PARTISAN!

Repression of the socialist movement by the police and their bosses is nothing new. In fact, the socialist movement should expect it, writes Adam Florence.

“Even with the most peaceful course of events, the present system always and inevitably exacts countless sacrifices from the working class.”

Lenin: Another Massacre

On February 9th, several thousands of protesters took to the streets of Brisbane to protest the arrival of the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, in Sydney.

After a lull in mass protests for Palestine following the farcical ‘ceasefire’—which has left, by the most modest figures, 500 Palestinians murdered by the IDF—the invitation and arrival of one of the guiltiest figures in the genocide of the Palestinian people reignited the fervor for liberation. Protests sprung up across major cities such as Brisbane and Sydney and in smaller regions like Wyong and the Blue Mountains.

Herzog received this invitation on the basis of ‘supporting the Jewish community’ after the December Bondi Shooting on a Hanukkah celebration. However, it seems to be playing out as more of a show of loyalty by Albanese and Wong to Israel.

Nowhere has this loyalty and commitment been more apparent than the rigid adherence to maintaining a ‘socially cohesive’ state. This social cohesion has been bought at the cost of increasing escalation of state repression of protests. Over 3500 police were deployed in the north-eastern region of Sydney where they have been granted ‘special powers’ to stop and search and move anyone on for any reason.

Herzog visited Canberra then Melbourne later that week, where protesters met a similar deployment of police. Naturally, the mass deployment of the police brought with it an unprecedented level of violence on protesters, with the worst being seen in Sydney. Footage showed police charging, releasing tear gas, and brutally beating and macing unarmed, peaceful protesters. Some victims were even pinned against the floor, then choked and repeatedly beat by several police officers. While the Melbourne protests remained peaceful, the police were deployed on mass, and the threat of Sydney-like violence loomed.

Behind the mask of every bourgeois state is the unhinged violence necessary to legitimise and maintain itself. Though we did not see such blunt violence from the police in Brisbane, the anti-free speech legislation, including banning the historic phrases “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the Intifada”, that the Crisafulli government is passing, and the general rise in hostility nationwide to left-wing protests will only contribute to this growing violence. The Albanese government knows the pro-Palestine movement is popular amongst the masses and that it has developed within it an attitude that embarrasses and undermines their idea of ‘social cohesiveness’.  Most importantly, the Labor government recognises that such movements jeopardise their relationship with the genocidal state of Israel.

It is unsurprising, then, that if – or when – this anti-free speech legislation is passed that the legality of holding pro Palestine demonstrations will be in question. The violence happening elsewhere will come here, and we must act accordingly. In Queensland, we are fortunate to have time to make the necessary preparations. We must proactively prepare for this extreme escalation; we, the people, must use every means necessary to keep protesters safe. We cannot allow the government to win by beating down and silencing our struggle.

May this article be a call out to all activist, socialist, and communist groups to make preparations for this violence. We must unite under the need to build a solid legal defence body, with the immediate task to build the capacity to unify so we may protect ourselves physically and legally.

We need to be prepared for the possibility of being arrested, for one of our comrades to be picked on by the police and for how we will protect our comrade should they be chosen as a victim of state violence. If you are going to these protests independently, then I would urge, with immediacy, to join an organisation such as Communist Unity. At minimum, maintain contact with members of an organisation who have a plan to defend you physically and legally.

The police do not escort our protest to keep us safe but to ensure that we remain within the guidelines of what the state allows. As soon as we threaten those guidelines, the violence of the state will be brought to bear.