Up the Right Channels?

Complicit – involved in or knowing about a crime or some activity that is wrong.

Even though there were three activities in support of Palestine at University of Queensland (UQ) yesterday they were overshadowed by the crowds, size and scope of ‘market day’ where clubs and societies vied for members in the Great Court and at the Student Union complex. There were stalls of the political parties competing for votes in the upcoming Brisbane City Council elections. The three events described here were not advertised outside the groups that organised them, perhaps because they involved covert action (a banner drop) or because of fear of reprisal from the authorities (the slow march) or because it was something part of a far bigger event (O-week Students for Palestine stall). There was little if any co-ordination between the three events. I only heard about them on the morning of market day (Wednesday, 15th Feb 2024) and even then I was unsure of what was going to happen.

Firstly there was an attempt to do a banner drop calling for a Free Palestine from a walkway above the Great Court where thousands were gathered. This was thwarted by vigilant UQ security guards using questionable authority in what is a public place. Why shouldn’t people be able to display a banner that says Free Palestine? It is similar in King George Square. The Brisbane City Council would not permit a banner to be displayed that showed how Palestine is disappearing before our very eyes.

There was a pamphlet prepared (which I handed out to students after its author had been expelled by UQ security) with an open letter to students and workers at the University greeting people “with a spirit of solidarity care and collective anger and grief as we enter a new academic year unavoidably marked by the horrors of an unending genocide in Palestine.”

Two activists were removed from the University campus by UQ security. This is the conversation I had with UQ Security.

Ian Curr 
I’m outside the teaching and learning space on the second floor of the Geology building here at the University of Queensland and security are interviewing two people. I’ve just been asked to wait outside. I’m near their radiogenic isotope facility, and we’re about 130 days into the genocide in Palestine, the University of Queensland is complicit in the genocide. They have research facilities here that directly impact Israel’s ability to conduct the war. And so I’ll just do a bit of an interview here with some of the security people if I get a chance.

UQ security manager 
you’ve got a University of Queensland jumper (on) so if you are seen on campus we’ll have police remove you. Okay, and that will be trespassing.

Ian Curr (to the UQ Security manager)
I first worked here in 1967 so it is a new experience to be expelled. I worked in a lab actually (pointing to its location).

UQ security manager 
... they’re not being expelled. They’re actually … they’ve entered the room. They’ve not produced any ID. Obviously, you being an old student, you know, you’d know the obligation but security, we’ve got the right to ask for identification now. [Something I don’t know and find dubious] Well, obviously we were here to keep the security of the university and make sure that everyone’s safe on campus … you know when we’ve got someone trying to break through a window and put themselves in harms way. Yeah, on an open platform.  And obviously it’s a big concern to us… [I can remember when the ‘open platform’ the UQ manager was talking about was a walkway between the Chemistry (Steele) building and the Geology (Richards) building].

Ian Curr (to Security)
… are you union members?

Second security officer (hostile)
What’s that got to do anything?

Ian Curr 
Oh, it’s very important because you know there’s complicity of the university in war crimes that are being committed in Palestine and that’s a concern … Peace is union business.

Second security officer
That’s your opinion

UQ security manager (to a third security officer)
Dan, two people over here have been asked to leave.

Second security officer 
Yep.

UQ security manager 
So I’ll get you to make sure they leave.

Second security officer 
… and if they don’t we’ll call the police

Ian Curr (to manager)
what was your name, sorry?

Ian Curr (to second officer)
maybe your name?

Inaudible

Ian Curr 

Guys … this guy (UQ Security) is on our tail to make sure we leave …

Uniformed Security officer 
So you’ve been given the directive …, so you need to leave and you need to leave immediately. You need to leave and you need to leave so he can go with you …. So he can go with you, but you need to leave immediately. So under trespass law in Queensland, if we asked you to leave and leave by the nearest exit, which will be over here, and then you can’t come back and then police will be called and they will then pursue trespass. Okay, so I just want to let you know what’s happening. So I don’t have a I don’t have an issue with you personally or anything like that. That’s the directory that’s been given. So we do need to move on.

These directives were given while thousands of people were receiving information about clubs and societies dealing with interests as diverse as the Yoga and Meditation club and Australia-China Youth Association. Meanwhile we were being ordered off campus with our Free Palestine banner yet to be unfurled.

__oOo__

Afterwards I had an interesting conversation with some Indonesian students sitting in the Great Court. They had just returned to continue their studies at the University of Queensland. One of the students said that there were daily activities in Indonesia in support of Palestine. I asked her if the support was because of the number of Muslims in Indonesia and she said “well Indonesia is a Muslim country but I am not a Muslim”. She said that she participated in demonstrations because she was from ‘the Middle East’. All three students I spoke to her very sympathetic and thanked me for the work that we were doing in trying to bring the Palestinian issue to light in the University of Queensland. I invited them to the fortnightly rally and they said that they would try to get along.

I also spoke to a woman wearing a Free Palestine T-shirt and she said that she couldn’t come to the pickets relating to weapons manufacturers because she had all day practical’s on those days but she certainly would be attending the rally on Sunday.

