as far as it has without the support and comradeship from Unionists. When police threatened us at the University, it was the Unionists for Palestine (U4P) that showed up in force to aid us, when we pickett, it is the unionists that stand shoulder to shoulder in the face of police brutality, and when students faced persecution it was the Teachers Union and Student Union that showed up in force to support them. This is, of course, not a diminishment of the work that groups other than Unionists have accomplished, community support has been critical and other organisations have put in work that cannot be thanked enough.

We do not yet know the outcome of the persecution but we do know that this movement has been given air by unions and the community. It is the mass movement of working class people that hold the keys to power and there exists not a single person who is to be cowed or deterred by this persecution. We need to be organised, we need militant unions and socialists fighting together, a workers’ intifada is building and we have a world to win.