Report back from the 15/2/2012 Occupy Sydney: Solidarity With Greece
Demo that resulted in the complete evacuation of the Greek Consulate,
the arrest of 6 comrades and an 11 hour Noise Demo at City Central
Police Station
On Wednesday the 15th of February, following a 3 day General strike
and massive rioting in the street of Athens and other cities
throughout Greece, participants of the Occupy Sydney movement staged a
solidarity demonstration.
At approximately 12.30pm, while the city streets were full of
tourists, shoppers and many office workers on lunch, a black bloc
carrying an “Occupy Sydney” banner marched from the Martin Place
Occupy camp down Castlereagh Street to the Greek Consulate. The
comrades made speeches declaring solidarity with the popular revolt
across Greece, chanted “A FATE WORSE THEN DEATH FUCK THE IMF” then
left two objects in the doorway of the consulate and quickly
dispersed. One object was a large fake Molotov made out of an empty
petrol tin with red cellophane coming out the top, the other was an
empty, black foam box labelled “PANDORA’S BOX: DO NOT OPEN” with the
titles of various financial institutions: “IMF, European Central Bank,
ect” labelled along the sides.
By 1pm the area around the consulate was swarming with cops and the
entire consulate including the entire staff of the Beirut Hellenic
Bank, located within the same building were evacuated by police.
10 minutes later a large police contingent made of uniformed and plain
clothed police raided the Occupy Sydney camp and corralled, assaulted
and arrested 6 comrades outside a Westpack Bank and confiscated a
number camera’s.
According to the police report:
As a result of the actions of the group NSW Police deployed personnel
to conduct the following investigations:
1 Search and evacuation of 219-223 Castlereagh Street, Sydney
2. Crime Scene Guard for the items placed in the foyer at 219-223
Castlereagh Street, Sydney
3. Restriction of pedestrian and vehicular access on Castlereagh
Street between Liverpool Street and Bathurst Street, Sydney
4. Specialist Police deployed from the Protections Operations Unit,
Anti Terrorism and Security Group, State Crime Command
5. A detachment from the Australian Federal Police
6. A number of Police utilised in order to stop, arrest and caution
the six persons
7. A team of 8 Detectives to investigate the matters comprising of
statements, CCTV review and monitoring interviews
Within minutes of the arrests, anarchists called for a Solidarity
Noise Demo, and a crowd soon gathered outside the City Central Police
Station where the 6 comrades were being held hostage. Banners were
immediately tied to trees and poles directly opposite the front door
of the Police Station, and visible to all traffic from the busy Day
Street.
The Banners read:
“Occupy Sydney”
“ATHENS IS BURNING SYDNEY IS WAITING”
“A.C.A.B”
“SOLIDARITY MEANS ATTACK”
A large banner reading “NO JUSTIC NO PEACE FUCK THE POLICE” was also
held up along Day street for all passing traffic to see.
Large Drums were also improvised and a beautiful racket filled the
area all around the station. Many people stopped to watch and take
photos, some congratulated us, and others danced to the drums. Many
cars also honked their horns, some shouting “good on ya” and giving a
thumbs up or waving fists from their windows as they passed by
Many police watched from inside the police station and some came out
to read the banners and scowl at us before retreating back to their
hole.
Throughout the long demo, police made repeated attempts to disperse
the crowd and stop the drumming, officers occasionally came out of the
police station shoving and abusing comrades, but the crowd remained,
continued drumming and defended the banners over a period of 9 hours.
One enraged policeman even told the crowd that the drumming was
intimidating police, and witnesses inside the station had been too
overwhelmed by the noise to give statements, as if that would
encourage us to stop.
At about 11pm police suddenly and very quickly mobilised a line of
officers in front of the crowd and made an announcement that the
demonstration was illegal and everyone must disperse immediately or
face arrest, at this time a line of police had moved around the block
and formed a line behind the demonstrators. The front line of police
immediately moved on two comrades carrying the “NO JUSTICE NO PEACE
FUCK THE POLICE” banner. Both comrades ran with the banner, evading
the police cordon by running through the traffic on Day street. The
comrades then reopened the banner on the other side of the road but
where forced to continue to flee as a number of police then pursed
them across Day st. The comrades abandoned the banner and ran into an
underground car park where one comrade was cornered and arrested,
while the other temporarily evaded the pigs, before being arrested 15
minutes later while attempting to flee through a fire escape.
One other comrade also broke through the cordon and evaded a number of
police in pursuit by passing through a building and locking them
inside.
Only one comrade was arrested inside the kettle after they refused
orders to cease drumming. The rest of the comrades were eventually
released from the kettle with warnings they are banned from the area
for 24 hour or face immediate arrest.
The “A.C.A.B” banner was the only one saved during the raid, the rest
were cut down by police and taken as “evidence”. Once released from
the kettle, comrades promptly hung the banner from a pedestrian
footbridge, directly visible from the front door of the Police
station.
Within the cells all comrades maintained an antagonistic and
honourable attitude, banging on the cell doors and repeatedly chanting
anti police slogans alongside teenagers accused of shoplifting. One
comrade was also repeatedly slammed into a wall while handcuffed,
receiving minor wounds on their forehead and shoulder.
Drumming and celebrations continued across the road until all 9
comrades had been released to loud cheers, hugs, anti-police chants
and beers, the last comrade was released at 1.30 am, after being held
for 12 hours.
In all only 2 comrades were charged with “false representation
resulting in a police investigation”. Others were threatened with
various charges, one comrade with as many as 6 that supposedly “may be
laid pending further investigations”.
The two comrades who were charged received extremely restrictive bail
conditions, including reporting to the police 3 times a week, a ban on
all contact with each other until the trial, ban from entering Martin
Place.
At around 2am all comrades walked away in a celebratory mood, still
drumming and chanting anti police slogans, with the “A.C.A.B” banner
left hanging on the footbridge.
Unfortunately all cameras and memory cards holding photographs and
video of the black bloc march and demonstration outside the consulate
were confiscated by police and are being held as evidence.
In the 24 hours since the comrades were released, police have raided
the occupy Sydney site on 3 separate occasions, confiscating all
furniture, sleeping bags, food, tables and propaganda, leaving nothing
behind. Occupiers are currently rebuilding the site.
SOLIDARITY WITH THE GREEK REBELS AND ALL WHO STRUGGLE
FIRE TO ALL PRISONS!
A.C.A.B.
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