Pelican is doing a get to know the Guild election tickets edition. Next up is Left Action!
By Justine Cerna
Alvin Magila – President
Major/Studies in?
I study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at UWA.
What is your motivation for running this year?
If you look at the state of the world right now, things are pretty bleak. The climate is facing a cataclysmic breakdown. The pandemic has wrought havoc on public health globally. Imperialist tensions are rising. The right to abortion was eliminated in the US. And, of course – there’s a cost of living crisis. I’m an activist. Fighting against these issues and social justice is my bread and butter. And I think bringing more of that focus to the priorities of the Guild is vital.
What policy are you most passionate about?
Our strongest policy approach is to fight for change on and off campus by organising the Guild around left-wing, activist campaigns. These are the only ways we win the big things, be it defending the quality of our education, expanding abortion rights, or anything else. It’s also the best way to really involve masses of ordinary students in the activities of the Guild.
Favourite documentary?
Rocking the Foundations. It’s about a radical construction union in the 70s that took on the bosses and the government to fight, not just for improved conditions and wages – but also for social and environmental issues.
A political figure you admire? (FYI, not limited to Australian politics)
Greta Thunberg is someone who I think would be really interesting to meet. The quality I admire most about her is that she’s not afraid to be rude to politicians or to call out greenwashing and hypocrisy from the people at the top.
General Secretary – Matt Crossen
Major/Studies in?
Political Science and International Relations.
What is your motivation for running this year?
To have a Guild that works in the interests of students as opposed to management and to fight for students on the issues that affect them both on and off campus.
What policy are you most passionate about?
I am most passionate about campaigning for the university to divest from fossil fuel corporations once and for all. For too long, we have allowed these climate criminals to inject their dirty money into our university, and we have seen the university invest in climate-destroying companies. If we want to see any real action on climate change, we need to address the problems at the source.
Favourite documentary?
Rocking the Foundations (1985)
A political figure you admire? (FYI, not limited to Australian politics)
Chris Smalls, one of the leading organisers of the Amazon Labor Union.
President of Education Council – Nicole Mcewen
Major/Studies in?
I was doing a PhD in anthropology and sociology, but after they sacked my supervisor last year during the restructuring, I switched to a master of teaching.
What is your motivation for running this year?
With just a couple of Left Action people on council, including myself, we’ve been able to lead serious campaigns, such as the pro-choice protests in Perth that pressured the WA Government to commit to abortion law reform. I’m running to help get Sean and Scott elected as councilors because they will continue to fight for social justice and defend our education.
I know that we are the only ones with a fighting, activist strategy, and I know that without us, there would be no activism. I want to take this approach to the National Union of Students Conference, which I am running for because students are a layer of young, progressive people in society, and I think if they are given a lead, we can fight to defend higher education, to improve welfare and wages, and to combat oppression.
What policy are you most passionate about?
As Education Council President, I will personally throw a rotten tomato at the Vice Chancellor for every cut he proposes to make to our education. I am very passionate about this policy because it is still more effective than lobbying and will be more popular than universal submission times among students.
In all seriousness, Left Action won’t win Office Bearer positions. We just promise to campaign around the important issues – and we will stridently oppose and fight against all cuts. Why should the VC, Amit Chakma, make almost a million dollars while our classrooms become overcrowded and our staff are overworked?
Favourite documentary?
How the West Was Lost. It is about the 1946 Pilbara Strike, where 800 Aboriginal workers walked off stations in WA’s North to demand their rights and land.
A political figure you admire? (FYI, not limited to Australian politics)
Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian woman who slapped an Israeli soldier in the face as a young girl and is one of the bravest fighters against occupation and injustice I have ever seen.
Scott Harney – Environment Officer
Major/Studies in?
I am a History Honours student. My dissertation was about radical student activism in Western Australia during the 1960s and 1970s.
What policy are you most passionate about?
