Statement by Red Ant Collective

The anti-protest and social cohesion laws proposed by the Victorian ALP government are part of the escalating McCarthyist campaign against Palestine solidarity in the imperialist centres. But they also need to be seen within the context of the ever growing arsenal of laws introduced in the last few decades aimed at crushing dissent.

Protests build solidarity among participants and provide an outlet for the community to grieve or express anger. More importantly, protests radicalise people who have not yet been introduced to left/anti-imperialist politics. After committing genocide in Gaza, this is what the governments of the imperial centres fear the most. In crisis they want the plunder and loot of the periphery to accelerate. And they want to suppress resistance by restricting communities from gathering to discuss and show solidarity in public space. These laws are an important step in this direction.

What are the proposed anti-protest and “social cohesion laws”?

Victorian Labor Premier Jacinta Allan in her statement announcing the laws on the 17th December 2024 made it clear that these laws are part of the McCarthyist atmosphere that equates anti-genocide protests with anti-semitism and conflates them with the series of murkily orchestrated anti-semitic incidents, many now confirmed to have been carried out by organised criminal elements paid by unknown parties. She also equates the Palestine protests with the real threat posed by increasingly public demonstrations by actual Nazis from the National Socialist Network (NSN).

The proposed laws have two distinct but important components: anti-protest provisions and the social cohesion provisions.

The attack on protests

Banning of face masks at protests.

Rather than a ban on masks, these laws more correctly give the police power to remove people’s face coverings.

Disturbingly, one of the main justifications for these laws is that face coverings are being used to make capsicum spray less effective! In other words, defending yourself against the indiscriminate use of chemical weapons by the state for crowd control is being criminalised.

The use of face coverings by the Nazi NSN group is also being used as a justification. Aside from the fact that you can guarantee that the police already know exactly who the 50 members of the NSN are (as some of them are no doubt undercover operatives or associated with the police), this is useful to equate leftwing dissent with open fascism.

Secondly, people should have the right to dissent while protecting their identity. Not only is this reasonable as a general rule in the face of state surveillance, but Zionists are actively working to dox anti-genocide protesters and have them sacked from their workplaces.

We are also in the midst of an ongoing Covid pandemic (WHO only ended the emergency phase but Covid is still classed as being a pandemic by WHO). While the law allows for medical exemptions, anyone who has actually met a cop will know that police cannot be trusted with this power. This law will inevitably be used selectively against oppressed groups and will effectively exclude immunocompromised people from the public square.

Banning protests outside religious “houses of worship”.

Churches and other religions already evade tax and are now to be protected from protests. Not only is this problematic in itself but it will potentially give police an excuse to criminalise any protest within the CBD, for example, where there is a church on practically every corner!

Banning the flags and symbols of listed terrorist organisations.

This law will be used selectively against oppressed groups. The stated aim was to ban Hezbollah flags in particular from rallies. Even in Australia, Hezbollah was not listed as a terrorist group until 2021 and isn’t in the vast majority of the world. As we know, any resistance group to the West is labelled a terrorist organisation. This proposal is part of the broader trend of trying to label all support for Palestinian resistance as support for terrorism. In the US, Trump’s regime is labelling all protests for Palestine as support of Hamas and therefore of “terrorism”. The State should not be given even more powers to repress Australians of Arab descent. Of course, the flag of the terrorist state of Israel can be proudly and legally flown! 

Banning of chains, locks, glue and rope.

The banning of a series of essentially harmless items will obviously be used as an excuse to allow police to search anyone attending a protest.

The Social Cohesion “Pledge”—an attack on civil society

The plans, as announced by Allan, include “introducing a simple, Victorian-focused ‘social cohesion pledge’ that multicultural organisations must observe to apply for government grants – with consequences if the pledge is broken.”

This part of the law may actually be the most reactionary and dangerous. Police already have extensive powers to criminalise protest, but this is a major escalation in controlling and policing civil society.

In the current McCarthyite crackdown on Palestinian solidarity, this part of the law will effectively prohibit, with the fear of the loss of funding, any NGO or community organisation from taking any stance that is critical of Zionism or in support of Palestinian rights. First the “pledge” will be used to target any solidarity with Palestine or other West Asian states in the U.S. and Israel’s firing line. But it will surely be used to ensure NGOs play no role in opposing the growing drive to war.

The Red Ant Collective opposes these laws in their entirety! Our ruling class has shown that not only are they willing to be complicit in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians by the Zionist entity but that they will use the full might of the state to try and crush those who are fighting for Palestinian liberation. These laws will also be used against workers, environmentalists, students and any others who enter the fray to fight against the ills of capitalism.

Defend the right to protest!
Defend the right to fight!
Oppose Labor’s anti-protest and social cohesion laws!