Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 23. September 17 1979

A State of Shock

page 4

A State of Shock

SRC

Most experts agree that it was the fine weather and glorious sunshine that drove a large number of students indoors and to last week's SRC.

A New Low in Leaflets

This SRC was chaired by Margaret Underwood as Caroline Massof was still in a state of shock over some obscene election posters which had been stuck up around the University in the early hours of Wednesday morning. This poster attempted to discredit her in a vile and disgusting manner.

The Returning Officer (Kelvin Ratnam) reported the appearance of these posters, saying that they were "the most disgusting posters he had seen in the five elections that he had conducted at VUWSA." He added that if he found out who had produced these "dastardly posters" he would "personally get stuck into them."

Because of the seriousness of this matter, the meeting went on to discuss the posters straight away. Two motions were put, both moved by Virginia Adams and Jono Clark:

That VUWSA condemns the use of sexist, pornographic and red-baiting election tactics witnessed today on campus, seeing them as both exploiting women and lesbians and a totally unacceptable smear on the election process and That if the people who produced these leaflets are discovered that the SRC recommends to the University Disciplinary Committee that they be expelled from the University.

The two motions met with a great round of applause as they were read out.

In speaking to the motion, Jono Clark said "when I arrived at University this morning and saw the leaflets my first reaction was to go around and tear them all down. But then I stopped, sat down and thought about it. Then I got up and ripped down all the posters I could find." After the applause had died down he called on the people who produced the posters to come forward and defend themselves, or at least apologise.

There was some dispute about the wording of the first motion. Election tactics seemed to imply to some that the candidates in the election, or their associates, were involved. Several speakers disputed this. Lindy Cassidy argued that the intention of the posters was clearly to disuade people from voting for Caroline and as such were an election tactic, even though she was sure that none of the candidates were in any way involved. She added that it was deplorable that anyone would stoop to such smear tactics. Rire Scotney said that she thought the posters were an abuse of the democratic process and were "fuckin' disgusting."

Kelvin Ratnam spoke just before the vote, saying that he thought passing these two motions would serve as a deterrent to others to employ similar tactics in future election. The first motion was then put and carried with only one dissenting voice.

The second motion met with little opposition, although one speaker felt that it was a very extreme step to contemplate, one which could ruin a person's whole life. Virginia Adams replied to this saying that the effects of these sort of leaflets were not far different, and that we have a responsibility to protect members of the Association from this type of attack. Kelvin Ratnam suggested that Caroline should make a formal complaint to him, as Returning Officer, saying that until she does there is little he can do. He also added that he thought there was the basis for a police complaint. The motion was put and carried decisively.

Next on the agenda, as they have been for the last several SRCs, were the elections of VUWSA Treasurer and an Overseas Student Officer. Running true to past form there were no applicants for either position, and so they remain unfilled.

Photo of students sitting in a meeting

Women Only

The next motion to be discussed concerned the position of the Co-ordinator of the Women's Right Action Committee of NZUSA (WRAC — for more on the WRAC read the article on page 7 of this issue). It was moved by Sarda Nana and Virginia Adams that:

That VUWSA believes that the position of NZUSA WRAC Co-ordinator should be open to women only. Supporters of the motion stressed that this was a form of positive discrimination aimed at helping women secure equality in society. Victoria Quade said that being a woman was one of the qualifications for the position. The impetus to fight comes from the experience of oppression.

There were some objections to the motion: it was argued by some that it represented a form of sexism (which was countered by the claim of positive discrimination). Another comment made was that the women's movement tended to alienate men, and that this motion would only increase this tendency. The motion was eventually put and carried approximately 60 to 40.

The meeting's pace had slowed considerably by the time they reached the seventh item on the agenda and the attendance had similarly dropped. It was moved:

That VUWSA condemns the Government's short-sighted cuts to the health system and sees this as being a planned part of its overall policy of restructuring the economy to further the interests of big business at the expense of New Zealand's welfare state. Although there was one speaker against the motion, there was little debate and, when put, the motion was passed without a dissenting voice.

The carless day regulations were next on the menu when the following motion was put:

That VUWSA sees carless days as being an unfair and inequitous system and calls for their abolition. In speaking to the motion movers Andrew Beach and Stephen A'Court said that the earless days regulations placed an unfair burden on one-car families, were easily "gotten around" and were brought in, not as a reaction to a shortage of oil, but because New Zealand could not afford to pay for the oil it needed. It was further commented that the regulations were not proving effective in reducing petrol consumption in any case.

One other motion was discussed in the meeting, being moved by Grant Gillat and Simon Wilson:

That this Association condemns the Government's use of the Remuneration Act in the Drivers' Award settlement, and views this as a direct attack on the right of workers to free wage bargaining; and further, that this Association supports the trade union movement in the action it will take to oppose this Act and its use. Both speakers stated that the Remuneration Act was an infringement on workers' only form of protest — strike action. Wilson also commented that in the past students had not shown a great deal of support for the struggles of the Trade Unions, citing as an example the use of students as scab labour in the 1951 Waterfront dispute. There were no speakers against the motion, and it was carried on a show of hands. A more detailed article on this issue appears on page 3 of this issue.

The last matter to be discussed was by Caroline Massof in General Business, concerning the 2 hour period that should be free from scheduled classes on Wednesdays from 12 to 2 to enable all students to attend SRCs. She moved the following motion:

That SRC directs the President to meet with the Vice-Chancellor regarding the two hour SRC period on Wednesday afternoon to get some assurance that we do obtain a true two hour free period, and furthermore, if no assurance is given a student sit-in be organised after the next SRC. Although the motion received fairly solid support, there was some concern for the people who by choice wished to have classes, labs or tutorials scheduled while SRCs are on. This problem, it was argued, would not be solved by sit-ins in the Vice-Chancellor's office but could be corrected by an investigation of why students choose to ignore SRCs. However the motion was decisively passed.

Jonathan Taylor