BY EMMA
CLANCY
SYDNEY — In an extraordinary move, the newly re-elected NSW Labor
government has denied a permit for a student peace march on April 2, organised
by Books Not Bombs, the national student anti-war organisation.
Books Not Bombs coordinator Kylie Moon believes “this is a part of a
conscious campaign by the government and the media to attack and marginalise
the powerful youth section of the anti-war movement, and to vilify young
people from Middle Eastern and Islamic backgrounds.”
If you believed the NSW police force and the media, you would probably
think Sydney's Books Not Bombs student strike on March 26 was ``hijacked''
by young Arab men, who had been recruited by radical anti-war activists
to, as the March 28 Australian put it, “incite violence against
the police”.
Take the Daily Telegraph report: “With bottles and knives in
their hands and hate in their hearts, a mob of violent troublemakers yesterday
ambushed a student anti-war rally to lead a vicious rampage through Sydney
streets.
“A group of young men, described by police as `Middle Eastern males'
created havoc by throwing chairs, rocks, bottles, eggs and golf balls at
the police and media during several hours of chaos in the CBD.”
Police presence
What really happened is a different story. The size of the protest was
fairly similar to that of the March 5 student strike in Sydney, with one
addition being the arrival of university students after the Town Hall rally.
The main difference between the strike held on March 5 — which the media
described as “peaceful” — and the March 26 strike — which the media have
labelled a “riot” — was the massive police presence at the latter. There
were between 100 and 200, mainly Operational Support Group (OSG) police
officers present at Town Hall by noon on March 26, and there appeared to
be even more by the time the protest had marched to Hyde Park.
The police had made their intentions very clear on March 25, when police
commissioner Dick Adams lied to the media, claiming that the protest’s
organisers had not approached police for a permit to rally and march. This
lie was the basis of a scare campaign run by the corporate media, particularly
the right-wing talk-back shows, to urge parents not to allow their children
to attend the protest.
However, this campaign was somewhat stymied when strike organiser and
Sydney University student Simon Butler showed the rally and march permit
to news reporters.
The false claim was also the basis for the huge and unwarranted police
presence at the rally. Despite the last demonstration being peaceful, police
said they were “expecting trouble” this time.
On the day
Although the protest wasn’t scheduled to start until 1pm, students had
begun filling Town Hall Square by 11am, generating a festival feel as they
spruiked on megaphones, chanted and danced to drum beats. A couple of protesters
burned a US flag.
Clashes began after the police arrested two young Arab-Australian men,
both in their early teens. Protesters swarmed up to the glass door entrances
to Town Hall, through which the young men were visible lying face down,
handcuffed. OSG police officers beat back the crowd. One OSG officer tore
the hijab scarf from the head of a young Muslim woman while pushing
her backwards. This enraged many of those present, and in the ensuing melee
some protesters chucked chairs at the police.
Chris Latham, who was the Books Not Bombs member liaising with the police,
told Green Left Weekly that organisers tried to convince the police
to allow the march to begin 15 minutes early in an attempt to defuse the
situation, but police refused.
The march to Hyde Park was peaceful and vibrant, and included hundreds
of university students who had marched to Town Hall from Sydney University
and University of Technology, Sydney, where there had been on-campus rallies.
At Hyde Park, while speakers were talking about the war on Iraq from
the platform, police arrested a 14-year-old Muslim girl. This again sparked
anger among the protesters. Her younger brother was in tears, crying “Don't
touch her, don't touch her, she didn't do anything!”
A young Anglo-Australian woman demanded of the police, “Arrest me, if
you're going to arrest her”, pointing out that the difference between them
was not their behaviour but the colour of their skin, to which the crowd
cheered and applauded.
The students, however, continued the protest, marching to Prime Minister
John Howard's office to condemn his decision to commit troops to the war.
OSG and mounted police formed a line across Phillip Street, so the march
could proceed no further than Howard's office, and then blocked off the
entrance to the road with another line, imprisoning hundreds of protesters
between the police lines. Students who asked to go home were refused.
After being trapped for half an hour, with no police indication of when
they would be released, many protesters were furious, some scared and a
few were on the verge of panic. An attempt to charge their way out was
unsuccessful, and simply provoked more police repression. When individuals
tried to push their way through, they were arrested by the police. One
young man was punched in the face by a OSG officer and fell back, unconscious.
Another protester had her face cut just above her eye.
Protesters were imprisoned by police for almost three hours — and denied
access to water and to toilets.
Eventually, the police began to allow the protesters to leave in groups
of five, letting the young women in private school uniforms out first,
and finally the university students and Middle Eastern male high school
students. Protesters were made to walk out in single file through a police
cordon, and had their bags searched.
The racism of the police was as evident on the day as their provocative
tactics were. Adams was right when he told the media: “We had a group of
people who went to Town Hall for nothing other than to incite trouble”
— that is exactly what the police did! Having told the media the protest
would be violent, Adams and the police force set about making this a reality.
The job started by the police was finished by the corporate media. The
commercial television and radio stations, the Fairfax media and the Murdoch
press were unanimous in condemning the protesters, not the police.
The purpose of the combined police and media campaign is to reduce the
size, and influence, of anti-war protests. By vilifying Arab-Australian
protesters, and hyping up the “violence”, they hope to deter other students
from attending the protests.
They want to divide protesters by race and religion, and derail a powerful,
combined movement that could force the withdrawal of the Australian commitment
to this war. The police also clearly hoped to demoralise and scare off
many of those at the protest.
But they also want to divide the anti-war movement, by convincing broader
anti-war groups to disown the most vibrant and energetic component — the
youth. The media campaign of condemnation is an attack on the whole anti-war
movement.
Most importantly, the police and media are using their distorted representation
of what happened on March 26 to attack the civil liberties of every person
in this state.
Next rally — Wednesday April 2nd
Books Not Bombs is determined to go ahead with its peace march on April
2, despite police threats to obtain a Supreme Court injunction to arrest
every person who marches.
“We refuse to be silent while the bombs continue to fall on the Iraqi
people. We will not be intimidated by the police or Carr, and we are urging
all peace-loving people to join us in defending the right to demonstrate”,
said Moon, who is also a member of Resistance.
Books Not Bombs is also demanding an independent inquiry into the behaviour
of the police on March 26. They urging people to send messages of support
for their right to protest to <booksnotbombs@booksnotbombs.org.au>.
From Green Left Weekly, April 2, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly
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