First things first:
I know, I'm making more enemies in this thread by the day, I just really feel it was important to put this into perspective.
Absolutely not, because unlike the SA everyone here is willing to listen to and consider your point of view without arbitrarily labelling you a "bigot" and devaluing the term by doing so.
Now onto the meat of your post:
Now, I'm a fan of neither party involved in this incident. But I was also particularly horrified by the complete logical inconsistencies, outrageously rhetorical claims and vitriolic remarks that were posted on the unimelb confessions page. I was first angered and saddened by the comments about the protest on QandA, and now I feel the same about this.
The reason that people have instantaneous negative reactions to "protest" actions by the SA and associated groups is that everything those groups do is alienating.
If you turn up to uni on your first day and decline to sign a petition shoved in your face and are labelled a homophobe for it (never mind that said petition has nothing to do with homosexuality or marriage equality etc.), you feel alienated by these people.
If you are a member of an ethno-cultural university club or society with ideological differences differences to the SA, and they vandalise the property of that society at events because of it, you feel alienated.
If you are moderate - be it on the right, left or centre of politics - and don't condone harassment and abuse of yourself or anyone else because of these people's ideological tendencies, you feel alienated.
And when a group alienates you and abuses you then you hate them and what they stand for. That's why people said those things on the 'unimelb confessions' page (which I admittedly have not seen); they have throughout their university years had to put up with flyer being thrust in their face, had causes they care about poisoned by the presence and rhetoric of these people, and copped abuse for denouncing their alienating practices.
It is completely disempowering to be a youth in today's society. If you are vocal about your beliefs you're a troublemaker, disrespectful and ill-behaved. If you do nothing, you're ignorant, lazy and self-absorbed, but you're also acceptable, because you lie within a large group of people who are politically malleable and easy to take advantage of. The deregulation of university fees won't have any significant effect on politics in Australia - that is, unless it makes its way to mainstream media and develops a large backing from the majority. Socialist Alternative, in that regard, is doing a good thing. They're taking an issue and consistently placing it back in mainstream media as a way of forcing people to realise that there is a strong opposition to the deregulation. I agree that it's a little puerile, I've posted in this thread before about how I don't like they're way of going about things - but shit, what have any of us done that's so much better?
I read this and it smells of persecution complex. Yes, youths nowadays do cop it from parts of the media who are uncomfortable at living in today's world, at not being the youngest generation - the ones who can and in time will bring about change. But to take the stance of accepting the mantle of what these people in the media are saying is to legitimise it. Only by doing this are we disempowering ourselves.
I agree that the right, and sometimes the responsibility, to protest is vital. I'm all for it, like (I'd imagine) most of our contemporaries. But as above, the caveat that keeps people away is that by protesting, people are often thrust together with groups like the SA who effectively ruin every movement they co-opt.
Need I remind you of the March in March protests? What did many of the protest banners read? Were they actually protesting an idea, like the influential protests of past generations?
No. There were banners of (ironically) "FUCK DEMOCRACY" and "FUCK TONY ABBOTT". I have no love for Tony Abbott but that's a pathetic protest. Instead of actually protesting, they insult. Instead of fighting for betterment, they mud-sling. Instead of initiating discourse, they 'poison the well'.
The SA-affiliated people with these banners were wasting their opportunity to actually talk about what think should change. Instead, they used the marches to push for their political endgame of "revolution", a hilariously ambiguous and frankly ridiculous goal that lacks definition and is naught but a buzzword.
What's stopping today's youth from protesting isn't laziness, or self-absorption, or fear or being labelled a troublemaker or disrespectful. It's the fear of alienation and association with ultra-left thugs, who take causes that people care about and wreck them in pursuit of their ideals and theirs alone.
Moreover, there is no 'appropriate' or 'inappropriate' time to protest. I can only imagine this generation's response to revolutions they probably see as 'justified' in modern day society.
Eureka stockade: Oh god, can't you just write a letter to colony complaining? Or sign a petition? I really don't like all this thuggish behaviour!
Rosa parks bus sit in: Damnit Rosa, you're totally disrupting me from getting home. Can't you just stand up and like, talk to the bus driver afterwards to try and explain your point of view?
Stonewall riots: You guys totally didn't have to get violent. Can't you just show them your identity cards and get on with your repressed homosexual lifestyle?? It's not like it makes a difference anyway. No one's gonna respect you more if you flaunt your sexuality in our faces!
Do you guys see what I'm getting at? I know, I'm making more enemies in this thread by the day, I just really feel it was important to put this into perspective.
Edited for typos.
While I agree with your underlying premise, your examples do not reflect the situation at hand. No-one here is criticising any cause or any movement other than the Socialist Alternative. In fact, it's the opposite; by denouncing the SA and their pernicious "support" for important social causes and movements, we protect those movements from alienation and open them up to people who
do care and
do want to protest but because they (understandably) want nothing to do with the SA.
What were Lalor and Ross fighting for at the Eureka Rebellion? They were fighting for rights and an ideal.
What was Rosa Parks protesting in favour of when she boycotted racial segregation? She was fighting for rights and an ideal.
What was the gay community fighting for during the Stonewall riots? They were fighting for rights and an ideal.
But what does the Socialist Alternative do? They aren't fighting for rights, or ideals. They're taking causes where people
should be fighting for rights and ideals, and instead using those causes as a mouthpiece for their radical, revolutionary political agenda.
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