HEAVY-handed police tactics with Iranian students are apparently aimed at quelling a wave of campus rebellions against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election, which authorities fear could spill over to the wider population.
A Farsi website, Balatarin, carried an unconfirmed report that seven people had been killed in the southern city of Shiraz after confrontations with riot police at the local university. It is believed that five students may also have died in clashes at Tehran University on Sunday.
The students — named as Fatemeh Barati, Kasra Sharafi, Mobina Ehterami, Kambiz Shoaee and Mohsen Imani — are believed to have been buried on Monday in Behesht-e-Zahra, a famous cemetery in Tehran, reportedly without their families being informed.
Autnews, a website run by students of Tehran’s Amirkabir University of Technology, claimed that plain-clothes officers used firearms against students after forcing their way on to the campus. Students were said to have sought refuge in toilets after police raided halls of residence, where rooms were ransacked and beds set on fire…
POLICE raided a Melbourne porn business that makes up to $10 million a year from allegedly illegal activities.
Detectives raided five premises as part of Operation Refuge, seizing computers containing footage of women allegedly performing explicit sex acts, which are illegal to produce in Victoria.
They are also investigating allegations that some of the models on the porn company’s website are under age.
Police raided the Fitzroy head office of G Media – which runs a porn website – in the early morning raids, and arrested its director, Garion Hall, at his Heidelberg home.
Two storage facilities and another office were part of the Fitzroy raids.
Computer records and explicit DVDs allegedly containing material too graphic to be legally made in Victoria were among items seized.
It is illegal to profit from making porn films in Victoria.
It is believed Mr Hall denies any wrongdoing…
The Garion Hall Story
At the age of eighteen Ainsley Hall [NSFW] (along with Ainsley Verra) left school. Some years later, denied the opportunity to use his talents in the service of his country under his real name, as Ainsley Garion Hall Verra Abby Winters he began to operate what he called ‘The Operation’. He would masturbate and then promise Internet users access to images of him doing so if they paid him money. Four months later, he started another operation called ‘The Other Operation’. In this racket he employed young women to masturbate on camera, videos he uploaded to the Internet and made available for free. One month later he hit upon ‘The Other Other Operation’. In this Garion hired young women to pose nude and to perform in pornographic videos, to which Internet users were promised access — if they paid. This, for Garion, was the turning point…
I often wondered where all those posters I see on lampposts advertising jobs for alt.chicks led. Now I know. To Fitzroy, G Media, Garion Hall & Abby Winters / GMBill.com.
“I just want to see hot amateur models presented as they really are: hot amateur models.” So thought Abby [sic] to herself back in 2000. But everywhere she looked she saw girls glammed up to look like “porn stars”. So she decided to take matters into her own hands and do it right. Her models are fresh, unspoiled, beautiful and healthy. Her photography is breath-taking, detailed, well-lit and – above all – SEXY.
Nearly seven [sic] years later, abbywinters.com is still true to Abby’s inspiration. It features healthy, joyful Australian girls having fun and being naked. Nothing is faked: real girls, real settings, real sex, real orgasms.
G Media, owner of Australian erotic Web site abbywinters.com, is proud to announce a donation of $50,000 to the Red Cross Victoria Bushfire Appeal in support of the victims of Black Saturday. Past and current members have also been encouraged to donate to the appeal, with every donation being matched dollar-for-dollar by G Media…
The Iranian experience… raises some serious questions about Foucault’s thought. First, it is often assumed that Foucault’s suspicion of utopianism, his hostility to grand narratives and universals, and his stress on difference and singularity rather than totality, would make him less likely than his predecessors on the left to romanticize an authoritarian politics that promised radically to refashion from above the lives and thought of a people, for their ostensible benefit. However, his Iran writings showed that Foucault was not immune to the type of illusions that so many Western leftists had held toward the Soviet Union and later, China…
Second, Foucault’s highly problematic relationship to feminism becomes more than an intellectual lacuna in the case of Iran. On a few occasions, Foucault reproduced statements he had heard from religious figures on gender relations in a possible future Islamic republic, but he never questioned the “separate but equal” message of the Islamists. Foucault also dismissed feminist premonitions that the revolution was headed in a dangerous direction…
Third, an examination of Foucault’s writings provides more support for the frequently-articulated criticism that his one-sided critique of modernity needs to be seriously reconsidered, especially from the vantage point of many non-Western societies…
The Holocaust-denying-war-hero-with-the-gammy-leg’s magnificent victory in the recent Presidential election has been greeted with rapt enthusiasm by another contemporary hero of the authoritarian left: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez (Chávez congratulates Ahmadinejad, Tehran Times, June 14, 2009):
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has congratulated his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the success of his re-election bid, in yesterday’s poll.
