June 27, 2010 For Immediate Release Press Statement - Toronto Community Mobilization Network The G8/G20 are anti-democratic illegitimate institutions that inflict daily violence on our communities. Everywhere the G8 and G20 have met to further their exploitative agendas – from London to Pittsburgh to Toronto they have faced huge opposition from local communities. The kind of mass resistance we have seen in Toronto has and will continue to follow them wherever they go. For several months, communities across Toronto have been coming together to resist the imposition of austerity measures advanced at the G8/G20 summits. The Harper government spends 1.2 billion taxpayer dollars to host the G8/G20 summits while it cuts social spending in ways that have drastic impacts people in the Toronto area and other parts of Canada. Since these communities have come together, the police have been using intimidation tactics to repress and silence people in the Toronto community. Police and intelligence officers went to community organizers' homes and harrassed them in the streets. Now they have arrested many of these people, many of them young organizers of color, and charged them with conspiracy. These people hold the Harper government to account and they speak out against policies that are making ordinary people poorer, sicker and more desperate. As a result, they have been intimidated, harassed, and imprisoned. They are political prisoners in this country, where the police repression shows that its claims of democracy are simply window dressing. While police continue to intimidate people, individuals and community members keep going out in the streets to show that they are not afraid and stand with political prisoners as well as oppressed peoples – first nations communities, immigrants and refugees, poor people, people of color, women, trans people, people with disabilities and queer communities. The police intimidation and repression added to the anger and frustration people have with the G8/G20 policies and leaders that destroy their lives and the lives of people around the world. This is why people targeted banks and multinational corporations, and the property of police. Ultimately, 1 billion dollars were spent on beating people who were demonstrating throughout the week, on intimidating community members in the streets, on arresting organizers of color and indigenous solidarity organizers, on sending demonstrators to hospital with broken bones, and on using tear gas on those in the so-called designated “free speech” zone. 1 billion dollars has not been used to protect people and to keep the city safe. Instead it has been used to repress the people who are working to make this city, and planet a fairer, more just, and more humane place. Toronto Community Mobilization Network
Showing newest posts with label G20. Show older posts
Showing newest posts with label G20. Show older posts
6/28/10
Press Statement - Toronto Community Mobilization Network
3/30/09
3/29/09
Meet the anarchists plotting to overthrow capitalism
Thursday lunch time at the City of London headquarters of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and at the stroke of one o'clock, 200 people arrive on the pavement outside. Some are wearing red nooses around their necks, others are parading around in top hats and City-boy pinstripes, a few are carrying placards that read, "Storm the banks". A pedal-powered sound system is cranked up and The Fall's anthem to grinding poverty, "F'oldin' Money", blares out across the street.
This is a flash-mob demonstration, mobilised through a Facebook event called "Give us our money back". It's a protest against the Government pouring billions of pounds into the banking industry and the ?16.9m pension pot awarded to the former RBS chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin. A man picks up a megaphone. "Congratulations, people," he says. "After the biggest bailout from the poor to the rich that this country has ever seen, this bank now belongs to us. The time has come to claim what is rightfully ours." The protesters applaud wildly. "Whose money?" they chant over and over, "Our money."
Armoured police vehicles are scattered up and down Bishopsgate and the grand glass-fronted entrance to the RBS building is guarded by a phalanx of the Met's finest. From within, a few bemused RBS workers look nervously out at the street. It's probably not the best day to be slipping out for a boozy banker's lunch.
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Standing cackling on the sidelines is Ian Bone, a self- confessed "lifelong enemy of the state" and member of the Whitechapel Anarchist Group (WAG). "This is just a taste of things to come," he says. "That was the spring offensive. Next up is the summer of rage." Bone is referring to a wave of mass demonstrations planned for the capital which kicked off yesterday with the Put People First march, organised by a coalition of trade unions and environmentalists. On Wednesday, 1 April or "Financial Fools Day"? thousands more are due to take to the streets of the City for the biggest show of public anger since the
credit crunch began. And Thursday, dubbed G20 Meltdown, is when protesters will descend on the Excel Centre in London's Docklands ? the day that world leaders arrive in the capital for the G20 summit.
According to media reports, police are gearing up to deal out terrifying levels of violence to unprecedented numbers of protestors.The G20 Meltdown campaign posters show a besuited mannequin being hanged. City staff are being advised to dress down and cancel all non-essential meetings.
"People are in an incendiary mood," says Bone. "1 April will see the biggest ructions on the street since the poll-tax riots and possibly even the Gordon riots of 1780. I don't think politicians realise quite how angry we are. In the past six months, this country has been turned upside-down. A deep recession has been created by a few greedy bankers and as a result, thousands have lost their homes and jobs. A dam of resentment has built up and 1 April is when all these pissed-off people march on the City to take what's theirs. Capitalism itself is on the ropes."
Bone believes the anarchists' moment has finally come. With the banking system on its knees and capitalism ' floundering, a window of opportunity for real change has arisen. "We need to seize the moment," he says. "There was a moment in May 1968 and another in the 1980s under Thatcher when the miners were on strike, but we failed to grasp either. This
one is different. No one's ever seen what we are seeing now with the economy and it's the economy that drives people to the streets."
Bone's own particular brand of anarchism is extreme. "I'm full of class hatred," he tells me cheerfully over a pint in the local Wetherspoons pub after the demonstration. "I just want to overthrow the ruling classes." He was radicalised from an early age: his father was a butler for one Sir Gerald Coke, and the young Bone spent his formative years
witnessing him bowing and scraping to his superior. By the age of 15, he was a regular on the Aldermaston CND marches and in 1983 he set up the anarchist journal Class War, "Britain's most unruly tabloid", which still runs to this day.
Although there are no membership figures ? anarchists don't deal in such administrative formalities ? Bone claims the numbers of people joining the movement has risen significantly in the past six months. But what makes him more convinced that the anarchists' moment has come is that the types of people joining are entirely different.
"Traditionally, anarchism appealed to young, inner- city types," he says. "Now we've got people coming into the anarchist movement we've never seen before. There's older people, whose pensions or savings have been wiped out, as well as people from the suburbs ? the aspirational working-class who voted Tory, bought their own council flats and moved up in
the world. These are people who were sold all that stuff about the free-market dream and now are being repossessed or made redundant. Capitalism has failed them and they are angry as hell. In the past we've needed to create rage. We don't need to do that now because the rage is already there."
Despite his own hardline stance, Bone is astute enough to realise that not all of these "anarchists" want actual revolution. Some simply want to voice their anger at the greed and recklessness of the City, others want peaceful protest, and some just want a ruck with the police. But if there is one uniting consensus among them, it's the belief that there is something fundamentally wrong with a capitalist system that has allowed the rich of the world to carry on getting endlessly richer.
Chris Knight, a professor of anthropology at the University of East London, and one of the co-ordinators of G20 Meltdown, describes himself as moderate. "I'm the kind of anarchist that adheres to some form of organisation," he says. "I'm not into throwing bricks through windows; what I'm talking about is something closer to revolutionary, or anarcho, communism."
