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Alex Akselrod boosted
DoomsdaysCW
@DoomsdaysCW@kolektiva.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 months ago

#VictoriaAustralia’s draconian new #AntiProtest laws will have a chilling effect on #FreeSpeech — and won’t keep anyone safe

Far-reaching anti-protest measures and giving police more repressive powers only serve to increase the risk of escalating violence.

by Sarah Schwartz, Jul 9, 2025

"In response to the weekend’s attack on the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has announced she will forge ahead with new anti-protest measures and more #police powers.

"In doing so, she is following what has become the new normal for state governments across the country: using acts of racism and violence as a pretext to #ClampDown on unrelated democratic rights.

"Taking to the streets in peaceful protest is one of the main ways for people to come together and express our political views when our representatives aren’t listening to us. But this right is not without limits. Every person has a right to worship in safety. The attack on East Melbourne Synagogue was not a protest; it was an act of antisemitism. The suspect has been apprehended and charged with a multitude of criminal offences.

"Two other incidents over the weekend, the targeting of a business with ties to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — a US-backed #Israeli organisation linked to the massacres of unarmed #Palestinians seeking aid — and a weapons company with links to the Israeli military, are also being referred to as justifying new laws. It is important not to conflate these actions against Israel with an attack against a Jewish place of worship. International human rights law, as well as our current laws, already place limits on protests that involve intimidation and violence.

"So what is actually being proposed in response? The Allan government is suggesting the creation of a new criminal offence for wearing a #FaceCovering at peaceful protests, banning 'dangerous attachment devices' (e.g. a #chain, a #BikeLock) — which have long been used in non-violent civil disobedience — and #criminalising peaceful protests around places of religious worship.

"The ban on face coverings would be a first in #Australia. It would mirror measures used in #authoritarian states that force people to submit themselves to various forms of #StateSurveillance.

" #VictoriaPolice has been using facial recognition software for years without any regulatory or legislative framework to prevent breaches of privacy. This technology, combined with a ban on face coverings at protests, would essentially amount to an obligation on behalf of individuals to submit to surveillance by the state, corporations and other groups that surveil protesters.

"Unless you’re a #MiningCompany spending hundreds of millions buying politicians’ favour or can wine and dine decision-makers, peaceful protest is one of the main ways for people to hold governments and corporations to account. Protests for the eight-hour workday, #WomensRights, #FirstNationsRights and the #AntiWar movement have led to significant improvements in all of our lives.
Know something?

"Many people attending protests wear face coverings to protect their privacy and anonymity. For temporary migrants, the consequences of identification can include visa cancellation and detention. #FarRight groups, abusers of gender-based violence and other political groups have all been documented as engaging in doxing, surveillance and retaliatory violence against people identified at peaceful protests.

"Even with exemptions, a ban would mean that people who wear facemasks for reasons of health, disability status, or religious or cultural reasons would be at risk of police targeting and made to justify their use of a face mask.

"Adding new repressive police powers against peaceful protesters only serves to increase the risk of escalating violence at already heightened public demonstrations. People will not stop taking to the streets on issues they care about, even if the state tries to stifle their voices. Donald #Trump’s deployment of the #NationalGuard in response to protests in LA shows us how deploying more state force at protests increases rather than decreases the risk of violence.

"A ban on protests outside or within a certain proximity to places of worship would mean police could arrest those engaging in peaceful protests for a genuine, non-discriminatory purpose — for example, protests by survivors of #ClergySexualAbuse or by congregants against the political activities of their own religious institutions.

"It would also have the unintended consequence of rendering large areas of the state no-go zones for peaceful protest, due to the high number of places of worship. Similar laws in #NSW are already being challenged for their #unconstitutionality.

"Taken together, this suite of laws, which would provide police with extraordinary powers against people peacefully raising their voices against #injustice, would have a chilling effect, deterring #MarginalisedGroups from attending protests and exercising their rights to freedom of expression, which the Victorian government has sought to protect.

