Tim Anderson speaks on Austudy arrests
MELBOURNE — Tim Anderson is touring Melbourne campuses to talk about the justice system and the fight for our rights and liberties.
Speaking at a socialist conference in Sydney in August, he repeated the theme that rights are not handed down by the state, but have to be defended by it.
"Gary Foley, the Aboriginal activist, says he's always been cynical about politicians who say you can demonstrate — if you stay within the law."
In fact, as Anderson explained, the law has often been changed or is created to stop people protesting effectively.
New law was part of the way the authorities tried to undermine the Aboriginal tent embassy outside federal parliament in Canberra in the early 1970s.
Trade unionists and environmental activists were still being taken to court in NSW today under a law designed to wreck a major strike by the timber workers in that state in 1929, he added.
"It's the same with trespass laws in Tasmania. Throughout the 1980s the Tasmanian government was embarrassed by the actions against the Franklin dam.
"A series of changes have been made to trespass laws precisely following successful pickets and industrial action — specifically to block such action."
Anderson's speaking tour is sponsored by the Defend the Austudy Five Campaign, which was set up after police arrested five socialists in dawn raids in Melbourne last year.
They were dragged from their homes and charged in connection with a student demonstration in the city against Labor's threat to abolish Austudy grants.
The most serious of the charges is "unlawful assembly". If they are found guilty, it means that everyone at the demonstration could also be charged — just for being there.
The five have been committed for trial and go before a jury either later this year or early in 1994. They could face jail for the "crime" of demonstrating for students' rights.
Anderson said, "The Austudy Five were picked out because they were members of the International Socialist Organisation and the police wanted to make them scapegoats for their embarrassment on the day of the demo.
"The charges are like the situation in South Africa, where if a crime is committed, everyone in the crowd is regarded as guilty."
A dozen trade union branches here and interstate backed the campaign as have most student unions in Melbourne, and many more around the country.
MP Phil Cleary, journalist John Pilger, actor Genevieve Picot, and NUS education officer Toby Borgeest are among those who have endorsed the campaign to defend the Austudy Five and to defend the right to demonstrate.
There will be a benefit gig at the Empress of India Hotel, at the corner of Scotchmer and Nicholson Streets, North Fitzroy, on Thursday, September 9, from 8pm.