R.I.P. Peter McGregor, Australian anti-apartheid and anti-war Activist
I have just received the sad news that Peter McGregor died yesterday. I was in recent email contact with Peter over organising around this week's 6th. anniversary of Guatanamo's opening.
Here is a photo of Peter at a recent anarcho award ceremony in Australia
Peter was a siginificant organiser against the racially selected Sprinkboks Rugby tour in the early '70's. I recently saw former activist, now British Labor Minister Peter Hain, talking in a televised documentary about Peter's organising in Australia at that time.
There are many people who knew Peter better than me, but my interactions with him were a joy. I met Peter initially when he helped organise the anarchist conference in Sydney around the visit of Noam Chomsky in the early '90's. In the late '90's, Peter organised a book launch for me & my book on East Timor on the campus of University of Western Sydney where he worked.
Peter was recently arrested for attempting to undertake a citizen's arrest of then Attorney General Ruddock for various high crimes.
I stayed with Peter and his partner Johanna in Newcastle a few years ago as he organised some speaking gigs around our forthcoming Irish ploughshares trial. He was a good and humble man, a good activist and organsier, he had a wonderful sense of humour and a deep sense of solidarity with those from the movement who were facing the courts or jailed.
He will be missed by many
Ciaron O'Reilly
London Catholic Worker
Peter McGregor protesting outside Spotlight store, Newcastle, June 2006.
Peter's last public email on 6th anniversary of Guantanamo Bay
Date: Jan 10, 2008 7:25 PM
Subject: 6th anniversary on indefinite detention & torture at Guantanamo Bay
Hi all,
HELPLESS… has the species amused itself to death ? Or is it time to explore Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s path ? (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer)
Tomorrow (11 January, 2008) is the 6th anniversary on indefinite detention & torture at Guantanamo Bay. Join us outside the U.S. Consulate in Sydney's Martin Place (Amnesty International - AI) at 8am, or at the Clocktower, Beaumont St, Hamilton, Newcastle (Newcastle Socialist Alliance - NSA) at noon, on Friday 11 January 2008 as we call for the U.S. to immediately shut down Guantanamo Bay. Contacts : AI, 8396 7670. & nsw.amnesty.org.au; & NSA, 4926 5328 & niko@NOSPAMidl.com.au
Another world is possible… but not likely. Why not ? "We didn’t know…” (see attachment cartoon - 1)
Until we decide to ‘take it personally’ (Anita Roddick), the world as it is will continue… As Jude Conway says, the best people are activists. (It has been great to know you all.) But there aren’t enough of us, & we aren’t getting there…
While, as Alice Walker says ‘activism is my rent for living on this planet’, I’m getting more & more behind on that rent.
When will the Gilbert + SULLIVAN Centre of Public Law (UNSW), the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Amnesty International Australia (AI), etc, practice what they
preach, and bring formal legal charges against the ex-Howard Government for its War Crimes? (When will Amnesty just expel Philip Ruddock for breaching AI’s
policies?)
When will the Rudd Labor Government bring the troops home from Iraq, call for the closing of both the Guantanamo torture centre & the U.S. spy base Pine
Gap, support a Palestine state, etc ?
And when will the people stand up ? As Alice McGregor use to say, if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.
As Howard Zinn says; “To be hopeful in bad times is not foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but
also of compassion, sacrifice, courage & kindness. What we choose to emphasise in this complex history will determine our lives.” And defiance becomes duty
when injustice becomes law.
>From the U.S. war against Viet Nam to the ‘War on Terror’, we see State terror - ‘Terrorism is the war of the poor. War is the terrorism of the rich’ (Peter Ustinov) - & from South Africa’s apartheid to Israel’s apartheid, we see the failure of humans to practice what we preach – to be human, & do unto others. While many Germans, & the world, may not have known what the Nazis were doing, the world, & especially Jews, know what the Zionists have been doing to the Palestinians for the last 60 year. Yet so many Jews seen to have no sense of shame? As Marx say "Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it."