Since the economic crisis began, Knight has regularly taken to the streets brandishing a placard reading, "Eat the bankers". "We haven't got any secrets," he tells me. "On 1 April, we fully intend to overthrow the Government. ' Gordon Brown is on his last legs, this is his last throw of the dice. The revolution starts here."
Knight adds that 1 April is a date that is highly pertinent to the anarchist calendar: it's exactly 360 years to the day that the Diggers, the English civil-war revolutionaries and arguably the UK's first anarchistic group, set up an independent commune and issued a call for equality.
"If we succeed," Knight continues, "and New Labour falls, we say let's immediately nationalise all banks and redistribute the wealth. In other words, we take the power and we don't let the bankers dictate to us any more. We stop the money pouring into bankers' pockets, where it disappears, and start giving it to the people who will spend it ? students, single mums, the unemployed. We need to spend money to stop this country going bankrupt: well, that is a solution.
"It's seismic," Knight concludes. "There has already been a whole balance-of-power shift and the world has been turned upside-down, but it's all happened peacefully. There is going to be a velvet revolution. Not a violent one."
Commander Bob Broadhurst of the Metropolitan Police doesn't seem to think so. He has 7.2m earmarked for the police operation from Wednesday until the conclusion of G20 and believes there to be "unprecedented" planning between protest groups, which are now using technology such as Twitter to organise themselves. What further worries him is that
certain groups Reclaim the Streets and the anarchist group the Wombles, for example that have lain dormant for much of the boom years of the noughties, are showing signs of remobilisation. Groups such as these are the ones that gave the authorities such an enormous headache throughout the 1990s from the poll-tax riots in 1990 to the protests over the Criminal Justice Bill in the mid-1990s and finally the violent Reclaim the Streets protests at the end of the decade.
Alexander Callinicos, professor of European Studies at King's College, London, who is speaking at this week's demonstration, backs up Broadhurst's belief that new allegiances between protest groups are being forged. He went to an anti-capitalist demonstration on Halloween last year at Canary Wharf following the collapse of Lehman Brothers. "It was an unusual event," he says, "because for the first time there was an unlikely alliance between anarchists, Marxists and other groups that don't usually get on terribly well. Whatever our disagreements, we are all united in the belief that the blind hunt for profit
leads to catastrophe. That is what has brought us all together."
Like his fellow protesters, Callinicos is feeling buoyant about the situation. "I have high hopes for this week," he says. "The economic crisis has exposed the bankruptcy of capitalism and the dire need for an alternative. Anyone who feels there is something fundamentally wrong with capitalism is entitled to feel this is their moment."
But is this all just talk? Is the country really ready for revolution? Tim Harford, Financial Times journalist and author of The Logic of Life (just published in paperback) doesn't think so. "The last time we had a really bad economic depression, we got National Socialism and I'm sure this isn't the alternative these guys have in mind. We have to ask the question, is it really all that bad? Unemployment is clearly terrible but it's nothing like America in the Great Depression of the 1930s. In 1981, it was also bad, it was a rotten time. But was that the end of capitalism as we know it? People have a tendency to engage in wishful thinking. Journalists want it to be really appalling because it makes an exciting story; anarchists want it be the end of capitalism because that's what they've spent their lives hoping for; and economists think that it's nothing really that remarkable."
Nor does Harford think it's time for capitalism to be brought to its knees. "Clearly the free market has its faults, but no one could argue we haven't all done very well out of it in the West," he says. "It's lifted an awful lot of people out of poverty. Generally, the
places in the world that have not been successful in letting the market take off tend to be the places that are poorer. Capitalism has had a fairly good track record. I hope it's not on its last legs because I doubt it could be replaced by anything more effective."
Meanwhile, back at the flash-mob gathering, Madonna's "Material Girl" has started up and the obligatory crazy dancing has broken out. Tamsin Omond, one of the five who were arrested after climbing on to the roof of the House of Commons in a protest against the expansion of Heathrow, and the current poster girl for climate change, is right in the thick of it. "What shall we chant?" she asks her friend breathlessly. "Something about banks, maybe?"
"Stupid twat," says Ian Bone. "Listen to her accent. She's just one of those climate-change lot who do a bit of environmental action to get it on their CV before going back to live in their big house with mum and dad. You watch: she'll be an overpaid
environmental consultant before you know it."
If this is the unity Commander Broadhurst is so worried about, perhaps he can relax a little. It's hard to tell if anything really has changed; today, it looks like the same old faces doing the same old thing. Should we really be in fear of revolution? We'll have
to wait until Wednesday to find out.
Here comes trouble: A brief history of anarchy
1649
The Diggers, a group of agrian communists, are formed. They believe man can be free only in a society without government interference, wherein all products are shared
1780
Anti-Catholic riots are led by Lord George Gordon; 60,000 people proclaiming "No Popery" march on Parliament. Homes are burned, churches attacked and prisoners freed. Nearly 300 are left dead
1840
In "What is Property?", the French political writer Pierre-Joseph Proudhon coins the slogan "Property is theft". He is the first person to define himself as an anarchist
1868
Mikhail Bakunin founds the Social Democratic Alliance with the doctrine of Collectivism and the belief that anarchy is possible only through violent revolution
1876
Prince Peter Kropotkin of Russia renounces his royal title and develops the theory of anarchist communism. He also helps found the London-based Freedom Magazine, still published today
1911
The Siege of Sidney Street between the police and two Latvian burglars. The stand-off ends in death for the Latvians, who have become anarchist heroes for resisting the authorities
1936
During the Spanish Civil War, anarchist militias gain control of much of eastern Spain. Autonomous libertarian villages are set up, money is abolished and the land is tilled collectively
1972
The Angry Brigade, also known as the Stoke Newington Eight, a British libertarian militant group, is responsible for bomb attacks between 1970 and 1972. Strongly influenced by anarchists, their targets include banks, embassies and the homes of Tory MPs.
1976
"Anarchy in the UK", the first single by the Sex Pistols, is released on 26 November. The three-and- a-half minute song reaches number 38 in the UK charts. Its lyrics espouse a nihilistic concept of anarchy
1983
Class War, a cobbled-together tabloid newspaper that has become the voice of the movement, is founded by Ian Bone. The cover, right, refers to the birth of Prince William
1994
The anarchist Zapatista army declares war on the Mexican state and seizes part of their Chiapas homeland, and in the process kickstarts a resurgence in the global anarchy movement
1999
J18, an international day of anti-capitalist protest on 18 June, coincides with the G8 summit. A battle breaks out as 5,000 people converge on the London International Financial Futures Exchange
2008
A young schoolboy is shot dead by police in Athens, resulting in four weeks of rioting across Greece. Anarchists seize control of government buildings. Similar riots kick off in other parts of Europe
Anarchy in the EU: How one boy's death sparked riots across Europe
The demonstrations that took place in cities across Europe last December, as protesters took to the streets in solidarity with Greek rioters, were a stark indication that anarchism is alive and kicking throughout the EU. In Athens, it was the shooting of
15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos by police that triggered weeks of violent clashes between the authorities and youths frustrated by government corruption, crony capitalism and high unemployment. Almost immediately, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden and Denmark saw unrest and, in some cases, similar outbreaks of serious violence, sparking fears that mass
insurrection was the shape of things to come.
