Left Alliance (Australia)

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Left Alliance was an Australian student union faction, initially dominated by the Communist Party of Australia. It operated primarily within the National Union of Students. At the time of its formation in 1987, it contained most of the non-ALP left activists in Australia. Its formation was catalysed by the campaigns against the reintroduction of student fees by the federal ALP government between 1986 and 1989. As these campaigns dissipated, Left Alliance gradually shrank. By 1992, probably a majority of independent left activists in Australia were not members of Left Alliance. This led to the creation of an alternative left activist grouping, the Non-Aligned Left (NAL), around 1993.

Left Alliance went through a trough in the mid-1990s as the NAL became entrenched as the dominant non-ALP grouping within the student movement. Left Alliance began to grow again in 1996 when the Liberal/National Coalition was re-elected federally, recruiting many of the core organisers of the 1996-1997 campaigns against the new government's higher education reforms. By 1998, Left Alliance was once again the dominant non-ALP grouping within the student movement and National Union of Students. However, its turbulent history had left it with many contradictions, the chief being its attempt to be a broad left grouping (its original purpose) at the same time as being a political organisation with a defined radical position (its actual nature after 1992 or so). These contradictions led to major conflicts within the group, which polarised between a pro-leadership grouping and a NSW-based internal faction called the Libertarian Communist Collective (later Love and Rage). As a result of these conflicts, Love and Rage split from Left Alliance in early 1999 and initiated the process of creating the National Broad Left.

NUS National Office Bearers from Left Alliance, 1987-1999

1999

Women's - Geneveive Derwent - University of Technology, Sydney

1998

Education - Katrina Curry - University of Sydney

1997

Education - Jackie Lynch - Latrobe University

Women's - Gemma Pinnell - Monash University, Clayton (left NAL for LA mid-1997)

Environment - Mat Fagan - Southern Cross University, Lismore (left NAL for LA mid-1997)

1996

None

1995

Environment - Kirsten O'Brien - James Cook University, Townsville (left NAL for LA mid-1995)

1994

None

1993

Education - Toby Borgeest - University of Melbourne

1992

Education - Rob Houghton - Flinders University

1991

General Secretary - Nicole Asquith - University of Melbourne

1990

None

1989

Women's Officer - Miranda Sandars - University of Melbourne

1988

Education - Kiri Evans

National Union of Students of Australia
Universities: ANU | Adelaide | Ballarat | Bendigo | Canberra | Charles Darwin | Curtin | Edith Cowan | Flinders | Griffith | James Cook | La Trobe | Macquarie | Melbourne | Monash - Caulfield | Monash - Clayton | Murdoch | New England | New South Wales | Newcastle | Queensland | QUT | RMIT | South Australia | Southern Cross - Coffs Harbour | Southern Cross - Lismore | Southern Queensland | Sunshine Coast | Swinburne | Sydney | Tasmania - Hobart | Tasmania - Launceston | UNSW COFA | UTS | Victoria | Western Australia | Western Sydney | Wollongong
Current Factions: Australian Liberal Students Federation | Grassroots Left | Independents | National Labor Students | National Liaison Committee | Socialist Alternative | Student Unity
Former Factions: Australian Labor Students | Left Alliance | Love and Rage | National Broad Left | National Organisation of Labor Students | Non-Aligned Left | Small + Regionals