Rally Against Censorship: BrisVegas Post Report
Posted on December 17th, 2008 at 12:07 pmWell I’ve still not fully recovered from the rally, work needs to be done so it’s time to be off my butt…
I kicked off Saturday, December 13th in great shape – sick as a dog. Been sick for a few weeks and a guess the big day’s stress just wasn’t helping. So before 10am hit I had already gone through wanting to allow my tummy’s delicious goodness come back up on the bus and an interview for Brisbane Times on the phone while running around wondering where the hell I left my purple hat that gained some nice comments all day. Oh and at some point during the hat search 4BC had called too.
Enough bitching from me now – time for sunshine. While Melbourne and Hobart got hit with rain, we got the wonderful summer heat Queensland is known for. For the 200-300 that did brave the heat, one of my volunteers had brought 200 icey poles for the crowd. So hopefully those that missed out on shade got a hold of one, or two or more.
Thankfully, David and the marshals were happy to MC the event. I was planning to but didn’t realise how many people would be interested in talking to me either about getting more involved or for a quick interview (I look so dopey on that ABC clip – protip 1: image(rally + sick) = dopey PR. I cannot hide sickness for the life of me and it probably translated to others as something other than sickness :-/ ).
We had some great speakers on the day. Alas, not everyone could hear. Unfortunately, we only had megaphones as an option. We had two just to backup if one wasn’t working but both weren’t very loud when used in an open, noisy area. I spoke to Sam afterwards to apologise for all the interruptions to his speech. I think we made him stop at least four times – sorry! There’s a bit of a knack to using megaphones that comes from using them a bit. The Greens had offered us a PA system however, I couldn’t get permission on my permit to use it without PLI. By our next event though, the DLC will have PLI coverage so we won’t have the same issue twice!
One big issue that’s come up about the rallies is regarding lefty groups’ dominance at the event. All cities had its fair share of groups come by, screaming free speech but just clouding our message. In Brisbane, I talked with the Council about their presence and informed them that the stalls were not apart of our permit/rally. I believe the councilman went to talk to them but wut’cha’kno, they didn’t need to pack up shop. I’m not sure the reason why they were allowed to stay – one of the rules I had to abide by was to not sell items during the event on the square. Surely selling GLW and badges count… but I didn’t push it with them. They happen to have another councilman, Brett (that I actually know the personality of quite well from numerous times I’ve dealt with him at other rallies) come in on his day off to give me a lawful order to keep people away from the Christmas tree and pedestrians. He also noticed we were playing music without approval so it was removed. Yet the stalls still remained. It boggles my mind.
The article which shows an image of a sign with ‘rael.org’ is one example of the many groups pushing their URLs on the day. For future events we will definitely need to get something organised to encourage people to stay on target. A signs contest with eligibility rules to enter may be one way.
All in all, I believe the rallies nationally were a success. We didn’t bring out the numbers that we were hoping, but we did get media coverage and this in turn along with the material we handed out (we got 2000+ tri-folds out in Brisbane); we are creating more awareness on the issue. The event also encouraged more people to get actively involved in stopping internet censorship so I’m looking forward to see what future campaigns will bring.
Special thanks goes to David Jackmanson for helping handle publicity and things on the day. Thanks to Elissa Jenkins who arranged the free printing and everyone that’s volunteered in the last few months.
To find a collection of footage and coverage of the day, check out David Jackmanson’s blog:
http://brisbaneposts.blogspot.com/2008/12/brisbane-politics-report-on-sat-dec.html
There’s a few knicks and bumps that we need to smooth out for the future that’s for sure but it’s only the beginning. There are a number of ideas, constructive criticisms and concerns many have brought up that I will address in this blog too. So if you do have anything you’d like to suggest to the DLC, please let me know.
Tiara pointed out in the discussions on Livejournal that the splintering of the message is quite common at events with leftist groups’ involvement. Someone at Larvatus Prodeo pointed to an EFA organised rally in the 90s where a bus dressed up like a giant joint was the lead “float” in a rally for digital rights. There was also a whole bunch of stuff about banning uranium mining and other “Save the Kakadu Wetlands” stuff.
I think it needs to be made abundantly clear to all groups involved that events about internet censorship are about internet censorship. While freeing Lex Wotton, the Israel-Palestine conflict and global warming are all important issues, that’s not why we’re there. I think there were a number of individuals and groups who were most definitely “off message”.
Perhaps the DLC marshalls should be directed to stop any “off-message” activity. I’m not saying the DLC need to vet any signs which may be shown before they get hoisted up, but things like selling badges of Che Guevara and the Green Left Weekly really don’t help.
Last weekend we held a DLC meeting between state coordinators (alas, I was at work so missed out). This issue was discussed and the current action agreed upon is to contact local groups regarding how we can best work together. Like Tiara and many know, we’re always going to expect these sorts of groups to have a presence. Prior to the Brissy rally, I did have a 911 truther group contact me requesting permission to bring along 911 material. We exchanged a few emails and it was understood that the material was too off topic for the event. On the day a member of the group did come speak to me. He didn’t come with a 911 was an inside job sign or shirt and we only spoke about the filter. Every other truther group i met on the day gave me a pile of papers on off topic info. So hopefully, with more direct contact we can improve on this. Unfortunately, if at the next event we still have groups attending that are continuing to be off topic and it’s impacting our message we really will have to get the DLC marshalls taking a more direct approach, at least in regards to the stalls.