Bent on violence, outwitted by peaceniks

For weeks they kept saying we were dangerous agitators, all because we wanted to expel the stench of death from our city. And to tell the truth about the APEC killers dining in the Sydney Opera House, the ones who claim that dropping bombs is a recipe for peace. We came not in hatred, but as witnesses to history. Tabloid morons said the marchers didn’t know what they were protesting about, and yet the ignorance was entirely theirs.  Neither rain nor threats kept us away.

The march was peaceful, but the atmosphere was edgy. The NSW police had promised violence, and thus were disconcerted by jocularity and placards of Gandhi. We made it to Hyde Park and then came orders from a secret source. Leaping from a convoy of white buses, Ninja shock troops surrounded the park and blocked the exits. The mood darkened. Helicopters whirred. Snipers squatted on rooftops. Rumours swept the crowd. The footpath became packed with puzzled protesters pouring from the park, unable to cross the road, any road. “This is a trap”, I thought, as the water cannon rolled up Elizabeth Street. We had exercised our freedom to assemble, but we were now denied our freedom to disassemble.
 
It felt scary. Grandmothers jabbed fingers at the faces in the thick blue line. Larrikins led cheer squads mocking the cops. I said to several officers, “this is false imprisonment”. Perhaps we should rush the line, I muttered, and a wiser voice replied, “That’s just what they want”. Of course. It’s what they had spent the last three weeks trying to incite. Why? To discredit the legitimacy of those who know what’s really going on, and who are loud and clear in their contempt for the killers in the Opera House.

This is a black moment in Sydney’s history, when the aphrodisiac of power curdles the brains of policemen and lets politicians think they are potentates. When our adventure in Iraq has descended to such a level of criminality, that all the perpetrators have left between self hate and facing a war crimes prosecution, is to keep lying until they are blue in the face. But Hyde Park was filled with people who know the truth, and that’s why the powers that be are so paranoid. Finally the police line broke, and we wended our way home.

SAD SEVENTH BIRTHDAY

In August 2001, I launched www.richardneville.com with the aim of bringing futures thinking to a wider audience, having just returned from a conference in Minneapolis, where I mingled with wacky inventors and cloned bulls. “Smart dreamers float through the gilded ballrooms, muttering about space-food, third dimensional pixels and micro credit”, I ranted, “visions were painted of enhanced humans with the eyesight of an eagle, the sonar prowess of a bat, the speed of a gazelle”. A few weeks later planes struck the World Trade Centre and the “free world” set its sights on revenge.
On 1 October 2001, I asked,  ‘Who would have thought that in a globalising world at the dawn of a new millennium, we would see such a resurgence of jingoism? Who would have thought that in the aftermath of the recent mass murders in Washington and New York, surely to be understood as a hideous crime against humanity; who would have thought we would hear from on high, such utterances as … evil barbarians, dead or alive, smoke ‘em out, you’re with us or against us, infinite justice and … that the sole cause of the cruel attack is because the US shines as the world’s beacon of freedom and opportunity?




They call it a war against terrorism, but it’s more like a war against history. It’s a war against education and illumination, a war against seeing the world as a whole, a war against seeing the world as a system.
How odd to be galloping through a new millennium, while saddled with the values of the Old Testament.
Why so quick to pursue the agenda of war?
Within 24 hours of the attacks, a CNN anchor is wearing a superbly tailored khaki jacket, complete with epaulettes. Tabloid fascists dismiss cautionary voices as “appeasers”. Their solution? Give Force a Chance.



Justice must come to the perpetrators, so long as it really is justice, and not just the worlds biggest lynch mob”.

But it was not to be. Our ongoing intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan is basically a process of mass murder, dressed up as “reconstruction”. Imperial forces were slaughtering “ragheads” at the dawn of the 20th century, and are still slaughtering them now, from the safe distance of cockpits and remote US bases, like Pine Gap. But history is expunged  from public consciousness. According to Condoleezza Rice a few days ago on Australia’s ABC TV, America was “sitting innocently on a day in September, a beautiful Tuesday morning…” when barbarians struck. That’s it. End of story. An act of motiveless malignity. This is what passes as analysis in today’s White House. No reference to Blowback, term first used in March 1954 in a CIA report on the unlawful 1953 operation to overthrow the President of Ian and control the oil. The CIA's fears that there could be blowback from its malicious interference in the affairs of Iran were justified, but that’s another story, but not one understood by Condoleezza Rice. As Chalmers Johnson puts it, “The suicidal assassins of September 11, 2001, did not "attack America," as our political leaders and the news media like to maintain; they attacked American foreign policy”.

