By Michael Karadjis SYDNEY — "Residents terrorised by 50-strong Deuce gang", claimed one of the tabloids recently, regarding some incidents on the East Fairfield Housing Estate (Villawood). In fact "deuce" was just a word written on walls by an 11-year-old boy, who liked the word. According to youth worker Stephen Clarke, when one of the gang-hunting media shows turned up and asked a group of bemused young people how many of them were in the "Deuce gang", they all thought that sounded like a great gag and put their hands up. The media had invented a "gang". That wasn't all. As story after story reported on the fearsome atmosphere of residents being harassed by youths, the media invented the name "the Bronx". No-one had ever called it that before. "One kid thought it was the name of a gang in America. Another thought it was a place where really stupid people live", said Clarke, highlighting the damage to community self-esteem such nonsense reporting can cause. The "blood tunnel" was another invention. "None of the kids had ever heard of it before. There's no tunnel in the area, and no blood that I know of, but these labels then get picked up and used by the kids", said Clarke. But aside from the over-reaction, distortion and ignorance, the media blitz did highlight the desperate situation of a community neglected and starved of funds by the state government, while overall living standards have been falling. Between 1986 and 1991, average annual family income dropped from $16,000 to $12,000. Unemployment in the Fairfield region, of which Villawood is a part, is the highest in the state, with youth unemployment often over 40%. The estate, built in 1981 with 252 dwellings, houses approximately 2000 residents. Like much of the rest of Sydney's western suburbs, it is characterised by high unemployment, many people from non-English speaking backgrounds, large numbers of families with children and large numbers of young people. While living standards have dropped and unemployment risen, the previous state Liberal government presided over a funding freeze on community service grants from 1988 to 1995 — still not lifted by the present state ALP government. With rising costs, this meant an enormous funding cut. According to the Fairfield Community Resource Centre, "The Department of Community Services has been repeatedly approached by FCRC to increase resources. These [approaches] have failed to bring about any action ... The recent incidents by young people are symptomatic of resident frustration." But just what were the "recent incidents by young people"? In January, a group of young people set up a group called "Youth for Truth", which aims to counter the "sensationalised media portrayal of their lives ... and attempts by the authorities to shift the blame onto them". "Film crews hounded us for a week and a half, sticking cameras in everyone's faces and waiting for someone to explode. They come wanting to film a riot and don't leave until they've managed to provoke one", according to spokesperson Rami Fetta, 18. "TV crews were telling kids to throw stones. They paid them with pizza and 2 dollar coins." One example was a photo in the
Telegraph-Mirror of a youth with a shirt wrapped around his face, standing in a defiant pose, over a headline reading "Suburban ghetto masked in hate". The article called him "an urban guerilla". According to the young person in question, the journalists bought him a pizza to wrap the shirt around his face, something he would otherwise consider rather silly. The incidents began with widely reported rock throwing by some youths at the fire brigade as it put out a community bonfire on Christmas Eve. "The bonfire has been an annual tradition on the estate for the last 10 years at least. It was a community event and was attended by residents young and old. It was safe and well supervised", according to Fetta. Youth for Truth reports that local resident Kathy Cook claimed: "Firemen started to put out the fire before kids could even move out of the way. They were lifting their hoses up and threatening to turn the jets on them. I saw a fireman grab a kid and threaten to chop him with his axe. They started to abuse the kids, telling them to 'fuck off home'. The kids then retaliated by throwing stones." The media focus on supposed youth violence and invented "gangs" aims to shift the blame for the very real socioeconomic problems of western Sydney from federal economic policies and the state government's funding scandal onto the shoulders of small groups of "bad people". This response has included a vow by the Housing Department that entire families will be evicted if even one member is found to be involved in "gang violence". Clarke reports that police now turn up in full force for minor incidents, "which is likely to incite rather than calm". Even helicopters were flying overhead at the height of the frenzy. Said the Fairfield Community Resource Centre: "By concentrating on the young people on the estate the media has diverted attention from where the real responsibility lies — the Department of Housing and the Department of Community Services. "Residents are frustrated because requests for maintenance are not acted upon ... whenever it rains the roofs leak, interior floors flood, drains become blocked. There is inadequate lighting on the grounds ... and in stairwells, creating security problems for residents." According to Clarke, "When people are labelled, they often act in a way to live up to that label. When portrayed as gang leaders, rock throwing hooligans, as nothing much more than mindless animals, young people start acting the way the media expect them to. The media concentrated on a couple of incidents of rock throwing and bottle throwing, and since then that has become more habitual behaviour." Other youth workers have reported that some young people have taken on the role of "gang leaders" only after the media began labelling them this way. Until the state ALP government lifts the funding freeze and compensates for eight years of cuts, little will be achieved to overcome the effects of the federal government's 13-year shift of wealth from working-class communities like Villawood to its wealthy backers, some of whom employ "journalists" who offer kids pizza to throw stones at police cars for "a good story".