Response to the Canberra Protest

Returning to Brisbane after the AIDEX protest in Canberra felt something akin
to the culture shock you feel on returning from a foreign country of much
conflict to your more stable home situation.  We had travelled to Canberra
intent on highlighting the extent to which our country is being drawn into a
'new world order' of controlling and exploiting third world peoples in
countries around the Asia-Pacific.  Yet it proved very difficult to convey
this message through most of the media.

The extent of violence that was used by the police at the AIDEX site (in
particular the Tactical Response Group) has, as one person verbalised, not
been seen since the Vietnam war demonstrations.  There is no doubt in our
minds that the extent of the police violence used was well beyond that
necessary to break up blockades at the gates of AIDEX.  Certainly all the
protesters realised that if we intended to blockade the entrance gates or the
roads against police orders, that the police would remove us.  However their
excessive violence left most of us with an even clearer picture of the
connections between the state, its agent, and the multi-nationals.  They were
not simply removing people but were into obvious scare tactics.

As was made so much of by the media (which as usual focuses on any
confrontations between police and protesters), some protesters were acting or
more commonly speaking aggressively towards the police.  For some this
attitude resulted from their ideological beliefs, others said they were
acting out of self-defence, whilst others were angered by the excessive
violence used on themselves and their friends.

We personally felt the extent of confrontation that developed between many
protesters and the police not only fuelled the media's warped presentation of
the 'whole group', but also moved the focus of the wider public off AIDEX to
an extent - obviously just what the AIDEX organisers and supporters wanted.

Major violence is of course represented by AIDEX itself and although
remaining a major concern for us, any protest aggression we saw was not a
mark on the violence used by the police.  Unlike some protesters we believe
that dialoguing with the police is important - that some do care to recognize
something of the connections and injustices as we see them when given the
freedom to discuss the issues in a non-threatening manner.

We want to emphasise, for those who saw only the media coverage, that there
were many actions that you did not see.  There were numerous actions each day
of creative street theatre, much singing, a protest dance with a band,
workshops, uncountable hours during which protesters stood behind the police
lines dialoguing with the police about AIDEX.  There was the youth rally,
speakers and poets at the AIDEX gates, and the women's day of nonviolent and
creative actions ending in weaving brightly coloured strips of fabric and
paper along the AIDEX fence.

We believe that the protest was successful in a number of ways.  Arms deals
at AIDEX '91 were well below what its organizers expected and certainly some
arms dealers were put off from exhibiting next time.  But there were
negatives as well as positives, and particularly for those of us who adhere
to nonviolent principles (either in all situations, or only in our own
situation whilst feeling unable to form judgments on people overseas in
oppressive situations or even on the Australian Aboriginal situation).  We
were disturbed by the aggression of some protesters towards the police and
NATEX workers.  We personally have felt challenged to look at the differences
in strategies and tactics used by different groups at the protest and by the
need for better organization at various levels and particularly by those of
us wanting to protest without using violence or aggression.

For some protesters who were handled with excessive violence by the police
there is a new level of anger and perhaps a change of attitude.  More than
ever we have seen the lengths the state is prepared to go to allow the arms
expo to continue, and how the Australian media will present protesters in a
way which puts the public off side and protects the interests of the
multi-nationals.
Shelley Houghton and Rhodes Hart