“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the oppressed and loving the people doing the oppressing”

Malcolm X

"Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it."

Howard Zinn

 

"The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."

Albert Einstein

“Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight.”

Bob Marley

 

"Better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees."

Dolores Ibarruri

 

"Activism is the rent I pay for living on this planet."

Alice Walker

“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” Aboriginal activists group, QLD, 1970s

“The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.”

Aung San Suu Kyi

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

“The most important political office is that of private citizen.”

Louis Brandeis

“Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.”

Mahatma Gandhi

“The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.”

George Elliot

“The only tired I was, was tired of giving in”

Rosa Parks

"The Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship was not a charity. It worked towards banishing the laws that controlled people's lives."

Dr. Faith Bandler

“We are the 99%”, we shall not be moved”

Occupy Movement

"I call on the government not to leave them locked up in limbo."

Refugee lawyer David Manne

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The Activist Rights website is for people who are trying to create positive changes in their lives and communities.

Resources on this site have been drawn from around the world and from our own experience here in Australia to help support new and experienced activists, campaign organisers, legal workers and progressive lawyers.

Our aim is to help Australian activist networks and movements face the police and legal system, build resilience against repression and to keep working for a better world.


 

About this site

This website is designed as an online resource base for activists, organisers, lawyers and legal support teams in Victoria and Australia. Please note both Victorian and Commonwealth laws are referred to, and in some cases the laws are relevant only to Victoria.

This site draws from the insights and experiences of both activists and lawyers.

In compiling this site we have sought the opinions of many activists, progressive lawyers and others involved in providing activist legal support.

The three main goals of this site are to:

  • Provide comprehensive, accurate and accessible legal rights and activist legal information that can be used by a wide range of Victorian and Australian activists.
  • Strengthen the capacity of activist organisations to develop effective activist legal support structures and approaches to the police, courts and legal system.
  • Strengthen the capacity of community legal centres, progressive lawyers and legal support teams to support activists who are facing the police and legal system.
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How to use this site

To make the most of the information on this website, download it! Activists can best use the information provided when they are 'on location'. Take it off the web and into the hands of activists and people who need it.

Download and distribute!

The guides and forms on this site are designed to be downloaded, photocopied and handed out. They can be used by legal support teams or republished in activist handbooks. Hand them out before actions, distribute them at meetings, and give them to people who need them.

Click here to get acrobat reader

Use this information:
  • In activist legal training workshops, at meetings, republish in campaign handbooks and newsletters.
  • When reporting, the pro-formas, guides and tip-sheets are designed to be used by legal support teams, legal observers and legal workers to help them provide support and back up to activists facing the police and legal system.
Make a link

This site will be more effective as more groups access and use it. Make a link to this site from your own website, blog, twitter account or social network page.

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