Posted by goldstein! on April 02, 2002 at 21:00:19:
hey comrads have i got a story for you. over the last 6 days i have been hot and stuffy, freeing refugees, harrassed by the australian feds and over tired all
in the span of five days.
the story begins as we left the trades hall union building fifteen minutes later than we should have and headed out of melbourne toward woomera concentration camp 500klm's north of adelaide
we travelled for around one and a half hours before the lamest movie you had ever seen came on the buses TV. i tried to avoid watching it as TV is the root of all orthodoxy (i urge everyone to avoid TV in all its forms)
but after about half an hour of the movie and two and half hours on the bus the frontline camp at woomera was underattack by STARFORCE which are the south australian special police force, they were trying to remove the camp from the prohibited zone (which is an imaginary boundary that spreads in a 50klm radius around woomera!)
there were fifty people at the front as it was attacked and luckily for the refugees they managed to hold the line as more and more people began to arrive. we were still around 13 hours from the front and were desperate to get there as all of our numbers were on buses!
The group on our bus came to a collective descision to turn the movie off and listen to radio and see if it had made the news, of course as i always do i tried top block the voice of the radio announcer out of my mind(i can relate to winston on this matter)
after about another hour and a half on the bus my girlfriend recieved another phone call (she had recieved the first as well) saying that the camp was re-fortified and there were around 80 people there and more arriving by cars every half hour. The people at the front had cricled there cars around the camp as the cowboys used to against the indians.
and had fought starforce back to there own lines using passive blockade techniques and so on! the bus was releived and had relaxed although still anxious to get to the front i slept for about two hours and nothing happened until we arrived at the front line the next day!
When we arrived the STARFORCE had been stashed away and just the norm cops were out on patrol, there was a collective descision made that we would not set up camp until all the numbers were there and we could set the whole camp up in about ten minutes so the police could not dismantle it at all!
after about another hour this was accomplished and the spokescouncil had decided to meet in order to plan our first offensive attack on woomera! after about an hour of arguing the spokescouncil had decided to take action on the first perimeter fence which was around 500m from the campsite. i decided to stay behind because the action was somnewhat small and i couldn't be bothered waisting my energy
with such a small action and decided to sleep for a few hours! I had slept for about an hour and woke to the noise of confused street fighting and rushed out to do my part. i looked toward the concentration camp and saw hundreds of people hurrying back and overheard some people saying "what are we going to do now? where will we hide the refugees!"
with little time to think i tracked down my girlfriend who was fighting back a line of APS (australian protective service) officers. She was pushed and shoved and i managed to stop her from being trampled by catching her as she was falling! she gave me a confused smile and headed back to the front, we managed to drive the APS line back to the fence and my girlfriend had managed to bring down a lady officers morale so much she began to cry!
After about 20 minutes of more confused street battles (there was only one street by the way) the police bought in the divy van and began to track down and arrest the escaped refugees and take them back to the concentration camp to certain deportaion then ship them back to thier country to certain death!
they managed only to arrest about three detainees, this was when the horses were bought in, light cavalry (almost war horses) were bought in to break the blockade of a police truck that held some refugees. i was almost trampled by police as they ruthlessly charged thrpough the crowd stomping and pushing people to the ground one lady was trampled and eventually after ten minutes of battle the police were victorious and the truck sped off toward the detention centre!
The police horses and norms then set up a line at the side of the road, we chanted at them calling them ruddocks gestapo and commented that (because there uniforms are brown) that howards brown shirt were doing thier job. a friend of mine continuosly tried to woo them to ourside by saying things like "you know whats right and whats wrong" etc.
after around half an hour the confusion died and people had formed a blockade around a tent in the middle of the campsite with refugees that were surrounded by people the police began to move in after around fifteen minutes but backed off completely except for a few patrols in the camp, this to me seemed quite eary and somewhat disturbing because the reason the police had backed off was because
the people bagan to chant very slowly and very like a song, "peace peace peace is possible, and you yes you you are responsible" this chant continued for around three hours and police kept there posts inside the camp. but to the polices suprise and more to hours the blockade slowly disitergrated and the refugees were gone.
The spokecouncil had reformed and were discussing what to do with the refugees that we still had in the camp, the stupid Trotskyists( thgis just deppens my hatred for trots, who have often commented that quote" kronstadt is coming) started to say quite openly on the mega phone "people who have volanteered to smuggle refugees out of here please asseml\ble over here" which was quite stupid because police infiltraters were everywhere.
