Support for G20 arrestees at Melbourne Magistrates Court. : Melbourne Indymedia

The police put in a showing, too, and protesters were treated to prolonged and ostentatious filming.

The media crews in attendance also woke up when this supporter arrived with a little dose of satire - which rumour has it is soon to be banned in Bracksland ...

what a load
by non-crapizen of the anti-bloc Tuesday March 20, 2007 at 02:31 PM

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/police-put-bite-on-g20-suspect/2007/03/20/1174153032813.html

""A small group of protesters out the front of the court called for all charges to be dropped, and criticised the use of anti-terror police squads during arrests.

"We are here to defend our rights and are to protest the G20 and calling for all charges to be dropped," said Anita, a spokeswoman for the group.

When asked whether rioting protesters should be held accountable for their actions, Anita told theage.com.au: "We think a distinction should be made between violence and property damage.""""

Um... BOTH property damage AND violence are illegal. So your little protest is to overturn the illegality of smashing up shit in the CBD to vent your anger? This is more evidence the bloc heads are retarded. What happens in a post-capitalist anarchist society? Do you use violence to solve disputes there too? And if not, why do you use it now and not then? Perhaps because you are violent fucks, and you and your minority smeared the rest of the people (many many more than you) who turned up to make their VOICES (not fists) heard. You manipulated the media (because it's not like you were actually going to achieve anything else, asides from property damage) to make us all look like violent loonies.

You are anti-democratic and you should fuck off and organise your own protests the day after the non-violent ones. Lets see how well you go with just 100 (if that) people by yourselves.

You adopt these tactics because nobody supports your radical violent ideals. You are all young hot heads. The funny thing is that in a decade when you all finally get to 30 we will still be working for democratic change and YOU will be working in a suit.

Fuck you.

When asked whether rioting protesters should be held accountable for their actions, Anita told the Age , "We think a distinction should be made between violence and property damage."

Er...that's everybody's property except yours, I guess Anita? You're quite happy for someone to smash up your things to make a point?

Imbecile.

Good to see people put in support of direct action. However i'd like to stress that publishing photos with peoples faces on it is a bad idea. The post G20 repression has shown how photos can be used to detain people or simply gather information. It'd be a good idea to quickly paint over peoples faces before publishing them. I am aware that the police were filming anyway, but there is no point in helping them anymore. Identities are not important, the actions are.

dear non-crapizen of the anti-bloc

manipulating media? you would think the corporate media might have some investment in that practice its self you "retard". the protest was tainted from the beginnin, look at any country where the people have opposed capitalism in the streets. police brutality, heavy media bias (who do you think owns the paper you wanker) and vilification of any dissent.

you hardly sound like the type who would sit around singing songs of peace.
don't say us either, people like you don't have friends and probably are quite upset about it. go hand out flyers for the SA they are pretty accepting of halfwits like yourself.

Rocket McGreggor

I see with interest that the large banner held by several protestors reads, "Protect Our Right to Protest."

They held the banner while they protested under the watchful gaze of non-interferring police.

They were protesting for their right to do something they were actually doing.

Hmmmm, interesting concept.

The police arrested no one. No one was 'bashed' by the police. No police were injured. No public or private property was damaged.

That's because the protest was peaceful and orderly. Highly visible. Loud and confronting to some. But peaceful.

Are you beginning to see a pattern emerging here, kids?

Peaceful protest = no arrests. No aggravation. No injuries.

If the G20 protests had been conducted in this mature manner, no one would have been standing outside the courts holding a banner today. Because no one from G20 would have been fronting court.

It's so simple even imbeciles can understand the basic logic.

I guess.

The "Fuckwit Watcher" above must have a very short memory and total ignorance of history. The list of peaceful protests that have been violently broken up by police in this country is endless, but for a recent example take a look back to the S11 protests and tell me what provoked the swine into acting the way they did? Ghandhi was a failure, get over your self righteous pacifism and take a look at the real world

The passers-by on Williams street and outside the magis seemed to broadly fit into three categories: lawyers (wearing the wigs), journos(with the cameras) and the people they are messing with...

of the supportive comments offered by the passers-by (largely drawn from the 'people being messed with' group) one was:

"anyone who bashes cops has got my vote"

- thats a line worth following up.

