Australian Labor Students
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The Australian Labor Students was a political faction within the National Union of Students. It was an offshoot from the National Organisation of Labor Students, based primarily within Victoria and Western Australia. After operating for many years with two rival and distinct internal groupings (NOLS-Right and NOLS-Left), the split ostensibly began in 1996 with a fierce preselection fight between John Carey and Jason Murray for the position of NUS National President. Nearly splitting at NOLS mid-year conference in Brisbane in mid-1997, NOLS held together until the 1997 NUS National Conference when the Victorian and WA caucuses left NOLS following another preselection stoush for NUS National President preselection, this time between Andy Wear of NOLS-Right and Rose Tracey of NOLS-Left.[citation needed]
The new faction was initially lead by Laura Smyth (Monash Uni activist and National President of NOLS until the split) and other Monash University ALP club activists. This strong partnership between Victoria and Western Australia kept the faction alive for many years Like NOLS, it was oriented towards the Left wing of the Australian Labor Party.
Shortly after splitting from NOLS in 1997, became known as NOLS Inc. (since they incorporated the name in victoria upon leaving the faction), or NOLS Right.. In 2000 the faction changed its name from Nols Inc to Australian Labor Students.
Starting from a position to the right of NOLS and to the left of Student Unity, ALS subsequently shifted ideologically to a position somewhat to the left of NOLS. The two factions were close ideologically but ALS remained markedly smaller and less influential.
The faction's derisive name amongst its opponents was "The Rats" - a reference to the group's alleged tendency to renege on deals, most recently being a 2003 deal with Student Unity, as well as the original split with NOLS, but basically stemming from the original 1997 split.
ALS organised through a National Caucus, held over a phone-link up between the Victorian and Western Australian members. Although the National Caucus was its the supreme decision making body, State caucuses also met to discuss local issues and organise events and actions.
During its most successful period (1999 - 2005), ALS was the largest NUS faction in Victoria and WA and regularly won the Women's or Welfare offices in NUS National Office, voting positions on the National Executive of NUS and key positions within the Victorian and Western Australian State branches of NUS. At 2001 NUS National Conference ALS achieved its best ever result, led by Cath Davis and Matt Rocks, with 'numbers' of about 10% at NUS National Conference and two National Office Bearers.
Discussions concerning a possible reunion of ALS and NOLS were instigated in early 2004, following a rapproachment between the two factions that began in 2001, initiated by David Henderson and Matthew Rocks) but stalled during that year due partly to divisions within the ALS caucus on how to proceed, and a lack of trust between the two groups. However, at the end of 2004 the two groups agreed to organise a joint forum to discuss future options for Labor Left organising.
The resultant joint caucus was held in Perth in July 2005. Although the focus of the forum shifted to the key issues facing NUS (in particular, the campaign against Federal Government moves to implement VSU, and the resultant need to reform NUS), the meeting laid the groundwork for discussions about the creation of a new political organisation that would replace ALS and NOLS and was largely regarded as a success.
At the 2005 NUS National Conference, ALS won the positions of both National Women's Officer (Sarah Wickham from La Trobe University) and one of the National Queer Officers (Norman Jacka from Curtin University).
Along with NOLS, the ALS National caucus voted to wind itself up and take part in the establishment of a new Labor Left student organisation. One of the final acts of the caucus was to elect members of an interim Labor Left executive, which took office on January 1, 2006. The new organisation adopted the name of National Labor Students.
ALS Office Bearers
2000 Nathan Murphy (La Trobe) - National Welfare and Small & Regional Campuses Officer
2002 Cath Davis (RMIT) - National Women's Officer
Jill Ferguson (Curtin) - National Welfare and Small & Regional Campuses Officer
2003 Sarah McDowell (Monash) - National Welfare and Small & Regional Campuses Officer
2005 Ali Vaughan (Edith Cowan)- National Women's Officer
2006 Sarah Wickham (La Trobe)- National Women's Officer
Norman Jacka (Curtin) - National Queer Officer
| Student unions of Australia | |
|---|---|
| National: 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 campus) | Monash (Clayton campus) | Murdoch | New England | New South Wales | Newcastle | Queensland | QUT | RMIT | South Australia | Southern Cross (Coffs Harbour campus) | Southern Cross (Lismore campus) | Southern Queensland | Sunshine Coast | Swinburne | Sydney | Tasmania (Hobart campus) | Tasmania (Launceston campus) | 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 | |
