巨變中的書寫
巨變中的書寫

駐墨爾本的自由運動觀察人.

橋不太遠了

2021年9 月20日墨爾本建築工人反對強制疫苗走上街頭 .一度走上墨爾本地標之一的西門大橋(West Gate Bridge). Michael 細細地說起當時事件。
daily Mail source of photo


我們不知道我們往哪裡去。 在昨天的戰場上我們第一次出現時,我們的人數非常少,包括防暴和騎兵在內的員警隊伍與我們的人數相當。 我們很緊張,但我們沒有動,警詧也沒有動,然後隨著時間的推移,我們的人數增加了,但不是我們所期望的,或者說希望的人數。

有一次警詧向前移動,我們被告知要做好準備。 但他們警詧只前進了一小段距離,然後又停下來。

一個小時就這樣過去了,昨天的緊張氣氛隨著同樣的呼喊聲再次出現。 但隨後人群開始移動,當他們移動時,我們突然看到了我們有多少人。 我們不再是一個反抗的口袋,或者像媒體描述的那樣,形容我們是一群右翼的極端分子,我們是一群要求簡單的人形成的河流。 我們希望有選擇而沒有隔離。 或者用老話說就是自由。 這不僅僅是為了我們自己,也是為了我們的國家,為了我們的孩子。

在議會,警詧在臺階上重新集結。 他們再次帶著馬匹和護衛,因為在他們面前的是一群高帽建築工人和其他來自各行各業的人,他們又開始呼喊了。

但是,在警方和群眾的局勢可能陞級之前,抗議者反而到伊莉莎白大街上散步。 隨著他們的行走,他們的人數越來越多,所有這些都被流傳到社交媒體上,不僅僅是來自自媒體人魯克山的相機,還有成千上萬的相機捕捉到了勇氣和傳播的希望。

現場影像這就像一種病毒一樣傳播開來,每個人都想抓住。

這種希望不僅體現在數量上,而且體現在力量上。 儘管不時有暴力威脅,但沒有任何意義,因為許多人的身材都很好,而且,他們中的許多人都是如此。

這就是為什麼遊行羣衆走開了。 他們不是因為害怕而退卻,他們只是背對著警詧,走到別的地方,基本上是他們遊行羣衆想去的地方。

在都市周圍逛了兩圈後,他們轉身離開。

你聽到人們問,我們要去哪裡,還有哪裡,去自由。 因為這就是他們的目的,一次向自由的遊行。

然後消息傳開,說是西門橋。

這是一次漫長的步行,我們的精神因彼此的存在和所有卡車司機和汽車的鳴笛支持而得到了緩解。

我和凱莉一起度過了這一天的大部分時間,事實證明,在幾次抗議活動中,她曾幫助過我,當時我被胡椒噴霧劑弄瞎了眼睛,我走在伊莉莎白大街上,伸出雙臂,像甩動著不健全的眼睛,並大笑著,因為我無法相信,我所看到的暴政不僅發生在我的都市, 而且被社交媒體的人群所歡呼。

是凱莉和其他幫助我的人,這些人我從未見過,因為儘管他們把牛奶倒在我的臉上,但我仍然是盲人,他們一起努力,用我們過去所說的澳大利亞精神的仁慈來振興我的靈魂。 這種精神不可能成為摔倒和噴灑胡椒粉的理由,現在美國的共和黨要求美國對我們的政府對待抗議者的行為進行制裁。 如果你支持我們的政府,那麼是的,你沒聽錯。

但今天不同,今天在建築工人的保護下,我們走上了高速公路,然後一路走到西門橋的中心,在柱子下麵,澳大利亞國旗在空中飄揚,上面是另一面旗幟,他們的旗幟,尤里卡軍營的旗幟。

歡呼聲、呼喊聲和舞蹈聲此起彼伏,當我們走回都市時,我們可以聞到空氣中的新氣息,那是勝利的氣息。

這只是第二天,明天還能有多大變化?