In a telephone conversation with the Iranian president, Chávez said, “The victory of Dr. Ahmadinejad in the recent election is a win for all people in the world and free nations against global arrogance,” Iran’s Presidential Office reported. Chávez usually uses the term “global arrogance” to refer to Venezuela’s arch-foe the United States.
The call came after preliminary results were announced by the Interior Ministry saying that Iran’s incumbent president has won a landslide victory, gaining more than 64 percent of the votes.
Chávez also noted that the Venezuelan people and government always stand behind the Iranians.
In his reply, Ahmadinejad said that, “Despite all pressures, the nation of Iran had completely won (the election) and indeed this victory shows the clear road for the future.”
Before the start of the election too, the socialist leader had wished Ahmadinejad good luck in his re-election bid.
Speaking to supporters Thursday, Chávez called the Iranian president “a courageous fighter for the Islamic Revolution, the defense of the Third World, and in the struggle against imperialism.”
Despite receiving the tick of approval from Uncle Hugo, right-wing, counter-revolutionary scum — obviously acting under orders of the CIA — have taken to the streets in protest at the result of what is alleged to be a fraudulent election.
Fortunately, Iranian police and civilian militias have responded promptly to this latest assault upon revolution, the Third World, and anti-imperialism.
1. The Facebook Special Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics — aka‘Fuck Off We’re Full’ — appears to have been removed.
2. 16-year-old Sharon from Cherrybrook said she was not being racist or aiming at “anyone especially in Australia”.
3. Are flag waving middle class teenagers not racist, just incredibly stupid?
4. Can 65,000 racist meatheads all be wrong?
5. Timmeh! Come back!
6. Darrin ‘I’m more interested in the purer form of fascism’ Hodges writes: “The original group “Fuck off we’re full” [http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48449193335] was taken over by multicultualists on 15/06/09. “fuck off we’re still full” [http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=104930852776] is therefore a continuation of the original, but will be better administrated. This proves how destructive multiculturalists are.”
Czech neo-Nazis have cancelled a gig scheduled for June 20 in Prague. The gig — promoted on MySpace — was organised by the local franchise of Blood & Honour, members of the neo-Nazi Workers’ Party (DS) and a local businessman (Martin Franěk, owner of ‘Hate Core Shop’). Not playing at the event are Czech band Attack and Slovakian bands Before the War and Project Vandal. Also not playing are US bands H8Machine and the Bully Boys.
The cancellation follows a series of arrests — including the arrest of Franěk — by Czech police. The arrests were made, seemingly, on the basis that such gigs are unlawful, promoting as they do the virtues of “neo-Nazism, racism and xenophobia”. Video footage of the raids and photos of some of the items confiscated are available here.
In Australia, the promotion of “neo-Nazism, racism and xenophobia” by neo-Nazi organisation ‘Blood & Honour Australia’ (and fellow boneheads belonging to the ‘Southern Cross Hammerskins’) is a lawful activity, as is the production and distribution of neo-Nazi propaganda. Thus the two groups are organising gigs in Melbourne (Victoria) on September 12 and the Gold Coast (Queensland) on April 17, 2010. Neo-Nazi propaganda — including the awesomely titled album ‘Freezer Full of Nigger Heads’ by US neo-Nazi grindcore band ‘Grinded Nig’ are available locally through 9% Productions. 9% also has a happy home on YouTube. The 65,000 Australian fans of Facebook group ‘Fuck Off, We’re Full’ will also be delighted to learn that 9% sells a t-shirt especially for them, at the bargain basement price of just $25 (plus postage). Note also that the Bully Boys had no trouble touring Australia in 2004.
The arrests triggered protest rallies by small groups of neo-Nazi supporters in Prague and a number of other towns and cities in the Republic. At one such rally in Most, North Bohemia, on June 14, Peter Kotab, the leader of the Workers’ Party, found it all too exciting and collapsed while being arrested by police. Kotab was one of 15 neo-Nazis detained by police. “In Zlin, south Moravia, a meeting of ultra-right radicals ended up in a clash with anarchists on Saturday. The police in Zlin detained three men. Two anarchists were accused of rioting and an ultra-right radical was later released without being accused” (Police detain 15 rightist extremists, Prague Daily Monitor / ČTK, June 15, 2009).
