University Student General Meetings took place around the country this week and last, calling on universities and the Australian Government to cut ties with the genocidal Israeli regime.

On August 28, the University of Melbourne Special General Meeting was opened to loud cheers, with the announcement by Student Union General Secretary, Luv Golecha, that quorum had been reached. Golecha then promptly handed over the microphone to Bella Beiraghi from Students for Palestine (S4P) who led the meeting throughout.

The six hundred students assembled at Melbourne University were one of eleven Student General Meetings taking place around Australia. One organiser, Emma Dynes told the crowd 600 students had gathered at RMIT, 300 at Monash, 250 in Adelaide, 500 across Perth, 400 in Brisbane with others still to come. Later, 500 met at the University of Sydney.

Speaking to the first motion in Melbourne, Aidan Hawe, explained that S4P had attempted to hold an SGM last year but were blocked by the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) executive which bureaucratically manoeuvred to ensure that meeting was not officially recognised and could not direct UMSU policy. This year, he argued, UMSU, is “currently shirking its duty… students have to take matters into our own hands… that is what this motion is today”.

The first motion passed stipulates that UMSU must “campaign for the end of the repression of Palestine activists and to defend free speech and protest on campus. This includes campaigning to overturn the protest regulations the University passed in March” and “demanding that the University reinstate the Palestine activists who have been suspended or expelled”. Speakers condemned the crackdown on activists by Melbourne University following the successful encampment action.

The second motion – a model used across the country – reads, “students censure the Australian government for its complicity in the genocide in Gaza. We demand an end to all weapons sales to Israel by Australia and Australian companies, and call for sanctions on Israel.”

Students also called “on all Australian universities to end their complicity with Israel’s genocide by ceasing all partnerships with weapons companies.” The Melbourne University meeting condemned University’s construction of a new Fisherman’s Bend Campus, “which is facilitating an unprecedented collaboration between the defence sector and the university”.

Speaking to this motion another S4P activist pointed out that part of the F35 design takes place at Melbourne University, and that the Fisherman’s Bend military-focused campus has a budget of $2 billion. An additional motion was passed directing UMSU to budget $7000 for a fundraising event supporting the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

All motions were passed unanimously – reflecting the overwhelming dominance of pro-Palestine sentiment over whatever pockets of Zionist students there are on the campus.

It is unclear, at least at Melbourne University, which of these motions will be binding on UMSU or what further manoeuvres the right-wing, ALP-aligned students in UMSU will attempt in order to frustrate the growing campaign. Regardless, hundreds (nationally thousands) of students authoritatively demonstrating that student opinion is with the Palestinians is a very useful step forward – both for the authority and confidence of the movement.

This student campaign contributes to the growing momentum of the Palestine solidarity movement since the historic Sydney Harbour Bridge march and the largest ever Australia-wide mobilisation for Palestine that followed it on 24 August.

The coming September 10 day of union and worker action – still two weeks away – will test whether this momentum can continue to build. There is also a possibility of a national strike of university and high school students on the same day. If that can actually be organised over the next two weeks it would not only be a massive street mobilisation, it would be the first large scale Palestine action on a working day in Australia.

That would turn up the heat even further on the ALP federal government. S4P and the Socialist Alternative members who lead it are the only organisation active in Palestine Solidarity with the national spread and strength to take such an initiative. If they assess the September 10 union organising has a strong enough basis, they should seize the moment. The whole of the Palestine solidarity movement would surely come behind such an initiative.