Of the five people who were participating in the banner drop only two of us were left and so we went to the second activity being held on ‘market day’ and organised by a group called Wage Peace.

Down near the university lake opposite women’s college there were 15 people engaged in a slow walk in support of Palestine and they handed out leaflets and had banners stating that the engineering school at the University of Queensland was actively involved in the genocide currently happening. The leaflet read: “UQ partners with Boeing, the third largest defence company in the world. Only a third of Boeing’s revenue stems from civilian products. Boeing’s core business is weapons of mass destruction like nuclear warheads, bombs, missiles, attack helicopters and fighter jets. Right now, Israel uses these Boeing products for the genocide in Palestine.”

They provided a detailed list of Boeing’s complicity.

During the march there was some aggression shown to the anti-war activists. At one point a car tried to push through two marchers. Fortunately, a guy driving a caterers van, who was also stopped got out of his van and intervened with the driver of the white Holden Commodore that was pushing people holding banners. The driver was being abusive and the caterer responded by saying he was using his car as a weapon and that was not on. He told him to do a U-turn and leave. There were some students from the catholic men’s college Saint Leo’s who came and were derogatory to the Peace marches. One woman came up to me and asked aggressively what is University of Queensland got to do with it. When I replied, she said that her father worked for Boeing and was quite high up in that organisation. Such is the privilege that one finds at institutions like the University of Queensland. However there were plenty of people who were sympathetic.

When we arrived at the engineering building where Boeing is housed we had three minute silence for the people of Palestine. This blocked a number of trucks and some cars which were coming to and from the construction site opposite the Hawken building. Police were present and herded people off the road where the trucks wish to pass. Two of the security guards who had evicted the activists doing the banner drop were pres ent. The march took over an hour and there was plenty of interaction leave loading and people looking at our banners. At a debrief afterwards people were asked by the organisers how they ‘felt’ about the action. Most were positive and decided to conduct a similar action in two weeks time on market day on Wednesday 28th March 2024.

I asked a question about UQ’s involvement and the level of complicity of Boeing here at the University. The person chairing the debrief was dismissive saying we are talking about how people feel about the action. The person beside me was also dismissive saying we can discuss strategy later. I was concerned because a member of the Labor Party had told me he did not participate in such actions because the research being done was related to the aerospace industry and commercial airlines. After some probing it seemed that this was an issue and two or three people at the debrief talked about how Boeing business is centered around war machines including hypersonic rockets developed at UQ which, according to person conducting the debrief, part of a weapons race with the Russians. I would not highlight this discussion if it was not a repeat of a debrief conducted by the same person after a picket at Ferra Engineering which makes adaptors for 900 kilogram bombs being dropped on Gaza. In that debrief people were also asked about their personal feelings. One woman who had driven up from the Gold Coast wished to ask a question of one of the person arrested inside Ferra but was also dismissed as not being appropriate. It is hard for organisers and participants to come to terms with the genocide and the complicity of companies and institutions like Boeing, Ferra and UQ. However I think people should be more open to relevant questions about the war machine. It was strangely ironic that a debrief focussed on personal feelings should cause the woman from the Gold Coast, when thwarted, to leave the debrief and not come back.

__oOo__

The third activity at UQ market day was a stall in the great court organised by Students for Palestine. This enabled students and workers at the University to obtain information about the campaign to stop the genocide in Gaza.

This is not the first time a spotlight has been placed on a genocide, war and imperialism at the University of Queensland. The University has some complicity in the war in Vietnam (it houses a building dedicated to Dow chemical that produced naplam for use in the American war in Vietnam.

The Free Palestine leaflet reads: “Clearly this university is not a neutral grounds nor has it ever been. We remember the mass political meetings once held in the Great Court, thousands of students who once gathered here during the late 60s early 70s to discuss imperialism racism and injustice under capitalism, who organised collectively against the Vietnam war and apartheid South Africa.

The genocide in East Timor was opposed by seven who marched as depicted in this poem:

Complicity?
Israel is using bombs to enforce a system of apartheid in Palestine, driving people from their land. Given recent rulings in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Dutch Court of appeal*, states and their institutions should not be aiding Israel in the commission of a ‘possible’ (sic) genocide. The University of Queensland senate and companies involved in weapons research (Boeing, sic) should pay heed to these rulings. The University should be less vigilant in trying to curb activists from bringing the issues forward. Both the University and Brisbane City Council should be looking closely at their association with Boeing, Ferra and other companies complicit in the genocide in Gaza. Such an investigation may reveal that you, the university, the company, the council are not compicit in the genocide but part of it!

For those that wish to get involved in this campaign contact Justice for Palestine Magandjin at

jfpbrisbane@gmail.com

justiceforpalestine.meanjin

JFPMeanjin

BrisbaneBDS

jfpmeanjin

eepurl.com/hWiMsD

Ian Curr
15 Feb 2024

*The Dutch Court of Appeal in the Hague has ordered the Netherlands government to stop exporting F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel inside the next 7 days after ruling that “there is a clear risk that serious violations of humanitarian law of war are committed in the Gaza Strip with Israel’s F-35 fighter planes.