Prague – The organisers have cancelled a concert of far-right music bands which was to take place in north Bohemia at the end of June in reaction to the police raid against extremists last week, according to the information published on the event’s official website.
The Call of Freedom concert was to start by speeches of representatives of the far-right Workers’ Party (DS), which were to be followed by the performance of music bands from several countries.
Last week, Czech police accused ten far-right radicals of having organised concerts as according to the police, the concerts are abused for the promotion of Nazism and fascism.
“Our event has been cancelled. Please, inform your friends about this,” the website writes.
According to the invitation placed on the Internet, the DS was organising the concert together with the Hate Core Shop.
The fliers placed on the website of the shop say the DS wanted to celebrate at the concert its success in the elections to the European Parliament in which it received 1.07 percent of the vote.
Hate Core Shop head Martin Frank is reportedly one of the radicals whom the police detained and accused last week.
According to Ondrej Cakl, expert who has been monitoring the ultra-right scene for a long time, [Frank] is one of the main organisers of neo-Nazi concerts.
Last Tuesday, detectives from the organised crime unit (UOOZ) detained ten radicals. According to the police, they all are members of the neo-Nazi National Resistance group.
The police accused them of organising 11 concerts since last April being aware that both participants and the audience were spreading the ideas of neo-Nazism, racism and xenophobia at the concerts.
Five of the detained persons have been taken into custody.
On November 10, 2007, on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, Czech neo-Nazis, reinforced by scores of German neo-Nazis, attempted to organise a march through the Jewish quarter of Prague.
Things didn’t quite go according to The Master (Race) Plan…
See also : Czech teenagers losing trust in police – survey in press, České Noviny [Czech Happenings], May 21, 2009, which reports that “The study shows that current young people have a more positive stance on Romanies. Three years ago, one-fifth of young people took a racist position, which is 1 percent more than in 1991. In 1991, 12 percent of young people expressed anti-racist attitudes, while in 2006 it was 43 percent.” | Czech media getting bad press over extremism, Christian Falvey, Radio Praha, June 6, 2009: “The Czech media is regularly ranked as one of the freest in the world, but recent events have called into question how well that freedom is utilised where political extremism is involved. Stemming from a number of heavily publicised incidents in recent weeks, many people are asking if it’s in fact media attention that’s actually feeding the occurrence of right-wing extremism. This week’s Talking Point discusses the events that have brought the journalists themselves into the spotlight.” [Audio]
Tonight’s ABC News reported that a letter, authored by the ‘Earth Liberation Front’, was hand-delivered to Hazelwood Power’s CEO Graeme York. The story was broken in the Melbourne Herald Sun:
Earth Liberation Front threaten Hazelwood power’s Graeme York
Mark Buttler, Stephen McMahon
June 15, 2009
UPDATE 11:15am GREEN activists are under pressure to dob in eco-terrorists [sic] who threatened the Hazelwood power station’s boss.
The Brumby government has warned the extremist Earth Liberation Front can’t be taken lightly with the FBI ranking them as the biggest domestic terrorist threats in the United States.
That State has also hinted tougher eco-terror [sic] laws could be on the cards in response to the terror threat.
Energy and Resources Minister Peter Peter Batchelor said today he would be “asking the Victorian Government to make sure we’ve got adequate laws to deal with these type [?] of activities”.
Any move is likely [that is, certain] to win support from the major parties, with the State Opposition also calling for wants tighter security at power plants after the threat to station CEO Graeme York.
Mr Batchelor said this was a “real threat” and that everything will be done to protect Mr York and his family after the letter was delivered to his house in Melbourne’s outer suburbs.
Mr Batchelor described the personal attack on Mr York as “unacceptable” and a worrying development.
“This [is] a direct escalation [sic] of the invasion of power sites that has been taking place in recent times – directly threatening the people that make operational decisions.
“It is totally unacceptable to invade power plants or to threaten management at their homes or invade the city offices of power plants,” he said.
“We want the Victorian police to bring down the full weight of the law on the sort [?] of people making these threats.”
Mr Batchelor said the green movement in Victoria must show that it respects the law and identify those people that have threatened Mr York.
“Victorian power supplies are threatened by these sorts of actions,” he said.
“There has been a steady and systematic escalation of environmental actions against our power supplies… it is unacceptable for the protest movement to put utility supplies at risk.
