Green Left Weekly defies intimidation
BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE
HOBART — Green Left Weekly volunteers have vowed to defy
attempts by Hobart City Council to prevent the paper being distributed in the
Elizabeth Street Mall. Council officers directed two Green Left Weekly
distributors to leave the mall on February 1 citing a by-law that prevents the
“sale or offer for sale” of items without a permit. The following day,
council officers called police, who threatened to arrest one of the volunteers
if he did not leave the mall.
The right to distribute Green Left Weekly is an expression of
working people's right to free speech. Green Left is not a
“product” but a campaigning newspaper that exposes the injustices of
capitalist society. To restrict its distribution is a restriction on the right
of people who hold such views to express them.
Green Left Weekly is not published to make a profit but
to allow views excluded by the capitalist press to gain a hearing. The cover
price goes part of the way in covering the cost of its production.
Distributors often sell the paper for less than the cover price if a buyer
cannot afford it, but it is necessary to ask most buyers to pay the cover
price if the paper is to continue to come out.
Green Left Weekly has been distributed in the mall
consistently since the paper was first published in 1991 and the relevant
by-laws were amended in 1997. Council officers could give no reason to explain
the apparent change of policy.
[Published 7 February 2001.]
Free speech threatened in Hobart
BY SHUA GARFIELD
HOBART — The Hobart City Council is considering banning the
distribution of Green Left Weekly in Elizabeth Mall, one of the
city's main public spaces.
Council referred a motion banning the newspaper's distribution back to
sub-committee on October 22, requesting a rewording to remove specific
references to Green Left Weekly, which in turn raises the spectre of
all literature distribution being banned in Hobart's main mall.
Though the newspaper has been distributed in Elizabeth Mall for 10 years,
council attempts to ban its distribution only began in February.
Citing a council by-law that prohibits distribution of such material
without a permit, council officers asked Green Left Weekly sellers to
leave the mall.
Representatives of the newspaper then applied for the permit and, expecting
it to be granted promptly, street sellers continued distribution in the mall.
On hearing of council's latest attempt to bar sales, supporters of the
newspaper publicly defied restrictions on literature distribution on October
23, meeting immense sympathy from passers-by. Nearly 150 people signed a
petition opposing the ban in the first hour. Many were amazed that by-laws
restricting free speech even existed.
Hobart City Council will vote on the re-drafted motion at its next meeting
on November 15, and will give representatives of Green Left Weekly
three minutes to make their case against the ban.
Activists have said that in the meantime, they will continue to collect
signatures and defy council attempts at censorship.
If you can help in any way, please call 6234 6397. Readers are also
encouraged to write to Pru Bonham, Chair of Parks and Community Services
Committee, Hobart City Council, GPO Box 503E, Hobart, Tasmania, 7001, to
oppose the restrictions.
[Published 31 October 2001.]
Council maintains Green Left Weekly ban
BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE
HOBART — A Hobart City Council committee decided on November 15
to recommend a motion to the full council that would “continue to refuse
requests to sell and distribute newspapers and other goods [in the Elizabeth
Street mall] unless permitted under the by-laws”. The next day council
officers directed Green Left Weekly volunteers to stop distributing
the paper in the mall and called police to enforce the ban.
By-laws prohibit “offer[ing] anything for sale or purchase” without a
permit. Since February, the council has used this by-law on a number of
occasions to stop the distribution of GLW in the mall.
Green Left has made two applications for a permit since February.
The second application, made in July, is yet to receive a written response.
Distribution of GLW in the mall has continued while the permit
applications were being processed.
Since the July application was lodged, council officers have rarely
attempted to remove GLW distributors from the mall. The November 16
incident indicates a renewed push by the council to stop the distribution of
the paper in the mall.
The council meets on November 26. Green Left Weekly is urging all
supporters of free speech to write to the council in support of our permit
application. Send letters to Hobart City Council, Attention Pru Bonham, Chair
of Parks and Community Services Committee, GPO Box 503E, Hobart 7001.
Messages can also be emailed to <hcc@mailnet.hcc.tas.gov.au>,
phoned to (03) 6338 2711 or faxed to (03) 6234 7109.
Please send copies to Green Left Weekly, 225 Murray St, Hobart
7000 or <hobart@greenleft.org.au>.
From Green Left Weekly, November 21, 2001.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.