While many of the protestors were quick to identify themselves with a unified anarchist scene, political commentators agree that in reality, the European picture is ideologically and strategically fragmented, composed of more or less self-contained groups. In each country, individual factions are engaged in their own specific battles with the political
establishment, from economic to environmental issues, linked only by a broad anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist stance. Although overlaps with the ultra-Left exist, leading to widespread confusion between the two, what ultimately separates anarchist
groups is their belief in practical, militant action.
Not surprisingly, the European countries in which the anarchist movement tends to be strongest are those in which a capitalist status quo exists, as is the case in Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavia. In Greece, Italy and Spain, the situation is aggravated by a deeply felt divide between the Right and Left, and ? in the case of the latter two relatively fresh memories of right-wing dictatorships.
Nevertheless, recent events suggest that anarchist activity is on the rise in nations where it has not previously been a major concern. In France, for example, where a strong far-Left has traditionally stifled any anarchist movement, the Interior Minister Michle Alliot-Marie has spoken of a serious threat from "ultra-Leftist" and "anarchist" terrorists. In November, nine members of a group of young men and women living in a commune in southern France were arrested in connection with sabotaging the power supply to high-speed train lines and "associating with wrong-doers with terrorist aims". All but one of the "Tarnac Nine" has now been released, amid accusations of absurd heavy-handiness on the part of the authorities.
3/28/09
UK police criticized over handling of protests
Legislators have accused British police of being heavy-handed in dealing with demonstrators, just days before expected violent protests at next week's G20 summit of world leaders in London.Parliament's Joint Select Committee on Human Rights said police were misusing counter-terrorism laws and anti-social behavior legislation to deal with protesters. The criticism follows complaints about police handling of a climate-change demonstration in southeast England last year. Press TV's Uzma Hussain reports.
7/24/08
Anti Terrorism and the Criminalisation of Dissent-Lou Thatcher
This is the unedited version of a speech by Lou Thatcher, thanks Lou edited version here.
This is a speech given at the ‘Putting the Terror Laws on Trial’ forum organised by the Stop the War Coalition, June 23, 2008. The other speakers were Peter Russo, a lawyer who acted for Mohammed Haneef, and Frank, the uncle of one of the Goulburn 9 – a group of Muslim men from Sydney who have been held since November 2005 under anti-terror laws.
I had input from others in writing this speech, but I take responsibility for the opinions expressed in it: they’re not necessarily those of the arrestees or others in the solidarity campaign.
- Lou Thatcher
I’m from a group organising political solidarity and practical support for people facing charges after the G20 protests in 2006. One of the reasons we do this is because we see these cases as connected to, and as part of, broader struggles, so I’m grateful to Stop the War and to the other speakers for the chance to be part of this forum tonight.
We are here tonight because there has been a sustained offensive against people who represent any kind of threat to the conservative political agenda. The anti-terror legislation has been part of a sustained, racist campaign against Muslim communities and part of a justification for the government’s ongoing involvement in the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. In a different but not unconnected way, we have seen some serious attacks on protests and protestors over the past few years.
So I’ll talk briefly about what has happened, the legal situation, and why we think this is important.
In November 2006 the G20, which is the finance ministers from the 20 biggest economies in the world plus a few representatives from bodies like the World Bank, met in Melbourne. They were met with protests.
On the Friday, a couple of smallish groups occupied the offices of Defence Force recruiting, Tenix – a major military contractor, and branches of ANZ bank, which is profiteering from the war in Iraq, among others. For these occupations – which lasted no more than 15 minutes and involved nothing more than red glitter and water pistols – people have been charged with ‘Aggravated Burglary’. This is a new and very serious charge for what is a fairly common action.
On the Friday night, in what I can only think of as an exercise in pre-emptive policing, a squatted warehouse that was the home to a counter-conference, and was providing accommodation for people from out of town, was busted and evicted by police, as was a residential squat which had hosted a fundraiser party but was otherwise unconnected to any protest action.
On the Saturday that the G20 was in town, as was standard for any meeting of the powerful these days, the city was blocked off. Barricades and police prevented anyone from going anywhere near where the G20 were meeting. In fact, the cops handed out little cards suggesting that everyone go and protest in a park. Thousands of people defied this to protest the G20 in the streets of central Melbourne, and a few hundred people diverged from the main rally, dismantled some barricades – which, again, shouldn’t have been there in the first place – and smashed the windows of a police van.
That being said, I also want to say that there are people who have been working in the solidarity campaign from the start who didn’t agree with the tactics on the day but who have been outspoken in their solidarity because they recognise, as I do, that the police response is out of proportion and that it is an attack on progressive movements generally and on all of our abilities to protest, whatever tactics we chose.
We also have to remember what it was that people were protesting about. People came with a variety of politics against the G20 - but whether it was opposition to the wars in Iraq in Afghanistan, or opposition to neoliberalism or to neocolonialism, people were saying that they oppose the policies of the G20 member states because those policies create war and poverty - that the states are violent.
And this violence puts a couple of broken windows into perspective. Arrests began the day after these protests and continued for months – the most recent arrest was made in December last year, over a year after the alleged offences. The charges are unprecendented and very serious - people are charged with things like riot, aggravated burglary and conduct endangering life; and the severity of the charges are part of the attack.
Akin Sari
Currently a man called Akin Sari is in Barwon prison serving a 28 month prison sentence, which he’s in the process of appealing. Amongst the general media hype around the G20 protests, Akin has been singled out for special condemnation & racist vilification. All of the Children’s Court cases are finished. For the people going through adult court, 10 people agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges, which leaves 13 people who will go to trial to fight the charges. The dates for these hearings were recently set for mid next year.There has also been an absolutely unprecedented media crackdown on those facing charges. The mass media is not generally a friend of the left, but this new campaign has taken things to another level. There has been the “dob in a thug” newspaper photos, photos of “persons of interest” – trying to isolate and demonise individuals.
corporate media hacks
What happened when people were arrested in Sydney is worth looking at more closely – because these raids are an interesting example of how the attack on protests after the G20, and before APEC, come together with the climate and infrastructure of the ‘war on terror.’
taskforce slaver
The cops responsible for APEC policing worked very closely with the Victorian police – some of them went down to monitor the G20 protests, and later, when demonstrations were held outside court, Melbourne police sent up footage to the APEC taskforce. We know all this from reading the notes of Taskforce Salver, which was the taskforce set up to catch people after the G20- many of their notes were released during the committal hearing, with some bits blacked out.
From the notes we also know that Taskforce Salver had a list of five people to arrest in Sydney. When they had this list they called up a man in the APEC taskforce called Christopher Charles Nicholson. He suggested that the Sydney arrests be coordinated through either the serious crime unit or the counter-terrorism squad.
detective hill
The other big connection with the APEC securitisation is the fact that all of the G20 arrestees – along with one lone Sydney anti-war activist – were the first people to be put on the APEC “excluded persons” list. Now, as all except the 5 living in Sydney were prohibited at the time from leaving Victoria because of their bail conditions – that is, they were already banned from coming within hundreds of kilometres of the “restricted zone” in the CBD – this didn’t make any sense at all. Except, of course to provide a media scapegoat.
