ANTI-TRANS TERF FASH DISRUPTED AND ROUTED BY COUNTER PROTEST

Statement from Trans Queer Solidarity

Our pro-trans counter protest out-numbered the anti-trans reactionary, TERF and fascist crowd by 3-4 times, who were defended by a large Victoria Police presence, but we moderately disrupted them

A diversity of tactics across multiple groups was key to our success: from building connection and solidarity through dance and song, chants, harsh noise, sharing politics over brief speeches and chats, check-ins with each other, compliments, to directly defending against fascist agitation

That said: there is no room for complacency, the conditions exist for dangerous unholy anti-trans, racist alliances to form. Much of the counter was trans people who are isolated and small in number. Victoria Police once again facilitated fascists. And the capitalist colonial state is very far from trans liberation across struggles

Who are the anti-trans groups?

• A TERF (Trans Exclusionary Reactionary Fascist / Feminists) splinter group, the WAG [anti-trans]

‘Women’s Action Group’, who were one part of the infamous nazi transphobe ‘Let women speak’ Posie Parker tour a year ago initiated the ‘Women will speak’ event

WAG want to wind back the limited gains trans people have won in public recognition and medical access, and eliminate trans women from spaces we belong. This particularly targets criminalised trans women in prison who already face extreme state violence

WAG collaborated with well-known white fascist men and their networks, many who formed initially over covid denial, including Matt Trihey who was the nazis in the Lad’s Society’s martial arts trainer, and nazi Philfy

Notably, far-right ‘libertarian’ Victorian politician David Limbrick attended

This shows how transmisogyny and white supremacy go hand in hand, and how they both pull people to reaction and fascism

What’s the impact of the counter protest (s) ?

Because of the harsh noise of the trans solidarity counter, anti-trans WAG resort to their nazi collaborator Matt Trihey’s more powerful sound system

WAG were also forced to not publicly live stream, such was the disruption

We forced the anti-trans crowd to the side of Parliament and took up the main location, limiting their impact

After a previous counter in October last year against trans and queer young people, also co-organised by Trihey, they were demoralised and split after being countered, having been prevented from marching. This time the largest TERF group in “australia” has been forced to distance themselves from WAG’s event

We directly resisted fascists who harassed us and physically attacked some of us, and called us anti-trans, anti-gay and racist slurs

Because of counters they are smaller in number, forced to leave more quickly than they want, and we are able to reframe them to highlight the dangers of their agenda on the ground and online (also countering corporate media kicking down on us

Cops uphold the (far) right to racist anti-trans fascism

Victoria Police deployed highly dangerous and disabling ‘crowd control’ tactics against us, including riot squad, cops on horses and pepper spray

Cops assaulted and detained two people who stood against the anti-trans rally by merely walking into an empty space, and knocked over a bystander mainstream media photographer, who was treated by medics we collaborated with

Further, multiple other trans people were threatened with arrest for standing up against cops and the bigots

Without Victoria Police’s support, the

the anti-trans crowd would not have been able to hold a rally at parliament, just like the infamous Posie Parker tour on March 18 a year ago, where cops facilitated the nazi NSN

Following the rally and the pro-Palestine direct Action For Rafah at the docks the previous night (for which we chanted in solidarity ‘There is only one solution! Intifada! Revolution!’), we’ve hurt cops’ feelings. Ridiculously, cops are calling in the corporate media for more power. ACAB!