Green Left Weekly defies council ban
BY KAMALA EMANUEL
HOBART — Hobart City Council has been placed under pressure by
the continuing distribution of Green Left Weekly in the Elizabeth
Street Mall, despite a ban upheld by the council on November 26.
The intent behind the motion passed at the council meeting — restating a
by-law preventing people from offering anything for sale without a permit —
was clearly to refuse permission for the distribution of GLW in the
mall.
Councillor Eva Ruzicka, arrested a decade ago supporting the right of the
Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group to a Salamanca stall, argued GLW’s
distribution in the mall was not about free speech, but “selfishness”. She
told the council that if GLW was granted a permit, there would be a
“barrage” of “hawkers” in the mall. 
She joined John Freeman, arch-conservative ex-mayor and prominent
campaigner against the TGLRG's right to a stall, in voting for the motion.
Freeman argued that opposition to the motion was “political correctness gone
mad”, and that “we [Hobart City Council] are allowed to regulate our own
property in whatever way we see fit”.
Three councillors voted against the motion on the grounds of defending free
speech — Patsy Jones, Jamieson Allam and Jeff Briscoe. Briscoe has pledged
to fight for GLW to be granted a permit.
The dispute started in February, when GLW sellers were told they
needed to apply for permits in order to sell in the mall. An
application for a permit, lodged by this newspaper in July, has not yet been
approved or rejected. However, after it was lodged, GLW
sellers distributed the paper mostly unhindered until November 16, when the
council called the police to remove sellers from the mall.
GLW has been distributed in the mall for more than a decade and
distribution of other left-wing publications dates back even further.
According to GLW spokesperson Alex Bainbridge: “The council’s
decision is an attack on free speech. Because GLW is dependent upon
volunteers on the streets for distribution, a ban would constitute a
restriction on the circulation of the paper and the ideas it contains.”
On November 27, in response to the decision, 20 people gathered in the mall
to distribute GLW, collect signatures on free-speech petitions and
hand out leaflets explaining “why we will defy the council ban”. The paper
has since been sold regularly in the mall.
“Councillors arguing against a permit have said we can distribute the
paper in a number of other places in the city, just not the mall. But that’s
a bit like saying we can have free speech any day of the week except on
Fridays”, Bainbridge argues. “The Elizabeth Street Mall is a place where a
lot of people come to hang out with their friends, talk, have coffee, enjoy
the buskers, or pass through. Green Left Weekly has been a part of
this for years, and we will defend our right to continue to be so.”
GLW has received immense support from members of the public —
both those who agree with the views of GLW and those who don't. Many
people have bought the paper for the first time, signed petitions and pledged
to contact the council expressing their support for GLW. Sellers are
becoming used to being told to “keep up the good work” or urged “just
keep coming back.”
“This issue is bigger than just GLW”, Bainbridge claims. “As
more community space is privatised, and activity within it regulated for
commercial interests, the defence of public space, and free speech in public
space, becomes even more important.”
Some activists selling red ribbons on November 30 for World AIDS Day
stationed themselves in the mall in a display of solidarity.
This support, and prominent coverage in the local Murdoch paper, The
Mercury, and other media has had an impact. Just two days after voting
for the ban, Lord Mayor Rob Valentine called for a review of activities
permissible in the mall.
Since the ban, there have been no attempts by council officers to interfere
with the distribution of the paper. On November 30, however, police officers
took down the name and address of a GLW supporter who was holding the
paper and posing for a photograph. The police have indicated to a GLW
representative that fines or arrests would be likely if the council called
police to enforce the by-laws.
From Green Left Weekly, December 5, 2001.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.
Opposition to GLW mall ban grows
BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE
HOBART — Two weeks after the Hobart City Council banned the
distribution of Green Left Weekly in the Elizabeth Street Mall, the
paper continues to be distributed there daily. As of December 9, there had been
no arrests or fines imposed by council officers or police. Public support for Green
Left Weekly's right to be distributed in the mall is growing.
On December 4, council officers directed four GLW distributors to
leave the mall. When they refused, police were called. The GLW
volunteers continued to refuse to leave and the police left in order to seek
advice from a superior officer. They did not return. Later that day, council
representatives told the Hobart Mercury that no action had yet been
taken to enforce the ban.