Perhaps the war against terrorism is working in the way its proponents intended. While it has multiplied the number of terrorists, it has also enhanced the power of the state. Politicians are authoritarian by nature and bullies at heart, so to them, helicopters, pomp, and heightened security are turn-ons. Armaments inflate their self importance. But who are these wretched outsiders who mock them? Scribblers, satirists, shady types. Quick as a flash, laws are enacted to curb tongues and civil liberties. “All for our own good”, say the lickspittles. But today I saw this sign at Sydney airport: “To make a joke during security procedures is a criminal offence”.  The war against humour has begun.

(Apart from the "grannie" and the image of US forces treating hospital patients in Falluja, the above photos  were provided by Jack Carnegie

Comments

[Angitia]

The whole APEC thing has given me nightmares. What a disgusting display of brute force. I have watched a number of those wonderful Italian neorealist Vittorio De Sica movies recently, I can highly recommend 'Miracle in Milan'. Post war/post fascist Italy did not only have to rebuild those shelled out buildings, the people's compassion and humanity had also been shelled out. Those buildings were metaphors for people. Part of De Sica's, as well as his story teller Zavattini's mission was to rebuild the people's heart and compassion for one another. I see that the people in this land will have a similar journey to make once our collective Government's fascist trend bites the dust. Thank you Richard for your post, keep up the good work.

[John Tracey]

There is nothing new about the brutality of the police at this demonstration.

Aboriginal communities around Australia experience the jackboot as everyday policing.

The above article speaks of a "war against history". There is a war against the history of this country also, a denial and a sugar coating that conforms to the great Australian mode of white superiority, or at least a Terra Nullius consciousness that is blind to Aboriginal people, their history and their contemporary circumstance.

It seems to me that the protests also were a part of this Terra Nullius perspective.

At present the government has waged war against Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. In their term of government they have wound back all of the Aboriginal gains of the 20th century including land rights, an independent representative body, the reccomendations of the royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and even the Racial Discrimination Act.

APEC was a prime opportunity to put these issues on the world stage, especially since the ALP has not raised even a whimper in opposition to Howard's Aboriginal agenda.

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was camped in Victoria Park, also protesting against APEC but the protests seem to have failed to connect with them or incorporated any of their demands into the protest.

It is not surprising when the civil liberties of middle class white folk are denied there is a huge fuss kicked up.

But the daily repression of Aboriginal communities including racist and thuggish policing manages to stay under the radar of even the protest movement.

[Terry Townsend, Blue Mountains Socialist Alliance]

Anti-APEC protesters: united and peaceful

SEPTEMBER 8 — Alex Bainbridge, chairing the Stop Bush/Make Howard
History anti-APEC rally told the gathered crowd that there were 10,000
people gathered at Sydney’s Town Hall. A contingent of hundreds of high
school students arrived at Town Hall, chanting “Troops out now!”, while
a contingent of hundreds of trade unionists arrived chanting “The
workers united will never be defeated!”

Green Left/ARTV videos: Sydney APEC 2007 peaceful protest videos
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/723/37552
&
http://www.socialist-alliance.org//page.php?page=684

Full coverage: http://www.greenleft.org.au/

[jacobroder]

Want to start your private office arms race?

I just got my own USB rocket launcher :-) Awsome thing.

Plug into your computer and you got a remote controlled office missile launcher with 360 degrees horizontal and 45 degree vertival rotation with a range of more than 6 meters - which gives you a coverage of 113 square meters round your workplace.
You can get the gadget here: http://tinyurl.com/2qul3c

Check out the video they have on the page.

Cheers

Jacob Roder

[Terry Townsend]

You are invited!

JOHN PILGER has just agreed to speak at the Green Left Weekly Fundraising Dinner

APEC Victory Celebration

Features greetings from:
John Pilger (film maker and journalist)
Graham Brown (retired coal miner and climate change activist)
Alex Bainbridge (Stop Bush rally organiser & Socialist Alliance senate candidate)

The 2007 Green Left Weekly fundraising dinner will be celebrating the fantastic victory that took place during APEC when up to 15,000 people took to the streets in the face of unprecedented police intimidation to condemn the policies of Bush and Howard on climate change, war and workers' rights.

Green Left Weekly salutes the thousands who made that victory possible as well as the ongoing struggles around the world. This dinner will be a chance to celebrate with a feast of fine food, music & revolutionary politics all the while helping to raise funds for Australia's leading progressive newspaper.

7pm, Saturday 29 Sept
Marrickville Town Hall, 303 Marrickville Rd
$25 waged, $15 concession, $50 solidarity

BOOK NOW TO AVOID MISSING OUT (and assist with catering). Phone 9690 1977 or 0413 847 852.

[imdougandirule]

Great post, great blog!

I'll definitely be coming back here!

[Seema]

Good words.

[tin whiskers]

Hi,
APEC was a prime opportunity to put these issues on the world stage, especially since the ALP has not raised even a whimper in opposition to Howard's Aboriginal agenda.