How tight is the #RightToProtest?

From 418 arrests in 1977 to fresh clashes in Sydney: Debate over #Australia’s right to protest continues

"What many may not realise is that the right to protest in Australia is not protected by one simple law. It’s implied in the constitution under freedom of political communication and exists under international human rights law, which Australia has agreed to uphold. Only #Queensland, #Victoria and the #ACT explicitly protect the right to peaceful assembly, freedom of association and freedom of expression. And laws protecting the right to peaceful protest in Australia can be limited."

By Rhiannon Stevens
Sat 14 Feb, 2026

" 'The day of the political street march is over,' Joh Bjelke-Petersen declared. 'Don’t bother to apply for a permit. You won’t get one. That’s government policy now.'

"A few weeks later, thousands of people defied then-Queensland premier Bjelke-Petersen’s proclamation and gathered in Brisbane for an #AntiUranium march.

"Ian Curr remembers an intense, unrelenting heat on that day nearly 50 years ago. It was 'boiling hot', the long-time #AntiNuclear activist says. So hot that when protesters sat on the road, arms linked in passive defiance, it was 'not very pleasant' because the tarmac was scorching. Other memories emerge from the haze: lines of police, three and four deep, surrounding protesters; a woman with tears streaming down her face who had just heard her partner was arrested.

"Fear swirled up spines and into the air. These were the years after the #Springbok tour #AntiApartheid protests had been violently suppressed.

"That afternoon in October 1977, 418 people were arrested and Queensland’s 'RightToMarch' movement quickly entered a new era. #CivilLiberties demonstrations continued until the ban — originally enacted to curb a growing anti-nuclear movement — was lifted two years later.

"Ross Gwyther was exhilarated seeing some 5,000 anti-nuclear marchers turn out that day. But the sensation was tempered by an 'intense fear because there’d already been many cases of #PoliceBrutality'.

"These were extraordinary times, as the Fitzgerald Inquiry would later attest. For Gwyther and many of the #ratbags, #activists and #CivilLibertarians of Queensland it was a defining moment. That era in Brisbane radicalised a lot of people, Gwyther says, who embarked on a lifetime of 'political activism, both through parliamentary politics or by grassroots politics'.

"These moments mark you, Curr says, turning to the events in Sydney this week. 'The people who saw that violence in Sydney, in 40 or 50 years, they will not forget it. In the same way I do not forget police brandishing batons and punching and throwing people into paddy wagons. It’s something you do not forget.'

"In the aftermath of last Monday’s protest against Israeli President #IsaacHerzog’s visit in #Sydney, shaky, chaotic videos began to emerge online. A man lies on tram tracks, restrained by officers who punch him 18 times. #Protesters are pushed, they struggle to their feet, crowds stumble around them. Men bowed in prayer are wrenched from their worship by police. A grandmother is in hospital with a spinal injury. She says she feared being suffocated in a stampede as she lay on the ground in agony. She alleges she was pushed over by police."

Read more:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-15/right-to-protest-fragile-police-powers-gaza-herzog/106331356

#ACAB #AustraliaPol #AusPol #CriminalizingProtest #Australia #AntiProtestLaws #WaterIsLife #LandIsLife #UraniumMines #WorldPol #IsraeliWarCrimes

2025 #UraniumFilmFestival - #AtomicCabaret

"Physicist, writer, and #AntiNuclear activist #LyndaWilliams (#ThePhysicsChanteuse) presents selections from her one-woman show Atomic Cabaret, which toured the UK and appeared at the #EdinburghFringeFestival this summer to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the dawn of the nuclear age. Combining science with original song and video, the performance confronts the existential threat of nuclear weapons and power."

Show Info:
https://scientainment.com/atomic-cabaret

#NoNukes #NoWar #NoNuclearWeapons #RethinkDontRestart #InternationalUraniumFilmFestival

2025 #UraniumFilmFestival - #UnderTheCloud

USA/Mexico, 2023, Director Pedro Reyes Alvarez, Documentary, 24 min.