“It doesn’t matter if it is gas, electricity or water citizens deserve to have an uninterrupted supply.
“We ask the environmental movement to very rapidly identify the people who made this threat and tell the Police who they are.”
The surge in environmental protests shutting down facilities has also forced the federal government to look at boosting penalties for eco-vandalism [sic] and eco-terrorism [sic].
Power boss in terror threat
The comments come after the Herald Sun this morning revealed the extremist Earth Liberation Front secretly visited the eastern suburbs home of Hazelwood power station boss Graeme York and hand-delivered a menacing letter.
Police are investigating.
Shadow Attorney-General Robert Clark said today there had been three invasions at Victorian power stations by environmental extremists [sic] in recent months.
“They’ve been let off without conviction or with just fines,” he told 3AW.
“We’ve got to ramp up the penalties on people who do things like that.
“If you take a step out of a line at an airport and breach airport security you’re up for a very serious penalty indeed and we’ve got to do similar things at our power plants.”
Mr Clark said new laws were needed.
“These guys have just been let off, as I say, without conviction or with small fines, and that’s not acceptable, but we’ve also got to stop them getting in there in the first place, and the fact that Peter Batchelor wasn’t even told about this latest problem shows that our security’s not up to scratch,” he said.
The hand-delivered letter to Mr York reads: “The irreplaceable and precious eco-systems of this Earth are worth much more than your manicured lawn, expensive car and opulent suburban house.
“Your property will not remain safe so long as Hazelwood continues to pollute at such an inexcusable level, swallow millions of litres of fresh water every hour and cough out hydrochloric and nitrogen acids in return.”
Police confirmed they were investigating and sources said they were taking the threat seriously.
The extremist group has a record [sic] of following up on threats in the US, where it is suspected of torching dozens of homes, car yards and timber yards.
[NB. In reality, dozens of individuals have been arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced for such crimes.]
A police source said delivering the letter to Mr York’s home was a form of intimidation, much more menacing than posting it to his office.
“It’s saying: ‘We know where you live. We know your car. We know you’ve got a family’,” the source said.
Details of the letter are posted on the eco-terrorists’ [sic] website.
“Dear Graeme,” the letter opens. “As the Chief Executive Officer of Hazelwood power station, you are responsible for the dirtiest power station in Australia and the most polluting in the industrialised world.
“You are causing irreversible environmental destruction which will go on to harm not only those living on the planet today, but your children’s children too.
“We hold you personally accountable for this assault against our Earth. We do not take lightly to the perpetual destruction of our land-base for the selfish and short-term objective of fattening your bank account.”
The eco-terrorists boast of causing $150 million destruction in their crusade to protect the environment.
Their website shows photos of a burnt-out SUV dealership, a torched Hummer and wrecked earth-moving machinery.
They claim to have committed attacks in 17 countries and pledge to cause maximum economic damage.
Some ELF members have been jailed for the destructive attacks.
Established in England in the 1990s, Earth Liberation Front operates without a formal leadership structure.
The sprawling Hazelwood complex, in the Latrobe Valley, is one of the state’s biggest providers of coal-powered electricity.
Last month, 14 Greenpeace activists chained themselves to a dredger to get their point across.
The power plant is supplied by a mine, which produces 18 million tonnes of brown coal a year.
Hazelwood, which is owned by International Power, employs about 800 workers.
Mr York could not be contacted for comment.
A spokesman for International Power said the matter was in the hands of police.
Little is known of ELF’s activities in Australia, but there are suggestions it threatened the head of a major corporation last year.
A few points.
1. To the best of my knowledge, exactly one ‘action’ has been claimed on behalf of the ELF in Australia. The communiqué, published by Bite Back zine, reads as follows:
On the morning of Thursday the 31st of July, the Earth Liberation Front attacked the Victorian office of Gunns Ltd. This was an act of economic sabotage and resistance against the proposed Tamar Valley Pulp Mill, an ecocidal project which would cause disastrous and irreversible damage to the ancient and precious ecosystem of Tasmania.
This mill’s hunger for woodchips would mean a doubling of the already immense current rate of wood-chipping[1], ravaging the native forests of the North-East of the state. It would bring the Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle, the Spotted-tail Quoll and the Giant Freshwater Crayfish to the brink of extinction[2]. It would spew 30 billion litres of dioxin and furan laced effluent into the Bass Strait every year[3], consume up to 40 billion litres of fresh water[4], and contribute greatly to climate change[5].
