Appeal against Socialist Alternative ban defeated
LEFTIST group the Socialist Alternative (SA), which was deregistered at Monash University for discriminating against Jewish students, has had its ban upheld at a recent meeting of the Monash Clubs and Societies Council (MCSC).
LEFTIST group the Socialist Alternative (SA), which was deregistered at Monash University for discriminating against Jewish students, has had its ban upheld at a recent meeting of the Monash Clubs and Societies Council (MCSC).
The group appealed the ban, handed down last month, but was comprehensively defeated, with 90 members against the motion, five for and 10 abstaining. Every club and society at Monash is a member of the MCSC, and each gets a single vote.
The ban was handed down after the group refused entry to a Jewish student at one of its functions and means it can no longer book venues at the university or receive any student funds. It is also barred from running a stall at O-week and is unable to have its status as a university club reinstated for 12 months.
The appeal came just days after the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) hit out at academics who signed an open letter calling for SA to be reinstated and describing the ban as “the most serious attack yet in a nationwide campaign to stifle free speech on university campuses”.
AUJS political affairs director Matthew Lesh welcomed “the overwhelming rejection of the spread of hate and discrimination on campus by Monash Clubs and Societies”.
“The decision by Monash Clubs and Societies Council comes after years of abuse, harassment, and intimidation by members of the Socialist Alternative against Jewish students,” Lesh added.
“This deregistration sends a strong signal to all those who wish to attack Jewish students, or any students of a racial, ethnic or religious minority, that it is simply not acceptable.”
B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich commended the MCSC for “dismissing this appeal and for continuing to show their determination to confront the troubling phenomenon of campus anti-Semitism and for speaking out against any conduct that breeds discord and discrimination against Jewish students.”
ADAM KAMIEN
Socialist Alternative protestors taking part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in July. Photo: AAP Image/Newzulu/Mitchell Burke
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