Catholic Worker response to Land Forces Expo

Aerospace is hosting social drinks inside the Brisbane convention center to network the machines of death and killing. – Robin Taubenfeld, Peace Activist, June 2021.

We post this response by the Catholic Workers in Brisbane (Meanjin) to the Land Forces Expo held at the Brisbane Convention Centre in June 2021. I did not like the tactic of going inside the Convention pavilion itself as it opened up the activists to attack from within. The convention centre was full of warmongers, arms dealers, supported by the police. I think the tactic of staying outside and blockading the event was a better strategy. Having split their forces the blockade which was successful early, struggled in the later stages to be much more than a symbolic protest easily portrayed by the media as ramshackle and ineffective. This is ironic because the leading organisers thought that they would be only able to hamper the Arms Dealers Expo when an effective blockade may have been possible with better organisation and seeking out strong allies like the unions whose main offices were only couple of blocks away. The participants became isolated from these potential allies in the union movement and from workers generally.

However this tactic could easily be remedied at future Land Forces Expos, especially with the experience gained at the first. – Ian Curr, Editor WBT, 11 July 2022.

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