On Friday 4th July, there was a ‘No police at protest‘ rally at the State Library in so-called melbourne, of around 100 people. The catalyst was an instance of disgusting police violence (one amongst many—including interstate) inflicted on a trans woman at the previous Free Palestine Sunday rally. Much of the crowd stood in active solidarity with her—and with that staunch energy post the rally, some networks called the Friday rally.
The framing of the Friday rally, limited to no police at protests, reflects the mixed politics in the broader Free Palestine networks. Black People’s Union speaker, Kieran Stewart-Assheton, called us back to the colonial reality: the cops are an occupying force, and cops are agents of the ongoing racist genocide the white supremacist state wages on First Nations people everyday. He underlined that we have to organise for our demands against cops, not simply speak them, because “power only responds to power”. To do this we have to organise with communities on the frontline, and for community self-defence against cops and vigilantes.
After the slate of speakers, the rally took to the streets, down the familiar route of Swanson Street. Cops, including riot cops, had been spotted lurking in the back streets, on call. But curiously, to begin with, they were not actively confronting the rally—the gathering wasn’t visibly corralled or confronted by police lines until the very end of the night. The corporate press have since reported that cop command made a tactical decision to sit back on the day, to “avoid inflaming the group”.
We have seen this before. At the Defend Dissent rally on March 19th—called in response to more authoritarian police powers being introduced in batches this year—police were slow and permissive with their police lines, and allowed a small group to occupy the Flinders St x Swanston St intersection for a period of time before riot squad threats.
By contrast, an ‘abolish the police‘ rally on the 9th of May—called after the trans liberation counter transphobe-fash rally on the 26th April, where a trans woman was also bashed and arrested by the cops—was heavily repressed. In the leadup to the anti-cop rally, police called a designated area where the event was to be held. On the evening itself, there was a highly visible police presence, including cops on horses and the riot squad. Anyone who arrived before enough of a group had gathered was intimidated and harassed, with police using their extra stop and search powers which apply in a designated area, including forced mask removal.
How can we understand these differences in protest policing?
An ACAB banner at the rally
Victoria Police operate under the repression model of ‘Strategic Incapacitation‘, where they carefully calibrate police response to neutralise different struggles. Part of this method is to shepherd us into being ‘good protestors’ and isolate the ‘bad protestors’. In doing so, police interplay between ‘community policing’ and ‘authoritarian policing’, which are two sides of the same coin. They also strategically conspire with the corporate media to manipulate people’s perception of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ protest.
For much of the ‘No police at protest’ rally on 4th of July, cops took a community policing approach. Cops’ analysis presumably pointed to the protest not being a big enough threat to go hard on, but instead saw the protest as a way for some networks to blow off some steam, releasing the pressure on possible further radicalisation. People were ostensibly treated as ‘good protestors’. But at the same time, the protest was monitored on ‘safer city’ network cameras, social media, some active cops/undercovers, and via the riot squad’s evidence gathering team sometimes taking a vantage point away from the protest (like at the church at Flinders St).
Conversely, on the 9th of May, cops initially took an authoritarian policing approach. This protest—occuring at the time when people were making connections cross struggle amidst the police murder of Somali man Abdifatah Ahmed—was seen as a radical threat isolated enough to straight out incapacitate. Cops pre-emptively scared people away from attending, using the designated area powers alongside a high profile effort to demonise participants as ‘bad protestors’ in the mainstream media beforehand (there was no corporate media coverage before the event on the 4th of July). They also tried to humiliate people with harassment / assaults via stops and searches.
Despite the fear it engendered, this strategy only increased the anti-cop feeling on the 9th of May event, and the blatant police tactics meant that the small protest got headlines in the mainstream media. But the authoritarian approach succeeded in keeping numbers low, intimidating people, and forcing many to attend unmasked. Partway through the event, cops switched over to a community policing approach, and stopped following the rally at all as it made it up Swanston St (see MALS report )—a shift that reflected how in many ways, the protest really had been ‘incapacitated’.
Returning back to the 4th of July, the rally did the usual routine up and down Swanston St. At the Flinders x Swanston St intersection, there were some scuffles with reactionaries. A small 1312 / Cops Kill barricade blocked some traffic. There were chants of Death Death to the [IOF] and KKK, IOF, Vic Pol—they’re all the same! There was not a big enough affinity group / contingent lighting the spark to do more, but many valiant individuals / small affinity groups tried.