All these connections make it clear that these cases – like other political trials – are about far more than the fate of the individuals caught up in them. In some ways, this criminalisation of dissent isn’t that new - but we are also seeing a general intensification and militarisation of policing, whether it’s the APEC security zone, the anti-terror arrests the previous speakers have detailed, or cops and troops being sent into Aboriginal communities or our Pacific neighbours to deal with alleged social problems.
The G20 arrests are part of a climate of fear and a crackdown on anything perceived of as dissent – and so, the outcome will effect all of our abilities to resist this climate and to take action for what we believe in – whether through direct action, civil disobedience, or marching in the streets.
That’s why we need a vigorous, public, political defence campaign.
The entire campaign against the arrestees – the charges, the media campaign, the hype – is geared towards intimidating people out of speaking, out of being active, out of dissenting. We need a public response to this intimidation or otherwise the isolation of activists becomes endemic. Unless we are prepared to speak up in defence of protestors, we leave individuals isolated and alone.
9 of the 13 G20 defendants
We have started to see some support from activists, organisations and unions. We need to continue building the political campaign against the charges. We have a petition to drop the charges that we would like people to sign, and take away to their workplaces and collect signatures. We would like unions and organisations to pass a motion of support for the campaign – we have a model motion – and of course to donate to our solidarity fund.Alongside this, of course, people need a legal campaign. And that’s why they need practical and financial support as well as political solidarity – lawyers cost money, as does travel, as does not being able to work because you’re in court for months.
And the people fighting the charges in court are, in many ways, fighting for the rest of us as well as for themselves, so any help you can give will be appreciated. For more information and updates, and to download the petition, see http://www.afterG20.org. You can email afterG20@gmail.com.
Funds are needed urgently for legal and other support expenses. If you can help, the solidarity campaign has a bank account: Melbourne University Credit Union Limited Account name: G20 Arrestee Solidarity Network cuscau2sxxx (only if transferring from overseas) BSB 803-143 A/C number: 13291 (all transfers)
3/26/08
G20- Jail, Court, & Police Investigation
 | |||
In November 2006, people took to the streets of Melbourne to confront the G20, a meeting of the world’s most powerful finance ministers whose policies perpetrate suffering and violence in countless communities around the world every day. Since that protest, Victorian and Federal police have carried out a vast operation of surveillance and arrests, raiding houses at dawn and slapping protestors with ludicrous charges and repressive bail conditions. This is a campaign of intimidation and part of an attempt to criminalise protest. The legal process for those charged after the G20 protests moves slowly on. There have been a few developments this month. Akin Sari sentenced Akin Sari was sentenced to 28 months gaol with a minimum non-parole period of 14 months. Judge Punshon also ordered him to pay $8 310 for damaged to a police van. Akin pleaded guilty to 9 charges including riot, assault and aggravated burglary. Amongst the general media hysteria about the G20 protests, Akin has been singled out for special condemnation and racist vilification. Arrested on November 19, the day after the street protests, he was initially denied bail for a number of weeks. Bail was eventually granted, but was revoked when he breached his reporting conditions and travelled to Sydney. He has spent roughly 7 months locked up already, so he will spend at least another 7 months behind bars. Akin Sari has been moved to Barwon Prison. Harder for people to visit. New postal address: Locked Bag 7, Lara VIC 3212. Make sure you put a return name and address or it won’t be accepted. Committal Hearing Continues The committal hearing for the remaining G20 defendants going through adult court began on February 18. During the hearing, 10 people agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges, leaving 13 people still going through the hearing. In a committal hearing the prosecution has to prove to the magistrate that there’s enough evidence for the charges to go to trial with some chance that people will be found guilty. Over three weeks the defence cross-examined a number of witnesses, most of whom were police officers. At the time of writing, people are still waiting for the magistrate to determine which charges will be going to trial. When she rules on this in late March a date for trial will be set. Those who agreed to plead guilty will have their next hearing in early April. All of those who took plea bargains pleaded guilty to riot, and some individuals also pleaded guilty to other charges including criminal damage and recklessly causing serious injury. The prosecution have said that they’ll be seeking jail sentences for some people. People from the G20 Arrestee Solidarity Network and Food not Bombs tried to make court more bearable by providing picnic lunches and money from fundraisers was used to help people with travel and legal costs. Taskforce Salver Investigation Notes During the committal hearing the defence obtained copies of many of the notes made by police about the G20 protests, including notes from ‘Taskforce Salver’, the taskforce set up to investigate G20 protestors. These notes are quite extensive, although sections are blacked out and other bits are poorly photocopied, and they add to the information we have about how and why people were arrested. Here are some preliminary notes on what we can learn from this information. The notes make it clear that, from the beginning of the investigation, the police were targeting individuals they had already identified as activists and therefore believed were ‘leaders.’ As well as going after individuals they had picked out from the start, they also attended protests in both Melbourne and Sydney in the hope of identifying people in the crowds, and arrested people from these identifications. Police who have monitored forest protesters, the Newtown police in Sydney and a number of universities and schools provided information to Taskforce Salver. Activist social networks were also targeted. In January of 2001, groups of plain clothes police carried out surveillance of a number of pubs in inner-city Melbourne. (They were given instructions that officers drinking shouldn’t drive or arrest anyone.) Police also tried to identify people by searching for the names of punk bands from patches worn to the protest. Clothing, including shoes, bags and hats, was often used in making identifications and was seized in searches as people were arrested. Taskforce Salver worked very closely with the APEC taskforce in Sydney. As we already knew, police from the APEC squad were present at the G20 protests. They were keen to help with the Sydney arrests and exchanged information with Melbourne. In return, Taskforce Salver sent APEC police video footage of solidarity demonstrations outside the court in Melbourne. It was the APEC taskforce who recommended that the Sydney arrests be coordinated through the Counter Terrorism unit. When a member of Taskforce Salver first talked to the Counter Terrorism unit after this suggestion, they originally refused and said it wasn’t in their charter. The APEC taskforce, who arranged logistics for the arrests, nevertheless requested their involvement. As the Counter Terrorism unit did take part in the arrests, it is clear the cops in charge of policing APEC won their argument that these arrests and these political crimes should be dealt with by Counter Terrorism police. Taskforce Salver also used the intensification of policing in the lead up to APEC to help their inquiries more generally. When they released the infamous ‘persons of interest’ photos to Crimestoppers and the media, they hoped that the hype around APEC would help get them national media coverage. Indeed, the photos – which showed 24 people without indicating what, if any, crime they were suspected of, did receive widespread attention and a number of people were identified from them or were frightened into turning themselves in. What can we learn from all this? That talking in pubs isn’t safe. That police are worried about protesters. That when we’re trying to hide our identities we need to be more thorough. That we could be under surveillance. These are things that perhaps we should have known already but didn’t want to take seriously. But although this is serious and frightening it isn’t the end of the world. We can learn from this, keep supporting each other and continue resisting openly. The most important thing right now is that some of our friends and comrades are awaiting sentencing or still going through the tense tedium of court – or, in the worst case, in prison. The G20 investigations are a test for both sides. The police have thrown intense resources towards them and what they manage to get away with in these trials is going to set new limits for what they’ll try to get away with next time. Anyone who thinks that we need to keep opening the spaces for protest and direct action needs to support the arrestees both politically and practically. For more information about ongoing solidarityorganising, see www.afterg20.org thanks to Mutiny Zine Chur | |||
5/5/07
Protest, Politics and Policing
Excellent article by Victoria & Shane. We are all back in the Gubba Court this Friday .