Apparently one has to go back 6 years (S11) for a 'recent' example of police 'bashing'peaceful protestors. This in a city where protests are almost a daily occurrence in the central city area of Melbourne.

Kinda makes my point.

Apparently if one supports 'pacifism' or, more accurately, peaceful protest, one is self righteous.

Indeed.

Apparently Ghandi was a failure. Perhaps you can name a leader of violent street protests who has achieved meaningful change in Australia?

As for Sam's comment about supporting anyone who assaults the police, it kinda makes my point again.

The Fuckwits have indeed landed.

Last week’s highly provocative raids by anti-terrorism police on a number of University of Sydney students underscore the real political agenda behind the so-called war on terror. The bolstering of the state apparatus through a series of draconian “anti-terror” laws has been centrally aimed not at protecting ordinary people from the threat of terrorist attack, but rather at suppressing political dissent and intimidating anyone considering challenging the government or the state.

http://wsws.org/articles/2007/mar2007/raid-m20.shtml

I absolutely take your point, and have in the past on occasion blurred out faces. In this case, I asked the group if they wanted to be photographed, and made it clear the photos would be published here. Those who appear in the picture did so of their own volition, and were, as I understand it, consciously making a point in the face of the blatant intimidation being attempted by the police.
BTW, the single photo I have posted here hardly does justice to the extent of police filming, which much have produced an enormous amount of footage, if indeed the camera was filming all the time... I think I must figure in quite a lot of it, not to mention the press and TV crews and anyone else who happened to be around.

Although the police have been provided with lists by Socialist alternative and other Trot groups for decades now and I'm sure photos too and I haven't heard of anyone being harrassed yet so don't worry too much. That's the benefit of living in a democracy.

Nice try to stir up trouble between the Left groups, right-wing shithead. Seems like you're the one in the pay of the state, not Socialist Alternative.

I'm sure the police are far too busy to be bothered about suburban lefties. Keep on believing your grandiose paranoid delusions though if you want.

what about giving solidarity to the Muslim men in high security lock down in Victoria, or does their oppression by the sate not count, only yours?

Terrorism suspects apply for trial delay

The mid-year trial of Melbourne's 13 terrorism suspects is in doubt, with most of them applying for it to be delayed.

Lawyers for 10 of the 13 terror suspects will today apply for a stay of proceedings.

The defence team says it has been left with no option, with its clients refusing to meet with lawyers until their concerns about their conditions of imprisonment are addressed.

The Muslim men are upset they are not allowed to pray together, which lawyers say is allowed to happen at Guantanamo Bay.

The suspects are also unhappy about the lack of contact they are allowed with their families.

Corrections Victoria has said praying in a group is a public safety risk and contact visits are only allowed in high security prisons in exceptional circumstances.

The defendants have previously gone on hunger strikes, failed to show up for the first day of their committal hearing and threatened to sack their lawyers.

Justice Bongiorno is expecting to hear from Corrections Victoria and the Commonwealth DPP today in regards to the complaints, but has said if the suspects' application is found to be without merit, their lack of cooperation will rebound on them.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200703/s1877328.htm

Palm Island jury to consider verdicts

Palm Island jury to consider verdicts
Tuesday Mar 20 18:01 AEDT

A jury charged with deciding whether four men violently rioted on Palm
Island in November 2004 is expected to retire on Wednesday morning to
consider its verdicts.

John Major Clumpoint, William Neville Blackman, Lance Gabriel Poynter
and Dwayne Daniel Blanket, all of Palm Island, have each pleaded not
guilty in Brisbane District Court to one count of rioting with violence.

It is alleged the four were part of a large group of residents who
turned on the north Queensland island's police on November 26, 2004.

The police station, courthouse and an officer's house were razed to
the ground in the riots that erupted after the watch-house death of
Mulrunji Doomadgee a week earlier.

The jury was expected to retire on Tuesday, but Judge Milton Griffin
spent the day summing up the case.

He is expected to instruct the 12-member jury to retire on Wednesday
morning to consider its verdicts once he's finished summing up.

Judge Griffin told the jury it had to be convinced beyond reasonable
doubt that each of the accused "assisted, encouraged or aided in the
commission of the offence".

The riot began after the Palm Island mayor at the time, Erykah Kyle,
read out details of a coroner's report into Mulrunji's death to a crowd.

The group began throwing rocks and shouting threats at officers before
the buildings were torched.