We will not accept Gunns’ continual assault on Tasmania’s old growth forests, wildlife, water supplies and carbon sinks. More extreme forms of ecocide call for more extreme forms of protest.
We will not cease until Gunns abandons its controversial Tamar Valley Pulp Mill.
In defense of our Earth,
Earth Liberation Front.
[1] Gunns Ltd. Bell Bay Pulp Mill, Draft Integrated Impact Statement.
[2] Gunns’ referral under the EPBC Act, April 2007.
[3] University of Melbourne and Forestry Tasmania 2003; Bekessy transcripts, Wielangta court case 2006.
[4] Gunns Ltd. Bell Bay Pulp Mill, Draft Integrated Impact Statement.
[5] Trees — The forgotten solution to climate change, The Wilderness Society, 2006.
I reported it at the time on my blog (it went down today for some reason, btw). Anyway, this brings me to my second point.
2. I’ve blogged reasonably extensively on ‘eco-terrorism’ in North America, especially inre the activities of the ELF, and the recent wave of state repression popularly known as the ‘Green Scare’ (almost completely ignored by the state/corporate media sector). Regarding the Herald Sun article: the ELF was indeed elevated by the FBI to No.1 in their rankings of ‘domestic terrorist’ groups. This was the case until the 9/11 attacks, at which point Islamic groups leaped ahead.
3. The reaction by the Victorian Government to the publication of the letter is predictable, not only in terms of their assessment of the seriousness of the ‘threat’, and Peter Batchelor’s promise of new legislation which will tackle the ‘issue’ (obviously — and being, seemingly, a knee-jerk response — lacking in detail), but also in terms of locating the delivery of the letter in question on a continuum of behaviour which extends to the forms of civil disobedience engaged in by activists at power plants:
“This [is] a direct escalation of the invasion of power sites that has been taking place in recent times – directly threatening the people that make operational decisions.
“It is totally unacceptable to invade power plants or to threaten management at their homes or invade the city offices of power plants,” he said…
“There has been a steady and systematic escalation of environmental actions against our power supplies… it is unacceptable for the protest movement to put utility supplies at risk.
This should be read as the Government sending a clear message to environmental activists that they should expect increasing repression by police, and stiffer penalties for engaging in civil disobedience. The motivations for this warning are fairly clear, and corresponds to increasing public concern regarding the disastrous consequences of global warming, and recognition of the role the Australian power industry plays in its continued generation.
4. While it has been assumed that the source of the letter is indeed someone acting on ‘behalf’ of the ‘ELF’ — which, as noted, has no formal membership, and which title anyone is free to adopt to describe their action/s — its source could well be elsewhere.
TO BE CONTINUED…
See also : June 2009 Day of Solidarity with Jeff Luers and all Eco-prisoners (June 12, 2009) | Eco-terror threats in Australia on the rise, Lauren Wilson, The Australian, June 15, 2009 | Greenpeace slams threat to power station boss, Mex Cooper, The Age, June 15, 2009 (Note that the ELF site to which Cooper links — earth-liberation-front.org — is only one of several ‘ELF’ sites, in this case being established on July 10, 2007 by a self-proclaimed member of the IWW, and consisting of little more than criticisms of the tactic of arson. Further: “A copy of the letter, in which Mr York was told his “property will not remain safe” as long as Hazelwood continued to operate, was posted on the Earth Liberation Front’s website [that is, ‘The North American ELF Press Office’, not the site to which The Age links] on June 3.”)
Some words of warning!
Earth Liberation Front Communique: 06.03.09 Earth Liberation Front Leaves Message for Hazelwood CEO Graeme York in Australia
Communique:
Following the Australian government’s refusal to act on reducing climate emission while paying into the hands of the country’s largest polluters, the E.L.F paid a visit to the home of the CEO of the dirtiest Coal Power Station in the Industrialized World, Hazelwood Power Station, in Melbourne, Australia.
The E.L.F hand delivered the following note to his home:
…
Dear Graeme,
As the Chief Executive Officer of Hazelwood power station, you are responsible for the dirtiest power station in Australia and the most polluting in the industrialised world. You are causing irreversible environmental destruction which will go on to harm not only those living on the planet today, but your children’s children too.
We hold you personally accountable for this assault against our Earth. We do not take lightly to the perpetual destruction of our land-base for the selfish and short-term objective of fattening your bank account.
