I dunno about other universities, but I’d say the UQ protests actually are focused on something they have more ability to change than McBride’s conviction. Boeing has a very cosy relationship with UQ, and their core demand is to end that partnership and stop their own university being complicit in genocide by association. A UQ student has more ability to change what corporations UQ partners with than they do to change court decisions made in Canberra.
unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone 5 months ago
Yeah that’s fair, I mean I hate Boeing as well because of their dodgy safety record. But getting UQ to dissociate with Boeing is hardly likely to actually achieve anything in the context of war. Weapons companies don’t give a shit about morals - otherwise they wouldn’t exist. When students protest something it makes the news, and making the news is not something David McBride has been doing
Zagorath@aussie.zone 5 months ago
Absolutely fair. But it’s the one thing UQ students have the most ability to affect, and if Boeing and other weapons manufacturers lost their associations with every research institution because of similar protests, that would have a much more sizeable impact.
unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone 5 months ago
Indeed, even if you don’t care about the war, I don’t like the idea of foreign companies influencing our taxpayer-funded research