Defiant Palestine activists beat Melbourne City Council attacks
Left-wing groups have successfully pushed back against Melbourne City Council attempts to restrict street stalls during the regular Sunday rallies for Palestine.
In late July, council officers backed by police began harassing stallholders at the pro-Palestine rallies, which have happened every Sunday in the city centre since October last year. The officers were attempting to enforce newly introduced restrictions on where and when stalls could be held and a ban on the use of marquees, the sale of goods and fundraising on city streets. Failure to comply with the new rules attracts heavy fines.
A horde of police traipsed behind council officers at the 3 August rally, helping them enforce the new rules. Before the protest started, 40 police surrounded a Socialist Alternative stall for half an hour. Some stallholders were intimidated into packing up, but others refused to comply with the draconian restrictions.
Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece, a former adviser to Julia Gillard, current director of enterprise strategy at the University of Melbourne and commentator for Sky News, leads the council.
After the 3 August rally, Students for Palestine and Free Palestine Naarm Coalition put out a statement calling for groups to defy the restrictions the following Sunday. Eight other organisations and activist collectives signed on. The following Sunday, the number of stalls grew, and the council and the police backed off and let the stalls happen without any interference or repercussions.
The success of this defiance shows what can be achieved when people refuse to back down when confronted with attacks on civil liberties and democratic rights. If the various stallholders, which included political, religious and community organisations, had complied with the council orders, it would have given the council confidence to introduce further restrictions, and possibly a ban on stalls altogether. And it would have been a concession to the idea that the council and the police have the right to dictate who can use the streets of Melbourne and for what purpose.
This is not the first hostile move on the part of the authorities against the pro-Palestine rallies. Police previously successfully banned organisers from bringing in the truck that carried the sound system and served as a stage, and police have used pepper spray at other pro-Palestine rallies to discipline the crowd. It’s important to defend all the democratic rights we have so as to better fight the injustices perpetrated by our government and strengthen the organisation of our side.
Street stalls have long been an important way for the left and the oppressed to organise and get their voices heard. Big business and right-wingers have huge institutional weight they can use to spread their ideas. Their representatives, like Rupert Murdoch, own and control newspapers and television channels that reach millions of people. Walking through the Melbourne CBD, it’s impossible to turn your head without seeing glitzy advertisements for billion-dollar corporations like Nike, Adidas and McDonalds.
Walk into any city cafe and you can pick from a range of right-wing newspapers, mostly owned by people aligned with the Liberal Party or worse. Our phones, laptops and televisions are likewise full of right-wing ideology and corporate advertising. Even the most careful curation of social media can’t escape it. The ideas and propaganda of the businesses and politicians who have all the power are pervasive.
On the other hand, socialists, activists and the oppressed have to scrape together funds to produce leaflets, posters and newspapers if we are to get the word out about our actions and ideas. Street stalls are an important way of reaching potential supporters and those looking for a way to oppose injustice. They are also a democratic space where people can argue their positions, raise funds and promote events.
Abolishing the right to hold stalls would make the city the exclusive domain of those who can pay for billboards, retail premises and advertising space—and the politicians who decide which political demonstrations are legitimate and which aren’t. Defying the council attacks is about saying the city should be for those wanting to challenge war, racism, inequality and capitalism, not just the wealthy few.