The irreplaceable and precious eco-systems of this Earth are worth much more than your manicured lawn, expensive car and opulent suburban house. Your property will not remain safe so long as Hazelwood continues to pollute at such an inexcusable level, swallow millions of litres of fresh water every hour and cough out hydrochloric and nitrogen acids in return. This Earth does not exist for the profits of avaricious CEOs like you,
AntiCopyright makes available all kindsa cool stuff. For free. Which is BAD for The Economy.
The Idler is not a blog, but a zine. Or: “a bi-annual, book-shaped magazine that campaigns against the work ethic.” I sez: Jobs Jobs Jobs Jobs Jobs Jobs Jobs. Jobs.
I’m pretty sure I’ve flagged Antifascist Calling… before, but if not: here it is again.
“Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and blogger whose articles and video documentaries have appeared in The Daily Beast, The Nation, The Huffington Post, Salon.com, Al Jazeera English and many other publications. He is a correspondent for The Daily Beast, a research fellow for Media Matters for America and a writing fellow for the Nation Institute. His book, “Republican Gomorrah,” will be published by Basic Books in March, 2009.”
For his troubles, Max recently received an angwy email from some d00d — “Hey max, you piece of shit. Lets meet so I can take you apart piece by piece. You are nothing but a smearing Jew that needs a very good and nice ass kicking.” which brought back fond memories of Mark Bastard’s tender refrains (“I promise you I will beat the fucking shit out of you and then make a black man take a shit in your face… @ndy you’re a fucking idiot mate and you better watch your back because when me and my mates are out and about, if we see you, ur dead… @ndy im still going to bash you, fukn gooknigger scum”. See also : Bloody Massacres, Suicide, Shocking Absence of Common Courtesy: Welcome to the Internets (March 7, 2009).
Ben Pobjie is newmatilda.com’s resident satirist. He blogs here. Ben collaborates with Cam (who collaborates with ZOG) to produce a podcast: The Media Ate My Brain. (Note: the comments are a little creepy: Ben & Cam have an obsessive fan in JacqUeline.)
@ndy slackbastard wishes it to be made more generally known to his readership that Yvonne has a blog, “dedicated to attempts by Yvonne of writing, thinking, and sharing. On topics regarding the future, past, and the intricacies of the present. And, to indulge in the practice of referring to oneself in the third person.”
Yuri sez: “The Movement is contagious and awesome because the people in it are the spirit of the Movement. And the Movement will continue because new concerned people will rejuvenate and revitalize this never-ending struggle. It just always makes you want to be part of it.”
I’ve often thought it would be nice if Australia had a Movement…
“The left should offer no comfort to these crazies. We should do whatever we can to isolate them. They are wreckers. If they grow in Australia it will simply make it harder to build future protests and movements.” ~ Mick Armstrong, Socialist Alternative, November 19, 2006
G20 solidarity speech
Before we talk about the G20 case, I want to acknowledge that we’re standing on Aboriginal land: on the land of the Eora people of the Gadigal nation. And I want to say that not just because it’s true, but also because when we’re talking about state violence and resistance to state violence it’s important to remember that it began here in 1788 and has continued ever since.
In November 2006 the G20 (the finance ministers from the 20 richest countries) met in Melbourne and protests began on Friday with ‘corporate engagement day’. As part of that the offices of defence force recruiting, of a company called Tenix, which is a military contractor, and branches of ANZ bank, which is profiteering from the occupation of Iraq, were targeted. These visits did manage to shut down every branch of the bank in the CBD.
The next day, as is standard for any meeting of the powerful, the city was blocked off with cops and barricades. Thousands of people defied this intimidation to protest in the streets of central Melbourne and a few hundred people – some of them disguised – diverged from the rally, ran around a bit, dismantled some barricades and smashed the windows of a police van.
Now, according to the state, the corporate media and some sections of the left, these actions were pretty much The Worst Thing Ever. We think there are plenty of good reasons for people to be angry under capitalism and about not having much say in how things work.
Arrests began the next day [Actually, I witnessed a few folks being arrested by snatch squads during the evening of the first day’s protest]. The newspapers published ‘dob in a thug’ photo sheets. The police formed a taskforce that raided houses and hung around pubs trying to get information. They carried out dawn raids in Sydney in cooperation with the APEC taskforce and the counter-terrorism squad. Part of the campaign of fear was that people were given unusually serious charges and lots of them. Things like riot, conduct endangering life, aggravated burglary. This was all part of trying to intimidate and isolate people.
