Courts, governments attack right to protest
By James Vassilopoulos
In a judgment which could have easily come from Jakarta rather than Melbourne, the Victorian Supreme Court on April 20 issued a draconian injunction against picket lines at the docks.
Justice Barry Beach ordered that "all persons" who had participated or been present at the pickets at Melbourne East Swanson Dock, and anyone in the future who is present at the dock, must stand 200 metres from the site. Protesters would not even be allowed to stand on a public footpath.
The order even included the media, who would thus not be in a position to show the violent crushing of the picket line if that occurred.
Under Beach's order it would be illegal even to advise a person not to enter or leave the dock, or to explain to them what the picket line was for.
It would also be illegal for protesters to carry placards with words such as "Do not cross the picket line".
Later, the original orders were varied to exempt media and peaceful protesters who are not part of the picket.
An appeal has been lodged in the Victorian Court of Appeals by the Maritime Union of Australia and by state Labor frontbenchers.
This is not the only attack on democratic rights which has occurred in the industrial dispute between the MUA and the Patrick-Coalition alliance. Injunctions have also been granted in Western Australia and New South Wales to stop picketers from blocking cargo.
Queensland Premier Rob Borbidge on April 21 threatened up to five years' jail for anyone who blocks cargo in the ports there. Already 100 protesters have been arrested in Queensland, the only state to arrest protesters on a mass scale.
Also in Queensland, a student demonstration in favour of the wharfies was banned.
When governments and big business attack the jobs and living standards of workers, they invariably seek as well to curtail democracy, so that workers cannot defend themselves against these attacks.