Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 37, Number 9. 1st May 1974
Violence in the Student Union
Violence in the Student Union
Dear Folks,
Suddenly the working class finds its way onto the campus and starts....gasp....violence! What are we to do? Don't they understand the political teachings of Marx? Surely they have time to intellectualise ad infinitum about the revolution?
"Look, chaps, I say, ah, this violence just isn't on, what, ahem, yes, ouch, only one thing for it then, help police!'
It makes you wonder don't it, If this brawl had occurred down town it would be an expression of working class solidarity fighting their repression, and exploitation, in the only way they know how. But when it happens on your own doorstep. workers suddenly become "drunks" and "bikies". Then revolution is forgotten and its back to the good old bastion of middle class bourgeois conservatism, the dreaded cops.
Oh well, that's life, razz shit out of Mr Plodd when he upsets your TP A protest, but he's your friend and buddy when the "chamble" start on Saturday night.
Up ya revolution, P. Hawker.
[I make no qualitative distinction between violence downtown and up here. They're still 'drunks' and 'bikies' wherever they are. And they're still showing the results of repression and exploitation. I opposed the calling of police to the Shindig. I don't oppose calling them when there's a bomb scare — rather them than rae. — Ed.]