All up 28 people [from New Zealand] were charged. One person, Akin Sari, is currently in jail serving a 28-month sentence.
Most of the other arrestees pleaded guilty to reduced charges and got fines, suspended sentences and/ or community based orders. However, three people are to go to trial in Melbourne County Court starting June 30.
There’s a [crazy!] mother from Melbourne – all they’re saying she did was wave a flag and yell, and she’s fighting riot charges. There are also two people from Sydney facing charges of aggravated burglary, which can carry a 25-year jail term, for allegedly walking into those offices on ‘Corporate Engagement Day’ with nothing more than glitter and water pistols [ultra-violence!].
These people have been through three years of worry, of travelling [the world looking for violence!] to court, of reporting to the police station on bail. They need our support so that individuals under attack aren’t left isolated [wreckers!]. Clearly these cases are about far more than the fate of the individuals caught up in them. As political prosecutions they’re part of a much broader attack – and their outcomes, and how we deal with them, will affect all of our abilities to act on our opposition, whatever tactics we use.
In many ways police attacks and the criminalisation of dissent aren’t new. There’s a man in jail in Queensland right now called Lex [crazy! ultra-violent!] Wotton: his crime was taking part in protests against the police after a cop beat Mulrinji Domadgee to death in a cell on Palm Island. The only reason this particular Aboriginal death in custody really made the news was because the community responded by burning the police station down. The cop was still found not guilty, got a promotion and compensation.
NSW police have new secret search powers and the new bikie laws can send people to jail solely because of who they hang out with. We had APEC with its secretblacklist and the thousands of cops on the streets. A bunch of Muslim men are in maximum security jail for the most bullshit excuse for a ‘terror plot’ ever.
This is how it works for a whole lot of people and those of us here who haven’t yet been personally hit with it need to understand that this affects us too. This is why solidarity is crucial.
The trial of the remaining G20 arrestees is potentially a key moment in developing a culture of political solidarity in Australia. Being involved in solidarity may not always be the most exciting thing to be doing, but as revolutionaries who will continue to face state repression, it is crucial to support and sustain people who are struggling to deal with the practical and mental difficulties of going through a long legal process, so that we all feel we are able to continue to participate in longer-term struggles and projects.
“any movement that does not support their political internees … is a sham movement” ~ Ojore N. Lutalo
Also, apart from donating money to help with legal and other costs, consider coming to Melbourne if you can while the trial’s on. Many of us manage to travel distances for political conferences and protests and it would seem at this time that being in Melbourne for this trial is as important as any of those. In between sitting around court there’s going to be political discussions about how we do support and solidarity in the future.
This is the text of a speech by the G20 Solidarity Collective, Sydney with additions by SourDough.
To donate to the solidarity fund:
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)
See also : Quake G8 2009 -– “We English, German & Swedish football hooligans are your crisis!” | Demonstration on 4th of July 2009 in Berlin.
“These are feral, low-life people that want society to be in a state of near anarchy for their own perverse pleasure. Let’s not mince words here. People who say they are anti-war but resort to violence and destruction to put their case are clearly a bunch of people who are dangerous to society. These are just anarchists that enjoy disrupting civil society. They do not have one fig of credibility.” ~ SA Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations Mick Armstrong Kevin Foley, September 6, 2008
What were the objections to the forming of a police force?
Some people believed that if the people wanted one they should do it themselves, not have the government do it for them.
It was also feared that the police force would be used to arrest opponents of the government, stop protests and destroy free speech. It was thought that the idea of a police force belonged in a foreign country.
How did it come about?
Robert Peel became the Tory Home Secretary in 1822. The Metropolitan Police Act of 1829 set up an organised police force for London, with 17 divisions, each with 4 inspectors and 144 constables. It was to be controlled from Scotland Yard, and answerable to the Home Secretary.
What were the early police like?
They became known as ‘Peelers’ and ‘Bobbies’ after their founder, and wore a dark blue longcoat and a tall hat which they could use to stand on and look over walls. Blue was chosen because it was the colour of the popular Royal Navy rather than red which was the army’s colour and struck fear into the people because of the way soldiers had been used to smash protests. The only weapon was a truncheon.
How did the public react?
They hated the Peelers. Many were poor quality – drunks and bullies. Of the first 2,800 new policemen, only 600 kept their jobs. The first policeman, given the number 1, was sacked after only FOUR HOURS! (He was legless.)