And as Hugh Mackay sees it, Australian’s DON’T feel involved – they ‘shrug off any sense of responsibility’: Margaret Thatcher’s society of the spectacle? We know what is going on, & all we care bout is our… self-interest.
But just imagine… Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s path, that ordinary people start to ‘fight-back’…
But Daniel Berrigan observes: “because we want peace with half a heart and half a life and will, the war, of course continues, because the waging of war, by its
nature is total - but the waging of peace, by our cowardice is partial.'' The world surely needs to move beyond religion, nationalism, states & governments, to
the Eureka Oath of November 1854, Kurt Vonnegut’s ‘man without a country’, Alice Walker’s ‘possessing the secret of joy’ & the Swords into Ploughshares kind of resistance and civil disobedience.
Yours in increasing despair,
Peter McGregor, EADM (Eureka Australia Day Medal - 2007); & NSA
(see attached Vonnegut cartoon – 2)
Re: R.I.P. Peter McGregor,
R.I.P
is a Christian concept ?
Long may his life practice be celebrated as an inspiration to the living to keep up the struggle .
A great life.
Because ,as Peter beleived and sruggled for ,humanity deserves better.
Re: R.I.P. Peter McGregor, Australian anti-apartheid and anti-wa
Peter saw the suffering of peoples and the unspeakable crimes of the powerful and had to act to against them. His humanity and humanity brought him close to the impossible sensitivity described by George Eliot:
If we had a keen vision and feeling of all
ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow
and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar
which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the
quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.
Peter refused to wad himself with stupidity, and it made his life an eternal, often time very difficult, battle against injustice.
As a teacher and activist he made an enormous contribution to awakening and sustaining understanding and the spirit of rebellion in his students and fellow comrades.
His passionate contribution to the left, the anti-capitalist movement and the Socialist Alliance will be sorely missed.
Re: R.I.P. Peter McGregor, Australian anti-apartheid and anti-wa
This news is terribly sad. We all have lost an invaluable comrade.
Please see these comments from Steve O'Brien from Newcastle
Peter McGregor died in Sydney on Friday 11 January.
A long standing activist of anarchist persuasion, Peter had been a
lecturer in media studies at UWS until his retirement in 2005.
Totally unsectarian and extremely generous with his time and money,
Peter supported and was a member of, many causes and organisations.
His activism included involvement in the anti-apartheid movement,
Vietnam, Palestine and Timor solidarity, NTEU, Search, Exit, civil
liberties, Anti-war, Green Left (as an original sponsor and regular
street seller) and Socialist Alliance (founding member, former
National Executive member and a Newcastle convenor).
The widely-felt great respect for Peter was indicated last December
when a wide range of activists and colleagues from across the left
political spectrum attended his 60th birthday party. Many moving
tributes were paid to him that day, by everybody from the DSP to the
ALP members, including a Catholic priest.
In recent months Peter had become a `nightmare of conscience' for
Ruddock and Howard, having attempted to arrest both on a citizen's
warrant for war crimes.
We have lost an invaluable comrade, activist and friend.
Johanna, Peter's partner of 20 years, was still very much in shock
when we spoke and said that the funeral will probably be held in
Newcastle next Saturday.
As soon as details become available we'll pass them on.
Stephen O'Brien
Newcastle
Peter McGregor at the Kerry Packer "dis-memorial" 17-2-06
Peter McGregor at Stop Bush protest 8-9-07 (photo by Kerryn)
Alex Bainbridge
alexb@dsp.org.au
Re: R.I.P. Peter McGregor, Australian anti-apartheid and anti-wa
I am trying to find words...... Peter was a rare treasure: a truly decent bloke. I greatly admired and respected him. I am glad he lived.
Re: R.I.P. Peter McGregor, Australian anti-apartheid and anti-wa
I'm very sad to hear about Peter's death. Red Salute to a comrade who did not lie down until the very end.
Jvhn
http://hutnyk.blogspot.com
Re: R.I.P. Peter McGregor, Australian Activist
Yes we have lost one more of the goodies I'm sure Ruddock hasn't ever met a greater man without the intelligence to know it. Well done Peter.
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