Hopefully the final update. It's really a pathetic world we live in. These people are gay. So fucking what. If they want to be openly admitting their gay in a society where homosexuality is frowned upon, then that is their own perogative. When they act as if the world owes them something due to that fact, then they are living in a fantasy world. This update is a recount of the events of their occupation over the last couple of days at uni. To say it is a biased view would be an understatement. Read and make up your own mind. Peace and love to all.
>>
>>
>> Operation Queer Space
>> (we saw on the police report it was called Operation Belmore)
>>
>> minutes from meeting 2:30pm 29th August.
>> Agenda
>>
>> Briefing of Group
>> Charges/Legalities
>> What we plan to do (campaign, documentary, official channels, media,
>> other unis etc)
>> Delegation Of tasks
>>
>>
>> Briefing
>>
>> We entered the room (which was booked by us for a function for
>> sexuality week) at 2:30pm. the room was locked down around 3:00pm
>> after setting up our wireless system separate form the universities
>> so we could liaise with people in our src via i-chat without
>> detection/interference/spying from university information technology.
>> we took with us approx 20 litres of water, enough food food to feed
>> 16 people for a week, blankets, video camera, digital camera, we laso
>> had two tv's and 2 vcrs for entertainment, we took up 5 board games -
>> but i wish i had a tennis ball. we took two buckets - one for our
>> bathroom and the other was used to transport things, with rope, in
>> and out of the room.
>> we released our press release at around 4:00pm and our demands just
>> before 5:00pm. someone did a follow up call to our vc - gerard sutton
>> (from here on in known as gerry) at 5:00pm - he answered the phone
>> call and confirmed his receipt of the demands and press release.
>>
>> the university began to investigate our existance in the room -
>> beginning with one lone security person - at around 6:00pm. we had a
>> full body mirror set up outside the room to give the occupiers a view
>> of an angle we couldn't otherwise see to alert us to police or
>> security presence. the mirror was on an angle and was very helpful
>> because one area of approach ws not visible to us. it took security
>> over 16 hours to figure out why the mirror was there - so they merely
>> turned it around. we sent troops to return it - it took security a
>> further two hours to realise that we had done this.
>> 8 people remained for the night on thursday evening. security
>> continually walked past and opened and closed doors around us keeping
>> us on our toes all evening - with us sporadically waking and rushing
>> the doors to slam our bodies against it. over night tallace and
>> myself worked on further media releases and focused on media
>> attention for the next day.
>>
>> friday - people had to leave throughout the day and by 7:00pm on
>> friday evening it was sparki, dom and myself. we had huge support out
>> on the ground and had people looking out for our welfare the entire
>> occupation - these people stayed in the src and chatted with us and
>> exchanged info over our computer system. people did 4 hour shifts on
>> the outside to look out for us. at this point the university refused
>> to negotiate with us because we supposedly had not "gone through the
>> official channels" - we had gone through 4 years of bureaucratic
>> bullshit and gotten nowhere - they requested that we go through
>> officially through the src. so we printed the demands on src
>> letterhead.
>>
>> friday night two boys who had perpetrated a (possibly more)
>> homophobic attack(s) during the week turned up to pray. security was
>> also seen joking and laughing with other perpetrators of homophobia
>> on campus throughout the occupation. one of the perpetrators was
>> overheard suggesting to the security that they should set off the
>> fire alarms to flush us out.
>>
>> should be no excuses now, hey gerry?
>>
>> just prior to people leaving on friday evening we received info from
>> a past security guard that the police would be storming the room at
>> 7:30pm. sparki, dom and i prepared ourselves. we had two tables up
>> against the door, with a chair levering the handle so it couldn't be
>> turned. we also had a water cooler bottle against the door in areas
>> too wide for us to cover hoping the weight of it would help a bit. we
>> assume that this storming didn't occur at this time because there was
>> a huge presence of queers on campus at this point (we were having our
>> annual end of sexuality week party at unibar). instead the police
>> waited until saturday afternoon when there was a lull in support of
>> numbers on the ground because the kids were out preparing our next
>> plan of attack.
