In response to an unprovoked and grotesque attack on the NSW Greens’ offices, discovered as staff arrived to work on November 8, the Socialist Alliance released the following statement.
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The NSW Socialist Alliance condemns the cowardly attack, involving faeces, on the offices of the NSW Greens sometime over the night of November 7-8.
Such actions have no place within a democratic society and should be rejected by all supporters of democracy.
This attack comes after the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union was finally able to fully reopen its offices following the attack on that union when a car, filled with petrol, crashed into their offices and set it alight.
Given the growing disaffection with the major political parties, these attacks were aimed at intimidating progressive forces and their supporters.
Despite media hype about so-called terrorist threats, a lot of the same outlets have been unusually quiet about these two attacks on progressive organisations.
Some commentators have even sought to downplay the attack on the NSW Greens office (“a little bit of poo”) while, at same time, arguing that what’s beyond the pale is that the Greens supported anti-war protestors’ rights to throw shoes at cardboard cut-outs of Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates on November 8. The clear implication from some quarters is that democratic rights to freedom of expression should be curtailed. We reject this.
The cowardly attack on the Greens, implicitly supported by a section of right-wing media, is aimed at creating fear about the growing support for the Greens, which the latest Newspoll puts at 17% compared with Labor’s 23%.
The Socialist Alliance condemns this attack on the Greens’ offices, just as we condemned the attack on the CFMEU offices. We will continue to work as closely as possible with the NSW Greens and other progressive forces. Just hours before the cowardly attack, NSW Greens activists, along with those from other left parties and progressive campaigns, had been warmly received at our NSW state conference.
The Socialist Alliance calls on all supporters of democratic rights to unequivocally condemn this attack and any other such political attacks.