Carr cracks down on pre-Olympic protests
By Bea Brear
SYDNEY — On March 27, Premier Bob Carr's Labor Party was re-elected in NSW with a hard-line "law and order" policy. In a push to "clean up the streets", NSW police have been refusing permission for political protest marches in Sydney on weekdays.
On June 18, 500 people participated in a rally, march and festival as part of the J18 international day of action against corporate tyranny. More than 300 police disrupted the action. At one point, police surrounded the rally, which had gathered outside the Sydney offices of Energy Resources of Australia (the company behind the Jabiluka uranium mine). Keara Courtney, a rally participant, told Green Left Weekly that the rally organisers were intimidated by police into removing the sound equipment and dispersing the rally.
A similar situation occurred on June 21 at an anti-GST action. About 1000 people, including students, unionists and pensioners, rallied to hear speakers outside Sydney Town Hall. When the rally moved to march on John Howard's Sydney office, a line of police attempted to block the protesters' access to the street. Despite the 150-strong police squad, protesters forced their way onto the street and a vibrant march to Howard's office ensued. At the other end the marchers faced steel barricades and police on horses.
At the May 19 national day of action against the federal government's "voluntary student unionism" legislation police used horses to keep students away from the doors of Howard's office.
At an anti-GST action at the Australian Democrats' Crows Nest office on May 31, 29 students were arrested and threatened by police with capsicum spray.
This stepped up police harassment of protesters is part of Carr's law and order push. The state government budget allocated extra funding to increase the number of police patrolling Sydney's streets. While this policy was designed to tap the "crime wave" fears whipped up during the election campaign, it has another more sinister aim.
Many activists suspect that police are "in training" for possible protest actions during the 2000 Olympic Games. Natasha Verko, the state environment officer with the National Union of Students and the police liaison officer at the June 21 rally, believes the government has a longer-term goal of overturning the student culture of protest and that the excessive police presence at protests will not let up after the Olympics.
Resistance activist Becky Fairall-Lee, who took part in demonstrations during the state election campaign against Labor's law and order push, told Green Left Weekly that the right to protest is a basic democratic right. "The Labor Party is trying to stop people from protesting against the policies of the Liberals. That shows that it is just as conservative", she said.