Victoria Stead and Shane Reside
This article is in the current issue of Arena Magazine (April-May 2007)
In the aftermath of last November’s protests against the G20 summit in Melbourne, Victorian Police have conducted a massive operation against individuals allegedly involved in the three day mobilisation. Under the banner of Taskforce Salver, dozens of houses have been raided, undercover snatch squads have been used to grab people from the streets, and photos of individuals deemed ‘persons of interest’ have been published in newspapers and on Crime Stoppers. At the time of writing, over 35 people have been arrested and charged with offences including riot, affray and conduct endangering persons. Some of these charges carry sentences of up to ten years imprisonment.
The Police operation over the last few months suggests disturbing shifts in the policing of protest and dissent. Particularly, the response to the G20 mobilisation highlights the dangerous relationship between ‘community policing’ and more authoritarian tendencies within the Victorian Police force.
Compared to the policing of the demonstrations against the World Economic Forum in Melbourne in 2000, the police response to the G20 protest has been markedly different. When tens of thousands of people converged at the Crown Casino five years ago to successfully disrupt the summit of the World Economic Forum, police responded with a massive display of violent force. Unprovoked charges, overhead baton strikes and outright brutality left scores of demonstrators injured, many of them seriously. In the lead up to the G20 protest, Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon publicly made it clear that the policing operation this time was not going to be a repeat performance
. Instead, she employed a range of tactics including: a centrally controlled and staged increase in police force ‘appropriate’ to the context; low barriers instead of high security fences around the summit site; and the use of ‘crowd safety officers’ whose role was to circulate amongst demonstrators handing out cards recommending the suitability of alternate protest venues which were, not surprisingly, out of sight of the G20 delegates, inner-city businesses, and pretty much everyone else in Melbourne.
Nixon’s ‘softly, softly’ approach fits within the model of ‘community policing’ which has been advocated by the Victorian Police command since the early 1980s while facing ongoing resistance from the bulk of the Police rank and file. Studies conducted in the 1990s showed that community policing continued to be viewed by the majority of officers as primarily a public relations exercise.
Instead, rank and file officers have tended to support the more authoritarian approach advocated by the powerful Police Association. The tension between these two approaches – community policing and authoritarian policing – is in turn deeply rooted in the ongoing power play between the Police Association and the Victorian Police command.
The recent policing of protests such as the G20 needs to be seen within the context of this struggle within the Victorian Police force. Increasingly, the approach to the policing of political dissent is being shaped by a dangerous combination of elements from both of the tendencies within the force.
As Jude McCulloch has argued, community policing has become the ‘velvet glove that covers the iron fist’ of increasingly repressive and authoritarian policing in Victoria. While this has long been evident in over-policed Indigenous and working class communities across the state, the G20 mobilisation and its aftermath provides a case in point of the dangers of this twin-bladed approach.
Based on a community policing framework, Nixon’s ‘softly, softly’ approach hinged on containing the mobilisation. Protest was to be allowed, so long as it remained non-contentious, passive and preferably out of sight. Given these parameters, a confrontation between police and protestors was always going to be highly likely.
While there is a wide diversity of opinions amongst protestors regarding tactics, a belief in the need for direct action has long been a hallmark of progressive social movements. And the space for action offered by the community policing approach simply does not allow this.
As it happened, there were attempts by demonstrators to breach the police cordons and disrupt the G20 summit meeting on the first day of the mobilisation. Clashes with police ensued, and it quickly became clear that the Chief Commissioner’s approach did not enjoy the support of the rank and file officers who were there. Nixon had been scheduled to appear at a fundraising dinner that Saturday evening, performing a rendition of ‘It’s Raining Men’, no less. Instead, she was forced to cancel her appointment and rush to the barricades to appease her surly troops.
It would appear that in the face of rank and file unrest, a green light was given for police to utilize all the force at their disposal for both the remainder of the mobilisation and the days and months following. Certainly, there appears to have been a significant and rapid turn around in police tactics. When a small group of protestors gathered at the Melbourne Museum the next day – where G20 delegates were enjoying a little cultural respite from the hard work of summit negotiations – police launched without warning into an unprovoked baton charge. One woman was so badly injured that she required hospitalisation.
The authoritarian policing tactics have continued since. A round up of protestors began on the morning of the 18th, with snatch squads grabbing people off the streets. One man, Drasko Boljevic, was snatched by unidentified men, thrown in the back of an unmarked white van and held for hours. Not only did he have no idea who his assailants were, it later transpired that he had not even been present at the protest. Dozens more have faced intimidation and harassment, regardless of their degree of involvement in any violence. In the backlash against Nixon’s approach, the Police Association has decryied the ‘lack of appropriate resources’ given to officers, and the ‘grave OH&S; dangers’ they faced. And in a style that ex-Queensland Premier Joh Bielke-Peterson would be proud of, it has even gone so far as to suggest a blanket ban on the right to protest. Unsurprisingly, mainstream media commentators and politicians have jumped into the fray, bemoaning the decay of law-and-order and going all out to demonise those involved in the mobilisation as violent thugs.
Regardless of the debate over the use of property damage, the policing of the G20 and the continuing actions of the Salver Taskforce should be a cause for concern for everyone who believes in the need for grassroots movements to organise in opposition to the neoliberal agenda being pushed by institutions such as the G20.
The twin-bladed approach of community policing and authoritarian tendencies, arising from the tensions and power struggles within the Victorian Police force, has potentially grave implications for the right of ordinary people to dissent. The space for protest is shrinking for us all. As we come up against the barrage of neoliberalism, militarism, environmental destruction, racist border controls and draconian IR legislation, the right to protest is something we all need to defend.
4/27/07
Public Forum on Anti-terror legislation and the G20 arrests
Report from ORGASN/CRD solidarity meeting
It was a big turnout – I counted a few over 70 people. Good mix of ages.
Anita from ORGASN gave a fantastic speech encompassing the history of the G20 as it developed from the G7. She reiterated the ridiculousness of the claim to representation of the G20 (cos governments don’t represent the populace) and defended the attacks on the police van as an important step in confronting the fear that people have over the police, whose role is to enforce submission to capitalist social and economic relations. Anita invited people to be part of court solidarity actions and to join us in calling for the charges to be dropped.
Marcus Banks from Austudy 5 talked about the history of diverse, militant actions in the lead-up to the Austudy 5 cases in 1992. From the AIDEX Arms Fair in 1991 (3 day demonstration involving 3,000 people, including students, the Food Preservers Union, Domestic Violence and Incest Survivor activists) at which the Defence Minister Robert Ray was forced to cancel his speech because of the tripods, demonstrations, etc. The Arms Fair organisers actually asked the government to declare a state of emergency, and activists were accused of bizarre things like hurling oranges with syringes stuck in them at police, and covering themselves in shit. The Anti-Bush (snr) demos in early 1992 followed.
