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ISSN 1446-4896

The annual GSG dinner is not going to be held on Saturday 29 June due to misunderstandings about our bookings by an unnamed local hall. We are sure we will all find ways to mark the anniversary appropriately.

1935: on the anniversary of the Roehm purge, the Nazis extended the antl-homosexual Paragraph 175 to include kisses, embraces and even homosexual fantasies. Over 50,000 gay men were arrested, many more lesbians and gay men were executed or incarcerated without records surviving. Simultaneously Stalin ordered the annihilation of the gay movement and gay communities throughout the Soviet Union. The thriving international gay freedom and feminist movements, centred in Germany, were exterminated and forgotten, until our gay socialist historians brought them back into light in the early 70s.

1969: at the height of the international revolutionary youth movement, a routine police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York sparked off days of rioting. The low-life of the gay scene hierarchy — blacks, working class dykes and drags — fought back. The 'respectable' homophile lobbyists looked on disapprovingly. This would put the cause back decades, they claimed. Instead the new wave of a radical liberation movement crystallised in city after city.

1978: in response to a call for support from San Francisco, the Gay Solidarity Group was formed to organise a march, forum and Mardi Gras. The police force made sure that this day would be memorable: the first gay/lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney saw 53 arrests. 12 years later (October 1, 1990) we saw a repeat of this — things have not changed as much as we would like to think.

In each case it is obvious that reforms in the existing social system are not enough. Every gain can be reversed overnight. Tho oppressive state apparatus, including the police, may put up with some minor changes, eg. "community liaison", but their essentially repressive character does not change. Tory Britain is a vrvid example of this fact; the much touted police "service" quickly reverted to the more familiar "force".

The goals of the lesbian and gay movement are the liberation of sexuality. Pushing for reforms can be a move in the right direction, but we need to go beyond that: to abolish the structures that generate cur oppression. In fighting for reforms on the way, we cannot make compromises at the expense cf those marginalised within our communities: sex workers, homeless. Koori dykes and gays, young people, men on beats....

On 5 June the federal parliament voted down a motion by the Liberals to disallow the new regulations which provide for permanent residence for the non-Australian partners of lesbians and gay men here. This is a very significant and historic victory after many years of work by the Gay and Lesbian Immigration Task Force.

GSG was one of the endorsers of the Campaign to Expose the Frame-up of Tim Anderson. We join with Tim and all his supporters in rejoicing that his appeal has been successful and he is out of gaol at last. A victory for justice, and a victory against anti-democratic police abuses.

Contact Michael Aaronson: ph 13 2222 ask for page #810240

John Lee and "Beryl", both active in their distinctive ways in the early gay liberation movement in Sydney died recently. John was also centrally active at key times in the gay movement in Adelaide. We remember them and their contributions to our pride and our freedom. In their names, and in the names of so many others, we re-commit ourselves to fighting to end the AIDS epidemic.

On Sunday 12 May 600 lesbians and gay men marched down King Street Newtown to protest anti-gay/lesbian violence.The march, organised by GSG, ended in a local park with a number of speakers emphasising that we must stand up to the violence and fight back independently, not simply relying on the authorities to protect us.

Tho Newtown march showed how much concern and anger there is by our communities about these murders and attacks. Many groups helped in organising: RAMS (Rights for all male sex workers). the International Socialist Organisation, and the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby (who helped in funding).

In 1987 police attacked the Brewarrina Aboriginal community which had gathered in a park after tho funeral of Lloyd Boney, who had died while in police custody. The racist local publican and the police were not charged. 17 Koories were, including well-known activists Arthur Murray and Sonny Bates. The Murray family have been harassed by police since the 60s, when Arthur was organising the cotton workers of northern NSW.

Arthur and Sonny were convicted on the evidence of two cops who had been caught lying in the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody.

GSG expressed its support for the Brewarrina 17 in a letter to the NSW Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee. GSG affirmed the necessity of linking our lesbian and gay struggles with those of other workers, Aboriginal communities, ethnic communities and women. .

Around the same time, details of the Gundy killing roached the press. Police Commissioner Tony Lauer seems to have been more embarrassed by the leak than by Gundy's death. Meanwhile the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission report highlighted police discrimination against people of non-Anglo backgrounds. Are these police the guarantors of justice and safety for lesbians and gay men?

GSG wrote to the Australian Kurdish Association to express our support for the Kurdish struggle for self-determination. GSG condemned "the brutal policies of tho Iraqi, Iranian and Turkish regimes", and of the complicity of imperialist powers in denying freedom for tho Kurds. GSG also reaffirmed its solidarity with the Palestinian people in correspondence with Palestinian organisations in Sydney.

I am minded to play devil's advocate and present an "alternate* view on the article. Mr Gorbachev has inherited an "unholy mess". The Soviet Union as it is at present and was in the past, is a conglomeration of different ethnic peoples and at times completely opposing views. It is Gorbachev's dilemma to try to uphold the Soviet principle and to appease/appeal to the satellite states. A virtual impossibility without compromise.

History (from the October 1917 Revolution) tells us that one of the first things Lenin did was to tell the satellite states to go "free". Govern yourselves. The fact that the Soviet Union had no time for them is often glossed over. These states repaid the Soviets by joining Nazi Germany in WW2 in invading Russia. 6 million Jews died in that war and we do not forget it. But many more Russians died in the defence of their homeland at the hands of the Nazis and their sympathisers. The Russians do not forget this. Better for Soviet Russia that the Baltic and Slavic states be incorporated within, albeit unwillingly, than to have a repeat of WW2.

It is indeed possible that if the desire for revenge had not come about, things in this region would be vastly different -- but that is idle speculation. No one person, Yeltsin or Gorbachev or any other - will solve the Soviet crisis. Only time will, and time is running out!

Gaywaves goes to air Thursdays 8pm-l0.30pm, 2SER FM 107.3MHz.

Wildgals is on Saturdays 7-10pm on 2RSR FM 88.9MHz.

Melbourne's monthly activist newsletter is available from PO box 108 North Carlton VIC 3054 for $15 per year or $6 concession.

CURRENT NEWSLETTER AND ARCHIVE OF PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS

Mannie has a personal web site: RED JOS: HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM

Mannie's blogs may be accessed by clicking on to the following links:

MannieBlog (from 1 August 2003 to 31 December 2005)

Activist Kicks Backs - Blognow archive re-housed - 2005-2009

RED JOS BLOGSPOT (from January 2009 onwards)

This page updated 18 SEPTEMBER 2014 and again on 27 APRIL 2017

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