queer – DISACCORDS

Sydney: Unauthorised Protest at the Mardi Gras 2018 by Pink Bloc

March 3, 2018 – BACK IN ’78 AND 40 YEARS LATER QUEERS REVOLTED AND QUEERS WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO

WE STAND AGAINST ALL OPPRESSIVE INSTITUTIONS & CORPORATIONS APPROPRIATING AND CAPITALISING ON OUR CONTINUING STRUGGLE

In 1978 queers took to the streets of Darlinghurst to denounce the intersectional oppressions we have faced for centuries. Queers with legitimate political critiques of the homophobic, patriarchal, capitalist status quo used a diversity of protest strategies to defiantly celebrate our identities and genders. Some danced, some kissed, and some carried placards, but most significantly, militant queers, fed up with being criminalized (and subject to various forms of physical, sexual, verbal abuse), literally fought the enemy, the notoriously violent, homophobic Darlinghurst cops, for our right to exist.

Now, 40 years later, queers continue the struggle against ongoing and diverse examples of state sanctioned anti-queer violence, and the capitalist pink-washing of what Mardi Gras represents as a significant moment in queer revolutionary resistance. Remember, ‘they’ only gave us ‘rights’ because we rioted!

40 years ago, staunch queers deliberately took to the streets to assert our rage as causalities of socially sanctioned violence by the mainstream establishment: police, religious bodies, authoritarian state-run institutions (prisons, psych wards etc) and homophobic “upright citizens”.

Today, in tribute to the original political nature of Mardi Gras, we continue to denounce state tyranny in all it’s forms – not just in the name of freedom and liberation for queer communities – but in solidarity with all those who are subject to ongoing criminalization due to their ethnicity/nationality, migration status, non-mainstream lifestyle choices, occupations, gender identities, class, species, and radical political praxis. Continue reading “Sydney: Unauthorised Protest at the Mardi Gras 2018 by Pink Bloc”

Ōtepoti (NZ): Queer anti-prison activists protest outside a National Party office

20 Feb – No Pride in Prisons Ōtepoti organised a small solidarity demonstration in the Upper Octagon today..

We stand with NPIP members up north today against the pinkwashing of Auckland Pride, in part by its own committee, and in condemnation of both the Department of Corrections and the New Zealand Police for their discriminatory, harmful and dangerous treatment of transgender prisoners.

Too many of our trans siblings have been lost in and to a dangerous system that ignores our basic human rights. The oppressors and abusers in that system do not deserve to march in Pride with us

NZ: Gay Cops are Still Cops

12 Feb – Over the past couple of weeks, No Pride in Prisons has placed increasing pressure on the Pride Board, and the Auckland queer community more generally, to ban uniformed police officers from the pride parade. As we now know, the Pride Board chose to disregard legitimate concerns with that institution being included. A common response to these concerns, from uncritical members of the community, has been: “What about the gay cops? Aren’t they a part of our community? Who are you to ban members of the community?”

To that, we ask: What is the queer community? The decision as to whether police can march in a pride parade is the kind of decision which determines what kind of community we are. Are we a community of marginalised peoples? Are we a community which cares about other marginalised peoples? Or, are we more concerned with consolidating the privileges of the most privileged within our ‘community’?

Cops have no place in any queer community made up of marginalised peoples. This is because it is the role of the police to uphold the privileges of the powerful, and maintain the marginalisation of the oppressed. How do they do this? As an institution, the New Zealand Police has admitted that it has an ‘unconscious bias’ against Māori. This is played out in the New Zealand Police apprehending and charging Māori at a rate that far surpasses that of Pākehā for the same crimes.

Police target and oppress other and overlapping marginalised peoples as well. You may have seen police harassing homeless people or people they suspect of being sex workers. No Pride in Prisons has received reports from trans women who have been violently assaulted by police and arrested for the supposed crime of “walking while trans”. The police’s targeting and criminalisation of certain groups is part of what makes and maintains their marginalisation. Community is required so that those on the margins can continue to survive. In other words, the police’s actions make the community necessary. As a result, cops are not and never will be part of a community of marginalised peoples.

Continue reading “NZ: Gay Cops are Still Cops”

Sydney: Queers against Cops respond to attacks

Indymedia: Following the 2013 Mardi gras parade (the corporate gaystream shadow of a radical and militant queer protest in 1978) a video was released online that showed a young shirtless man being choked by a police officer, then slammed headfirst into the pavement while handcuffed.

Outrage quickly spread across the Queer community and far beyond. Within two days, Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH) called for a demonstration against police brutality on Friday 8th of March. The rally was to gather at 6pm Taylor square, then to march to Surrey Hills cop shop then back.

Dozens of anarchists and anti authoritarians attended, some came dressed as mock riot cops while others brought about a thousand copies of 6 different leaflets and three large banners reading “NO JUSTICE NO PEACE FUCK THE POLICE” “ALL COPS ARE BASTARDS” and “GAY BASHING IS A NSW POLICE TRADITION”. Throughout the demo the large banners were used to protect demonstrators from police harassment. Continue reading “Sydney: Queers against Cops respond to attacks”

Sydney: Anarchist flyers from demo against police violence

Flyers distributes at the anti-police demo on March 8. Continue reading “Sydney: Anarchist flyers from demo against police violence”