Now, more than ever, we need intransigent leftwing activists in our student unions. Inequality is rising, the genocide in Gaza continues, and the racist Pauline Hanson is trying to bring Trump-style politics to Australia. UWA has restricted free speech and Palestine activism on campus. These are all things that student unions, like the UWA Guild, need to play a role in fighting against. I want the student guild to be an activist body that stands up for students rights, against the far-right and for social justice.
I’m a languages student and socialist activist who has helped to organise protests against One Nation. Left Action - Free Education is a ticket full of experienced activists who think it’s worth fighting for a better world. This is what the Guild should be a vessel for.
Students are facing a cost-of-living crisis. Rising rents, fuel costs and increasing education expenses are making it harder for many students to even commute to campus. At the same time, we’re witnessing ongoing violence in Palestine, Lebanon and Iran alongside the rise of racism, Islamophobia and far-right politics here in Australia. These aren’t distant global issues; they affect students here at UWA.
Students feel unable to speak openly about these crises because of restrictions on campus activism and political expression. Universities should be places where students can come together to organise, educate and campaign without feeling threatened or silenced.
Societies are more than clubs that run events; they build solidarity, strengthen our collective voice and help create an active student movement. That is why I’m running for Societies Council with Left Action to fight for a Guild that supports campus activism and defends students’ right to organise and speak out.
Hi, I’m Ella, an English & Literary studies student & a left-wing activist. Students are suffering. Our HECS debts are rising, rent is unaffordable and we are facing a bleak future of climate crisis, and the threat of the far-right in government. There’s a lot more the Education Council could be doing to stand up for students against our university administration and the government.
In the midst of a cost of living crisis, students are forced to do unpaid placements whilst our Vice Chancellor earns over $1 million a year. UWA is strengthening its ties to the military industrial complex, and has strong connections to fossil fuel companies. I don’t want to go to a university that is subordinate to these destructive industries.
I want to stand against the for-profit model of education and for our Guild to stand up for social justice. Vote [1] Left Action - Free Education!
We have seen the rise of Pauline Hanson’s racist One Nation party, the genocide in Gaza, the cost of living crisis, the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer and so much horror unfold over the past few years. As students, we have been hit hard, with rent prices and other necessities getting more and more expensive all whilst an enormous HECS debt piles up in the background.
We need leftwing politics represented in the Guild. Students who will stand against management and who want the Guild to be a fighting body for students. Activists who challenge capitalism, those who have consistently been involved in building movements against oppression.
If we want the Guild to fight for this and take up these pressing issues, the Guild’s approach must change and to do this we need leftwing activists in the Guild. Vote [1] Left Action - Free Education!
I believe the UWA Student Guild should take an active stance against injustice in Australia and around the world, and take up leftist politics and demands. If elected, I and other candidates with Left Action – Free Education would denounce and rally students against cuts to the NDIS, AUKUS, and the genocide in Palestine. We would be vocal about climate change, UWA’s ties to the weapon and fossil fuel industries, and push the university to do more to materially support students. We believe a student union should fight for students’ rights, including freedom of speech on campus, safety from discrimination, and, in particular, free education for all. By running educationals, open meetings, protests and demonstrations, the Guild can become a powerful body for student organising and activism to fight for better education at UWA, better politics in Australia, and for a better world.
I am a socialist and activist. I was involved in the campaign which removed abortion off the criminal code in Western Australia. I have helped organise the national student referendum for Palestine and against the far-right. The UWA guild needs to stand up and fight for students' rights. That is why I am running with left action for an activist guild. Capitalism breeds sexism, the gender pay gap has gotten bigger and the far-right is attacking abortion rights. Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is now the second most popular party in Australia. Her sexist and racist platform needs to be confronted and challenged to defend the rights of oppressed groups.
This year, as an international student, I have to pay over $5000 for my student visa. I'm far from alone - in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, thousands of international students are crushed under the same weight.
But this was never just about money. We're treated as a source of revenue for universities and the government, while also being the cheap labour this country relies on - most international students are already migrant workers, just not recognised or respected as such. As rents and prices soar, international students are scapegoated for the crisis we didn't cause; the migrants never drove this. We workers are divided along borders, so those who truly profit are forever shielded from accountability. That is how nationalism works.
International students are not a disposable commodity for this economy. We are people, and people stand together. Vote for left action free education!
Our planet is facing utter climate devastation with heatwaves, floods, fires and extreme droughts being the new norm. Whilst the billionaires and capitalists are hitting record profits, ordinary people and our planet suffers.
Our government is responsible for the extension and expansion of dozens of new fossil fuel projects such as the North West Shelf, paving the way for an unlivable world and despite their crimes, UWA partners with Woodside and Chevron who continue to pump tens of millions of CO2 into our atmosphere every year.
I think students at UWA deserve a university that actually cares about our future, which means we need an activist student union to fight back against climate catastrophe through our collective power. Vote 1 for Left Action/ Free Education for a left-wing guild which will fight to hold our government and these institutions to account!
We are living through a new era of a more brutal and destructive stage of capitalism, where young people feel hopeless towards their futures as the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.