>>
>> the three remaining occupiers - dominika, sparki (daniel) and myself
>> (annaliese) had a visit from the police around 8:00am on saturday
>> morning (28th august). they came to the door and asked to leave (at
>> which point nobody had asked us to do yet) - with them they had the
>> acting vice principal of administration chris grainger. we told them
>> we would not be opening the door and they could go around to the
>> window and talk to us from the ground. we were on the second floor (i
>> think they were uncomfortable with the power positioning of us above
>> them in negotiations ohhh it was fun to see them straining their
>> necks). we refused to come out. they said are you aware that you will
>> be arrested if you don't come out - we said yes. the university then
>> said they refused to negotiate with us while we were inside the room.
>> police said they would be back.
>> police rescue turned up at 12:00pm. to which we responded that we
>> were fine and didn't need rescuing because we were in a safe space. i
>> feel that this was an intimidation tactic - poor sparki was woken up
>> by dom and i screaming that the police were there.
>>
>> we pulled in our banners and closed the windows so that there was no
>> access through the windows. at 1:50pm the police knocked on the door
>> with the acting vice principal chris grainger. they again informed us
>> that we would be arrested if we did not leave - we said we understood
>> that and that we would leave as soon as we received a signature from
>> gerry on our demands. they also said they didn't want anyone to get
>> hurt (as the riot police aimed their shields up for attack on the
>> door) - we said we didn't want anyone to get hurt either and that was
>> why were in there. sillybillies.
>>
>> as the police arrived some people remained in the src to go out into
>> our back storage area to make noise with the bbq to try and separate
>> some police into thinking that there was other action going on. when
>> the police begun their attcak these people attempted to exit the src
>> through our back door this had been barricaded by the police and
>> security. this bought the police an extra 2 minutes of unsupervised
>> attack.
>>
>> as dom, sparki and i braced ourselves against the door the ten riot
>> police began rhythmic slamming with their shields on the other side
>> of the door. "thank god i've cleaned the space for visitors" i
>> thought as my left ear and temple were smashed and my hand was
>> crushed between the two tables. i began screaming to the our people
>> on the ground to release the next media release.
>>
>> people on the outside could hear the door being slammed in - these
>> people were quite far away and blocked by brick walls. to hear this
>> attack from their distance is pretty fucking vicious. the windows in
>> the building were visibly shaking from the force of the riot police.
>> the leverage chair became a nuisance and as dom turned to throw it
>> away there were two hits and then an arm came through the door.
>> sparki and dom were crushed up against the wall as the tables slammed
>> to the ground and the doors were ripped from the wall. i was pushed
>> back by the riot police and fell to the ground scrambling away from
>> the people with guns and shields and helmets and visors - i don't
>> even think they were queer - what were they doing in our safe space?
>>
>> sparki and dom were still up against the wall - as sparki was being
>> frisked form my scrambled position i sat cross legged and put both my
>> hands on my knees. the police were going psycho screaming "WHERE'S
>> THE OTHER ONE? WHERE'S THE OTHER ONE" - because dom and sparki were
>> crushed against the wall they couldn't be seen. the police were well
>> aware that there were only three people inside our safe space yet
>> they decided 10 riot police - police rescue - regular uniformed
>> police - and security were all required to attack three peaceful
>> people claiming a safe space. the police went to the corner of the
>> room designated as our toilet where a blanket hung and barked "WHO IS
>> BEHIND THERE - COME OUT - WHO'S IN THERE - GET OUT FROM BEHIND THERE"
>> to which i said "nobody is behind there. that's where we piss"
>> we were arrested and escorted out of the once safe space - the police
>> held our hands in a position that if we were to squirm they could
>> twist our wrists in a very unnatural way until they broke.
>>
>> dom received a huge bruise along her right thigh from when the riot
>> police broke down the barrier between safe and unsafe. dom refused to
>> walk and was wrist twisted by the police.
>>
>> we were taken outside to two paddy wagons. sparki was frisked again
>> and we were separated by sex. i requested that we not be separated
>> for the safety of sparki - one police officer replied that we "should
>> have thought of that before" - to which, (by this time we were in the
>> paddy wagon) i screamed out to our ground people to contact the gay
>> and lesbian liaison officer. this was done. no GLLO on weekends -
>> apparently queers aren't arrested on the weekends. called around
>> other police stations in the illawarra - there are NO other gay and
>> lesbian liaison officers around this area.
