civil liberties

Dear Friends Down Under-

Many of you may
or may not know that in 2005 I traveled through Australia as a peace
and environmental activist doing trainings on civil disobedience,
corporate campaigning and the war in Iraq. The government in Canberra
didn't like it and canceled my visa, detained me in the Melbourne
Custody Centre for five days and then forcibly sent me back to the
United States with two police escorts. Furthermore, they told me that
I was not allowed to return to Australia ever and gave me an $11,000 bill for my trouble.

The NSW government’s decision in May 2008 to stage a roll-out of Tasers to general duties police before the July release of an Ombudsman’s report on their safety is based on flawed thinking and endangers those who come into contact with the police.

 Town Halls should map race and religion to
identify 'tension hotspots', says Hazel Blears in a UK "Daily  Mail" report.-
Blears: Committees will be set up to cut the risk of riots or disturbancesMore
than 10 million people are to have their everyday disputes, their politics and
their business lives checked by new "tension monitoring" committees.

SMH reports Anti-Terror  police counter-terrorism operations confronted Leichhardt municipal library staff shortly before 8pm on Thursday 8th May 2008 in relation to an exhibition of photos, poems and articles. The exhibition organised by Friends of Hebron entitled "Al-Nakba" (meaning "day of the catastrophe") was to open on Friday but the display was removed friday morning.

A police spokesman said the officers had come only to "say hi" to Friends of Hebron members.

Death has taken from us an extraordinary peace activist, internationalist, Left thinker, and comrade: Peter McGregor. He died on 11 January after a protracted illness, throughout which he continued major political work. Peter combined an infectious optimism that a truly free and equal society is possible with an unshakable commitment to popular activism, tempered by respect for self-determination and creativity. He believed in the radicalisation of human society in line with anarcho-syndicalist principles, more compatible with revolutionary socialism than is often understood. His high-profile contribution to the nascent anti-racist and anti-war movements in 1960s Australia, public advocacy for civil liberties, enduring solidarity with Third World liberation struggles and humble but distinguished co-leadership of the Anti-Apartheid Movement into the early 1970s framed his later trajectory.

Related: Rightsbase | Slackbastard | John/Togs Tognolini | Left Click | Les Beanz | Remote Control | Ken & Mannie | Socialist Alliance | Sydney Morning Herald | Initial news

With televised scenes of police snatching protestors, and even bystanders off the streets (video), and being assaulted by groups of police officers (video 1,2), NSW Greens MP Sylvia Hale has called for an independent inquiry into the actions of NSW Police during the demonstrations against APEC last weekend. "One very clear lesson to be learned from APEC is granting Police excessive powers and indemnity from prosecution accompanied by hairy-chested rhetoric from politicians will see police powers abused and the state’s citizens threatened,” Ms Hale said. See also:

• Marcher saves photo journo from possible death?
• Eye witness phone camera to YouTube shows police attempt to cover up assault?
• APEC Policing Demands Response

Four of the Sydney people on the Police Security Blacklist last night challenged the list as unconstitutional, but their legal arguments were rejected by the NSW Court of Appeal, sitting in an extraordinary evening session. Despite losing the legal argument, the four men - Dan Jones, Paddy Gibson, Dan Robbins and Tim Davis-Frank - have declared they will defy the ban and participate in Saturday's anti-war march by the Stop Bush Coalition.

WATCH THIS SPACE!
Just in case you missed it, a Bill has passed the first reading in the Federal House of Representatives that has profound implications for anybody involved in community actions to assist workers involved in workplace disputes. The Bill is directly aimed at union solidarity and other groups who are involved in legitimate protest activity. Workers who are involved in disputes with employers not only face losing their homes and being imprisoned for withdrawing their labour, anybody who assists them will now face the same penalties.

On Friday, 31 August, 21 people appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on charges including rioting, affray, reckless conduct endangering injury and criminal damage from the G20 protest in Melbourne in November 2006. Outside the court 30 people turned up in support and solidarity for those facing these charges. Police provoked an incident outside the court arresting two of the people who were there in solidarity with those inside the court facing charges. (Watch video)