Most students are struggling to get by on crumbs from Centrelink, barely affording rent and graduating with huge debts to pay off, while billions that could be put towards funding free education are spent on militarisation.
I’m running as a socialist with this ticket because I think we need an activist guild that isn’t afraid to stand up against university management and is willing to fight to lift the bar for student’s expectations… we need a guild that will actively take on the real issues stressing students out today - the climate crisis, rising cost of living, the housing crisis, resurfacing fascism, genocide, militarisation and war.
Heya my name is Ashley, I'm running for sports officer as a socialist with Left Action. The student guild is a body that is meant to fight for the interests of students, yet currently it does little more than function as another branch of university management.
We have a different vision. The student union should be a place that fights for issues that affect students everyday like the rising cost of living and education, renewed far right forces, and a rise in militarism. The guild should fight for students in all areas of life, including these broader political debates that affect us all.
Activist guilds that fight for students have existed before; they were an essential part of the movement to end the war in Vietnam. If you want to see another fighting left wing guild that challenges this university being run for profit, vote Left Action.
I’m Claudia, I’m a pro-Palestine, anti-capitalist activist and student at UWA. Over the last two years candidates from my ticket ‘Left Action - Free Education’ ran a campaign against UWA’s ties to the genocide in Gaza. Right now we are involved in building a movement against Pauline Hanson and the far-right as they become more normalised in Australia. We want to challenge capitalism wherever we can and think the entire approach of the current student guild needs to change. Students are burdened by the immense cost of living/housing crises, enormous debts (meanwhile universities are raking in their highest ever profits), and an education that is becoming increasingly aligned with the military and the profits of capitalists. The Guild can fight on all of this and more, but only if it actually takes a stand against management. That means having activists in the Guild .
Hey, I’m Rojin a socialist activist involved in campaigns for Palestine, and I’m running with Left Action Free Education.
The National Union of Students (NUS) is the peak representative body for students across Australia and it should be doing more to tackle student poverty, fight against the far right, and oppose our education being turned into a business.
To do this we need socialist activists in the NUS and in the UWA Guild that are willing to fight for a vision of education that is about making the world a better place, instead of a degree factory that charges us thousands of dollars. The NUS and Guild should also take an active stance against Pauline Hanson and One Nation as a deeply racist and bigoted party. We need students all across Australia to be mobilised in protests, campaigns, and strikes to fight against the far right and for social justice.
Hey, I’m Tom and I am running for Ordinary Guild Councillor with Left Action-Free Education.
Students are living in poverty. The housing crisis and rental crisis has only intensified, and students are feeling the crunch.
The genocide in Palestine and Israel’s aggression has continued, while free speech and activism at UWA is under attack–the ability for students to protest and speak truth to power has been savaged by the university.
The far-right is on the rise, increasingly confident, and is threatening students, migrants and other oppressed groups.
When the world is becoming increasingly more brutal, we need a fighting, activist guild which looks to the collective power of students to fight back. Running on a left-wing and socialist platform, Left Action is the only group which can do this. Vote [1] for Left Action-Free Education!
We have seen the rise of Pauline Hanson’s racist One Nation party, the genocide in Gaza, the cost of living crisis, the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer and so much horror unfold over the past few years. As students, we have been hit hard, with rent prices and other necessities getting more and more expensive all whilst an enormous HECS debt piles up in the background.
We need leftwing politics represented in the Guild. Students who will stand against management and who want the Guild to be a fighting body for students. Activists who challenge capitalism, those who have consistently been involved in building movements against oppression.
If we want the Guild to fight for this and take up these pressing issues, the Guild’s approach must change and to do this we need leftwing activists in the Guild. Vote [1] Left Action - Free Education!
Students are living through a turning point in Australian politics. Never before in Australian history has a far-right party like One Nation broken into the mainstream, and yet we’re watching in real-time as we catch up to the global trend. This is an explicitly racist, sexist, and anti-worker party that wants to rule for the rich at the expense of the poor and oppressed.
In the meantime, Labor has overseen the cost of living crisis, cuts to the NDIS and the genocide in Gaza - this has only normalised the far-right and thrown students and the most vulnerable into destitution.
We need student institutions equipped with socialist politics that reject everything the far-right stands for, and we need socialist strategy to successfully push their bigotry back to the margins. That’s what I’m fighting for, and that’s why I’m running with Left Action - Free Education for an NUS delegate position.
Hey, I’m Rojin a socialist activist involved in campaigns for Palestine, and I’m running with Left Action Free Education.
The National Union of Students (NUS) is the peak representative body for students across Australia and it should be doing more to tackle student poverty, fight against the far right, and oppose our education being turned into a business.
To do this we need socialist activists in the NUS and in the UWA Guild that are willing to fight for a vision of education that is about making the world a better place, instead of a degree factory that charges us thousands of dollars. The NUS and Guild should also take an active stance against Pauline Hanson and One Nation as a deeply racist and bigoted party. We need students all across Australia to be mobilised in protests, campaigns, and strikes to fight against the far right and for social justice.