當我們下橋時,警詧又帶著他們的盔甲和盾牌回來了,有幾個人吵著要扔東西,大多數人只是穿過馬路,繞過政府的暴政表演,然後從另一邊對他們大喊大叫,每天都是如此。

我們知道,如果沒有其他人出現,那麼至少我們會回來,原因是,為了我們的孩子,向他們中的任何一個詢問。 為了孩子。 我們的四個孩子。

而他們的意思是,讓他們的孩子在一個沒有隔離的國家裏自由選擇。

迄今為止,我已經告訴人們,我們在歷史的正確一邊,但我們離家很遠,好在今天我們看到了我們的家,它的名字是自由


A bridge not too far.

We didn’t know where we were going. When we first turned up at the spot that was  yesterday’s battle ground, our numbers were so small that the lines of police, including riot and mounted, matched our number. We were jittery but we didn’t move and neither did the police, then as the time ticked by, our numbers grew but not by the numbers we were expecting, or rather hoping for.

At one point the police moved forward and we were told to prepare. But they only moved forward a short distance and then they stopped again. 

An hour passed like this as the tension of yesterday returned with the same chants. But then the crowd started moving, and when it did we suddenly got to see how many of us there were. We were no longer a pocket of defiance, or as the media portrayed us a load of right wing extremists, we were a river of people whose demands were simple. We wanted choice, and no segregation. Or in old speak, freedom. And not just for ourselves, but for our country, for our kids.

At parliament the police had regrouped on the steps. Again with their horses and amour as before them a sea of high vis construction workers and other people from all walks of life started chanting again.

But before the situation could escalate, the protestors instead went for a walk down Elizabeth street. And as they walked their numbers grew, all of this was being streamed to social media not just from Rukshan’s camera, but thousands of cameras capturing the courage and spreading the hope.

And that was spreading like a virus that everyone wanted to catch.

And the hope not only came in numbers but muscle. Despite the periodic threat of violence, there was no point, for many of the men were so well built and there was, well, so many of them.

This was why the marchers walked away. They weren’t retreating out of fear, they were simply turning their back on the police and walking somewhere else, basically wherever they wanted.

After two strolls around the city they turned left. 

Where are we going you heard people ask, where else, to freedom. For this is what this was, a march to freedom.

Then the word spread that it was the west gate bridge.

It was a long walk, eased by our spirits that were lifted by the gift of each other’s presence with all the truckies and cars blowing their horns in support.  

I spent most of the day with Kylie who, it turned out, was the woman who several protests ago had helped me when blinded by pepper spray I had walked up Elizabeth street, my arms out like flailing  inadequate eyes, and laughing because I couldn’t believe the tyranny that I’d seen was not only happening in my city but was being cheered on by a social media crowd.

It was Kylie and the others who helped me, people who I never saw, because despite the milk they were pouring over my face, I was still blind, who worked together to revitalise my soul with the kindness of what we used to call the Australia spirit. The spirt that could never have justified the falling and pepper spraying of that 70 year old woman, an act that is now seeing the Repulblican party in America demanding that the USA install sanctions against us for our government’s treatment of protestors. And if you back our government then Yes, you heard that right. 

But today was different, today protected by the construction workers, we walked onto the freeway and then right the way up the centre of the Westgate bridge below the pillars upon which the Australian flag flew in the air above another flag, their flag, the flag of the eureka stockade.

There was cheering, chanting and dancing and as we strode back to the city there was something new in the air we could smell, it was the scent of victory.

This was only day two, how could tomorrow be any smaller?

When we got off the bridge the police were back with their armour and shields and a few of the men arked up and threw things, as the majority simply crossed the road and walked around the government’s display of tyranny before yelling back at them from the other side, every day every day very day.

That done we headed back to the city knowing that if no one else turned up, then at least we would be back, and the reason, ask any one of them for our kids. For kids. Four our kids.

And what they mean by that is freedom for their children to choose in a country that isn’t segregated, 

To date, I have told people we are on the right side of history but we were a long way from home, well today we see our home and its name was freedom.


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