Re: AUT: parliament house

[David McInerney <borderlands@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I wasn't hurt.  I was three rows back pushing against the riot shields
in the shop.  As I remember it in the shop the front line were all
CFMEU, they were the guys who busted the shop door in.  When the cops
burst through with their baton charge those of us in the back rows of
the 40 or so in the shop bailed out while those in the front either
fought the cops (e.g., the guy who souvenired the riot shield) or got
beaten up.  I remember as we originally came into the shop there was
someone cheerfully giving us the gift shop stickers.
Besides the row of cops with the riot shields and batons at the doorway
between the shop and the foyer the main thing I remember seeing was all
of the people standing on the stairs taking photos and video footage.
Interestingly though the footage of the cops beating protesters never
made it on to television.
I never had any souvenirs from the thing, besides the sticker, which
didn't last long.
I can second what you remember about 'Bomber' Beazley being booed.

I think I might have known the PhD student actually, was it an
anarchist named Sharp or Schaap?  Anyway it's all memories now.  It's
very true what you say about it being a big part of  the crushing of
the left here in the late 1990s.  The ALP would have loved it.  They
are as fearful of the masses as the Libs.

David




On 29/11/2004, at 12:50 AM, Thiago Oppermann wrote:

> No, I personally know two ANU students, one then an undergrad, another
> a PhD
> philosophy student, who were arrested inside the building. I had a
> great
> talk with the philosophy guy who gave me a full Heideggerian breakdown
> of
> action.
>
> I wasn't hurt except for a bit of an eye-gauge (generally, ACT cops
> are very
> highly trained and not very brutalised), but two comrades were pretty
> seriously shook up and ended up in hospital. When the police reasserted
> themselves there was a fair bit of blood. That's when I got the can. I
> also
> got a giant silver cardboard cut-out of a hand giving the birdie with
> "Die!"
> written on it, but that's been lost, unfortunatley. It was quite the
> looker.
>
> Thiago
>
>
> On 28/11/2004 11:47 PM, "David McInerney" <borderlands@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
>> There is a paper on the August 19 events at Parliament House at the
>> following site:
>> http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/interventions/riot.htm
>> It mentions the cans with the stickers.
>> From my memory, the students (myself included) didn't cause any
>> damage,
>> we were mainly spectators and in many cases joined in the pushing
>> against the riot shields from three rows back or so.  I also didn't
>> hear of students being arrested, despite the fact that many left
>> wearing "I've been to the Parliament House gift shop" stickers handed
>> out to those who ventured into the shop.  I suspect that those
>> arrested
>> were Aboriginal activists and CFMEU and MUA members.  It was the union
>> people who actually broke the doors and hit police.  I vividly
>> remember
>> one union guy with a bloody face holding up a riot shield he had taken
>> from the cops, in a scene reminiscent of the one of the Predator
>> holding up the skull and spine of the Jamaican drug lord in Predator 2
>> ... quite silly really but it gives some idea of the anger of the
>> union
>> guys.  I also remember the terrible performances made by the ALP and
>> Democrat people on the official demo stage.  the other really vivid
>> memory is the huge cops without their numbers on their shirts (so that
>> they couldn't be reported) itching for a fight, except one female cop
>> who pleaded with us in a very agitated matter to disperse as she
>> didn't
>> want to be "forced" to hurt us.  The male cops seemed not to suffer
>> from such anxieties.
>> DM
>>
>>
>>
>>    --- from list aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
>
>
>
>      --- from list aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
>



     --- from list aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---