Marcus put the Austudy demonstrations in the context of the ALP/Keating neo-liberal assault, and the Gulf War. He gave an entertaining description of the Melbourne National Day of Action on March 26th, which was described as a”riot” in all the dailies. 4 people were de-arrested from a police van which was surrounded, rocked, graffitied and had its tyres let down. Those in the van were released. The day before the next action, 5 members of the ISO were raided and charged with unlawful assembly, releasing people from police custody and a number of other charges. These raids were co-ordinated with the media for maximum negative exposure. Marcus passed around a newspaper article in which the police declared the establishment of a new police unit to destroy the ISO. Marcus talked about the support he got from his trade union because he had gone to the demos in his role as delegate. Police claimed that they arrested the ISO activists because they couldn’t find the people from the police van – one of these, an NUS Education officer, issued press releases informing the cops that he’d been in the van. He wasn’t arrested. At the trial by jury that eventually ensued, a deal was struck by which all charges would be dropped except lawful assembly, and all would 5 would cop a 2 year good behaviour bond. Marcus emphasisied that the language of the defence campaign was frame in terms of rights, but rights that were political, social, economic – not framed in terms of limited legal rights.
Colin Mitchell and Lisa Farrance from CRD spoke of the victimisation of Jack Thomas and the Barwon 13. Colin emphasised that the Barwon 13 are being treated as guilty before being charged. He also talked about the truly terrifying case of Faheem Lohdi. Lohdi, a Sydney architect, was convicted in June 2006 of preparing for a terrorist act, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was convicted on the basis of downloading photos of various “sensitive sites” some of which he had worked on as an architect, of making enquiries about obtaining chemicals that the prosecution alleged could be used to make explosives [note: for those who want an example of what kind of chemicals can be hypothesised by cops desperate for a conviction as “potential explosives” please see the cases of the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven – people might know the movie “In the Name of the Father” based on these cases…], and of having “radical” Islamic views – whatever that means…
Rob Stary – now, I don’t like lawyers as a general rule, but this guy was great. He publicly acknowledged the work of Civil Rights Defence in defending Jack Thomas, and gave us a bit of a reminder of the history of the persecution and then failed prosecution of Jack Thomas. Stary, Mark Taft and Lex Lasry are now being called as witnesses by the prosecution to prevent them from representing Jack.
Rob talked about the flimsy evidence against the Barwon 13. Basically, that they have been charged with being members of an unnamed terrorist organization, of which they are members (and which bears a striking resemblance to their prayer circle), then of financing and supporting this unnamed organization. And they have been charged with “possession of a thing”. A thing can be anything that is connected to “terror” a computer with naughty documents on it, for example. It seems unclear exactly what the “thing” that they possess is. But, they did go camping together, and this apparently seals the case against them. The trial judge is the same Public prosecutor in charge of pursuing the Austudy 5, Bernard Bongiorno. Rob reminded people of the crazy charges used against anti-Nike crew and the Austudy 5, and against forest activists, and that the new National Security Information Act means that people can be tried in their absence and the absence of any legal representation.
Rob talked about being swamped with DVDs and evidence and that this is a tactic to make the legal reps lives very difficult.
There will be a mention this week of the G20 case. But Rob indicated that the May 11 court appearance would only go ahead if people pleased guilty. So its not that likely….
Discussion centred around the desire to get unions on board, and the need to get together some simple info to spread around (i.e leaflets) so people can hand out the info at workplaces. People also talked about the importance of APEC organising, and the direct link between the intense pressure on Sydney arrestees in particular, and APEC organising.
At the pub, we talked about fun ideas for organising APEC proxies, for those who can't leave the state cos of bail conditions...
by K Flat Friday April 27, 2007 at 01:31 AM
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/04/144091.php
Article relating to public forum at Fitzroy Town hall last night on the G20 arrests.
Last night at the Fitzroy Town Hall a crowd of around 50 people attended a public meeting organised by the G20 solidarity network and Civil Rights Defence. Speakers discussed the current political climate in regards to anti-terror legislation and the charges facing the G20 arrestees.
The first speaker, Anita Thompson, discussed the tactics used in the stop-G20 movement and the media representations of both the protests and the subsequent arrests. Forty people have now been arrested in relation to the G20 protests.
Thompson said attempts by protesters to breach police barricades were a challenge to the G20 system - a system which sustains a world order whereby "twenty percent of the world's people control eighty percent of the world wealth".
Thompson argued that protesters "embraced a diversity of tactics" and they were far from the "apolitical thugs" that the media had portrayed them to be. She stated that "capitalism is inherently violent" and the police should not be viewed as "a neutral body". Thompson further stated that the crackdown on those involved in the G20 protests should be seen as an attempt by the state to demonise protesters and delegitimise the right to demonstrate.
Marcus Banks then spoke regarding his experiences with Austudy 5. Banks said that like the G20 arrestees, these protests resulted in dawn raids by the police and a "cascade of charges". Banks said the police tended to use militant actions as "an opportunity" to arrest and repress unpopular groups and individuals. He said the affect of this was "to make people feel fearful" causing actions to become less militant. Colin Mitchell of Civil Rights Defense supported this sentiment, saying that the charges against the G20 arrestees were symptomatic of the "demonisation for political purposes" that is a characteristic of the war on terror.
Rob Starry, the lawyer who is defending some of the G20 arrestees, Jack Thomas and the Barwon 13, then gave an update on these cases and how they can be viewed in light of recent anti-terror legislation.
Starry stated that the case against Muslim convert Jack Thomas is currently being adjourned after a number of trials and retrials. Thomas is charged with possessing a falsified passport and receiving funds from a terrorist organisation. Starry also spoke of the charges against the so-called Barwon 13, who are facing multiple charges in relation to allegations that they attended terrorist training camps.
Starry said that since July 2002 the Commonwealth Government has passed forty pieces of anti-terror legislation almost unanimously. He said that the most worrying piece of legislation inducted was the National Security Information Act, which allows court proceedings to be conducted in secret, in the absence of the accused or the legal representative.
In regards to G20 arrests, Starry said that charges like riot, affray and criminal damage were "an incredible overreaction" by the police to "a bit of property damage" and they will "cost the community literally millions of dollars".
The case against the G20 protesters is listed for mention tomorrow. However, Starry told the audience rather emphatically "we're not pleading guilty."
There are meetings at Trades Hall on every second Friday (I think?) in solidarity with the G20 arrestees.
Thanks to Food not Bombs for supplying the lovely nibblies.
It was a big turnout – I counted a few over 70 people. Good mix of ages.
Anita from ORGASN gave a fantastic speech encompassing the history of the G20 as it developed from the G7. She reiterated the ridiculousness of the claim to representation of the G20 (cos governments don’t represent the populace) and defended the attacks on the police van as an important step in confronting the fear that people have over the police, whose role is to enforce submission to capitalist social and economic relations. Anita invited people to be part of court solidarity actions and to join us in calling for the charges to be dropped.