"The film examines the ongoing legacy of nuclear violence in the American Southwest, where uranium extraction and nuclear testing have left deep scars on both the land and its people. Featuring voices like #LeonaMorgan, a #Diné #AntiNuclear activist, the film reminds us that nuclear energy and nuclear weapons are inseparable—a fact that remains dangerously overlooked. Alongside her, other community members speak about the destruction of their environment, the health crises that continue to afflict their people, and their resistance to the mining of sacred lands. Under the Cloud is a short documentary that examines the ongoing legacy of nuclear violence in the American Southwest, where uranium extraction and nuclear testing have left deep scars on both the land and its people."

Trailer:
https://mubi.com/en/films/under-the-cloud/trailer

#NoNukes #NoNuclearWeapons #NoUraniumingMining #IndigenousActivists #EnvironmentalRacism #NuclearColonialism #InternationalUraniumFilmFestival

2015-2025 10 ans de lutte a Bure

https://kolektiva.media/w/hyjNWCDLtKXnsiySJ5r6Yb

A decades-long #PeaceVigil outside the White House is dismantled after #Trump’s order

By PABLO MONSIVAIS and FARNOUSH AMIRI
September 7, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — "Law enforcement officials on Sunday removed a peace vigil that had stood outside the White House for more than four decades after President Donald Trump ordered it to be taken down as part of the clearing of homeless encampments in the nation’s capital.

"#PhiliposMelakuBello, a volunteer who has manned the vigil for years, told The Associated Press that the Park Police removed it early Sunday morning. He said officials justified the removal by mislabeling the memorial as a shelter.

" 'The difference between an encampment and a #vigil is that an encampment is where homeless people live,' Melaku-Bello said. 'As you can see, I don’t have a bed. I have signs and it is covered by the #FirstAmendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.'

"The White House confirmed the removal, telling AP in a statement that the vigil was a 'hazard to those visiting the White House and the surrounding areas.'

[...]

" 'Just out front of the White House is a blue tent that originally was put there to be an #AntiNuclear tent for nuclear arms,' [#BrianGlenn] said. 'It’s kind of morphed into more of an anti-American, sometimes anti-Trump at many times.'

Trump, who said he was not aware of it, told his staff: 'Take it down. Take it down today, right now.' "

https://apnews.com/article/white-house-peace-vigil-trump-f9b4c8e3d81e7b1e2d4625f726d89bc2

#NoWar #USPol #ACAB
#SilencingDissent #FreeSpeech

Today in Labor History July 8, 1898: May Picqueray was born. She was a French anarchist, trade unionist and pacifist, who published the pacifist, anti-militarist periodical Le Réfractaire from 1974 to 1983. In 1921, in response to the silence of the French press on the convictions of Sacco and Vanzetti, she sent a parcel bomb containing a defensive grenade and leaflets to the American embassy. Her efforts helped mobilize French journalists, without harming any people and only causing damage to material. In 1922, as a delegate of the Metalworkers union, she visited Moscow, where she climbed on a table full of Red Trade Union officials to denounce their having a luxurious banquet while the common people starved. She refused to shake hands with Trotsky because of his responsibility for crushing the Kronstadt rebellion, and his betrayal of Nestor Makhno. During the Spanish Civil War, she helped transport orphans out of the country. During World War II, she helped people escape French concentration camps. She also was a participant in the French uprising of May 1968, participated in anti-nuclear campaigns and supported war resisters.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #maypicqueray #nestormakhno #trotsky #kronstadt #rebllion #civilwar #antinuclear #activism #nuclear #concentrationcamps #SaccoAndVanzetti #bomb #union #spain #france

Le jardin mémoriel de la lutte de Greenham est calé proche d'un business park, d'une route bruyante, pas indiqué sur les panneaux de signalisations.
Heureusement que les militantxes font vivre les luttes sur le papier et dans les têtes.

#greenhamcommon #protestcamp #antinuclear