Trump's signature policy, building a wall, copied from Irish-Australian student politician
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock.
When Donald Trump was elected in 2016, his victory became known on my birthday. That was 9 November 2016.
I couldn't agree with some of the things Trump says or does but when it comes to his signature promise to build a wall, he said it but while Trump struggled to deliver, student politicians actually did it. Moreover, 9 November is also the day that Germans tore down the Berlin Wall in 1989.
By total coincidence, the students did this during my first weeks at university in 1997. The scene was photographed by legendary war photographer Ashley Gilbertson and appeared in many Australian newspapers.
The wall lasted less than 24 hours but fifteen years later, left wing groups were still talking about the day that engineers came to feed the masses, like a scene straight out of the bible where Jesus Christ delivered baskets of bread and fish.
The university commended the students for leaving peacefully.
In September 1997 the students elected me to the house and services committee responsible for capital works and similar projects. Not long after this and I had been elected to the National Union of Students (Victoria state branch).
More recently, while Trump spoke enthusiastically of draining the swamp, the JuristGate exposé concerning corrupt Swiss jurists in the cantons touching Lake Geneva is taking swamp studies to new depths.
The Age, 10 May 1997: Food flies as hunger hits student protest
by Caroline Milburn
Police dodged flying bananas, food parcels and the occasional salami yesterday as students tried to throw supplies to colleagues occupying the second floor of Melbourne University's administration building.
...
The quest for food then turned into a battle of wits between police at the first-floor windows and the protesters immediately above. As ropes were lowered to the crowd, police lunged at them, using various implements, including a long pole with a hook and a large knife, with varying degrees of success.
...
Professor Gilbert (Vice Chancellor) rejected student criticism that the number of Government-subsidised university places would be reduced by the impact of fee-paying places. He said the university would not charge yesterday's protesters with trespass because they left the building peacefully.
One of the protestors, Felicity Martin, a Melbourne University student said the protest had ended while morale was high.
Red Flag, 15 May 2014: Students have always been right to rebel
by Corey Oakley
...
1997: year of the student occupation
One of John Howard’s first moves on getting into office was to slash the education budget and introduce up-front fees for undergraduates. In response, students not only demonstrated in their thousands across the country, but occupied administration buildings on their campuses.
...
On 8 May around 2,000 students marched on Melbourne Uni, where about 500 occupied the main administration building; 180 stayed overnight without food, electricity or proper toilets. The next day 1,000 rallied in support outside the building. Engineering students (whom many leftists had previously dismissed as hopelessly apolitical or right wing) helped rig up an elaborate rope and pulley system to transport food and supplies to the occupiers through the second floor windows.
The Melbourne Uni occupation inspired students elsewhere. The following day hundreds stormed the admin building at Sydney Uni, while in Adelaide 300 picketed education minister Amanda Vanstone’s office before occupying their own campus. Other occupations took place in even such far-flung places as Deakin’s Warrnambool campus in far western Victoria.
In August, the longest occupation took place. Hundreds of students occupied the finance division of RMIT in central Melbourne and stayed there for almost four weeks! It was the most sustained student occupation since the 1970s. With police cutting off access to the occupied floors, students again hoisted cigarettes, food and printed materials from the street, from what became a semi-permanent solidarity encampment in Swanston Street. Despite vitriolic hostility in the media, students gained support from unions and other community groups, including the RMIT NTEU branch, which organised stop-works and rallies in support of the occupiers.
Drain the swamp