Marcus Banks from Austudy 5 talked about the history of diverse, militant actions in the lead-up to the Austudy 5 cases in 1992. From the AIDEX Arms Fair in 1991 (3 day demonstration involving 3,000 people, including students, the Food Preservers Union, Domestic Violence and Incest Survivor activists) at which the Defence Minister Robert Ray was forced to cancel his speech because of the tripods, demonstrations, etc. The Arms Fair organisers actually asked the government to declare a state of emergency, and activists were accused of bizarre things like hurling oranges with syringes stuck in them at police, and covering themselves in shit. The Anti-Bush (snr) demos in early 1992 followed.
Marcus put the Austudy demonstrations in the context of the ALP/Keating neo-liberal assault, and the Gulf War. He gave an entertaining description of the Melbourne National Day of Action on March 26th, which was described as a”riot” in all the dailies. 4 people were de-arrested from a police van which was surrounded, rocked, graffitied and had its tyres let down. Those in the van were released. The day before the next action, 5 members of the ISO were raided and charged with unlawful assembly, releasing people from police custody and a number of other charges. These raids were co-ordinated with the media for maximum negative exposure. Marcus passed around a newspaper article in which the police declared the establishment of a new police unit to destroy the ISO. Marcus talked about the support he got from his trade union because he had gone to the demos in his role as delegate. Police claimed that they arrested the ISO activists because they couldn’t find the people from the police van – one of these, an NUS Education officer, issued press releases informing the cops that he’d been in the van. He wasn’t arrested. At the trial by jury that eventually ensued, a deal was struck by which all charges would be dropped except lawful assembly, and all would 5 would cop a 2 year good behaviour bond. Marcus emphasisied that the language of the defence campaign was frame in terms of rights, but rights that were political, social, economic – not framed in terms of limited legal rights.
Colin Mitchell and Lisa Farrance from CRD spoke of the victimisation of Jack Thomas and the Barwon 13. Colin emphasised that the Barwon 13 are being treated as guilty before being charged. He also talked about the truly terrifying case of Faheem Lohdi. Lohdi, a Sydney architect, was convicted in June 2006 of preparing for a terrorist act, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was convicted on the basis of downloading photos of various “sensitive sites” some of which he had worked on as an architect, of making enquiries about obtaining chemicals that the prosecution alleged could be used to make explosives [note: for those who want an example of what kind of chemicals can be hypothesised by cops desperate for a conviction as “potential explosives” please see the cases of the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven – people might know the movie “In the Name of the Father” based on these cases…], and of having “radical” Islamic views – whatever that means…
Rob Stary – now, I don’t like lawyers as a general rule, but this guy was great. He publicly acknowledged the work of Civil Rights Defence in defending Jack Thomas, and gave us a bit of a reminder of the history of the persecution and then failed prosecution of Jack Thomas. Stary, Mark Taft and Lex Lasry are now being called as witnesses by the prosecution to prevent them from representing Jack.
Rob talked about the flimsy evidence against the Barwon 13. Basically, that they have been charged with being members of an unnamed terrorist organization, of which they are members (and which bears a striking resemblance to their prayer circle), then of financing and supporting this unnamed organization. And they have been charged with “possession of a thing”. A thing can be anything that is connected to “terror” a computer with naughty documents on it, for example. It seems unclear exactly what the “thing” that they possess is. But, they did go camping together, and this apparently seals the case against them. The trial judge is the same Public prosecutor in charge of pursuing the Austudy 5, Bernard Bongiorno. Rob reminded people of the crazy charges used against anti-Nike crew and the Austudy 5, and against forest activists, and that the new National Security Information Act means that people can be tried in their absence and the absence of any legal representation.
Rob talked about being swamped with DVDs and evidence and that this is a tactic to make the legal reps lives very difficult.
There will be a mention this week of the G20 case. But Rob indicated that the May 11 court appearance would only go ahead if people pleased guilty. So its not that likely….
Discussion centred around the desire to get unions on board, and the need to get together some simple info to spread around (i.e leaflets) so people can hand out the info at workplaces. People also talked about the importance of APEC organising, and the direct link between the intense pressure on Sydney arrestees in particular, and APEC organising.
At the pub, we talked about fun ideas for organising APEC proxies, for those who can't leave the state cos of bail conditions...
by K Flat Friday April 27, 2007 at 01:31 AM
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/04/144091.php
Article relating to public forum at Fitzroy Town hall last night on the G20 arrests.
Last night at the Fitzroy Town Hall a crowd of around 50 people attended a public meeting organised by the G20 solidarity network and Civil Rights Defence. Speakers discussed the current political climate in regards to anti-terror legislation and the charges facing the G20 arrestees.
The first speaker, Anita Thompson, discussed the tactics used in the stop-G20 movement and the media representations of both the protests and the subsequent arrests. Forty people have now been arrested in relation to the G20 protests.
Thompson said attempts by protesters to breach police barricades were a challenge to the G20 system - a system which sustains a world order whereby "twenty percent of the world's people control eighty percent of the world wealth".
Thompson argued that protesters "embraced a diversity of tactics" and they were far from the "apolitical thugs" that the media had portrayed them to be. She stated that "capitalism is inherently violent" and the police should not be viewed as "a neutral body". Thompson further stated that the crackdown on those involved in the G20 protests should be seen as an attempt by the state to demonise protesters and delegitimise the right to demonstrate.
Marcus Banks then spoke regarding his experiences with Austudy 5. Banks said that like the G20 arrestees, these protests resulted in dawn raids by the police and a "cascade of charges". Banks said the police tended to use militant actions as "an opportunity" to arrest and repress unpopular groups and individuals. He said the affect of this was "to make people feel fearful" causing actions to become less militant. Colin Mitchell of Civil Rights Defense supported this sentiment, saying that the charges against the G20 arrestees were symptomatic of the "demonisation for political purposes" that is a characteristic of the war on terror.
Rob Starry, the lawyer who is defending some of the G20 arrestees, Jack Thomas and the Barwon 13, then gave an update on these cases and how they can be viewed in light of recent anti-terror legislation.
Starry stated that the case against Muslim convert Jack Thomas is currently being adjourned after a number of trials and retrials. Thomas is charged with possessing a falsified passport and receiving funds from a terrorist organisation. Starry also spoke of the charges against the so-called Barwon 13, who are facing multiple charges in relation to allegations that they attended terrorist training camps.
Starry said that since July 2002 the Commonwealth Government has passed forty pieces of anti-terror legislation almost unanimously. He said that the most worrying piece of legislation inducted was the National Security Information Act, which allows court proceedings to be conducted in secret, in the absence of the accused or the legal representative.
In regards to G20 arrests, Starry said that charges like riot, affray and criminal damage were "an incredible overreaction" by the police to "a bit of property damage" and they will "cost the community literally millions of dollars".
The case against the G20 protesters is listed for mention tomorrow. However, Starry told the audience rather emphatically "we're not pleading guilty."
There are meetings at Trades Hall on every second Friday (I think?) in solidarity with the G20 arrestees.
