At its largest and most productive meeting of the year, the University of Queensland's Students Campaigning Against Multinationals collective adopted a plan of action to build the M1 blockade of the Brisbane stock exchange on May 1.
On March 19, 25 SCAM activists decided to concentrate on building two major actions in the weeks leading to May 1. The first will be a public debate between the UQ Economic Students Association and SCAM.
With the topic, "Has globalisation benefited the Third World", the debate will be a great opportunity for SCAM to convince other students that there is an alternative to capitalist globalisation and encourage them to mobilise on M1. Weather permitting, the open-air debate will be held at 1pm on March 28 near the student union's main refectory.
SCAM is also building the National Union of Students' national day of action protest on April 5 with the aim of making it a "dress rehearsal" for M1. A peaceful blockade of the UQ administration will take place at 7am. SCAM activists are planning mass leaflet "bombs", chalk-ups, the burning of effigies, stalls and a banner drop from the UQ clock tower.
The NUS day of action seeks to highlight the pro-capitalist trajectory of the UQ university administration, which has welcomed sponsorship from corporations such as Rio Tinto and BHP. SCAM also plans to use April 5 to oppose the chronic overcrowding of lectures and tutorials and to demand that the administration stop its attacks on staff. In a proposed restructure of the biology/chemistry faculty, 20 UQ staff members are to lose their jobs.
The UQ branch of the National Tertiary Education Union has been asked to endorse and participate in the day of action, and to exempt students who attend the April 5 blockade from academic penalty.
Chris Kerr, a member of SCAM and Resistance, told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly that activists on UQ have a busy but exciting period ahead of them before M1. "If M1 is going to be a success, we'll have to pull thousands of students from UQ to blockade the stock exchange", said Kerr. "The SCAM collective will have to be daring, inventive and inspiring. We can't simply try to convince people that corporate tyranny and Third World debt are bad things. We also have to convince students that by coming to M1, they can be part of building a world movement for global justice."
[UQ SCAM meets every Monday, at 2pm, in the Tivey Room. Phone (07) 3831 2644 or email Resistance.]