Brisbane AIDEX Coalition Report

Two members of the Brisbane AIDEX Coalition, Shelley Houghton and Rhodes
Hart,  gave a personal account of  their  experiences  at  the  recent  Stop 
AIDEX protests, to PND. Admin. Committee and representatives from other
Brisbane peace groups.  This is reprinted from a letter sent to PND members.

Although the protests went from Sunday through to Thursday, and many 
creative and nonviolent actions took place, the media concentrated on the
violence that did occur.   Both speakers acknowledge the presence of a group
of people in Canberra, who seemed to want to seek violent confrontation with
the police.  Shelley expressed concern that police and AIDEX workers were
being denied freedom of speech and that the verbal abuse of these people by
some protesters gave her a feeling of alienation.   At some of the group
meetings there was a subtle and sometimes overt domination of some protesters
over others.  At some stages of the protests it seemed that people forgot
that it was AIDEX that they were demonstrating against and much energy was
spent opposing the police, both local and  members of the Tactical Response
Group.

So what actually was achieved?
800-1000 people took part in some form of protest against AIDEX.  They
represented thousands more ordinary Australians who oppose our country's arms
export industry.  The high numbers of police used and the presence of the
T.R.G exposed again the alliance of the State, the military, business
interests and the media in presenting a very negative image of the peace
movement to the general public.

What the public did not see and what we have to spread throughout our network
is the image of hours of dialogue that occurred in a peaceful way between
protesters and police men and women.  The creative action was organised by
Friends of the Earth, which included several speeches linking the arms
industry with the damage to the global environment.  A poster-making session
produced creative posters to dispay to passing traffic.   When the women
returned from their special action at the War Memorial, they decorated the
wire fence with wool etc., to make a peace collage.

It is true many people were injured by the police during nonviolent, civil
disobedience type actions.  The T.R.G used a level of violence that shocked
many people.  When forty to fifty people were arrested on Tuesday, they were
held under an out-dated law and in the court the police failed to make the
charges stick.  A case is being taken to the A.C.T. Ombudsman regarding the
level of violence used by certain members of the police and the T.R.G.  The
cost to the State of using such a large force to protect AIDEX must also be
mentioned.

Finally  then, was the protest successful?
AIDEX still continued although at one stage there was talk of closing it
down.  Shelley and Rhodes felt that fewer people attended it because of the
protests.  The Quaker Peace Group actually paid a high price to have a stall
inside AIDEX to present an alternative viewpoint to those attending the arms
fair.  The A.C.T.U. endorsed the picket - but union officials were initially
prevented from entering the site by the fair officials.  Lots of
cross-pollination of ideas took place amongst protesters from across
Australia.  Both Shelley and Rhodes agreed that it had been successful in
involving a wide section of the community in condemning the AIDEX arms fair
in the months leading up to its opening.  Church groups, unions, community
and environmental groups joined forces to mount a strong campaign calling on
the Australian government to cancel AIDEX.  The police violence against those
protesting in Canberra may be seen as a measure of just how threatened the
government felt.  The confrontational stance taken by a small but strongly
organised part of the protesters must be recognised as an issue requiring
ongoing consideration for future actions.    AIDEX continued despite all the
efforts to close it down.  But it will not get local council permission to
return to Canberra and hopefully other cities will think twice before they
allow the "Merchants of Death" to set up shop in their backyards.
Jack Sherrington and Karen Allen