Glass invited all candidates to submit a statement about why they’re running in the Guild elections and why you should vote for them. This statement is being published as received from the candidate.
Voting opens MONDAY 23rd OCTOBER 2023. You can read all candidate statements here.
I am Aaron Atkinson, nominated for Science Councillor as part of Left Action. I am a member of Socialist Alternative, the largest revolutionary socialist organisation in Australia.
Left Action is an activist ticket, aiming to revitalise the Guild into an organisation willing and able to take up and fight on issues important to students. Through Socialist Alternative, I have been involved in a variety of activist projects, including the ongoing protests for action on the climate and housing crises. I have especially enjoyed bringing a real challenge against the growing far right, by organising large counter protests to their demonstrations.
Students in Australia have been struck by repeated socio-economic crises, and it has become increasingly clear that the powers-that-be have no interest or care for fixing the suffering they are creating. It is exactly political climates like this that student unions exist to fight. The passing of a do-nothing housing bill in the middle of a housing crisis should be met with outrage, not symbolic gestures. The opening of coal mines in a climate crisis should spark calls for protest, not calls for compromise.
This Guild, and all student unions, should represent the interests of the students through protest, not paperwork. Student unions in Australia, even in Brisbane specifically, have a storied history of fighting on issues important to students. The most famed example is of course resistance to the Vietnam War, especially against conscription. In more recent times, student unions around Australia were pivotal in organising the Equal Marriage campaign.
It is this legacy of student activists that Left Action aims to revive.
For a fighting Guild, vote 1 Left Action.