I am passionate about running an activist campaign to cut all ties between the university and fossil fuel companies. We are in a climate crisis, and the links we have with Woodside, Chevron, and Rio Tinto only add fuel to the fire.
Favourite documentary?
Man with a Movie Camera (1929) by Dizga Vertov. This experimental documentary looks at everyday life in 1920s Russia. It was a product of the Russian Revolution. This is reflected in the film’s radical experimentation with form and radical politics. It was incredibly innovative for its use of camera techniques (montage, imposition, fast motion, etc.). Filmmakers like Vertov also believed that the everyday life of ordinary people was worthwhile documenting for its rhythms, poetry, and beauty. Vertov wanted to create a non-elitist form of art and saw his work contributing to creating socialism.
A political figure you admire? (FYI, not limited to Australian politics)
Rosa Luxemburg – was a leading socialist agitator and theorist in the early 20th-century German socialist movement. She was unwavering in her commitment to fighting for a better world which shone through in everything she did. That is worth emulation!
What is the Guild to you?
At its core, the Guild is a student union. The basic function of a union is to mobilise its members to defend their conditions and fight injustice. When Guilds have had an activist strategy like this, such as in the 60/70s, they were at the forefront of opposing war, demanding indigenous rights, and fighting for the environment. This is a legacy we need to continue. Only Left Action has the politics to do it.
Women’s Officer – Phoebe Burrage
Major/Studies in?
Linguistics and History
What is your motivation for running this year?
The state of the world – the attacks on abortion rights in the US this year show now more than ever we need a fighting Guild. It was Left Action activists that called the solidarity rally in WA, which lead to a home-grown abortion rights campaign, forcing the Labor party to finally take up the issue. This is the strategy we need if we’re going to win anything – and only Left Action has this activist’s strategy.
What policy are you most passionate about?
Abolishing the colleges and turning them into affordable student housing. Not only are the colleges a cesspit for sexual assault, but they are also extremely expensive boarding houses where the wealthy form ties. With the living crisis seeing rent prices skyrocket and wages stagnate, more and more students will see themselves in precarious living situations. We need affordable housing for students, among many other things, but to achieve such a tremendous goal, we need a fighting strategy that challenges the university, not suck up to them and beg them for scraps.
Favourite documentary?
Women of Steel – Fantastic doco about the fight for equal pay in the metalworking industries in the 70s. Struggles like this really highlight the role that unions and militants can play in fighting for women’s rights.
A political figure you admire? (FYI, not limited to Australian politics)
Clara Zetkin, proud socialist revolutionary and founder of International WORKING Women’s Day. She would be rolling in her grave to see it celebrated with corporate women in business luncheons.
President of Public Affairs Council – Max Vickery
Major/Studies in?
I’m a post-grad Juris Doctor student, but I had the benefit of taking a degree majoring in both History and Indigenous History, Heritage, and Knowledge—with a generous helping of Anthropology.
What is your motivation for running this year?
I thought Guild politics was deeply uninteresting, a kind of awful factionalism with more in common with sports carnivals than actual politics. I was convinced to run by Left Action, a politically committed and intellectually serious group concerned with making the Guild involved in politics, with a track record of doing so.
What policy are you most passionate about?
The Public Affairs Council is the coalface of many policies intended to “revitalise campus culture” – a cliché electoral promise for almost all parties running in this election. The truth is, as the economic crisis bites harder, students will be more conservative with their spending. What these groups propose amounts to party-planning for the rich—as, in practice, it usually does anyway. I do not think it is possible to revitalise campus culture without inculcating a consciousness of student solidarity through grassroots organising and activism grounded in real-world politics.
Favourite documentary?
My favourite documentary is Chris Marker’s Hiroshima Mon Amour.
A political figure you admire? (FYI, not limited to Australian politics)
I admire Frantz Fanon, the Algerian revolutionary anti-colonialist writer. His books, so full of fire and insistence, are an inspiration in the fight against oppression that will stand for decades to come.