BY KIRAZ JANICKE

PERTH — About 1500 students rallied in Perth on March 26 as part of the national “Books Not Bombs” student strike against the war on Iraq. Students heard from Stuart Bunt, secretary of the UWA Branch of the National Tertiary Education Industry Union and other speakers. A contingent of students from the Australian Islamic College received a huge cheer when they turned up.

Students then began a vibrant march down William Street, accompanied by a heavy police presence, at the first intersection students occupied the road and stopped traffic, chanting, “Hey, Hey USA, how many kids did you kill today?” The march then moved on through the CBD, with police lining the march route, which was supposed to go round in a circle back to where the rally started. However the mood of the students was clear, they wanted to go to the US consulate. Students spontaneously broke through police lines and ran to the US Consulate.

Students occupied St Georges Terrace and began a peaceful sit down. Marshall’s were negotiating with police, when police on horseback charged into the crowd, forcing students off the road. Students swarmed around them and occupied the terrace again. Police then arrested the marshals who were trying to calm the situation. When students refused to move off the road the police removed their badges and began indiscriminately beating them with batons and horsewhips. Police in riot gear and on horseback repeatedly charged the crowd until they were forced off the road. A high school student’s leg was broken when a police horse trampled him. Undercover police were roving the crowd dragging people off. All up eighteen people were arrested and over one hundred complaints of assault by the police were reported to legal observers on the day.

From Green Left Weekly, April 2, 2003.
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