PARTISAN!

On February 9th, NSW Police launched a horrific assault against peaceful protesters in Sydney. Charlie G., a rally attendee, reports.

February 9th saw more than six thousand protesters descend on Town Hall Square in Sydney in protest of Israeli president Issac Herzog’s visit to Australia following the Bondi Beach terror attack in December. The protest was one of thirty around the country. Unsurprisingly, Sydney’s protest was the only one to be brutally put down by police. This follows over two years of rallies organised by Palestine Action Group (PAG) that have gone ahead with minimal violence from the state.

From 5pm, protesters began filling town hall square. Police had formed a human wall around the designated protest area, forcing protesters to enter via passageways flanked by leering riot squad teams. A blatant intimidation tactic. Similar to last year’s Harbour Bridge march, the crowd was diverse; it comprised the elderly, families, teenagers, workers of all sorts, and Sydney’s Middle Eastern diaspora. Groups and organisations included Socialist Alternative, Solidarity, and Socialist Alliance, as well as Labour Friends of Palestine (a member of which gave a speech), the Greens, and the Maritime Union of Australia, whose Sydney branch secretary was also a speaker.

The police were unable to keep the crowd in the square for long. Barricades were erected to prevent more protesters from joining the rally. PAG was quick to post on social media that aspiring protesters could ride the light rail into the protest area, bypassing the police blockade. As this continued, the police were forced to fall back, surrendering the light rail and a large portion of George Street to the growing crowd.

Grace Tame (2021 Australian of the Year recipient), to the outrage of reactionary media, led a chant of “globalise the intifada”. “You can buy guns and bombs, but you can’t buy love and compassion, those are our weapons.” The effectiveness of such weapons would be tested just two hours later, as police lines advanced toward the crowd.

As the speeches wrapped up at 6:30PM, speaker and First Nations activist Lizzie Jarrett made an impassioned call for the crowd to march. Her calls were echoed by PAG organiser and Socialist Alternative member Josh Lees, who in recent months has become the face of the Sydney Palestine movement. Following this, the crowd attempted to shuffle north along George Street, toward Parliament House, where scuffles with the police began.

Protesters stood in limbo on George Street as police began kettling the crowd in, not allowing it to march, but also preventing a safe dispersion. This confusion was a direct result of poor instruction on behalf of the organisers. Despite calls for a march from speakers, a destination or direction was not given; this left the crowd confused, disorganised, and completely in the hands of the police.

By 8pm, the police advanced, splitting the crowd at the intersection of George and Bathurst Street. A contingent of protesters, defying police orders, marched south on George Street toward Central Station. Meanwhile, lines of riot squads were seen charging at fleeing protesters east along Bathurst Street, arresting those who were unable to get clear.

Overall, twenty seven arrests were made. One young protester was seen being held down and repeatedly punched in the head and side by two police officers.

Partisan has obtained footage from the same evening by a Sydney commuter who captured a video of what appears to be Herzog’s motorcade. Dozens of cars are seen with a heavy police escort blocking the road.

The utilisation of NSW Police in cracking down on a peaceful mass demonstration, while simultaneously chauffeuring a foreign head of state accused of incitement of genocide, marks a new low in the authoritarian history of the Minns government.

Additionally, the demonstration followed months of protest bans and a failure by PAG to challenge the Minns government’s authorisation for sweeping police powers under ‘major event’ legislation in court, which ostensibly is intended to be used for sporting and cultural events. This clear misinterpretation of the law shows that the judicial and executive branches of government, who are supposed to hold one another to account, work in unison to suppress dissent and ensure unpopular diplomatic ties are upheld.

The events of February 9th will no doubt be a radicalising force for the Palestine Solidarity movement in Sydney and New South Wales. The limits of mass action have been demonstrated. If workers wish to sever Australia’s ties to Zionism, they require mass organisation. A truly organised working class would have been able to prevent Herzog’s plane from landing, limit his access to transport, fuel, security, etc. The failure of protest organisers to effectively communicate plans for a march shows that the task of militant organising is up to workers’ organisations and socialists, and can only be achieved in the form of a mass party.

Grace Tame was wrong about one thing: love and compassion are not our weapons. Our weapon is the working class and the potential power it wields over every facet of social, political, and economic life. That power just needs to be realised.

Do you have video or photos from the Sydney protest? Email partisanmagazine@proton.me