Socialist Alliance stands up to police state laws

Socialist Alliance hosted a discussion on June 12 about standing up to the "police state" laws introduced into the NSW parliament for the period of the September APEC summit. One person arrested in connection with the G20 protests in Melbourne last November told the meeting that police had directed him not to attend the APEC protests. He urged participants not to be intimidated by such tactics.

Lawyer Kirrillie Moore explained some of the details of the new laws that ban banner poles longer than one metre and will ban protests altogether in large parts of central Sydney. Dale Mills, recently returned from protests against the G8 summit in Germany, told the meeting that similar intimidation and legal prohibitions had been in place there. These were successfully defied, he said, because of overwhelming numbers of people in the protests.

Raff Fantasia from Socialist Alliance explained that the key challenge for Stop Bush campaigners is to defy the intimidation by the government and corporate media and to defend the right to protest. Socialist Alliance committed itself to building the Stop Bush protest at Sydney Town Hall on September 8. Visit <http://www.socialist-alliance.org/sydney> to find out how to get involved.

From GLW issue 714