©AAP 2007

Ghandi a failure? Check your history! Ghandi and his supporters won many of their campaigns.
Senseless violence was a serious minority at the G20 protests, and many people who peacefully protested, or didn't even have anything to do with the protests, have experienced brutal treatment at the hands of the Victorian police.
Down here in Tassie's forests we are constantly dealing with police arresting peaceful protesters. They are working on the command of the extremely corrupt state government who believe the future of this state lies in constant, high speed resource extraction from wild places.
The State (in the general sense) sees peaceful protest as a serious threat, much more so than violent protest. Peaceful protest has the moral high ground. Peaceful protesters can't be so easily misrepresented as crazy. The People will be more able to read the message behind a peaceful protest, because the government and media can't so easily obscure it with sensationalism.

"An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

beware of all 'pretty' paradoxes .. there are none in nature and nature is infinite, unlike the failed species of paradoxical humans

jus for the record Gandhi was incredibly 'violent' .. are you forgetting the results (of which he WAS FULLY AWARE) of his 'peaceful' revolution!

He succeeded, no doubt and millions died as a result .. how many did Hitler actually kill by his own hand??

Lilia makes some valid points here, but then spoils it whith unsubstantiated hyperbole.

Senseless violence was a serious minority at the G20 protests. Very serious.

And protestors chaining themslves to machines or blockading areas are not being peaceful. Blockading is an implicit use of force. 'You are not coming past this point and we are prepared to use force to stop you.' If the police blockade a student union building preventing anyone from entering, they'd be rightly blasted for an inappropriate use of force.

I agree that peaceful protest has the moral high ground. All the more reason to condemn the idiots at G20 who hijacked what was overwhelmingly a peaceful, yet ultimately futile, protest.

And Martin never threw anything at a cop, or destroyed other people's property. You insult his memory by invoking it in the same breath as these cocksuckers.

Read his Letter from Birmingham Jail if you want to get goose pimples from the power of words.

Wobbly - you are a tripper. Yes peaceful protestors were beaten and attacked by police at S11. Police will beat and arrest ANY demonstrators who are effective whether they are peaceful or violent. How is this an endorsement of violent protest?
Violent protesting tactics were used at the G20 and the crack down by police including snatch squads, serious charges etc has shown once and for all that the "black blocks" tactics are no protection from the state. You can hide your face but that doesnt make you invisible!
The power of non-violence is not that you avoid repression (you dont) but that people involved have the strength of their moral convictions to confront the state peacefully and accept the cosequences. It reveals the true violent and repressive nature of the state and most importantly it involves "being the change you want to be in the world". Why should we stoop to a competition of violence with the state.
So we all know that the state is repressive - so lets move on and actually debate what is both the moral and most effective way to create social change. Ghandi is my kind of failure! May the Left in Australia fail as spectactuly as Ghandi!
P.S. A peaceful blockade by the less powerful against the powerful is violent and therefore needs to smashed with violence- hmmm smells like cop logic to me.

what happened in court did charges get llayed against them

"I'm sure the police are far too busy to be bothered about suburban lefties. Keep on believing your grandiose paranoid delusions though if you want."

Which is why they launched Taskforce Salver and used informants and spies, not to mention the NSW counter-terrorism police to arrest "suburban lefties"..?

I didn't go to the G20. I don't remember why. But i do remember my first response to seeing the stories of 'violent' protest in the media at the time, and my reaction to it. it occured to me then that the 'violent' protests that occured quite possibly benifited the agenda of the G20 far more than it facilitated any ongoing and effective resistance to it.

It is an obscure hunch, but is it possible that the 'violent' action was provoked by agent provocaters who wanted to dominate the headlines with stories of violent protest. it is of course impossible to say, but in the end it was the G20 who ultimately benifited from all that stuff that got thrown, not the crowd that was protesting against it.

A march doen the street does not in itself acheive a lot, but whatever it may have achieved was undermined by the headlines being domintated by by the tossing of wheelie bins.

I have no objection to property damage as a tactic. i've even been involved in it at times. but if you want to bring down the state by smashing up its property, then why not do it on your own time, rather than undermining someone elses tactics, no matter how useless you arrogantly think they might be.

infiltration and manipulation still seem like the most likely cause of this fiasco. a situation which has benified no one except those in the ivory towers. the practice of divide and rule is as effective as it ever was....