G20 rioter jailed for 14 months

Originally Posted by http://news.theage.com.au/g20-rioter-jailed-for-14-months/20080307-1xs1.html

A protester involved in the violent G20 riots in Melbourne in 2006 has been jailed for at least 14 months.
Akin Sari, 29, of no fixed address, was among a group of demonstrators who stormed a city office, attacked a police brawler van and hurled rocks, rubbish bins and milk crates at police outside the Group of 20 nations summit on November 17 and 18, 2006.

Sari pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated burglary and theft, two of riot, two of common assault and three of criminal damage.
The Victorian County Court was told that Sari played a major role in the protests and was caught on camera damaging a police brawler van at the intersection of Exhibition Street and Flinders Lane, in the city, on November 18.

"At the intersection of Exhibition Street and Flinders Lane a group of police were attacked," Judge Roy Punshon told the court.
"They tried to hide behind a brawler van.

"A DVD shows you (Sari) throwing objects at police."

Judge Punshon told the court that Sari was also seen smashing a window on the police brawler van and taking a log book.
Earlier in the afternoon Sari was with a group of protesters who attacked two traffic event officers, one a woman, outside the Grand Hyatt hotel where the summit was being held.

The court heard that the officers' utility was surrounded by protesters dressed in white jumpsuits.
"You grabbed the female victim by the arm ... and menaced both victims with a metal pole," Judge Punshon told the court.
"The common purpose of the riot was to gain access to the G20 summit."

A day earlier protesters broke into the defence force recruitment centre in Swanston Street, in the city.
"Each of the incidents was relatively brief, but I accept it would have (felt like) it lasted much longer for those involved," the judge added.

He said the "offending is serious" but he took into account Sari's guilty plea, that he had no previous convictions and had already spent 215 days in custody.

He sentenced Sari to 28 months in jail with a non-parole period of 14 months.
More than 20 other people involved in the protests have yet to be dealt with in the magistrates court

Anarchist Federation Convergence coming up

On the Easter Long Weekend, 21st to the 24th of March, there will be a convergence in Melbourne to discuss the proposed Regional Anarchist Federation (Oceania).

The convergence is to be held at the Melbourne Anarchist Club's space.

More details at A-Fed.

Report back on successful picket action

Six weeks ago, on the 17th of October, a cleaner working at Australia Posts logistics center on the Burwood Highway in Knoxfield, Melbourne was arbitrarily sacked by his employer, CMC, at the request of Australia Post. The cleaner had been working there for 11 years and had never had a trust issue raised with him in that time.

The cleaner, going about his job as usual, was cleaning a bosses office when he found a tub of yoghurt on top of a plastic bag on the top of the desk. He put the yoghurt in the bin, opened the plastic bag to see if it was rubbish. There was paper inside so he opened the paper to check if it was rubbish. It was not, it was a letter, so he folded it back up and put it down on the desk. However as he was doing so, about to leave, the boss walked back in. The boss became irate, called the sub-contractor cleaning company, CMC, who employed the cleaner, and told them that said cleaner had been rifling through his files and documents and demanded that the cleaner be fired on the spot. CMC was all too happy to oblige, and this innocent worker lost his job without explanation. The cleaner and the union sought to take the case before the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) last week as an unfair dismissal case, however CMC have claimed they only employ 87 people, and therefore, thanks to John Howard’s harsh and despicable anti-worker laws, they do not have to take any responsibility or give any reasoning for depriving this innocent man of his livelihood, and he cannot take it before the AIRC.

On the Thursday the 29th, at 6:30am a small group of Union Solidarity activists, set up a community based picket line on the Deliveries gate of the Australia Post Logistics centre on the Burwood highway, in Knoxfield. Two Socialist Party members also participated later in the picket line. The picket did not block workers from attending their jobs, but blocked no less than 6 trucks, and had a further delivery cancelled. The picket was so successful that it blocked an Australia Post semi-trailer, due to arrive at 7am, carrying a ‘just on time delivery’ of stamps to be distributed for the Christmas period. The truck was blocked for 3 and a half hours before a supervisor from Dandenong was sent to try and get the truck into the facility. After a further half hour stand off, in which time the local media attended, the supervisor conceded, the semi-trailer was sent back to its origin and another delivery was cancelled. The picket line was abandoned at 12:30pm after a major victory. The Australia Post Logistics centre had been effectively shut down for an entire day and Australia Post Management was in a furor.

Since then, CMC have blamed Australia Post, and Australia Post have blamed CMC for the loss of this mans livelihood. The cleaner has not received his job back, or compensation yet, but the struggle will continue until this happens. The Socialist Party is in full support of this man and the struggle for his livelihood and wishes to express their solidarity.



Yeah thats the article I wrote for SP webby. I was there, I was one of the SP dudes.
When I said a 'small group' of US Activists, I mean it fluctuated between 6-9 for the entire time I was there, between quater to 9 and about 10:45. The Truckie was staunch as, but I shouldn't say to much more on a public forum. When they sent the supervisor out, we all thought it was gunna be some crazy cunt who was gunna try and just drive the semi straight through us and into the facility. This was partly because not to long ago there was a 3 month stand off at the Aus Post site in Dandenong for a whole swag of jobs, and the fucken' crazy bosses were like assualting the picketers, and charging them with vehicles and shit. Luckily enough the boss wasn't to intent on doing that, and due to Dave Kerin's skillfull negotiation and Steve's crazy as Bad-cop stylz going verbally balistic at this guy, aswell as some other actions to block the truck from moving at all, we were successfull, and the boss told us he'd cancelled another delivery due in a half an hour.

Kirk.