"Ultimately, banning face coverings at peaceful protests and banning protests outside places of worship would not have done anything to prevent what occurred over the weekend. Premier Allan knows this. Yet she is stuck in the same reactive law-and-order merry-go-round that saw NSW Premier Chris Minns enact fear-based, repressive anti-protest measures in response to what we now know was an opportunistic criminal conspiracy.

"Encouraging people to express their political views peacefully is the antidote to non-peaceful forms of protest and is something that all governments should be encouraging and facilitating. At times like this, we should be able to trust our politicians not to fuel division and panic through misguided and knee-jerk responses, but to take measures to address the root causes of racism and hatred."

https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/07/09/victoria-anti-protest-laws-police-powers-jacinta-allan-miznon-east-melbourne-synagogue/

#AntiProtestLaws #ProtestLawsAustralia #ACAB #SilencingFreeSpeech #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingProtest #Authoritarianism

Crikey

Victoria's draconian new anti-protest laws will have a chilling effect on free speech — and won't keep anyone safe

Far-reaching anti-protest measures and giving police more repressive powers only serve to increase the risk of escalating violence.
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Alex Akselrod boosted
Flipboard News Desk
@NewsDesk@flipboard.social  ·  activity timestamp last month

After the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, they restricted women’s access to jobs and barred girls over the age of 12 from getting an education. Now, with an internet blackout in the country, women there have lost their last source for learning. @BBCNews has more.
https://flip.it/ECPTsl
#Taliban #Afghanistan #WomensRights #Education #Internet #Blackout

Afghan women lose their 'last hope' as Taliban shut down internet

For many women, the internet was their last resource. An internet shutdown threatens to end this.
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Flipboard News Desk
@NewsDesk@flipboard.social  ·  activity timestamp last month

After the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, they restricted women’s access to jobs and barred girls over the age of 12 from getting an education. Now, with an internet blackout in the country, women there have lost their last source for learning. @BBCNews has more.
https://flip.it/ECPTsl
#Taliban #Afghanistan #WomensRights #Education #Internet #Blackout

Afghan women lose their 'last hope' as Taliban shut down internet

For many women, the internet was their last resource. An internet shutdown threatens to end this.
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Angela Antunovic boosted
Droppie
@MsDropbear42@blahaj.zone  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

Such a lovely story 💜

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-24/tiny-homes-houses-builds-women-homeless-home-ownership/102293760

I can neither confirm nor deny that my eyes began leaking as i read this.

#TinyHouse #TinyHomes #HousingCrisis #WomensRights #empowerment

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Droppie
@MsDropbear42@blahaj.zone  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

Such a lovely story 💜

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-24/tiny-homes-houses-builds-women-homeless-home-ownership/102293760

I can neither confirm nor deny that my eyes began leaking as i read this.

#TinyHouse #TinyHomes #HousingCrisis #WomensRights #empowerment

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Luc, framage boosted
Claire 🌊🇪🇺🇫🇷🌍
@clbear31@mstdn.party  ·  activity timestamp 3 months ago

Via Ashley Louise James on Instagram #WomensRights#HandmaidsTale#Extremism#Farright#Trump#Republicans#Farrage#HumanRights#MargaretAtwood#Atwood#Feminism#Women #abortion#Freedom

Your browser does not support the video tag.
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Christine Lemmer-Webber
@cwebber@social.coop  ·  activity timestamp 3 months ago

Meanwhile, Pete Hegseth, the US Secretary of Defense, makes a post promoting views that the right of women to vote should be repealed, voting should happen "as a household", with women deferring to their husbands

Miss Gayle
@MissGayle@urbanists.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 months ago
@cwebber

This seems like an opportune time to say if any women are thinking about a divorce they should do it now, while they still can.

And if you're not married yet? Don't. You will be property, not a person with rights.