>>
>> at the police station dom and i were separately strip searched - we
>> were allowed to keep our undies and shirts on (cos we weren't wearing
>> bras) - we were patted down. i had to give them my hair elastics and
>> my rainbow solidarity badge - i did however get my badge back on for
>> my id photo.
>>
>> we were taken to the wollongong police station - the charge is
>> trespass for each of us - we refused interview - i only gave them my
>> name, address, date of birth and next of kin in case of emergency.
>> (you only need to give name, address and dob any other info ie.
>> obtained from an interview can be used against you).
>>
>> from arrest to release it was approximately 3 hours. we had been
>> occupying for 47. 5 hours.
>>
>> Legalities / charges:
>>
>> we were charged with trespass.
>> our bail restrictions state - we are only to attend university for
>> enrolled classes and admin purposes.
>>
>> Admin purposes is inclusive of work, src meeting etc.
>>
>> our bail is interpreted by the police and not the university. in
>> summary after speaking to the police officer dealing with us it means
>> we are not to do anything illegal at uni - i didn't realise we were
>> allowed to before. i could have done sooo much more.
>>
>>
>> PLans/Campaigns:
>>
>> henry collier - a member of allsorts and academic at uni has a
>> meeting with senator grieg (democrats) today. he will be bringing up
>> the issues of homophobia at the university of wollongong and the
>> treatment and response to this.
>>
>> we will be contacting bob brown and kerry nettle for supprot also.
>> kerry nettle and michael organ have already signed our petition -
>> which is attached below for you to send back signed if you wish.
>>
>>
>> media:
>> trying to get onto hack at triple j.
>> received a call form win tv this morning and also the northern leader
>> - ( local newspaper).
>> media committee:
>> annaliese
>> sophie
>> sparki
>> dom
>> jay
>> amy
>>
>> your job: we are seeking involvement from other unis
>> other unis committee:
>> you - writing letters and coming if possible to wollongong for our
>> action. for further secret squirrel information contact annaliese
>> 0400 214 203 -
>>
>> contact gerard our vc at -
>> email:
gerard@uow.edu.au
>> phone: 02 4221 3909
>> fax: 02 4227 1771
>>
>> me:
media@src.uow.edu,.au
>> fax: 02 4221 4233
>> ph: 0400 214 203
>>
>> post filled petitions to me:
>>
>> annaliese constable
>> student representative council
>> University of Wollongong - homophobic uni of the year
>> bld 11, Northfields Avenue
>> Gwynneville
>> nsw 2522
>>
>> we are also pursuing official avenues - seeking meetings etc so they
>> have no excuse not to respond.
>> official avenues committee:
>> dom
>> annaliese
>> sparki
>> sophie
>>
>> certficate to be presented to gerry for homophobic uni of the year:
>> justin and mark and trevor
>>
>> banners:
>> anne
>> karlee
>> trevor
>> annaliese
>> rocky
>>
>> posters:
>> sparkio
>> jay
>>
>> shirts:
>> sparki
>>
>> badges:
>> lisa
>> sparki
>>
>> leaflet:
>> annaliese
>>
>> propaganda:
>> johnno
>> sophie
>> karlee
>>
>> we need people to disperse into the community and leaflet - set up
>> petiton tables etc. suggested area - the mall.
>>
>> anyone buying anything for this get RECEIPTS - our src is so lame
>> about refunding money. if you can't afford it don't buy it.
>>
>> suggestion for banners:
>> uni flag with pride flag in background
>> oz flag with rainbow instead of union jack
>> something to do with the ecu (evangelical christian union) on campus
>> - this union perpetrated some attacks on queers.
>>
>> if you wish to help out with any of these areas come to a meeting or
>> call me. if you are inexperienced with this sort of stuff don't worry
>> this is the perfect opportunity for you to learn and we're all happy
>> to skill share.
>>
>> there will be meeting everyday this week on the duckpond lawn at
>> 12:30pm to discuss further action. due to confidentiality not all
>> plans of attack are being discussed via email.
>>
>> ignore any typos please - typing so fast.
>>
>> stay tuned for more. anyone with media contacts please get onto it
>> and get them involved.please pass this on the anyone else relevant.
>>
>> we will not be silenced or ignored. we will not give up. we will get
>> what we are fighting for. united we are stronger.
>>
>> love annaliese
