ALP Club
Amnesty International
Hooked
Greens on Campus
Labor Club
Liberal Club
Political Interest Society
Socialist Alternative
UNICEF Club
ALP Club
ALP Club
Mailbox 24
First Floor
Union House
University of Melbourne Vic 3010
alpclub@gmail.com
Melbourne University Amnesty International Club
It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness – Chinese Proverb
Welcome to the homepage of the Melbourne University Amnesty International Group. With over a million members around the world this is only one of 4000 similar groups which make up Amnesty International.
The aim of our club is to defend the rights of prisoners and conscience and to make governments conform to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was ratified in 1948. The club actively advocates for fair and prompt trials for all political prisoners and encourages a more proactive and preventative approach to human rights.
There are three main things that we do to further this goal:
- We try to educate ourselves so that we can understand the world better and know more about the problems that lead to human rights abuses.
- We try to engage with the wider community to make people think about human rights.
- We write to governments to appeal directly on behalf of prisoners of conscience, addressing the urgent action campaigns that are investigated by the international secretariat in London. These campaigns successfully achieve their goals in seven out of ten cases.
The Club has regular meetings during the academic semester (venue details to be confirmed).
Amnesty International
Mailbox 41
First Floor Union House
University of Melbourne Vic 3010
muamnestyclub@gmail.com
If you would like to get involved, send us an email or just turn up to our meetings.
Hooked
Melbourne University Hooked is a club affiliated with the national network Hooked: Students for Trade Justice. We run campaigns and events addressing issues such as the exploitation of workers in developing countries and the fair-trade alternative. We also seek to increase the availability of Fair Trade certified products by working with uni departments and cafes on campus as well as running our own stall in the Union markets on Mondays 12-2pm in North Court.
Our aim is to generate greater awareness amongst the student body of trade- and consumption-related issues and the ways in which individuals can make changes in their consumption patterns to positively change the standard of living experienced in developing countries.
We meet Tuesdays, 1-2pm in Alice Hoy, Room 108.
Hooked
Mailbox 98
First Floor Union House
University of Melbourne Vic 3010
muhooked@hooked.org.au
Greens Club
Get political!
This is your branch of the Greens party. We will discuss policy, campaign and encourage you in your political ambitions. We will be having meetings every Monday from 1-2pm in Graham Cornish room A and a table each Thursday outside the Union Building.
Our plans for this year are to run campaigns on Climate Change, Drugs Policy, Nuclear Energy, Public Transport and Refugees. These campaigns will focus on heightening peoples awareness of these topics which we think will be prominent in this years federal election. For each of these campaigns we will be handing out information on the issues and Greens policy and views on these policy areas.
We will also be organising a series of seminars leading up to the election where we will have a key speaker on the issue and a speaker who focuses on the greens policy related to each topic. These seminars will be confirmed once we have speakers for each topic area.
Mailbox 48
First Floor, Union House
University of Melbourne, VIC 3010
melbunigreens@gmail.com
Labor Club
Melbourne University Labor Club has a long and fulfilling history within the Student Union. The Club’s core aim is to provide a forum for people interested in student unionism; in that vain, encouraging participation of its members in the governance and representation of the student union and the university itself. The Labor Club regularly meets with various social activities, including pub nights, BBQs, policy forums and an annual camp. The Labor Club has many present and former associations with the Australian Labor Party including current sitting members in both state and federal parliament.
Labor Club
Mailbox 64
First Floor
Union House
University of Melbourne Vic 3010
laborclubvoice@gmail.com
Liberal Club
Liberal Club
Mailbox 56
First Floor
Union House
University of Melbourne Vic 3010
president@mulc.org.au
Political Interest Society
If you’re interested in politics and current affairs, the Political Interest Society is the club for you. Founded in 1998, PIS is a non-partisan discussion group; the club’s motto is ‘Audi Alteram Partem’, which is Latin for ‘Hear Both Sides’. We promote balanced and informed discussion on contemporary issues, and welcome people regardless of their political persuasions.
PIS meets weekly on Wednesdays at 1pm, in Room 109 of the Alice Hoy building. Our weekly meetings provide a relaxed atmosphere in which to chat with other people interested in domestic and international affairs, with biscuits provided for free. Come along to have your say about what’s going on in the world, or to find out what’s going on. It’s a great chance to learn since whatever the issue under discussion may be, someone at the meeting will know all about it.
PIS runs a blog and puts out a biannual print magazine (AAP) and a weekly e-newsletter. We have an active social calendar that includes a trivia night, comedy festival outing and guest speaker events (the first of which for 2006 is on 13th March). Membership is free and gives you access to all of the above.
If you’d like to join PIS or to find out more about the club, please contact us at polintsoc@gmail.com or visit our website. Or just turn up to a Wednesday meeting, at which you’ll also get free biscuits.