#Coup#WomensRights#CivilRights #ChristianNationalism#Misogyny#ChristoFascism

Stick drawing of a man with a woman on a leash like a dog, on all fours. The man is wearing a red maga hat and smiling. The woman is sad. The text reads: Do not get married.
Stick drawing of a man with a woman on a leash like a dog, on all fours. The man is wearing a red maga hat and smiling. The woman is sad. The text reads: Do not get married.
Stick drawing of a man with a woman on a leash like a dog, on all fours. The man is wearing a red maga hat and smiling. The woman is sad. The text reads: Do not get married.
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Claire 🌊🇪🇺🇫🇷🌍
@clbear31@mstdn.party  ·  activity timestamp 3 months ago

Via Ashley Louise James on Instagram #WomensRights#HandmaidsTale#Extremism#Farright#Trump#Republicans#Farrage#HumanRights#MargaretAtwood#Atwood#Feminism#Women #abortion#Freedom

Your browser does not support the video tag.
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Alex Akselrod boosted
br00t4c
@br00t4c@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 months ago

War on Women Report: State Department Mass-Burns Contraceptives, Food Aid; 'Big, Beautiful Bill' Decimates Medicaid; Texas Crisis Pregnancy Center Funds Paid for CEO's Smoke Shop

#WarOnWomen#WomensRights#DiddyCombsTrial#AbortionAccess#Democracy

https://msmagazine.com/2025/07/30/war-on-women-state-department-burns-birth-control-food-big-beautiful-bill-medicaid-texas-crisis-pregnancy-center/

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br00t4c
@br00t4c@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 months ago

War on Women Report: State Department Mass-Burns Contraceptives, Food Aid; 'Big, Beautiful Bill' Decimates Medicaid; Texas Crisis Pregnancy Center Funds Paid for CEO's Smoke Shop

#WarOnWomen#WomensRights#DiddyCombsTrial#AbortionAccess#Democracy

https://msmagazine.com/2025/07/30/war-on-women-state-department-burns-birth-control-food-big-beautiful-bill-medicaid-texas-crisis-pregnancy-center/

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Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦 boosted
Ben Royce 🇺🇦
@benroyce@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 months ago

"Pregnant #Mother in #Tennessee Denied Care for Being Unmarried

The 2025 Medical Ethics Defense Act allows physicians to deny care to patients whose lifestyles they disagree with"

https://nashvillebanner.com/2025/07/20/doctor-denies-pregnant-woman-care/

She's 35 yo and has a partner of 15 years

They have a 13 yo together

They're unmarried

So her theocratic asshat doctor goes "then go fuck yourself"

State law supports that

And if there's a problem with her #pregnancy?

Is that "pro-Life"?

Or sadists controlling women?

#womensRights

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Ben Royce 🇺🇦
@benroyce@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 months ago

"Pregnant #Mother in #Tennessee Denied Care for Being Unmarried

The 2025 Medical Ethics Defense Act allows physicians to deny care to patients whose lifestyles they disagree with"

https://nashvillebanner.com/2025/07/20/doctor-denies-pregnant-woman-care/

She's 35 yo and has a partner of 15 years

They have a 13 yo together

They're unmarried

So her theocratic asshat doctor goes "then go fuck yourself"

State law supports that

And if there's a problem with her #pregnancy?

Is that "pro-Life"?

Or sadists controlling women?

#womensRights

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der.hans and 1 other boosted
Katy Elphinstone
@KatyElphinstone@mas.to  ·  activity timestamp 3 months ago

What she said 💟 👇

#equality #genderequality #womensrights #feminism #patriarchy #financialabuse

Vuyiswa
@becca_mts

The women before us fought for the right to work not because labour is fun but because relying on men financially resulted in financial abuse & restricted women's freedom. No one hates labour more than me but putting my life in a man's hands sounds more daunting than a 9-5.
Vuyiswa @becca_mts The women before us fought for the right to work not because labour is fun but because relying on men financially resulted in financial abuse & restricted women's freedom. No one hates labour more than me but putting my life in a man's hands sounds more daunting than a 9-5.
Vuyiswa @becca_mts The women before us fought for the right to work not because labour is fun but because relying on men financially resulted in financial abuse & restricted women's freedom. No one hates labour more than me but putting my life in a man's hands sounds more daunting than a 9-5.
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Katy Elphinstone
@KatyElphinstone@mas.to  ·  activity timestamp 3 months ago

