Sydney students protest university links to weapons manufacturer Thales 

By CHRISTINE LAI

Students at the University of Sydney held a protest against the educational institution’s links to weapons manufacturer Thales on Thursday afternoon.

In December last year, the university announced the renewal of its partnership with French company Thales, which was signed by Thales Australia & New Zealand CEO Jeff Connolly and Professor Emma Johnston, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research).

A statement released by the university about the extended partnership outlined their goal to “continue research and development of transformational solutions in aerospace, space, defence and digital security fields”.

USyd Education Officer Yasmine Johnson criticised the deal, declaring that the university’s ties to the weapons manufacturer was responsible for “the war in Iraq, Syria, East Timor and Palestine”.

“To continue to allow companies to do research, and manufacturing weapons on this campus makes the university complicit in the deaths used during war and pushes forth modern day imperialism”, Johnson said.

She criticised Vice Chancellor Belinda Hutchinson for being the chair of Thales and “sitting on the boards of AGL, gambling companies and other fossil fuel companies”.

“Belinda Hutchinson owns a $20 million apartment in Point Piper, it is the most expensive apartment in the most expensive suburb anywhere in Australia,” Johnson said.

“Where did she get that money? She got that money from sitting in positions like the chair of board of this company, from sitting on the board of the AGL, of gambling companies, from weapons companies and fossil fuel companies,” Johnson said.

USyd staff and students condemn attempts to stifle progress

Tom Williams denounced the university’s continued attempt to “neoliberalise” the tertiary sector and for punishing students for demanding better teaching and learning conditions.

“It has expelled students for protesting against sectors. It has constantly degraded our education and hollowed it out, and made billions of dollars in the process”, Williams said.

“This is one of our key suppliers for the Australian military: they’ve handled every single atrocity that the Australian military, army, air force. This includes the persecution of refugees, includes the persecution of Palestinians and oppression and murder and people in Afghanistan and everything in between”, he added.

USyd NTEU Branch President Nick Riemer described “one good thing” about Belinda Hutchinson being the Vice-Chancellor of the university as it being “very revealing that the university is not an institution that is uniquely or even mainly directed at social progress like it pretends”.

NTEU Branch President Riemer called it a “disgrace” that the university was not a “community”, but a “battleground between the forces of progress who are here and the people in this building”, whilst stood in front of F23 (the administration building where the chancellor’s office is).

“It’s the corporates on the university senate who come from the world of fossil fuel industries, from property development and they are determined to crush us because they rightly see that universities are breeding grounds of radicalism,” Professor Riemer said.

“Universities are places where genuine aspirations for equality and democracy are nurtured and where critical thought can be flourished. This is all about cementing the stranglehold that the political ruling class in this country has over us and the NTEU will not stand for this in a single solitary moment.”