Perth in lockdown for CHOGM and Queen Elizabeth

[antiestablishmentarian]

On the weekend of the 28th-30th of this month, the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) will be taking place in Perth, Western Australia. For this event, all civil liberties within certain areas of the city are being effectively revoked for two weeks, from the 20th of October to the 5th of November. The event is to be opened by the Queen.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/national/10416405/police-reveal-security-details-for-city-centre/
Citizens can be searched on the streets, are obliged to carry ID with them at all times, and people who are judged to be 'trouble makers' will be barred from the city centre by police, as will the homeless. Incidentally, there are military operations ongoing around the city, with hundreds of Aussie Army personnel, police etc drafted into the city from other states for the month around the meeting.

Protestors have vowed to make their voices heard despite all this, with the organising slogan for the planned demo 'Occupy Perth!'. However, it's beyond me how they will manage to do this. Their demands are centred on calls to take climate action, respect indigenous rights to land (native title, a real headache for the WA state government up in the North, where the resources are to be found but where the population is predominantly aboriginal and still maintain rights to native title, something the mining companies have been trying to get around) and for an end to the war in Afganistan.

[C. Flower]

On the weekend of the 28th-30th of this month, the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) will be taking place in Perth, Western Australia. For this event, all civil liberties within certain areas of the city are being effectively revoked for two weeks, from the 20th of October to the 5th of November. The event is to be opened by the Queen.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/national/10416405/police-reveal-security-details-for-city-centre/
Citizens can be searched on the streets, are obliged to carry ID with them at all times, and people who are judged to be 'trouble makers' will be barred from the city centre by police, as will the homeless. Incidentally, there are military operations ongoing around the city, with hundreds of Aussie Army personnel, police etc drafted into the city from other states for the month around the meeting.

Protestors have vowed to make their voices heard despite all this, with the organising slogan for the planned demo 'Occupy Perth!'. However, it's beyond me how they will manage to do this. Their demands are centred on calls to take climate action, respect indigenous rights to land (native title, a real headache for the WA state government up in the North, where the resources are to be found but where the population is predominantly aboriginal and still maintain rights to native title, something the mining companies have been trying to get around) and for an end to the war in Afganistan.


This sounds very like what happened in Toronto, for the G20.

It would be worth everyone planning on protesting having a look at what happened in Toronto, and working out how to do things differently.

Is this really legal ? There has been uproar in Canada for the last year over what happened there.

[antiestablishmentarian]

Unfortunately the main group involved in organising these protests seem to be the Aussie sister section of the SWP, so the idea of learning from past failures doesn't come into it. I'm not involved in them, too busy with work and other things, but their main plan seems to be to congregate in a square outside the main areas and then do...who knows :confused:

[C. Flower]

Unfortunately the main group involved in organising these protests seem to be the Aussie sister section of the SWP, so the idea of learning from past failures doesn't come into it. I'm not involved in them, too busy with work and other things, but their main plan seems to be to congregate in a square outside the main areas and then do...who knows :confused:

I can imagine.

In Egypt, a lot of different things were done - one thing was having a lot of different gathering points in neighbourhoods all over the place and then meeting up at one central gathering point.

In London, people ran, rather than marched, all over the place, like something out of Benny Hill.

I presume the Oz police will want to try their hands at kettling. Spreading out would seem like a good counter-ploy.

Advance publicity, making the aims of the protest clear and making the case for the right to protest is important too.

Do you know is there a facebook page for this ?

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Jayze. I'm beginning to get the idea that heads of state aren't liked as much as they used to be.

If you need to lock down an entire city in the western world then what are all the soldiers defending out in the desert?

[antiestablishmentarian]

http://www.chogmprotest.org/

This is one of the groups involved. And yes I get the feeling 'unorthodox' :rolleyes: police tactics will be used.

[antiestablishmentarian]

http://video.perthnow.com.au/2149460916/Nine-News---CHOGM-crackdown

[antiestablishmentarian]

Police have arrested more than 2000 people over almost 4000 offences during a three-month blitz ahead of this month's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Steve Brown said officers had been working extra shifts during the past three months in a crackdown that had led police to charge 2134 people with 3973 offences and to clear 6276 files.

In comparison, police charged 468 people with 677 offences and cleared 1638 files between April and June.

Mr Brown said police had up to 200,000 cases to work through at any given time.

The number fluctuated but police want that number to fall before CHOGM, when about 3000 officers - including more than 700 from the Eastern States - will work solely on the international event as part of Operation Demille.

"We're injecting large amounts of overtime and additional hours into that work to get the workload down so there is not much legacy work to be done during the week of CHOGM," Mr Brown said.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/10381354/police-nab-thousands-in-chogm-crackdown/

The preparations are in full swing to turn Perth into a fortress- as well as rounding up thousands to keep their 'hands free', helicopter patrols and buses full of cops are doing the circuit of the city day and night.

[antiestablishmentarian]

http://socialistallianceperth.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112273445548344


Inspired by the dramatic Wall Street Occupation, a number of people have begun a movement to #OccupyPerth. The idea behind this movement is that government is being run for and by the top 1% of the population and the rest of us – the 99% – need to meet and organise if we are to change things.
The first action in Perth in support of this movement will be on:
Saturday 15 October
1pm, Forrest Place/Murray St mall

It's not just the forces of law-and-order who are getting geared up early, this weekend Perth will join in the world wide occupation movement. This has been organised by all the left groups acting in concert at what is a very low point for the left in Australia (small numbers, economic boom, de-unionisation etc). The SWP and SP's sister groups are involved with a number of others in organising this movement.

