Unauthorised stalls day, organised by University of Sydney SRC Education Officers Grace Street and Shovan Bhattarai, was held on Eastern Avenue on July 31.
The protest began with a Land acknowledgment from Street, followed by an introduction to the protest and its purpose. The stalls kicked off with music, starting with Taylor Swift in solidarity with the USyd Swiftie society, who have previously shown support for Palestine. However, a Solidarity member immediately drowns out music with a megaphone chant of “long live the intifada”. There was a large focus on Palestinian advocacy across the protest.
Grace Street once again explained the purpose of the protest to students passing by: “we are here to protest the Campus Access Policy”. USyd NTEU Vice-President David Brophy makes a speech in solidarity with protesters, denouncing the policy. A Mark Scott impersonator appears amongst the stalls.
Eddie Stevenson, first speaker of participating stalls and National Union of Students Queer Officer speaks about the significance of fighting the Campus Access Policy: “every student unionist needs to make it their cause … this affects each and every one of us.” Stevenson then spoke to past struggles with unjust university policy, in particular the fight at Macquarie University for gay rights.
Several members of the USyd SRC then came forward to speak from their stall, letting students know they were still providing stickers and tote bags from their unauthorised stall as they were from their official stall yesterday. SRC Disability Officer Khanh Tran spoke of the Campus Access Policy as a “direct attack on freedom of speech”, while SRC President Harrison Brennan, representing the USyd branch of Greens on Campus, spoke to the similarities between the CAP and the protest laws passed in 2022 by NSW Parliament.
Various University clubs and societies unaffiliated with any political movements then spoke, including the Sydney University Drama Society, United Nations Society, Sydney College of the Arts Students Society, Improv Society and Board Games society, who emphasised the point that the CAP is opposed by “even just us silly people who play board games”. The Psychology Society stated simply that “we do believe in freedom of speech”, while the French Society drew attention to the similar repression seen in the May ‘68 protests.
Victor Zhang, a member of Labor Left, noted that his stand was the “only authorised Labor faction participating in an unauthorised protest”, continuing that “we stand by the principle of solidarity.”
Solidarity, Students Against War and United Nations society all also made speeches, followed by a Bake sale raising funds for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. The Snickerdoodle cookie was scrumptious, a contented protester told Honi.
Representing post-graduate students, Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association (SUPRA) made an appearance, stating that the CAP represented a failure of the university to “engage in meaningful conversation with students.”
As the final speaker, Greens Member for Newtown Jenny Leong spoke of how the University “prides itself on the idea that graduates can change society” yet noted that the majority of the experience gained at university comes from participation at stalls, discussions, and protests that would all be prohibited by the CAP. She continued on to point out how many stalls at this semester’s Welcome Week belonged to commercial enterprises, while the actual students of the university have their position threatened.
Though the stalls were organised solely in protest of the Campus Access Policy, many speakers noted the nature of the policy as a measure introduced specifically in response to increasing student protests against the Universities complicity in Israeli genocide, in particular the USyd Gaza Solidarity encampment.
A University spokesperson told Honi Soit before the protest began that while the University was “aware of the planned protests we don’t intend to shut down today’s activity or adopt a general disciplinary approach”. Throughout the protest, university staff were spotted handing out flyers to protesters advising them of acceptable and unacceptable activities under the Campus Access Policy.
