Rank and File Action (RAFA) is an inclusive, broad-left alliance of experienced and active unionists in the University of Sydney National Tertiary Education Union branch. We are committed to the principle of member-led unionism conducted in a democratic, respectful and comradely manner, and we believe in the necessity of fighting to uphold our workplace rights. RAFA members are always active doing basic union work – all the time, whether or not we’re negotiating an EA. We assertively pursue increased wages, improved workloads and better conditions and job-security. Join us!
As well as our bread-and-butter union work, we strongly believe that the union movement has a role to play in social justice issues, including fighting for First Nations Justice and Palestinian liberation.
We are committed to resisting management’s obsession with authoritarianism, overwork and permanent cuts, and their attempts to separate teaching and research. We campaign for the university as a place for the democratisation of knowledge for the public good where all staff, professional and academic, are respected.
We have come together as RAFA because we share a principled vision of what our branch can be and have a common understanding of how to achieve it. Our members’ track record is second to none when it comes to actually putting in the hard work required for our branch to flourish and to grow. We are often present at university entrances distributing NTEU material and encouraging colleagues to join. Our members prioritise their local areas, and we are very active in the new Member Organising Groups.
We have campaigned hard against the Academic Excellence Framework and the Professional Services Review. We are on the Bargaining Team, the Branch Executive, the Cases Committee and the Branch Committee. We are the backbone of the branch’s essential Campaign Committee, which has planned and implemented major initiatives, including in the current bargaining campaign. We have been on the front lines of the struggle against management’s shocking crackdown on dissent and political freedom on campus.
We are experienced in work on union committees, in responding to change proposals, and in supporting members in disputes with management. We are committed to justice for Palestinians and have led the Sydney University Staff for Palestine group. Too many current branch leaders have been silent on the genocide, or worse. We believe leadership means confronting hard issues and modelling a principled response. We have zero tolerance for Israel supporters’ attempt to minimize or excuse the genocide, or suppress opposition to it.
RAFA is the best placed grouping to lead the branch during the next term, which will begin at a crucial point in the current bargaining round. We believe in members’ willingness to fight for their rights and will oppose premature concessions to management. We are for widely-endorsed, democratic militancy that maximises participation. We oppose both conservative pessimism and divisive grandstanding in industrial strategy.
We are running a diverse ticket of academic and professional staff. We understand that management and staff have basically incompatible interests, and that defending our jobs and conditions requires non-sectarian, active solidarity among all union members. RAFA candidates will take a leading role in putting the branch in the best possible position to resist the serious attacks management are making on us this bargaining round, and to enforce our industrial rights, grow branch membership and foster democratic, participative union activity when bargaining is over.
Our principles:
Industrial activism: Management and staff have conflicting interests. If we do not continually campaign to defend and extend our rights, management will erode them. Union activity does not stop between bargaining rounds. We believe an active branch is essential for protecting our rights and preparing the branch for our next bargaining round.
Union Democracy: Members must be in the driving seat of NTEU decision-making. We support member-led initiatives, respect member decision-making forums and promote participation in them. We support regular member meetings and frequent reports from the branch committee, and will create opportunities for members to democratically determine branch policy, including through working groups in bargaining periods. We welcome a vibrant, respectful and comradely political culture in the branch.
Social Justice: We believe in taking a stand against racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice and Palestinian liberation. These issues directly impact our fellow unionists, and so they must be issues the union is prepared to take action on.
Union rights: We believe that the right to strike and protest are essential parts of union organising, whether on industrial and social justice matters. We will defend democratic rights of staff and students to protest and reject management’s restrictions on protest and political communication.
Non-sectarianism: We welcome a vibrant, respectful and comradely political culture in the branch, and will work in a comradely way with everyone. This has been our consistent practice, whether in or outside of the EA campaign. We’re interested in collaboratively increasing the union’s strength, not in point-scoring, meeting-hijacking or division.
A better and more inclusive university: We want to fight for a just university, where the current top-down management structure is replaced by a truly collegial leadership structure enabling staff and students to play a genuine democratic part in shaping education and research.
Rank-And-File Action USYD 