That evening the council's policy and intergovernment committee met and
decided to organise a public “consultation” on what activities should be
allowed in the mall. The same meeting voted down a motion by council member Jeff
Briscoe to grant a temporary permit to allow GLW distribution until the
outcome of the consultation.
On December 7, GLW received a letter from the council that, for the
first time, stated that its application for a permit had been refused. The
letter stated that the “basis of the decision is that the mall is a place
where commercial activities are restricted and has nothing to do with freedom of
speech or the type of newspaper you promote”. This ignores the fact that
distributing GLW is not a “commercial activity”.
The letter also states that “if you fail to comply with the Council's
decision, [the council] shall have no option but to give full effect to its
decision”.
Progressive lawyer Gwynn MacCarrick has agreed to represent GLW in
an appeal of the council's decision.
Public support for GLW distributors is growing each day as the
council ban is defied. People continue to sign petitions and congratulate
distributors. More copies of GLW are being distributed in the mall than
ever before. Out of approximately a dozen letters to the editor published in the
Mercury, not one has supported the council's ban.
Green Left Weekly urges all supporters to write to the Hobart
council in support of our right to free speech. Send letters to Hobart City
Council, attention Pru Bonham, chairperson of Parks and Community Services
Committee, GPO Box 503E, Hobart 7001. Messages can also be emailed to <hcc@mailnet.hcc.tas.gov.au>,
phoned to (03) 6338 2711 or faxed to (03) 6234 7109. Please send copies to Green
Left Weekly, 225 Murray St, Hobart 7000 or <hobart@greenleft.org.au>.
From Green Left Weekly, December 12, 2001.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.
Defend the right to dissent!
Capitalist governments are no friends of civil liberties and democratic
rights at the best of times. Since the September 11 attack on the World Trade
Center in New York, they have been seizing the opportunity all around the world
to restrict our democratic rights even further.
Starting with the draconian USAPATRIOT Act, First World governments have been
passing “anti-terrorism” legislation which removes the right to legal
counsel and gives police and secret police agencies the authority to arbitarily
detain people suspected of terrorism or having had contact with alleged
terrorists. In Australia, this legislation is likely to be introduced into
federal parliament early next year.
These laws fulfill long-term goals of most First World governments. They
provide new and greater opportunities to harass and intimidate those who oppose
the corporate elite’s policies of screwing more wealth out the world’s
working people. By further empowering police agencies which are already mostly
unaccountable, these laws will make it harder for the left to organise.
Governments, including the Howard government, have been able to propose such
severe restrictions on commonly accepted rights because of the intense climate
of fear whipped up since September 11. Convincing First World citizens that
their very lives are threatened by Third World “terrorists” has provided
many governments with mass support for such attacks.
This atmosphere of fear, and support for repression of dissent, poses a
threat to all those who disagree with some aspect of government policy, and to
Arabic and left-wing organisations in particular. The misnamed “war against
terrorism” has created a climate where other bodies — including local
councils, businesses and universities — have felt emboldened to take measures
that either restrict our democratic rights or make public expressions of dissent
more difficult.
We can expect to see more examples like: the Burwood City Council's fining of
Socialist Alliance candidate Max Lane for using a megaphone in public; the
arrest on Sydney University of Nuclear Disarmament Party members for holding an
anti-war stall; and the attempt by the Hobart City Council to ban the
distribution of Green Left Weekly in the Elizabeth Street Mall.
Some of the restrictions on the right to dissent will come from private
companies. The recent axing, by numerous US newspapers, of the comic strip Boondocks
because of its satirical take on US patriotism, is one example of this.
Increased limits placed by employers upon the use of staff email facilities is
another.
These attacks on civil liberties are described by their proponents as
measures to “protect freedom”. But even restrictions on free political
speech or other civil liberties supposedly introduced to limit the power of the
extreme right will eventually be used against the left. This has been eloquently
shown by the investigation, under racial vilification laws, of Australian
left-liberal political commentator Phillip Adams for questioning US foreign
policy.
In a climate of restrictions on dissent, Green Left Weekly is
vulnerable, as recent experience in Hobart has shown. Any attempt by local
councils to impose fees or restrict the areas in which activists can distribute
non-profit publications is a violation of the right to free speech. GLW
readers and supporters will need to stand ready to mobilise in our defence in
all cases of such attacks.
