Against violence and intimidation, and for free speech on the left
An open letter to the International Socialist Organisation, Northcote branch
For some months now, Green Left Weekly sellers have been re-establishing a sales spot at Northcote shopping centre. For the same period the Northcote branch of the ISO has been attempting to prevent that from occurring.
We know that you do not want us to sell GLW at Northcote, you have told us so — "We dont want you here", "Go somewhere else", "This is our selling spot". Whenever we have raised the issue of a free competition of ideas you have scoffed at the concept.
You claim to support democratic rights and defend freedom of speech, but your actions at Northcote do not reflect an actual adherence to those ideals in practice. With only two to three GLW sellers each Saturday morning and around six Socialist Worker sellers, it has been relatively easy for you to subject GLW sellers to an ongoing regime of harassment and intimidation.
You have not only harangued and verbally abused GLW sellers, but have physically attempted to prevent Green Left from being sold. This has included standing virtually on the toes of sellers and blocking them from approaching people with GLW. On a number of occasions some of your members have elbowed GLW sellers in the ribs or pushed them aside as they attempted to sell.
On one occasion one of your members offered to have a fight in order "to settle this".
GLW sellers have not retaliated, simply wishing to exercise our democratic right to sell and hoping that the levels of intimidation would abate as it became apparent that GLW sellers would not be harassed and forced out of a lucrative selling spot. We also hoped that those among the ISO whom we knew were opposed to this type of behaviour would be able to convince others in the ISO that this undemocratic practice was unacceptable.
But judging by your actions on October 19, when you again severely harassed one GLW seller and elbowed another in the ribs, we now know that it is unlikely that your theoretical adherence to freedom of speech will extend to your actions.
You may wish to defend yourself, as you have done at Northcote, with your version of history — the "we were here first" game — but this is irrelevant. The immediate question posed is: do you intend to continue your efforts to curtail our freedom of speech, that is, our right to sell Green Left Weekly, or not?
We have therefore written to implore those ISO members who have already opposed your actions to speak up inside your organisation and put a stop to the intimidation. We also appeal to all those who are opposed to violence on the left and who support freedom of speech to let the ISO leadership know that the behaviour of the Northcote branch is unacceptable and against the best traditions amongst the left.
Ray Fulcher
Phuong Dang
Jai Stewart
Northcote GLW sellers