Sydney: Some anarchists celebrate New Year’s Eve by dropping eighteen banners from five empty buildings in the CBD

Found on Indymedia-Australia:

Some Sydney anarchists celebrate NYE by dropping 18 banners from 5 empty buildings in the CBD
Black Rose books – January 5th, 2012

On New Years Eve while the city streets were packed with drunken revelers and riot cops, a group of anarchist dropped 18 banners from five empty buildings in centre of Sydney. Sound-systems were also set up in two of the buildings with an anti-police hip hop/punk/dubstep mix which blasted out onto the streets. Anarchist slogans and symbols were sprayed on the windows in the buildings and on buses and banks in the streets below.

One of the locations from which we dropped 4 banners and set up a sound-system was a 7 story office building, chosen in solidarity with comrades in the Occupy Sydney movement who had recently squatted the space for a week in an attempt to build a social centre.

A free library, a gym, a free school, a rooftop garden and a free shop were all being established when private security and a locksmith breached the first barricade. 5 comrades inside then barricaded multiple doors and the stairwell, dropped 5 banners and also activated a loud sound-system during a 4 hour eviction by over 100 police including the bomb disposal squad.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-09/riot-police-move-occupy-protesters…
http://www.news.com.au/national/police-storm-cbd-building-to-remove-occu…
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/occupy-sydney-protesters-arrested-20111109-1n5…
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/occupy-sydney-takes-on-a-new-meaning-protester…

The 4 banners we dropped from the evicted social centre read “PROPERTY IS THEFT”, “DON’T FUCK WITH US”, “VISUALISE INDUSTRIAL COLLAPSE” and “FIGHT BACK”.

We also selected a construction site financed by ANZ to drop 2 banners reading “NO JOBS ON A DEAD PLANET” and “CAN’T EAT COAL, CAN’T DRINK GAS”. ANZ is one of Australia’s largest banks and a financier of numerous mining projects which pollute and destroy the native life and wilderness we love.

A long abandoned building directly across from the Greek consulate and Beirut Hellenic Bank was also chosen and we left a banner in Greek which translates as “FREEDOM TO OUR COMRADES IN PRISON” and another reading “FREE JOCK PALFREEMAN”.

An empty 18 story office building was also entered, from which we activated our second sound system and hung 3 banners in solidarity with the struggle of our indigenous comrades, reading “DECOLONISE SYDNEY” & “SOVEREIGNTY NEVER CEDED” and 2 banners in solidarity with the struggle of all refugees, reading “NO BORDERS NO NATIONS”, & “NO ONE IS ILLEGAL”

Another 2 large banners reading “NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR” and “NO MORE SILENCE ABOUT VIOLENCE” with Anarcha Feminist symbols, were also dropped, but were removed the next day before decent photos were taken.

We also entered the massive Griffiths Teas building, owned by Isaac and Susan Wakil, property magnates and directors of Citilease Property Group, who’ve been sitting on numerous empty buildings for decades. The building is located directly across from the central office of the Australian Federal Police and behind the enormous Surrey Hills Police Station, from it we hung an enormous banner reading “2012 A NEW YEAR’S REVOLUTION: DESTROY CAPITAL BEFORE IT DESTROYS US ALL”, another reading “ALL COPS ARE FUCKIN’ BASTARDS, ACAB” and “FREE AKIN SARI”.

We dedicate this small action to our comrade Jock Palfreeman, hostage in the cells of the Bulgarian state, our comrade Akin Sari held in the massive Goulbourn NSW prison complex, and the Greek insurgents of CCF, Revolutionary Struggle, their co accused and all political prisoners around the world. We hope this greeting may reach you, and remind you that comrades have not forgotten you inside the dungeons of capitalist democracy.

STRENGTH COMRADES!
WE WILL SEE YOU AT THE BARRICADES,
AND WE WILL BURN THE LAST PRISON TOGETHER!

Freedom to our comrades in prison!

Time to dream

Property is theft

Other photos, here.