100 signatures reached
To: ANUSA Executive
Democracy and Palestine Activism Under Attack: Reject the ANUSA Governance Review at the OGM!
Publicly condemn the anti-democratic, anti-Palestine activist ANUSA Governance Review report in full.
Why is this important?
The ANU Students Association Governance Review report represents a grave attack on student unionism at ANU. Written by an external consulting agency, in collaboration with university management, and incumbent members of the ANUSA executive, it aims to discipline Palestine activists, strip democracy of the union, and remove politics from our student association – including abolishing activist roles like the Environment Officer.
The report claims that “there had been too much focus on pro-Palestine campaigning over recent months,” and states “it is crucial the president avoids becoming too involved in divisive political campaigns,” as has occurred in the context of what the report calls the “Hamas-Israel war.”
This alone would be enough to oppose the report. We are living through a genocide – the greatest moral question of our generation – and every left-wing, activist institution in society, as student unions are, should dedicate serious time to opposing it. However, attacking Palestine activism is just the thin edge of the wedge in this report, which is about suppressing left-wing politics within ANUSA and undermining its democratic structures.
In the eyes of the report, ANUSA should become a non-political, non-controversial body, led by a president who should be the “CEO of ANUSA”, with the “executive as the primary governing body of ANUSA”. Some of the recommendations include:
- Decision-making power should be removed from the SRC, the only part of the union where ordinary students can move motions, and hold the executive to account (recommendation 1).
- Institute non-elected postgraduate representatives on this executive (rec. 27).
- Restrict the ability of the president to take political stances (rec. 13).
- Abolish the Environment Collective and Environment Officer (rec. 6).
- Abolish the Education Committee, historically the activist collective of the student union (rec. 7), and make the Education Officer into a non-activist, administrative role (rec. 8).
These recommendations were produced in consultation with the Deputy Vice Chancellor of ANU, who has personally brought code of conduct cases against Palestine activists this year. The entire approach fits with university management's aspiration to limit the independence of ANUSA.
It will be brought to a vote at the next Ordinary General Meeting in Week 10, October 16th, 6pm. All students get a vote. We urge any students who oppose these changes to attend and vote.
We, the undersigned, oppose this review, and affirm that ANUSA should be a pro-Palestine, activist, fighting organisation (if you're signing on behalf of a group please put the name of the group in the notes section).