@box text intr = [The following email letter was sent to Workers Online on July 5 and refused publication.]
NSW Police Association president Ian Ball writes a poignant letter to Workers Online (29/6) about the "moral dilemma" of being a police officer and his pride in officers "doing their duty" at Parliament House on the now historic Tuesday blockade.
Well frankly it doesn't wash. The actions of the police were entirely predictable. They simply cast a sharper light on reality. As an arm of the state the police primarily defend corporate property and interests and in this case its parliamentary institution.
Those workers heckling and throwing abuse were not misguided or confused individuals but rather fully aware of the critical role that the police play in maintaining the status quo for those in power. Police are not simply workers, like the rest of us. Similarly, forming an association does not make you a unionist. Doctors have the Australian Medical Association, accountants the Certified Practising Accountants, even businesses combine into groups like the Australian Industry Group and the Business Council of Australia. Unions they are not.
Plenty of unionists made hard choices about their duty on that day, as we do whenever we decide to take industrial action. It was certainly inspiring to stand in solidarity with construction and manufacturing workers losing pay, teachers missing school and public servants refusing to cross the picket line. Members of the police force who truly considered themselves trade unionists and committed to workers rights would have been standing alongside the rest of us blocking parliament.
Plenty of workers have been on other picket lines, however, bearing the brunt of the police doing their "duty". Most of us remember the waterfront dispute and many were at S11 and M1 feeling the bruises from that same "duty". Why did the Melbourne Nike store offer 20% discount to uniformed officers? They want the police presence to discourage protesters. Why is the police presence in Brisbane being massively boosted for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting? In the vain hope of intimidating protesters from expressing their democratic right, but ultimately to force us into line if and when the crunch comes.
I wonder what the police in Gothenburg were saying about their "duty" when they shot protesters? What about the police in Papua New Guinea trained and armed by Australian government support, as they shot student protesters?
The letter writer points out that police make a pledge to do their duty. The real question is, duty to whom?
Melanie Sjoberg