Thanks to Food not Bombs for supplying the lovely nibblies.
4/24/07
Joint G20 solidarity and Civil Rights Defense Public Meeting
by Anita Tuesday April 24, 2007 at 11:14 PM
afterg20@gmail.com
The G20 arrestee solidarity network (ORGASN) has organised a joint public meeting with Civil Rights Defense at 7pm this Thursday the 26th of April, at the Fitzroy town hall, Reading room (cr Napier and Moor st, enter off Napier).
Dear Friends,
The G20 arrestee solidarity network (ORGASN) has organised a joint public meeting with Civil Rights Defense at 7pm this Thursday the 26th of April, at the Fitzroy town hall, Reading room (cr Napier and Moor st, enter off Napier).
At the meeting we will hear from:
- Marcus Banks from the Austudy 5 about the successful 'drop the charges campaign' run to defend the Austudy 5.
- Anita from ORGASN will speak about the g20 protests, police and media repression that followed, and will update us on the situation currently facing the G20 arrestees.
- Rob Starry, the lawyer who is defending some of the G20 arrestees and the Barwon 13 and will be able to update us on the legal issues in both cases including how the terror laws are being administered in the case of the Barwon 13.
- Colin Mitchell from Civil Rights Defense will update us on the David Hicks, Jack Thomas, anti-terror laws and Barwon 13 campaigns.
Each speaker has 10 minutes to speak. There will be nibbles supplied by Food not Bombs.
Come and get an update, join the discussion and show your support for these campaigns.
Drop the charges! Defend political protest
afterg20@gmail.com
The G20 arrestee solidarity network (ORGASN) has organised a joint public meeting with Civil Rights Defense at 7pm this Thursday the 26th of April, at the Fitzroy town hall, Reading room (cr Napier and Moor st, enter off Napier).
Dear Friends,
The G20 arrestee solidarity network (ORGASN) has organised a joint public meeting with Civil Rights Defense at 7pm this Thursday the 26th of April, at the Fitzroy town hall, Reading room (cr Napier and Moor st, enter off Napier).
At the meeting we will hear from:
- Marcus Banks from the Austudy 5 about the successful 'drop the charges campaign' run to defend the Austudy 5.
- Anita from ORGASN will speak about the g20 protests, police and media repression that followed, and will update us on the situation currently facing the G20 arrestees.
- Rob Starry, the lawyer who is defending some of the G20 arrestees and the Barwon 13 and will be able to update us on the legal issues in both cases including how the terror laws are being administered in the case of the Barwon 13.
- Colin Mitchell from Civil Rights Defense will update us on the David Hicks, Jack Thomas, anti-terror laws and Barwon 13 campaigns.
Each speaker has 10 minutes to speak. There will be nibbles supplied by Food not Bombs.
Come and get an update, join the discussion and show your support for these campaigns.
Drop the charges! Defend political protest
[orgasn] media release - first g20 court appearances this morning
This morning the first four arrestees appeared in the Melbourne Children’s Court, part of the continuing politically motivated police and state campaign against protestors following the demonstrations at the G20 in November. A solidarity action was held at 10am outside the courtroom in support of the arrestees.
These arrests have taken place as part of a wider campaign of repression against those who took to the streets to directly confront the illegitimate institution that is the G20, whose neo-colonialist policies perpetuate inequality and suffering around the world, and whose member countries engage in war, violence, and internal repression every day.
“The Ongoing G20 Arrestee Solidarity Network supports protestors directly confronting institutions such as the G20 and the wider system of which it is a part,” said Anita Thomasson, of the Ongoing G20 Arrestee Solidarity Network.
“Direct action and civil disobedience have long been part of a worldwide campaign against global capitalism and other issues. These tactics have a proud history of success from the suffragettes movement, to the struggle for the 8 hour work day, to the gay rights movement in Tasmania.”
In the past months, vast resources have been dedicated by the government to the police to carry out dawn raids, undertake extensive surveillance, and slap protestors with ludicrous charges and repressive bail conditions.
“This demonstrates the politicized nature of policing in this country,” says Anita Thomasson. “These charges are simply an attempt to allow only a certain form of protest that can be more easily contained and ignored, especially in the lead up to the APEC summit in September, where global leaders including George Bush will meet in Sydney.”
On Saturday the 21st of April, Liz Thompson, speaking at the David Hicks rally in Melbourne, drew links between the ongoing prosecution of G20 arrestees and broader attacks on civil liberties as seen in the case of David Hicks.
“Why is it that the full force of the state, snatch squads, federal police, anti-terror units, have been deployed against the G20 protestors, when Paul Wolfowitz, architect of the Iraq invasion, a man whom almost a million Australians, and millions more around the globe protested against, gets a special invitation?” she asked.
“The criminalisation of solidarity and resistance will not prevent us from taking actions in our own defence – it simply makes the law look more and more like an instrument of the rich and powerful to use against the poor and powerless.”
We are calling for all charges to be dropped.
For more information call Liz Thompson on 0421979694 or Anita Thomasson on 0411680052.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/04/143980.php
4/17/07
Coming Out as a G20 Arrestee
Sina Brown-Davis, one of the G20 arrestees, will be holding a forum at the Melbourne Social Forum on indigenous resistance to globalisation in the Pacific. The issues presented in this forum are intricately related to resistance to the G20 last year, and to APEC in the coming months.
http://arushandapush.blogsome.com/
I was arrested and charged last year with offenses related to the G20 protests in Melbourne. I've found the best way(for me) to deal with whats going on is to be focused on my politic and the indignation I feel at exploitation and injustice in our own communities, Australia, our region and the world. Its not as if the wheels of Globalisation have stopped rolling or anything.
************************************************************************************
PUBLIC MEETING
Jointly organised by the Ongoing G20 Solidarity Network and Civil Rights Defense.
Thursday 26 April
7pm
Fitzroy Town Hall Reading Room, cnr Napier and Moor St, entry off Napier St
Speakers include: Marcus Bankse from Austudy 5, Civil Rights Defense, Orgasn, and others.
Melbourne Social Forum
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE - April 21st - 22nd
There are 52 workshops running at the Melbourne Social Forum this
weekend, a reflection of the breadth and depth of commitment of the
various community leaders and pioneers, groups and organisations in
Melbourne. We thank all the groups and people who have decided to
participate in this years social forum.
Workshops this year range across a diversity of themes, including:
- Responding to the climate crisis
- Creating sustainable and public transport
- Social and Political transformations in Latin America
- Australias role in the Pacific
- Indigenous rights, sovereignty and reconciliation
- Alternative education, thinking and learning
- Re-localisation, biodiversity and food
- Non-violent accompaniment and direct action
- Making corporations accountable
- Grassroots Online Video Distribution
- International Solidarity Campaigns
The program is online and it is really inspiring in its diversity and
substantiveness. Have a look at the program:
http://melbournesocialforum.org/images/MSF2007_Programme.pdf
This is only the short version, the long one will be available
tomorrow.
Or check the website for detailed descriptions for each workshop in
the following link
http://www.melbournesocialforum.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcatego\
ry&
id=28&Itemid=76
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