Rabelais Editors Suspended on Accusations of Racism In what appears to be possibly the stupidest political attack in living memory, the four editors of Rabelais, the student newspaper of LaTrobe University, have been suspended over accusations of racism by a Liberal/ALP Right-dominated Students Representative Council, united in an unholy alliance known as Student Alliance. On 2 May, the four editors, Leigh Milward, Brendan Meilak, Claire Leveridge and Nic Townsend received a memorandum from the SRC President, Chris Mouratidis (a member of the Young Liberals.) In this memorandum, Mouratidis displays what could best be described as a curious understanding of the concept of racism, citing two supposed instances of such from the pages of Rabelais: 1) The first accusation stems from an article from the indymedia.org website called 'A Flight Against The Blockade' by Gregory Elich. Specifically, the AFS (Administration Finance and Services, a committee of the SRC) claims that the lines "American and British leaders, so eager to aappoint judges in regard to others, have shown that no one poses a greater threat to peace than do they." and "...Western leaders demonstrate a contempt for the lives of others" are racist. 2) The second instance, perhaps more laughable than the first, is a review for a zine called 'Nuances.' It does not concern the review itself, but the picture accompanying the article. The picture was the cover of the zine, which had the title of one of its articles: 'Silly things French people do and say." This too was regarded as racist. In a statement sent out just after they received word of their suspension, Rabelais editor Leigh Milward said, "At this stage, we believe that the motivation behind the decision is simply political, and very boring politics at that. The SRC President, Chris Mouratidis, is a member of the Liberal party. The majority of the SRC are either members of the Liberal Party or a right wing faction of the Australian Labor Party (Unity). "The four editors are politically varied but can be described as centre to far left; two are from the ALP (Brendan and Claire) from a centrist faction called 'Australian Labor Students', while Nic can be described as a left wing activist and Leigh falls into the far libertarian left. So it's easy to see the motives behind it." Bizarre in and of themselves, the accusations of racism issuing from the office of the La Trobe SRC President ring of hypocrisy. The issue of Rabelais which will now not be produced with La Trobe SRC funds was, of course, to be devoted to Koori issues. Spending SRC funds on "minority issues" has long been a bone of contention for the Right. It is somewhat hard to believe that the suspension of the Rabelais editors at such a time is merely a coincidence. The actual racism of Mouratidis, as opposed to the fictitious racism of the Rabelais editors, is further illustrated by a debate conducted between Milward and Mouratidis in the pages of Rabelais over the issue of a by-election for the position of Koori officer. The position has been vacant since the beginning of the year and is yet to be advertised. In his editorial for the second issue of Rabelais, Milward noted the following: "Speaking of the SRC, are they dragging their feet on the Koori officer by-election? Mouratidis is not a big fan of this office, having expressed to me earlier this year that he feels it unfairly serves only the thirty-something . . . indigenous students" (emphasis added), and that, "it is my view that La Trobe Koori students . . . have the right to organise outside the University structure and to share knowledge and publicise issues in ways they see fit, which may or may not include the SRC." In response to this, in his report to be published in Rabelais at some unspecified point in the future, Mouratidis writes," . . . I would like to refute the comments made by Rabelais editor Leigh Milward in the last edition. I am in the process of opening nominations for the position, which will proceed at the next SRC meeting. The position hasn't been filled up until now because no nominations were received up until the past month. Mr Milward is completely correct that the department 'unfairly' serves the 'thirty-something' indigenous students. The department will continue to do so until an office bearer is elected." Above and beyond the absurd and misleading suggestion that the statement that"the [Koori] department 'unfairly' serves the 'thirty-something' indigenous students" is Milward's and not his, the "process" Mouratidis speaks of has been processing since the beginning of February, and at this date, 6 May, no date has been fixed for the Extraordinary SRC meeting to coordinate the election. The facts surrounding the suspension of the Rabelais editors would appear to suggest that they are the victims of a political attack. The two editions of Rabelais and the Student Handbook published so far this year have been heavily critical of the La Trobe University administration, the Howard Liberal Government and the Australian Labor Party in opposition. That the suspension of the Rabelais editors, a relatively visible source of criticism of parliamentary politics in general and the machinations of the Liberal and ALP parties in particular, comes hot on the heels of the No Gods No Masters anarchist conference held at Melbourne University and the events of May First, suggests a certain amount of fear on the part of individuals such as Mouratidis, whose party is responsible for much of the class antagonism driving such events. Now that the class war which the Liberal and Labor parties have engaged in for so long is finally coming around to confront them, their response appears to be, as always, lies and political manipulation. -------------------- Contact the Rabelais editors: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ph: 03 9479 1028 fax: 03 9479 3550 Contact Chris Mouratidis. Anyone wishing to tell him what they think of his attack on Rabelais can call him on: Office ph: 03 9479 5026 Mobile ph: 0413 277 928 Fax: 03 9479 3550 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] We hear he likes massive files to be sent to his email account and to be put on as many crappy email lists as possible. It is possible that he likes prank calls, but you might have to find that out yourselves. Subecribe to the Defend Rabelais email list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Keep an eye on the Syndicalist Education Union website for news and updates: http://www.geocities.com/seu_asf/ -------------------- --- Syndicalist Education Union [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.geocities.com/seu_asf/ http://www.asf.anarki.net http://www.anarchosyndicalism.org -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