Political Interest Society
Mailbox 39
First Floor
Union House
University of Melbourne Vic 3010
polintsoc@gmail.com
Socialist Alternative
Socialist Alternative are a group of revolutionary socialists who think that society should be driven by human need – not profit. We think that “surplus” food which is produced should be given to the hungry, rather than dumped in the middle of the ocean to keep prices high. We think that the people who produce all the wealth in the world — ie workers — should have control over what happens to it. We think that ordinary people around the world — from Australia, to South Korea, to Lebanon — have more in common with each other, than they do with the governments and business leaders of their own countries.
Not so crazy, huh? We have regular meetings where we try to apply a Marxist analysis to political questions today. We’re active on university campuses, in trade unions and in whatever radical campaigns are happening – over the past decade, our members have been involved in such campaigns as the opposition to the Jabiluka uranium mine, in support of refugee rights and, more recently, campaigns to get the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan and to tear up the Industrial Relations laws.
For more information about what we stand for, visit our website. If you agree with what you read you should get in contact with us. We’re always keen to meet people, to discuss our ideas, and to get new people involved in whatever struggle is happening. But for starters, have a look at our basic political principles which are summarised below.
OUR RULERS SAY they support democracy. Yet in our society, most people have only a minimal say in what goes on. We elect a government every three years or so, but in between, we have almost no control over what it does. More importantly, the most significant decisions in society are made by unelected people. The heads of big corporations decide what products are produced, who they will employ and what those jobs will be. As socialists, we want a new form of democracy. We are for a society in which ordinary people control every aspect of life — a democracy that’s economic as well as political.
A large part of our political activity has been centered around countering racism in Australia — whether that’s been the rise of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party, or joining other organisations and trade unions in opposing our Liberal governments’ continual attacks on Aboriginal people and refugees. Now we’ve got our hands full with standing up to anti-Muslim and anti-Arab racism, which governments around the world are whipping up to justify their wars and attacks on civil liberties.
WE’RE FIGHTING for a world in which the workers who create all the wealth collectively plan production. A socialist society is one in which we democratically decide what and how much our society needs, rather than decisions being determined by the pursuit of profit. As far as we’re concerned the society that existed in Russia was not socialist. Nor are those in China and Cuba. Such regimes — which we call state-capitalist — are essentially no different from the West. Just as here, a small minority benefits from the labour of the majority. Throughout the world, people are divided into two main classes. There is a tiny number who reap huge profits, through their control of private and public industry. And there is the vast majority who bear the brunt of a system in which profits are more important than human lives.
THAT’S WHY socialists say that workers everywhere should unite. Obviously this is about using our collective strength to overthrow capitalism. But what we mean also is that we have far more in common with workers in other nations than we do with the capitalists in our own country. Similarly, we oppose all forms of racism, sexism and homophobia. Such oppression is the result of a system that preserves itself by promoting artificial divisions between us, which is why the best way to respond to these things is to fight back against the real enemy – the capitalist class. Bitter experience has shown that mere tinkering with our society will not end oppression or exploitation. The attempts of parties like the ALP to reform capitalism have always ended in disappointment. Socialists therefore argue that we need a revolution to overthrow this rotten system and to create a new one. A successful revolution will involve the workers taking control of their workplaces, dismantling existing state institutions (parliaments, courts, the armed forces and police) and replacing them with genuinely democratic ones. Such a revolution will not be achieved by a coup or the heroic efforts of a minority. Only the working class, the majority of people in society, through its own efforts, has the power to create a new world.
THE GOAL OF SOCIALISTS is to build a revolutionary organisation that can participate in mass struggles, draw lessons from past victories and defeats and convince the working class of the way forward to socialism. Such an organisation cannot be created from on high – it needs to be built out of the conflicts taking place today. That’s what we in Socialist Alternative are attempting to do. We meet regularly to discuss our ideas and work out how they can be tested in practice – in our workplaces, unions, campuses and campaigns. We produce and sell our magazine to find an audience for our ideas.
HISTORY SHOWS that revolutions are inevitable. The question is whether they will succeed, and that depends on the level of political clarity and organisation. We believe Socialist Alternative can, and will, make a useful contribution to that. So if you want to change the world, don’t wait for the barricades to go up. JOIN US! If any of this strikes a chord with you, here’s how to find out more. You can come to any of our meetings or events, cast your eyes over some of our publications which we sell in union house at our regular stalls, or just plain get in contact with us!
Socialist Alternative has a club at Melbourne University which meets 1pm Wednesday, second floor Union House.
We also hold regular branch meetings off uni campus on Thursdays 6.30pm Trades Hall (cnr Lygon & Victoria St) and Saturdays 3pm Trades Hall. New people are always welcome to turn up to our meetings.
Socialist Alternative
Mailbox 18
First Floor Union House
University of Melbourne Vic 3010
samelbuniclub@hotmail.com
www.sa.org.au
UNICEF Club
We are on campus to promote the rights of children and the aims of UNICEF to the University community through working with UNICEF Australia, holding fund-raisers and supporting UNICEF Australia campaigns.
Mailbox 35
1st floor
Union House
Email: melbunicef@gmail.com
melbunicef.com