UPDATE: DIRECT ACTION GETS SATISFACTION! JOB HAS BEEN RETURNED TO JANITOR!

Akin Sari - Political Prisoner

On October 18, 2007, Akin Sari pled guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to a number of charges stemming from the G20 protests in Melbourne in November 2006. He was arrested in Sydney on September 6, 2007 for breaching his bail conditions, and was denied bail, just as he had been following his initial arrest. Akin Sari was granted asylum by the Australian government as a political refugee for his political activities in Turkey. He will now rot in an Australian jail ’til February 2, 2008, when he’ll be sentenced in the Victorian County Court.

Please send Akin Sari a letter or postcard in support today!

Write to:

Akin Sari
c/- Melbourne Remand Centre
PO BOX 500
St. Albans
VIC 3021
AUSTRALIA

Eureka Flag Banned - Union Solidarity rally!

Emergency Anti-Howard Rally, Melbourne.

"The Socialist Party has just been informed that Prime Minister John Howard will be speaking at a function organised by the Institute of Public Affairs tomorrow. An emergency rally has been called to let him know that he is not welcome in this town!
The details are 10am Thursday 8th November 2007 at the Sofitel, 25 Collins Street, Melbourne."

http://www.socialistpartyaustralia.org/archives/2007/11/07/emergency-melbourne-protest-against-howard/
http://www.ipa.org.au/

Melbourne Solidarity Rally: Free the Urewera 17!

12 noon, Saturday 27 October, Federation Square, Melbourne
In a wave of massive state repression, 300+ para-military police raided houses across New Zealand on Monday October 15th 2007, making 17 arrests. The arrestees are all Maori, environmental and peace activists.

This is the first time New Zealand’s 2002 Terrorism Suppression Act has been invoked in a search warrant. The use of this Act to target indigenous activists and other dissenting voices is sets a frightening precedent for Australia, where the Federal Government has introduced similar draconian laws.

Support for the arrestees has been vocal in New Zealand, with many solidarity demonstrations and packed courtrooms. And the solidarity effort has gone global with a demonstration in Melbourne and Sydney last week, as well as actions in Germany and Greece and a solidarity statement from South Africa.

Rally MC will Robbie Thorpe (Camp Sovereignty) and other speakers include:

Sina Brown - Polynesian Anti Globalisation Activist
Marisol Salinas - Mapuche, Environmental Activist, Lasnet
Rayna Fahey - Treaty, Green Activist
Will Anderson - Civil Rights Defence
Liz Thompson - Orgasan, Fair wear
Anthony Main – ACDC, Socialist Party

Waiata by Ivan Davis (Tainui)

See http://indymedia.org.nz/ for background information and the latest news on the Urewera 17 campaign.

See http://www.civilrightsdefence.org.nz/ for more information on how to support the arrestees and their families, including how to donate to the fighting fund.

Football fans against fascism: Melbourne

Following on from the successful attempt to force Blood & Honour
(Australia) and the (Southern Cross) Hammerskins out of The Birmingham
Hotel in Fitzroy, the boys have moved their temporary bunker to Sunshine
and the Melbourne Croatia Social Club, where the annual ISD gig took
place on Saturday night, October the 13th. As a result, this Thursday,
October 25th, a rally is being held outside of the headquarters of
Football Federation Victoria, the peak body for football (soccer) clubs
in Victoria. This is one means of exerting pressue, on both the
Melbourne Croatia Social Club and the Melbourne Knights Football Club,
to come clean about their participation in this event, and to discourage
any further co-operation in promoting neo-Nazism. To this point, neither
has accepted responsibility for hosting the event, or even acknowledged
its occurrence.

Please consider coming.

Polite emails, phone calls, and letters to the Clubs, the Federation
and/or local media are also encouraged.

WHEN : Midday, Thursday, October 25th, 2007
WHERE : Football Federation Victoria,
Darebin International Sports Centre,
Head Office : John Cain Memorial Park
281 Darebin Rd, Thornbury, VIC, 3071
Melway REF: 31A7

For further information, please see:

FightDemBack! ::: http://fightdemback.org
Boycott The Birmy ::: http://birmyboycott.wordpress.com /
http://www.myspace.com/boycott_the_birmy
slackbastard ::: http://slackbastard.anarchobase.com

Safeguarding Australia Summit

(A message of thanks to comrades in Melbourne for the information here)

On the 26th of September, the 'Safeguarding Australia Homeland Security' summit took place in Melbourne, at the Melbourne University. The summit was organized by the Research Network for a Secure Australia (RNSA), which is a body, funded by the federal government and supported by private industry leaders.

The Summit was organized as a means to develop, strengthen and display security technology in Australia, as well as discussing the "threat" of 'Muslim population growth in Australia', as well as other things such as 'Terrorism today'. It's essentially, a body that has been established as a means of deepening the climate of fear toward terrorism, and immigration, and establish stronger security measures, tightening laws around free speech, free movement, and liberty; and taking further measures in turning Australia into (more of) a police state.

The first leg of it, however, did not go unnoticed, thanks to the organizing of the ACDC block - a block which was organized for the APEC rally, standing for 'Alliance for Civil Disobedience Coordination'.

Over 50 people from the Alliance for Civil Disobedience Coordination (ACDC) met outside the university and marched to University House where a fancy dinner to was being held to launch the summit. A blockade was established on the main entrance as well as a side entrance to the hall. It was held for over an hour. Many guests were turned away despite hired goons from Chubb Security trying to intimidate protesters.

Eventually almost 40 police officers arrived and threatened to arrest anyone who continued to blockade. Unfortunately (for them) the dinner had already been successfully disrupted and a decision was made to retreat after a job well done.