Disobedience and non-violence: the battle in the case of Scott Parkin.

• Jurisdiction: Australia
• Author: Turner, Liz
• Date: 22 March 2005

If you do evil, then you will be punished.

Police officer arresting student activist in Sydney, 16 September 2005.

The current political climate of the war on terror is intensifying over-policing and surveillance by both state and federal security forces. The raiding of Muslim households and targeting of anti-war activists and student protesters can be seen as part of a broader strategy to enforce the ideology of the war on terror and thereby enforce a process of 'othering' that divides Australians from 'un-Australians'. The detention and deportation of Scott Parkin and arrests of two Sydney-based activists for allegedly 'de-arresting' protesters at a student rally have presented challenges to activists communicating through the mainstream media. In attempting to defend the legitimacy of various protest activities, activists must now think very clearly about discourses of disobedience, nonviolence and so-called 'violent' protest.

Parkin, a history teacher and anti-war activist with the organization Houston Global Awareness, was detained by the Australian Federal Police on 10 September this year on his way to the Irene warehouse in Brunswick, Melbourne. Parkin was to present a workshop on strategies for the anti-war movement, including 'direct-action' protest. His tourist visa had just been cancelled by the Department of Immigration after ASIO advised that he had encouraged 'violent protest' at his previous workshops. Parkin's fellow activists were stunned that the government had targeted him, as he specifically teaches non-violent strategies. (1) In his defence, activists and lawyers conducted a vigorous media campaign focusing heavily on Parkin as a peaceful protestor whose human rights and civil liberties had been violated.

When a conservative government controlling both houses of parliament seeks to impose draconian counter-terrorism measures such as home detention, the restriction of the right to protest requires a far more significant response than one centred on civil liberties.

Over the past few months, fierce debates have raged amongst activists regarding the most effective strategies against the introduction of voluntary student unionism (VSU) and changes to industrial relations legislation. The so-called appropriate channels--of government lobbying, letter-writing, and what Parkin and SmartMeme call the 'Battle of the Story' in the mainstream media (2)--have all been exhausted. Yet on these matters the upper echelons of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and the National Union of Students (NUS) have been reluctant to support general strike action and other forms of resistance that threaten the operations of the state, employers and universities. (3) Neilson and Mitropoulos believe that 'the political counterweight of a politicised student movement has largely disappeared, or at least become mostly restricted to those with family wealth, which is much the same thing'. (4) To be sure, an increasingly elitist tertiary entrance rank system, the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS), upfront fees, and the dwindling funds for state schools, mean universities are hardly the natural habitat of young people whose material interests are intimately bound up with the capacity to organize political opposition. Yet beyond these issues of structural change the question remains: how should effective political resistance be envisaged? History shows that sustained disobedience may involve a variety of techniques, including forms of protest other than non-violence and passive disobedience. This is something that very few people seem willing to entertain in the present climate.

The Parkin incident was indicative of a subtle yet significant shift in the type of acceptable discourses that are employed by activists when engaging with the mainstream media. In terms of real resistance to state oppression, the events surrounding Parkin's deportation facilitated a retreat from...