Excessive police violence against some 1500 anti-war and Palestine solidarity activists protesting a Labor government-sponsored weapons expo at the Melbourne Convention Centre on September 11 has been condemned by activists and organisations.
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The spectacle of police defending a three-day multi-million-dollar weapons expo — which hit headlines across the globe — highlighted the hypocrisy of those inside talking about “peace” and “security”.
It was the first time protesters can remember being attacked with a “flash bang” — a stun grenade that produces a blinding flash of light and an extremely loud bang.
With more than 1800 Victorian police deployed, along with a riot squad from NSW, the outcome was always going to be predetermined.
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Land Forces billed itself as a premier platform for defense, industry and government: it is platforming some of the biggest weapons makers in the world, including Israeli-owned Elbit Systems, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Hanwha.
Protesters mobilised for the week-long Disrupt Land Forces protest because they oppose war profiteers promoting killing machines — some of which are being used by Israel, with the support of the West, in a live genocide in Gaza.
The picket around the Convention Centre on September 11 was led by Wage Peace and Students for Palestine, and supported by a coalition of anti-war groups.
Nasser Mashni, Australian Palestine Advocacy Network President, told Green Left it was an “outrage” that millions of dollars were spent on hosting the weapons expo while a cost-of-living crisis grips the country and there is a “live, digital, genocide [in Gaza]”.
Victorian Labor allocated more than $15 million to police Land Forces. Its anti-terror laws gave police extraordinary powers to search people and force them to leave designated exclusionary zones.
Protesters were attacked by police using pepper spray, rubber bullets, flash bangs, tear gas and OC pellets (a special type of rubber pellet grenade). More than 42 people were arrested, several were injured and several had to go to hospital.
Melbourne Activist Legal Support (MALS) said their team of 20 independent legal observers witnessed “multiple incidents of excessive use of force by police”.
MALS said the behaviour of some individuals — in most circumstances after and in response to a coercive crowd control manoeuvre by the police or the use of weapons — “does not justify excessive force against others nor the use of force against entire crowds”.
MALS is examining evidence to determine infringements under international civil and political covenants, the Victorian Police Manual, and the Summary Offences Act (Vic).
A healthcare worker told GL that she treated several protesters for injuries caused by pepper spray and that the police response was absolutely “grotesque” and “horrifying”.
[Jacob Andrewartha is a national co-convenor of Socialist Alliance.]
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