It had been decided, although me and my grrrl friend had disagreed, that we would all walk out togther away from the camp with the reefugees in cars and walkingh alongside us as a distraction technique, it was dark by now and the use of torches was neccasary! me and my grrrlfriend (she will remain unamed) decided that it would be best to get some sleep so we went to our tent and slept. although after an hour of what i would call a snooze, there were rumours running all over the camp (mush like those orwell confronted at the front lines in spain)
that the federal police were coming with steel truncheons to bust our heads and breakl up the camp, me and my grrlfriend awoke and began to get ready to fight off cops again but after two hours of restlessness the rumour turned to be a lie circulated by provocateurs anbd we went back to sleep.
We awoke the next morining and prepared our breakfest, then after about an hour at 11:00 the spokecouncil came together and we decided to do less of an action than we had done the previous day. they had decided almost collectivly (except from decent by trots, who were delibratly trying to make the spokes council authoratraian and less free and autonomous)
and the spokes had decided to take the toys that we had bought to the refugees. the groups assembled on the road about 400m from the first fence and began to march toward it, with suprising ease we had managed to break the line and we moved into the restricted area (which is not an imaginary boundry but the fence) and headed toward the camp!
the trotskyists had formed a PR government with use of the megaphones qand began to maunfacture peoples consent through manipulatio n techniques. (like those of walter lippman in public radio) so we dissented and headed toward the camp. about thirty people headed to 5m from the camp and the rest remained on the road about 400m from the camp.
we confronted the riot police lines and put the toys there and demanded that they be taken to detainees. the police said they would as long as we left the prohibited area. so after about half an hour of refusal we did and they toys appeared to be taken away where? we don't know!
after this spokes formed for a debriefing and the rest of the day was tame and the police were leaving us alone because there was a huge scandel emerging between the South australian state Govt and the federal Gov't. which i won't go into.
we went to sleep early and sle[pt reasonbly well. we awoke the next day and boycotted the spokescouncil because it was being distated by trots and anarchists alike. i guess the anarchists were trying to dictate because the trots were trying to destroy our collective and so on. (i hate trots)
after about three hours the last offensive of the weekend began and we enteered once again the prohbited zone!
we were conrfronted at the camp, (we were right up at the camp this time) by the SA riot police. protesters were forced back and i was shoved in the throat by police as we tried to force the line back, unfortunatly the police horses were moved in and the line was brocken, so asa group we began to circle the perimiter fcence of the camp,
the police followed us untyil we were opposite the side we were origanally at and we were face to face with refugees, except for the three lines of riot cops between us, they were very passionate the detainees and began to chant "freedom" in both english and arabic. all was fine until riot police
began to storm the compound and began to restrain refugees, the whole experience was very emotional and moving people both insode and outside the camp began to cry and i was very touched. The we decided that after about two hours of protest that the poeple were very tired, water was running low and people were hungry, we decided to retreat and head back to the front line. people chanted at the [poliuce that we had won and they had lost. but our struggle continues now
and will continue for years to come.
we beard the bustrip home (altyhough we lost our wheels to flat tires three time) and arrived back in brunswick melbourne tired and exhausted, me and my girlfriend were continuously fighting because we were both tired and stressed and every little thing that happened wa very irritatting.
i cracked the shits and walked over to the shooping mall to call my mother and tell her of my experience, my girlfriend followed me ten minutes later in tears saying how she was sorry we were fighting and son.
we went and bought some orange jiuce and headed back to the house. we opened the front door to see the back of a federqal police agent searching the house for escaped refugees. they had enetered the yard of te house unlawfully and one of the other residents had asked what they wanted, they took our names
and searched the house for ten to 15 minutes then left without finding anyrthing. this was very distrubing but had bought my sprirts back into revolutionary mode as we had the next level down from the thought police in our house (all police are thought police but ASIO make you disappear)
my girlfriend and the other housemates began furiously phoneing everyone who needed to know that the house was raided and my grrlfriend spent the next few hours phoniung people as i slept as best i could aware that we could be raided again at any time.
so in the end this is what happened as i saw it. please send me an e-mail if you wish to know more or want to ask any questions. our next big action is mayday, workers holiday in which we will be blockading the imigration depertment in melbourne.
then we are off to pine gap in alice springs to dismantle that US spy base.
good luck to all \who struggle against the system of corporate tryanny that has been imposed on us, and although our existence in this universe is pointless, the struggle must continue as long as we are alive.
to those who care, may freedom be with you!
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
MCDONALDS IS STRENGTH
peace to you all
goldstein!