Many rally participants were perhaps caught by surprise by the police tactics. Without overt and visible confrontation from police, they reverted to the usual ‘good protestor’ routine. One speaker after the rally got back to the state library said the police seemed to have ‘listened’, reflecting a politics quite different from the goal of building power. The politics and energy of the crowd was mixed in that way. What could have we achieved if we were more militantly prepared? Did we want to disrupt? Or do solely speeches to cameras?
On the way back, there was some scuffles with a group of teenagers, who were also masked up because they faced criminalisation by the state. We are unsure what was said that was offensive. Sometimes, rallies pick the wrong battles with people who say something offensive, but they are not an enemy to escalate a response to. There was also a confrontation with some Zionists, who had to retreat and hide in a store. We found ourselves back at our starting point at the state library. Was that it?
There was some more small speeches. One ended with ‘fuck peacefulness’. And it was with some of that energy that a bunch of us went to go disrupt Miznon restaurant on Hardware Lane.
In the days preceding, countless social media posts had circulated calling for a boycott of Miznon. Its owner, Shahar Segal, was* previously a spokesperson for the GHF, who are a counter-insurgent force facilitating genocidal massacres of Palestinians with the IOF under the guise of ‘aid’. (*He has since resigned after the protest.)
Hardware Lane is a narrow laneway, where most of the lane is taken up by tables, with a narrow pedestrian thoroughfare. Things started off pretty tame. The 30 or so that made it there chanted against genocide and the IOF at Miznon and easily clogged the area. Some people eating at Miznon left because of our presence. Some stayed. Eventually, Miznon started to lock their doors and push / ask many of us out, and into the laneway. People associated with the nearby business Max’s also joined in, in defence of Miznon. Some initially threw water at us. And later many would act as cops and bash comrades facing arrest. This is a stark reminder, we need to be organised to face both vigilante reaction as well as reaction by the cops.
After maybe 15 minutes or so, the riot squad arrived on the scene. The protest had become a ‘bad protest’. Many people tried to scatter, but the laneway limited exits. It’s at this point that much of the damage occurred: a broken door window, tables overturned, some things thrown. Cops and Max’s vigilantes assaulted comrades, and some of us were detained. On Tuesday, cops raided and formally charged three people—and there’s been two other raids / arrests in the week after.
Disturbingly, one comrade, was refused bail. The combination of new draconian bail laws, racist / classist prior criminalisation, and targeting for pro-Palestine protest, has led to him being locked behind bars. Court solidarity is coming up for him on July 18th.
On the same Friday night, the East Melbourne synagogue’s door was lit on fire allegedly by a man the cops arrested the next day (no motive publicly stated yet); and in a clandestine hit and run, imperialist military parts manufacturer Lovitt Technologies in Greensborough was hit: cars lit on fire, pro-Palestine graf and by red paint. Lovitt is well known as key supplier for the genocidal F35 program that bombs Gaza. A reported anonymous video by actionists ends with a threat: “Stop arming Israel or else.”
In the days that followed, the state-media whipped up a reactionary panic. “australia is under attack” screamed politicians and the media. It doesn’t take much for the ruling class here to be scared about the prospect of some anti-imperialism. Jacinta Allan has concocted some new police powers taskforce branded “anti-hate”. It is in this time of distraction towards “antisemitism” that we need to go back to what Kieran Stewart-Assheton reminded us of: colonialism. As Em Cohen writes: “Destroying the zionist project, and the white-supremacist colonial world that maintains it, is the only path towards a world without antisemitism, not condemnations.”
The restaurant action and the Lovitt hit and run are a taste of the kind of tactics that animate the threads of a threat against the colony and imperialism. While there’s lots to learn, we need more boldness in trying to do shit. The repression and media slander* is merely reflective of a worry those tactics may proliferate and so they demonise them. And through that, they hope the movement will internally police / liberalise via counter insurgency towards ‘good protest’ only. Samiduon have launched a helpful anti-repression zine, counteracting pressure to liberalise after Palestine Action’s designation in the UK. (*See corporate media hit piece on one visible group.)
As the state represses activity, the challenge on our side is to up our counter-repression in this place. How can we stick together with those repressed by the state (not just at protests)? What do we need to do to be able to escalate tactically, while at the same time trying to escape the hold of the state’s cops and cages? How do we take care in our networks in the face of repression? How do we generalise struggle against ‘australia’, towards anti-colonial frontline community defence and solidarity? There are many questions, but what has opened them up is the doing, and that’s what Friday has gifted us.