Forty-nine activists fronted the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on January 21 on a variety of charges related to organising and participating in the 2024 International Land Defence Exhibition (Disrupt Land Forces) protest in September.
Jordan Shukri Armaou-Massoud told Green Left that the charges result from the Victorian government’s “disgraceful attempt” to stop protests. He pointed to Labor Premier Jacinta Allan’s proposed anti-protest bill as a case in point.
It was widely reported that the police used excessive force against protesters. Armaou-Massoud said the police were “brutal” to protesters outside the expo. He said holding a weapons convention while a genocide was underway in Gaza was abhorrent. More than 100 people were arrested.
Socialist Alliance Merri-bek Councillor and activist Sue Bolton said protesters should not have been charged for demonstrating opposition to a weapons convention.
Bolton said federal and state Labor governments should not be promoting Australia as a weapons’ manufacturing base. “War and militarism are destroying the planet; they are destroying people, their homes as well as the environment.”
Bolton said Labor pretends to oppose human rights abuses and claims to support the science on the climate emergency, but if it did, “it would not be fostering [such expos], including giving grants to weapons’ manufacturers”.
The cases were adjourned and bail was extended.
Jasmine Duff from Students for Palestine told GL that eight pro-Palestine student activists, are being “dragged through the courts for our anti-war activism”. Duff said the police had raided their homes and were “going really hard against very young activists”.
“There are a lot of people here today to support us, and we will be asserting that we do have a right to protest. This is an infringement on civil liberties,” Duff said.
Senior lawyer Bernadette Zaydan told GL that lawyers from the Watermelon Defence Fund challenged security company G4S’ confiscation of activists and supporters’ keffiyehs.
G4S said Court Services Victoria had directed them to, despite the keffiyeh being a cultural symbol. Zaydan said it was a “racist” act and argued that unless the magistrate had “explicitly sanctioned the directive there was no legal basis for requiring individuals to remove them”. The keffiyehs were returned before the activists entered court.
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