(en) Australia, Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group - PROTEST
SPIKES OPERATION FORTITUDE by ablokeimet
BORDER FORCE GESTAPO GO TO HELL! Dear Comrades, A snap protest in Melbourne today forced
the cancellation of an ominous police state operation. The Melbourne Anarchist Communist
Group has published an account:
https://melbacg.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/protest-spikes-operation-fortitude/ For the
information of overseas readers, Flinders St Station is the main railway station in the
centre of Melbourne and the intersection at which it is sited is a crucial node for road
transport through the Central Business District. ---- This afternoon, an angry
demonstration of 200-300 people in Melbourne forced the cancellation of a police press
conference to launch “Operation Fortitude” and then forced the cancellation of the
operation itself. ---- In a media statement released in advance of the planned press
conference, an Australian Border Force official said, “Tonight and tomorrow evening
(Friday and Saturday) Metro Trains, Yarra Trams, the Sheriff’s Office, Taxi Services
Commission and the ABF will join Victoria Police as part of the inter-agency operation”.
He also said that, as part of what they called “Operation Fortitude”, Border Force
officers would be positioned at various locations around the city and would speak “with
any individual we cross paths with”.
News of the planned operation spread like wildfire across the Internet and the phone
network. The MACG joined 200-300 other protestors at Flinders St Station at 2:00 p.m. and
all were extremely angry at the prospect of Border Force coppers stopping people and
asking them to show their papers to prove they were in the country legally. Speakers
pointed out that Border Force was either going to be stopping people at random, or was
going to be engaged in racial profiling. Neither of these options is acceptable. It was
also agreed by the crowd that it would be a good idea for people to intervene if they see
Border Force coppers stopping people and checking ID – getting them to justify what
they’re doing and informing them of our objections. The MACG thinks that’s an excellent
proposal.
As debate raged across the Internet, the protest moved from the steps of Flinders St
Station into the middle of the Flinders and Swanston Sts intersection so that it would be
impossible for the media to ignore. The disruption successfully spread the news that these
Gestapo tactics from Border Force were not only arousing outrage, but would be resisted.
When news came that the press conference was going to go ahead inside Flinders St Station,
the protest moved into the station itself. When the border cops realised they were the
centre of attention, they decided discretion was the better part of valour and retreated
to the station’s police office.
At 2:35 we received the news that the press conference was called off. At 2:45 a media
report was announced, stating that Operation Fortitude had been cancelled. Victoria Police
said “We understand there has been a high level of community interest and concern which
has been taken into consideration when making this decision.” Someone in the Victoria
Police Media Unit is going to get an award for understatement over that sentence.
The demonstration broke up at 3:00 p.m. in celebration. The MACG warns, however, against
complacency. A Twitter storm and a demo of a couple of hundred might be enough to take
down a misconceived PR stunt for Border Force, but to defeat the Border Force itself and
the racism that it enforces at the Government’s behest, we will need a movement of the
whole working class, organised in the workplace. The Fascists of the United Patriots Front
certainly need to be taken on and defeated, but it must be recognised that, at this stage
of proceedings, they are amateurs at racist violence. The State employs an entire Border
Force of professionals who are a lot better at it and who do it for a living.
