The craven crushing of campus dissent

Universities have been with us for many centuries, with their roots deep in the tradition of philosophical enquiry as a key component of what it means to be human. The organising principle is simple: the advancement of civilisation requires a safe space for higher learning.

All very high-falutin’, but there isn’t a free society where the universities aren’t havens for academic freedom, the freedom to teach and learn without interference or censorship.

It’s easy to see why authoritarians instinctively distrust universities. Like a free press, functioning political opposition or effective trade unions, they are a source of independent accountability and potentially resistance to governmental control. In practical terms, academics and students have long traditions of noisy activism. Shutting them up is a critical step in the silencing of dissent.

The Nazis knew this; they went after Germany’s universities in their very first legal measures after taking power in 1933, and assiduously pursued policies and actions to achieve three goals: Aryanise the institutions (mainly, exclude all Jews); destroy them as venues for resistance to the regime; and weaponise them as tools to support and advance Hitler’s ideology.

Putting aside the ethnic cleansing aspect, which is a whole thing in itself, let’s focus on the direct assault on academic freedom, a playbook currently being followed to the letter in the US by the attack dogs of Donald Trump. With one difference: the Nazis made actual laws, while the Don prefers to rule by unconstitutional executive order.

In proper Mafia fashion, Trump made no bones about telling American universities that, if they didn’t toe his line, he’d cut off their federal money. It has worked a treat; they’ve been cravenly caving to the presidential protection racket almost as fast as Wall Street law firms. The art of the deal, essentially, is blackmail.

The fact that there’s no logical coherence to Trump’s ideological demands has offered no impediment to these august institutions’ unconditional surrender. His shopping list includes, in no particular order, the abolition of DEI policies, demonising of immigrants, and unqualified support for Israel.

The last of these brings together the authoritarian instincts of history’s most ridiculous would-be dictator, and the long-term desires of the global pro-Israel lobby. The latter’s agenda isn’t subtle: it defends whatever Israel does, whether in Gaza, the West Bank or Lebanon, and seeks to delegitimise and deplatform anyone who speaks against it – or in support of the victims of its state violence.

In Australia, the lobby operates identically, in partnership with the Murdoch media and the Liberal Party, seeking out its enemies for cancellation. Predictably, the arts and tertiary education sectors have been key target zones, because artistic and academic freedom are key modes for the expression of alternative and contestable viewpoints.

Both academics and students are feeling the heat. Disclaimer: I’m representing quite a few of each, defending their right to speak their uncomfortable truths in the face of direct assault. Sure, our universities have been under intense and increasing pressure ever since October 7 to respond to the claimed antisemitism “crisis” on campuses, which is so uncritically accepted by the entire mainstream political and media class that it’s basically impossible to even discuss let alone dispute.

Thus, the peak body representing Australia’s 38 universities unanimously surrendered to the demands of the Israel lobby, channelled through the show-trial theatre of Josh Burns’ risible parliamentary inquiry into antisemitism on university campuses, and the lobbying of the government’s Antisemitism Envoy to adopt a version of the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

And even though the definition has not officially been adopted by individual universities yet, the motion having been flicked to TEQSA (Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency) for assessment, the universities have already begun cracking down on every whiff of activism by students or academics that could risk making Jewish students say they feel unsafe.

Thus, the University of Sydney has imposed a code of ‘civility’ on its campus, neutering anything that might provoke further allegations that it is harbouring the mythical army of antisemites.

And thus, Monash University has walked away from an art exhibition that was to include work by Khaled Sabsabi, for his crime of being Arab And Opinionated In Public. 

Our universities have, indeed, become unsafe. Unsafe, that is, for the exercise and pursuit of academic freedom, the sole social function they were created to serve. The tragedy is that they are doing this to themselves, with barely any need for the kind of monstering Trump has been inflicting on their American counterparts.

In a more courageous world, our universities would be the fora we need where the incredibly difficult and heated questions thrown up by Gaza could be openly explored and debated. Instead, they have become a self-consciously regulated academic dead zone, where taboos dictate what may be expressed and any deviance is punished.

Self-censorship is cowardice.