Glass invited all Guild election candidates to submit a statement explaining why they are running and why they deserve your vote. This is your chance to hear directly from those who want to represent you—so take a moment to get to know their priorities and visions for the future.
Voting opens on Monday, 21st October 2024. You can check out the rest of the candidate statements here.
I am Aaron Atkinson, nominated for Science Councillor as part of Left Action Free Palestine. I am a member of Socialist Alternative, the largest revolutionary socialist organisation in Australia.
Left Action Free Palestine is an activist ticket, aiming to revitalise the Guild into an organisation willing and able to take up and fight on issues important to students. Through Socialist Alternative, I have been involved in a variety of activist projects, including the ongoing protests for action on the climate and housing crises.
I have been an activist for Palestine for years, but especially in the past year I have been involved in the amazing campaign against our government’s, and our universities’, support for Israel and the weapon companies that arm it. This activism includes helping to organise the QUT Guild’s Special General Meeting earlier this semester, where, in a spectacular show of force, 600 students voted overwhelmingly for QUT to cut ties with weapons companies.
This Guild, and all student unions, should represent the interests of the students through protest, not paperwork. Student unions in Australia, even in Brisbane specifically, have a storied history of fighting on issues important to students. The most famed example is, of course resistance to the Vietnam War, especially against conscription. In more recent times, student unions around Australia were pivotal in organising the Equal Marriage campaign.
It is this legacy of student activists that Left Action Free Palestine aims to revive.
For a fighting Guild, vote 1 Left Action Free Palestine.