It makes no difference which excuses are used to justify the measures in
question or by which body they are implemented. If proposed measures restrict
our freedom to organise, they should be considered an attack on democratic
rights.
GLW has a long record of defending free speech and civil liberties
for all. Our opposition to “closing down” the public meetings of the One
Nation party (while not renouncing our own right to organise large
counter-protests) is one case in point.
Experience has also shown that the best way to defend democratic rights under
attack is with open, mass, public campaigns. Such campaigns are more necessary
now than ever, as we must seek to convince the majority of people of the dangers
inherent in the current climate of patriotic hostility to dissent.
In the 1970s, bans on protest marches in the streets were overcome by mass,
public defiance of the bans. The Hobart City Council ban on the Tasmanian Gay
and Lesbian Rights Group stall at Salamanca markets was overturned after a long
campaign which included repeated weekly attempts to set up the stall in the face
of council harassment.
Working people have the most to gain from the radical extension of democratic
rights, and the ability to freely organise in defence of our interests.
From Green Left Weekly, December 12, 2001.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.
Hobart council denies permit to Green Left Weekly
BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE
HOBART — On December 17 the Hobart City Council denied a permit
for the sale of Green Left Weekly in Elizabeth Street Mall. It was
the third time the council had denied such a permit in little over three
weeks.
The council had previously agreed in principle to a public consultation
about activities in the mall. Councillor Jeff Briscoe moved that GLW
be issued with a temporary permit (with several conditions) until the
consultation was completed. Three council members voted for the motion, while
six voted against.
Despite banning GLW from the mall on November 26, the council has
taken little action to stop defiant distributors in the mall. The only
exception was on December 4 when council officers called police after four
sellers refused to leave the mall. Police left “to seek advice” from a
sergeant and did not return. A council spokesperson later that day told Mercury
journalists that no action had been taken to enforce the ban.
At the December 17 meeting, Lord Mayor Rob Valentine responded to a comment
by a council member that the ban had been a “public relations disaster”
for the council by accusing GLW of spreading “misinformation”
about the ban.
Valentine said the claim by GLW that denying its sellers a permit
represents a “restriction on free speech” was a prime example of such
misinformation. Valentine has repeatedly argued that refusing a permit is
simply about maintaining council policy and is not a free speech issue since
the council is not prohibiting the paper's distribution in other locations.
Valentine also claimed that it was incorrect to argue that GLW had
been distributed in the mall since the paper came out in 1991. He asserted
that Green Left had been available in the mall “only for the last
three months”.
Briscoe countered that he had seen the paper available prior to the current
dispute and argued that “if there was misinformation”, there was
“misinformation on both sides”.
Council member Darlene Haigh read to the meeting sections of an anonymous
email to the council. The email supported the ban and explicitly called for
censorship of the paper across Australia. None of the many emails in support
of GLW's right to be distributed in the mall were mentioned at the
meeting.
Supporters are encouraged to write to the council supporting the right of Green
Left Weekly to be distributed in the mall. Ask that your comments be
officially included in the coming public consultation and specify that you
believe that there should be no fee for distributing non-profit material.
From Green Left Weekly, January 16, 2002.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.
Partial victory for GLW
BY SHUA GARFIELD
HOBART - The Policy and Intergovernment Committee of the Hobart
City Council decided on February 5 against holding a public consultation about
activities in city's Elizabeth Street mall. The consultation was originally
proposed after the council's November decision to ban Green Left Weekly
from the mall proved controversial.
“We have continued regular distribution of the paper in the mall since
the council denied us a permit but the council hasn't taken action to stop
us”, said GLW spokesperson Alex Bainbridge.
“The council's public consultation could have been a mechanism for the
council to back down and give us a permit, or it could have been a vehicle to
try to manufacture an impression of public support for the council's ban”,
Bainbridge said. “Since the consultation is not going ahead, the latter
option is excluded. As there are no indications that the council has plans to
enforce its ban, we believe that this decision represents a partial, de
facto, victory for GLW.”
“Naturally, we remain prepared to vigorously defend our right to
distribute the paper in the mall if the council moves against us in the
future”, he added.
Council member Jeff Briscoe, who has consistently supported GLW's
right to be distributed in the mall - said the decision not to hold the
consultation was made because the financial cost would be too great.
From Green Left Weekly, February 13, 2002.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.