USyd students protest government inaction on climate
“What we are seeing now is a glimpse of the rest of our lives if we do not act.
May 21, 2021
University of Sydney students joined thousands of Sydneysiders at Town Hall today as part of a major School Strike 4 Climate protest.
The protest demanded no new coal and gas projects, a just transition to climate jobs, 100% publicly owned renewable energy and Indigenous-led land management.
This strike follows the “historic” SRC Student General Meeting organised by the USyd Enviro Collective in April. The University waived academic penalties for students attending the global climate strike.
May Day in Parramatta. Photo: Peter Boyle
Sydney’s May Day march on May 1 highlighted the green ban imposed by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union on the demolition of Willow Grove, a heritage-listed building which the NSW government wants to “move” to make way for the Powerhouse Museum.
Around 3000 trade unionists and supporters took part in the upbeat rally through the city’s streets from Prince Alfred Park to Willow Grove.
Following the welcome to country by a Dharug woman trade union member, speakers addressed a variety of struggles including the need for international solidarity under COVID-19, the resilience of frontline workers and the injustice of wage freezes and austerity. Natalie Lang from the Australian Services Union and Allen Hicks from the Electrical Trades Union criticised the federal government for its complete failure to act on sexual harassment at work.
Student General Meetings: Then and now
Examining the role of student unionism in political action. Sydney University student and anti-apartheid protestor Meredith Burgmann dragged along the ground by police at the Sydney Cricket Ground during the 1971 South African Springboks rugby union tour of Australia. Photograph: News Ltd/Newspix
April 21, 2021
The wind is well and truly back in the sails of the student climate movement. On 28 April, at 4pm, USyd Enviro Collective members and President Swapnik Sanagavarapu will convene the third Student General Meeting in USyd’s history and the first, as
Honi reported, to focus on environmental demands.
The notion of a Student General Meeting (SGM) goes to the core of student democracy and unionism, and this year it presents a powerful opportunity to fight back against the University’s complacency in climate destruction. It marries the sometimes staid bureaucracy of student unions with the very pressing clim
In conversation with Ian Brown, Gamilaraay Next Generation activist honisoit.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from honisoit.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Brown is a Sydney-based Gomeroi activist, from Gamilaraay Next Generation - a grassroots collective of Gomeroi/Gamilaraay youth.
It was formed to fight the first stage of Santos’ disastrous Narrabri Gas Project. It is calling for a halt to the destruction of Gomeroi country and a just transition to publicly-owned renewable energy.
Sarah Ellyard, a nurse and member of the 70,00-strong NSW Nurses and Midwives Association Climate Change Action Reference Group, told the protest that her organisation was opposed to coal seam gas because of the damage it causes to First Nations’ peoples rights and public health.
The protest opposed the federal government’s gas-fired recovery plans, an immediate and just transition away from all fossil fuel projects and for 100% renewable energy.