This gallery contains 5 photos.
As part of a worldwide anti-lockdown movement the Melbourne Freedom rally saw thousands of disgruntled protesters take to the streets yesterday.
Melbourne had the most, the longest and the harshest lockdowns in the world. You could be fined for sitting on a park bench by yourself, you could be brutally arrested for walking outside your zone at the wrong time of day. At one stage even playgrounds were closed. All with the elusive and desperate attempt to get to Covid Zero.
Australia has lower death rate than most of the Western world, mainly because it was locked down for so long and the Omicron arrived , but at what cost? Did we really save lives or did we just shift the burden from the very old to the young ?
And so it begins. A few days after what may have been the largest protest in Melbourne history (estimates run from between 75000 to 100 000) against the Andrews government and their horrendous and insane “Pandemic Bill” we now find ourselves occupying Parliament. Exactly 10 years and one month to the day after the Occupy movement took over the world in 2011.
Many may not even remember the Occupy movement or Occupy Melbourne, which inspired the creation of this website one year after it’s inception. But the Occupy movement was a worldwide protest against bank bailouts ,corporate theft and political corruption – in other words a protest against fascism.
While the New York protest Occupy Wall Street originally gained some decent numbers for several weeks, the Occupy movement itself slowly faded after weeks or months or police evictions that wanted to prevent protesters from “camping”. Here in Melbourne we had a massive eviction from what used to be City Square and then we played cat and mouse with the police , the council and various groups of drug addicted homeless people (who were welcome in the movement but also had a somewhat disruptive influence at times).
The far left (represented by Socialist Alternative) tried to take over the movement initially, but were shouted down fairly quickly, leaving a motley crew of protesters from all persuasions and a small group of thinkers who were too far ahead of their time to be believed by the mainstream population who largely ignored them.
Despite those obstacles, Occupy Melbourne was one of the longest running “Occupy’s” in the world, running for 2 months and culminating in the famous tent monster parade where tents became clothes and could therefore not be moved on. Later the movement morphed into a Free Shop in 2012 and a Free Kitchen, which ran until 2014.
Then we were asked what we were protesting about and now , here today, the answer has finally occurred to tens of thousands of people : Something is wrong when ordinary people are not allowed to have control over their lives due to massive corporate and political interference.
Then it was the bank bailouts that governments supported with taxpayers money (mainly in the US and Europe) and the fallout from the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) which came about through corporate greed , now it is a pandemic of which many are not too sure that it actually is a pandemic, where the only winners appear to be huge corporations and the political class and democracy has gone out the window , possibly for good.
Not only does Occupymelbourne.net wish all the luck in the world to the brave souls who are now venturing on this very tricky path of occupying, we also wish that you have the numbers this time and that this time we the people can actually win, because this time it actually seems possible.
How does it feel to be on the right side of history ?
https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Dystopia-Police-State-Victoria-black-by-karlosmelb/56809562.FB110
Other items available: stickers, masks, hoodies, dresses.
Despite governments all over the world telling us that the only way out of Covid restrictions is mass vaccination (with a non-approved gene therapy that has not completed it’s stage 3 trials), we now know that this is impossible, as the so called vaccines do not prevent the spread and have possibly created the infamous “delta” variant and will create future vaccine resistant variants..
Endless re-vaccination with endless boosters while keeping restrictions or using “vaccine” passports are the government sponsored consequence. And while many perceive this as a threat, the fact remains that these measures are not enforceable, not in the short term and certainly not in the long run. The virus will always get out.
Modern Medicine cannot stop the spread of a respiratory virus. And neither can politicians.
A year ago we all knew that the only way out of the pandemic is herd immunity, which is why the original lockdowns were about “flattening the curve”
Then, as the possibility of a vaccine became tangible, the lies started. Unreliable PCR tests, useless mask and social distancing rules, people that died with Covid rather than from Covid, and most of all the political and media suppression of drugs that work like hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin.
The reason is, vaccines are big business and they are an even bigger business when every man , woman and child on this planet will have to get the jab indefinitely.
Here in Victoria, we have had the most weeks of lockdown anywhere in the world (About to enter week 35, which is more than 6 months overall, not counting mask mandates and other ineffective bullshit). Most of last year’s lockdown of Melbourne was in pursuit of a virus elimination policy (whatever happened to flatten the curve?) UNTIL we got a vaccine. Another goalpost has been shifted now, because although most at risk people had their shots early, now it’s suddenly about EVERYBODY getting the jab.
It is therefore no surprise, that Victorians, especially those under 40, who are at least risk form the virus, are getting “sick”, of the restrictions. They have lost complete faith in their government who has lied to them for 17 months and who are now saying”If you just stay home, we will open up”. Yeah, sure, tell me another..
Young people are now saying to the government “You are always going to find another reason to lock us down or force us into restrictions, no matter what we do, so why should we comply ? The result is mass protests that will continue and grow, as well as secret gatherings and street parties, not to mention the ridiculous “singles bubble” or the “partner bubble”, which cannot be enforced and have been “misappropriated” from the beginning. Sure, there are (sadly) dobbers, but they can only dob after an event, by then it’s too late and the superspreader event has already occurred.
The result: the virus will continue to produce mystery cases and therefore eternal lockdowns and eternal border closures by governments that have painted themselves into a corner with their unrealistic policies.
Hopefully people are waking up while this house of cards is falling down all around them . Now an increasingly desperate Dan Andrews has brought back the dreaded curfew between 9pm and 5am, as if that will stop increasingly popular street parties. Every so called health measure the government has implemented has been completely useless. What good is a lockdown if it only kicks the can down the road ? Some us us could see this trainwreck coming a year ago, some people can see it now, others will wake up next month or at Christmas. Most will wake up eventually .
This only stops when we say no.
Mar 21
This gallery contains 5 photos.
As part of a worldwide anti-lockdown movement the Melbourne Freedom rally saw thousands of disgruntled protesters take to the streets yesterday.
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