In 1833 PC Robert Culley was stabbed to death after the police broke up a political meeting. The jury acquitted the man who killed him, and a newspaper awarded the jurors medals! JPs were also angry that they had no control of the police.
Eventually however the impact upon crime, particularly organised crime led to an acceptance, if not approval, of the Bobbies.
Above : Police @ G20. In a move which stunned all and sundry, many elected not to wear any identification.
The “Intervention” — aka the ‘Northern Territory National Emergency Response’ (NTER), launched on June 21, 2007 — was triggered by the release of a report, Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle: Little Children are Sacred. The report was commissioned by the NT government, issued by the ‘Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse’, and publicly released on June 15, 2007. In other words, the HoWARd Government responded to the release of the Report in the space of less than a week (see : National emergency response to protect Aboriginal children in the NT, Media Release by the former Minister the Hon Mal Brough MP, June 21, 2007).
Notably, while the Report made 97 Recommendations in total [PDF], only two were incorporated into the ‘Response’ — or at least, this is what one critical source claims (without providing further deets. See : ‘Myths and Facts’, Stop the Intervention).
Sixteen months after the HoWARd Government announced its Intervention, ‘The Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) Review Board’ (appointed by the KRudd Government on June 6, 2008) released a further Report assessing its impact, released on October 13, 2008. The Review, it appears, is broadly supportive of the Intervention, if not all aspects of its execution. Thus: “No matter how good the framework, no matter how much money is available, you cannot drive change into a community and unload it off the back of a truck. That is the lesson of the Intervention.” (See also : Review paves road for ongoing intervention, Paddy Gibson, Solidarity, November 2008 | THIS LITTLE BLACK DUCK: Govt’s cosmetic changes to the NTER, Nicole Watson, National Indigenous Times, No.179, June 11, 2009.)
Many Aboriginal people, probably a majority of women, agree with the measures, although they have arrived at this conclusion as they have witnessed the benefits delivered since the intervention commenced: less drunken behaviour and violence, much lower admissions to hospital of people with alcohol-related injuries, and few alcohol-related homicides.
There’s a cynical view afoot that the emergency intervention was a political ploy – a Trojan Horse – to sneak through land grabs and some gratuitous black head-kicking disguised as concern for children. These conspiracy theories abound, and they are mostly ridiculous.
Those who did not see the intervention in the Northern Territory coming were deluding themselves. It was the inevitable outcome of the many failures of policy and of the strange federal-state division of responsibilities for Aboriginal Australians. Added to this were the general incompetence of the civil service and the non-governmental sector, including some Aboriginal organisations, lack of political will and the dead hand of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.
The combined effect of the media campaign for action and the emergency intervention has been a metaphorical dagger sunk into the heart of the powerful, wrong-headed Aboriginal male ideology that had prevailed in indigenous affairs, policies and practices.
It’s time for the voices of women and children to be heard. It’s time for both the federal and the Territory government to stop playing politics with the lives of the vulnerable and shut down the alcohol take-away outlets, establish children’s commissions and shelters in each community – as Noel Pearson has suggested – and treat grog runners and drug dealers as the criminals that they are. Otherwise, they will all have the blood of the victims on their hands.
~ versus ~
When the Howard government announced its NT “intervention” in June last year the overwhelming majority of Aboriginal people recognised that this was one of the most serious assaults on their democratic rights and living standards in more than forty years. Many denounced it as a “land grab” by the government and mining companies, and asked why, if Canberra were so concerned about the fate of Aboriginal children, was it necessary to suspend the Racial Discrimination Act and force “income management” on desperately struggling families.
See also : Black Politics. Inside the complexity of Aboriginal political culture, Sarah Maddison, Allen & Unwin, 2009 [Introduction: PDF] | Rollback the Intervention | Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) has heaps more infos here | Reconciliation Australia | Further deets on the KRudd Government’s response:
From June to September 2009, the Australian Government will be consulting with Indigenous people in the Northern Territory about future directions for the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER).
In its interim response to the NTER Review, the Government said it would introduce legislation into the Parliament in October 2009 to remove the provisions in the current NTER Acts that exclude the operation of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (RDA).
On 21 May 2009 the Government released a discussion paper setting out proposals for the measures affected by the RDA as a starting point for discussion.
The Government is open to other views, ideas and proposals put forward during the consultations.
This feedback will inform the Government’s legislative strategy.
Two Greek anarchists are making molotov cocktails. One says to the other: "So who will we throw these at then?" The other replies: "What are you, some kind of fucking intellectual?"