[C. Flower]

http://socialistallianceperth.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112273445548344



It's not just the forces of law-and-order who are getting geared up early, this weekend Perth will join in the world wide occupation movement. This has been organised by all the left groups acting in concert at what is a very low point for the left in Australia (small numbers, economic boom, de-unionisation etc). The SWP and SP's sister groups are involved with a number of others in organising this movement.

Ahead of us here, so far as its possible to tell. I may be wrong, but there are no signs of active support from the Trotskyist groups in Ireland for "Occupy Dame Street"

I'm not sure about Saturday.

[antiestablishmentarian]

Saturday will work for them I think- the location is smack bang in the city centre, which is always busy on Saturdays, beside the central train station, on the citybus routes, and many people need to go that way to visit friends, to transfer stations etc. I'll probably stop by for a look and post up a report later on.

[C. Flower]

Saturday will work for them I think- the location is smack bang in the city centre, which is always busy on Saturdays, beside the central train station, on the citybus routes, and many people need to go that way to visit friends, to transfer stations etc. I'll probably stop by for a look and post up a report later on.

Good luck to you and everyone else with that, antie :)

[antiestablishmentarian]

The CHOGM lockdown went into place this morning, police guarding all the routes into the city centre, and patrols everywhere one looks. There have also been renewed threats by the authorities towards activists involved in the CHOGM Action Network and those who might think of turning up to voice their legal right to freedom of assembly.


A Perth protester has been threatened with 12-months jail if he steps foot in the CBD exclusion zone during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Veteran human rights campaigner Seamus Doherty said WA Police came to his house just before 7am this morning to tell him he had been named on an excluded persons list.

“I think it’s an infringement on my human rights and my right to freedom of speech,” Mr Doherty said.

“I have been in WA for 35 years and have never committed a crime.

“I have never been arrested at a protest.

“Why are they trying to make an example of someone who is a peace activist?

“I have a walking impediment, I walk with a walking stick so what are they trying to prove?”

Mr Doherty, who is a member of the CHOGM action network which is planning several protests during the event on topics ranging from human rights to climate change, has been banned from the exclusion zones from October 20 to November 4.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/10816976/jail-threat-for-protester-during-chogm/


Police and protesters look set to clash in Perth if a policy of busting protest camps is pursued, as signalled by West Australian Premier Colin Barnett.

Protesters would not be allowed to set up camp in Perth during the Commonwealth leaders' meeting and would be removed, Mr Barnett said on Monday.

Occupy Melbourne and Occupy Sydney protesters have accused police of using heavy-handed tactics after people were dragged from protest camps set up in central city squares in recent days.

An Occupy Perth protest is planned in Forrest Place in the WA capital from Friday at the start of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/10808146/protest-camp-in-perth-could-spark-clashes/

[C. Flower]

The CHOGM lockdown went into place this morning, police guarding all the routes into the city centre, and patrols everywhere one looks. There have also been renewed threats by the authorities towards activists involved in the CHOGM Action Network and those who might think of turning up to voice their legal right to freedom of assembly.


http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/10816976/jail-threat-for-protester-during-chogm/



http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/10808146/protest-camp-in-perth-could-spark-clashes/



This is a carbon copy of the G20 arrangements in Toronto, just over a year ago - there were cases taken I think about the legality of the "lockdown" there.

It is an outrageous removal of rights. The best answer to it is for large numbers of people to ignore it, just as the curfews were ignored in Tahrir Square.

[Baron von Biffo]

One protester made a wholesome protest in Brisbane.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/i-mooned-the-queen-says-anit-elite-protestor-charged-with-public-nuisance-in-brisbane/story-e6freoof-1226175479950

He hasn't been charged with arson.

[antiestablishmentarian]

Tomorrow is the big day, place has been literally crawling with police last two days, and with public transport and large sections of the city shut down, it'll be interesting to see how many protestors turn out.


While the Australian government is welcoming war criminal, Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa who is accused of overseeing airstrikes on hospitals and schools in Tamil areas of Sri Lanka, the survivors of his crimes who seek asylum here are imprisoned and driven to suicide in Australia’s detention centres. That’s why ending mandatory detention is one of the key demands of the demonstration tomorrow.
Furthermore, the Commonwealth is founded on the dispossession of Indigenous people. This is not a matter of history. The Northern Territory Intervention is about forcing Indigenous people off the land in remote communities to expand mining exploration. Andrew Forrest, owner of Fortesque Metals, and richest man in Australia from stealing land from Indigenous people is one of the key guests of CHOGM. Woodside, the company building the gas hub at James Price Point is one of its sponsors. Thus it is vital people protest for Aboriginal Rights at CHOGM.
The police crackdown on organisers of the CHOGM protest, is one more reason to protest. All along we have been organising a peaceful protest. Yet we have had our phones confiscated, homes searched by the organised crime squad, and individuals barred from the Security Areas without reason or avenue to appeal. When our democratic rights are under assault like this, we must assert our right to protest even more strongly.http://www.chogmprotest.org/post/334