Western democracies ban public assemblies

Western governments are placing restriction on assemblies as opposition grows to their complicity in the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

The British government have banned assemblies organised by Palestine Action . Many are in jail on hunger strike fighting for the similar demands that the IRA fought for in the 1980s.

1. End censorship inside prison

2. Immediate release on bail

3. Release of information relating to their prosecutions, required to ensure they receive fair trials

4. De-proscribe Palestine Action

5. Shut down Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems’ UK operations

There are restrictions on public assemblies in states that oppose Trump: in Los Angeles, Oakland, Chicago, New York etc.

Palestinians long ago lost the right of public assembly in Israel. Now the New South Wales government has banned assemblies in that state.

When 50,000 people marched over Brisbane’s Victoria Bridge in support of Palestine in October 2025 we did so with the approval of the chief magistrate. And that was under a right-wing LNP government and Brisbane City Council that support Israel.

I acknowledge that the situation is different in New South Wales and Victoria because people have never been through the struggles for democratic rights that occurred in Queensland from 1977 to 1979 where there were over three thousand arrests, the longest mass defiance of a government in Australian history with the exception of Aboriginal resistance.

Please note also that the earlier ban on street marches in Queensland in 1967 was not under the Bjelke-Peterson government, it was under a Country Party government led by Frank Nicklin.

We wish to thank Peter and Humphrey for this discussion below, Ian Curr, Editor WBT.

Reference @ 1977_09_14.pdf https://share.google/nd7slL6cld1U3btkw

  

Combating  ‘Combatting antisemitism’:

   Stay Calm  Stand Firm   


The shock from the Bondi murders will subside with the news cycle, the more so because of Christmas and New Year celebrations. Now is the time to take time to think about what our enemies will get up to next year using Bondi as the grounds for doing what they have wanted to do all along, which is to close down protests and marches. Now is a time for sharing thoughts and for thinking beyond the headlines.


We can’t be sure of what comes next – a copycat attack is not impossible. Open warfare with Venezuela and the annexation of the West Bank are more than likely. Most business commentators expect the AI bubble to burst in the first half of 2026. Any one of these upheavals will shift the focus of attention for us, as well as for our opponents in state apparatuses. Then there are the crises that come from left field – as Bondi did a week back.

For the moment, here are some thoughts about one matter which we know will confront us in 2026, namely, the Zionists’ and their political lackeys’ version of ‘Combatting antisemitism,’ by which they plan to criminalise any criticism of mass-murdering land-thieves.


First, some more bad news. The Bondi murders delivered a blow to our anti-Zionist campaign. They feed Katter’s anti-immigration crowd and take popular opinion back to October 7 when Arab and Muslim meant terrorist.

We can’t see that comparing 80,000 deaths in Gaza with the fifteen murders at Bondi cuts it with parents enflamed to panic about their kids going to any beach. Gawd knows what is circulating on anti-social media. Sky News is likely to be a temple of moderation by contrast.


Despite these set-backs, our anti-Zionist forces are better organised, wider and deeper than two years ago so that we have a base from which to regain the moral and political high ground. Much depends on how we make the most of those plusses, tactically and strategically. How to proceed at Bunbury will differ from what to do at Byron Bay.


We face the old problem of getting across how we distinguish anti-Zionism from antisemitism. At one level, that difference requires knowledge of 200 years of history. Even though more people became concerned to learn at least a little of the background to Gaza, for most Australians, life is not a post-grad seminar in cultural studies. So, it is a matter of horses for courses.

Our experience is that nothing carries more impact than the leaflet with the three maps of what has happened to Palestine since 1947 – though it needs to be kept up to date. Here, in the ACT, a sub-group of the organisers collect money at every gathering to sustain the supply.

Wouldn’t it be great if we had three-metre-high banners showing the same?

For those willing to give a couple of hours, we find that the Israeli documentary, The Gate Keepers (2012), is unbeatable. Five successive heads of the Shin Bet are serial offenders in antisemitism defined as criticising the Zionist entity.

One comparison which is risk-free for us, and worth making is to ask the likes of Iraq-war criminal Howard what they said in the wake of the Christchurch killings by an Australian. Did even one of them insist on a campaign to eradicate Islamophobia?

The non-existent Zionist lobby has had the advantage of eighty-years of using the Holocaust to silence criticism of their colonising land-grabs, and now of their genocide. The result established Jew as Chosen victim, never as perpetrator. More than two years of the slaughter in Gaza has weakened, but not overcome that impediment to acceptance that the Yahoo and his cohort are guilty as charged.


A key concern must be how state apparatuses will strike at our movement. We don’t have to imagine the screams and shouts to ban all protests and marches for feeding ‘antisemitism.’ Susan Ley is prancing around the graves to shore up her leadership against the libertarian whackos.

We have to assert our right to protest by doing so but with non-violent resistance. We know what the UK government has done to Palestine Action, and there are plenty of heavies in the anti-labour party (ALP) who long to do the same. (It is worth recalling that the anti-march laws used by Bjelke had been introduced by the Labor Party to combat the Reds in the 1930s.)

When Nazis bash people, they should be hit with the full force of the criminal law.

We are not enthusiastic about calls to ban the Nazis from forming a party. Should they get the 500 signatures to register, their impact will be a flea-bite compared with the clout from police and controls from the surveillance state in workplaces, shops and on the streets. Using ideas as grounds for banning legitimate political action risks establishing precedents to turn against us. Be careful of what you wish for. 

Instead, it is up to our collective action to drive them off the street. Forcing them underground has its downside.

We aimed Nazi salutes at Howard to show what we thought of Worst Choices. One danger is that the state will extend the ban on the Hitler salute to outlaw clinched fists raised in solidarity. The anti-labour party kept the display of the Eureka flag on building sites a crime because it would intimidate scabs – and a good thing when it did.

One need not be an anarchist to accept that the state is not our friend. The corporate-warfare state remains another site for conflicts within and between classes in the covert capitalist dictatorship under which we have lived under all our lives. 


Difficult matters and not resolved with truisms. New things happen. Old things happen in new ways. Dem’s dialectics for you, comrade.

Experience in the first quarter of next year will help to clarify the threats to us and how we can best respond. Meanwhile, we can pool our reflections and experiences, testing their worth in activities. 

Stay calm. Stand firm. 


Peter Curtis and Humphrey McQueen


 December 21, 2025.