CEPU delegate dismissal - Union Solidarity
The DOU committee urges your solidarity and support for dismissed Communications, Electrical and Postal Union delegate Peter Vining. Details and background
here.
The sacking is an attack on academic freedom and sets a dangerous precedent for the victimisation of other university staff. See
here. Distinguished professor of Education Roger Woock (1933-2014) understood this well, as set out in his apparently never-answered letter
here.
Dismissal of Prominent Academic
Vice Chancellor Margaret Gardner
I am writing to you regarding the impending dismissal of Dr. Robert Austin, Lecturer in Spanish & International Studies at your university. It appears this dismissal is part of a growing climate within Australian universities which is threatening the very concept of academic freedom and quality education and destined to seriously reduce the independence of university teaching and research at RMIT University unless you and other members of the university administration reverse the actions that you have taken to date. I find the facts surrounding this case to be particularly alarming, especially since "RMIT University began as the Working Men's College in La Trobe Street, Melbourne in 188t [and] the university has grown to become one of the largest in the country and has built a worldwide reputation for excellence in vocational and technical education and research., with over 57,000 students studying at the RMIT campuses in Melbourne and regional Victoria, Vietnam, online, by distance education, and at partner institutions throughout the world."
From the information that has come to my attention, it appears that an informal alliance appears to have formed between the right-wing Sun Herald polemicist Andrew Bolt and the new head of International and Community Studies at RMIT. It seems that "both are of the view that industrial action in support of students in their opposition to (the misnamed) Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) is not a legitimate academic activity," and they have castigated Dr Austin’s re-scheduling of his classes to allow students to attend the National Day of Action against VSU on 10 August, even when this action had the almost-unanimous support of students, National Tertiary Education Union backing, and the knowledge of immediate management at the university. As I understand the circumstances, Dr. Austin re-scheduled the class, it was not canceled, and none of his students were forced to go to the rally. I also understand that many other lecturers encouraged students to attend the rally to protest the government's stance.
The media reports that I have read indicate that "the Head of School (HOS) and the relevant Pro Vice-Chancellor have used their positions to intimidate sessional teaching staff." One account indicates that on 30 September, 2005, two university managers saw fit to accost Robert Austin and a woman union representative who were having coffee with sessional staff in a public cafe, off campus. This report indicates that the following week, "the HOS compelled all Spanish sessional staff to attend a meeting on Dr Austin’s ‘collegiality’ by issuing a ‘lawful directive’. The report alleges that "the probation meetings organized by the HOS were little more than an opportunity to launch a tirade of insults and provocations, and during the first to harass the woman union delegate" who was involved.
I know Dr. Austin and he is a senior scholar of international repute with considerable academic experience in Latin America, where he has had full professorial status. He has published seven books, many articles and given a large number of professional presentations at international academic conference. I have been informed by a reputable source that his probation report of 28 September, 2005 acknowledges his ‘excellent’ research performance and ‘commendable’ teaching, and that his efforts at RMIT have contributed to a ‘considerably more attractive’ Spanish program. I have also been informed that enrollments have increased by over 20 per cent since his arrival at RMIT. To his credit, it also seems that Dr Austin has established staff-student exchange programs with prestigious Latin American and Spanish universities, and he has just won five federally-funded student scholarships to Chile for 2006. Moreover, he has accepted an offer to become an Honorary Fellow of the University of Melbourne. Finally, it is reported that he has improved the Spanish program beyond previous expectations since his arrival, including extending the amount of hours a week at students request, and that he has set up partnerships with universities in Chile, Venezuela and Argentina.
The dismissal of Dr. Austin appears to make a mockery of RMIT’s proclaimed values of ‘ethical behavior and responsibility’, ‘cultural diversity’ and ‘fairness to all’, and it appears to be yet another example of the dangerous shift to the political right in Australian academia.
I am circulating this message to my network of colleagues throughout the world to apprise them of the violations of academic freedom and human rights involved in this situation. It is my sincerest hope and expectation that they will be as outraged and indignant as I am. I urge you to reconsider the action that has been taken against Dr. Austin and defend the good reputation of your university by continuing his employment at your institution and respecting his rights of academic freedom and civic activism.
Sincerely
Richard L. Harris, PhD
Managing Editor of the Journal of Developing Societies
Professor of Global Studies and World Languages and Cultures
California State University, Monterey Bay
Also signed by Tariq Ali
Novelist, historian, political campaigner and co-editor of New Left Review
http://www.tariqali.org/
Speech by George Papanastasiou
Public Forum in defence of Dr. Robert AustinAround the world today, educators, researchers and students are frequent targets of state-sponsored violence and repression. Comparatively, we can say Australia has been a haven of free academic expression. In the arts, the sciences, in most faculties, independent thinking has been encouraged. We’ve had some problems, yes, but overall, the trend has been libertarian.
More recently however, the politics of fear and ignorance, and hostility to all dissent, has embedded reaction into legislation, triggering overt and brute expressions of sentiments previously dormant and undealt-with in Australia’s psyche. We may be experiencing a watershed moment in our history. The potential consequences shouldn’t be underestimated.
We may also be entering an unprecedented period of official opposition, egged on by attack dogs of the right, to freedom of expression in our universities. The goal is singular and simple – the preservation of educators who’ll only teach students to fight students. I for one could never teach with a boot in my face. Now, it seems Dr Austin has taken a stand - and from what I comprehend of the circumstances he can count on my practical and moral solidarity.
This case confirms for me some long-standing fears. Under the guidance of this federal government, the net is being cast ever further and in every direction because dissenting voices are now buzzing loudly in the ears of an inner cabal of MPs - the same group who think reinforced anti-sedition laws, for instance, could actually silence opposition (if history is anything to go by, the effect will be the reverse). As a result, it’s not inconceivable that in the future we could end-up with a situation of mass civil unrest against state abuses of power. The naive and dangerous view that this can't happen in Australia because we live in some kind of reasoned and ever-civil wonderland is a complete nonsense.
So it’s now that academics and students from around Australia must unite to forge diverse allegiances with unions, community groups, workers, progressive political movements and the community in general – To dissent. I am urging disaffection with the crown and the government of John Howard (Nothing like the physical violence committed by our government and its allies against the people of Iraq, but the stern disobedience for progress that’s been the primer of emancipation throughout history).
This country, via its workers, students and academics – via its unions and community organisations – can shut down. This country, made up of and defined solely by its inhabitants, can shut down and constipate the budding instruments of repression – whatever they may be, wherever they may come from. Oscar Wilde put it simply; ‘Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.’
We’ve seen this more recently in Latin America, where mass mobilisations and strikes, many spontaneous, have rescued entire societies from dead-ends. I shudder to think where Venezuela would be now if Pedro Carmona, the head of that country’s biggest Business Organisation, wasn’t disgorged by the people before his self-appointed presidency solidified into a pistol grip for neo-liberal interests to the North. For those of us with a rudimentary understanding of the history of human struggle on that continent – the consequences could have been unspeakable. The evidence is in the mass graves of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Chile, Honduras, Haiti – the list goes on.
The critical role played by institutions of higher education in the promotion of human rights and the development and preservation of civil society must be defended. The critical role of our educational institutions in advancing, ever further, the frontiers of human thinking must be preserved. We must dissent. They must be independent, they must be free, in more ways than one.
Thank-you.
George Papanastasiou
Victoria University, Melbourne
Defend our Universities public forum
RMIT, 30 November 2005