What she said 💟 👇

#equality #genderequality #womensrights #feminism #patriarchy #financialabuse

Vuyiswa
@becca_mts

The women before us fought for the right to work not because labour is fun but because relying on men financially resulted in financial abuse & restricted women's freedom. No one hates labour more than me but putting my life in a man's hands sounds more daunting than a 9-5.
Vuyiswa @becca_mts The women before us fought for the right to work not because labour is fun but because relying on men financially resulted in financial abuse & restricted women's freedom. No one hates labour more than me but putting my life in a man's hands sounds more daunting than a 9-5.
Vuyiswa @becca_mts The women before us fought for the right to work not because labour is fun but because relying on men financially resulted in financial abuse & restricted women's freedom. No one hates labour more than me but putting my life in a man's hands sounds more daunting than a 9-5.
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DoomsdaysCW
@DoomsdaysCW@kolektiva.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 months ago

#VictoriaAustralia’s draconian new #AntiProtest laws will have a chilling effect on #FreeSpeech — and won’t keep anyone safe

Far-reaching anti-protest measures and giving police more repressive powers only serve to increase the risk of escalating violence.

by Sarah Schwartz, Jul 9, 2025

"In response to the weekend’s attack on the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has announced she will forge ahead with new anti-protest measures and more #police powers.

"In doing so, she is following what has become the new normal for state governments across the country: using acts of racism and violence as a pretext to #ClampDown on unrelated democratic rights.

"Taking to the streets in peaceful protest is one of the main ways for people to come together and express our political views when our representatives aren’t listening to us. But this right is not without limits. Every person has a right to worship in safety. The attack on East Melbourne Synagogue was not a protest; it was an act of antisemitism. The suspect has been apprehended and charged with a multitude of criminal offences.

"Two other incidents over the weekend, the targeting of a business with ties to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — a US-backed #Israeli organisation linked to the massacres of unarmed #Palestinians seeking aid — and a weapons company with links to the Israeli military, are also being referred to as justifying new laws. It is important not to conflate these actions against Israel with an attack against a Jewish place of worship. International human rights law, as well as our current laws, already place limits on protests that involve intimidation and violence.

"So what is actually being proposed in response? The Allan government is suggesting the creation of a new criminal offence for wearing a #FaceCovering at peaceful protests, banning 'dangerous attachment devices' (e.g. a #chain, a #BikeLock) — which have long been used in non-violent civil disobedience — and #criminalising peaceful protests around places of religious worship.

"The ban on face coverings would be a first in #Australia. It would mirror measures used in #authoritarian states that force people to submit themselves to various forms of #StateSurveillance.

" #VictoriaPolice has been using facial recognition software for years without any regulatory or legislative framework to prevent breaches of privacy. This technology, combined with a ban on face coverings at protests, would essentially amount to an obligation on behalf of individuals to submit to surveillance by the state, corporations and other groups that surveil protesters.

"Unless you’re a #MiningCompany spending hundreds of millions buying politicians’ favour or can wine and dine decision-makers, peaceful protest is one of the main ways for people to hold governments and corporations to account. Protests for the eight-hour workday, #WomensRights, #FirstNationsRights and the #AntiWar movement have led to significant improvements in all of our lives.
Know something?

"Many people attending protests wear face coverings to protect their privacy and anonymity. For temporary migrants, the consequences of identification can include visa cancellation and detention. #FarRight groups, abusers of gender-based violence and other political groups have all been documented as engaging in doxing, surveillance and retaliatory violence against people identified at peaceful protests.

"Even with exemptions, a ban would mean that people who wear facemasks for reasons of health, disability status, or religious or cultural reasons would be at risk of police targeting and made to justify their use of a face mask.

"Adding new repressive police powers against peaceful protesters only serves to increase the risk of escalating violence at already heightened public demonstrations. People will not stop taking to the streets on issues they care about, even if the state tries to stifle their voices. Donald #Trump’s deployment of the #NationalGuard in response to protests in LA shows us how deploying more state force at protests increases rather than decreases the risk of violence.

"A ban on protests outside or within a certain proximity to places of worship would mean police could arrest those engaging in peaceful protests for a genuine, non-discriminatory purpose — for example, protests by survivors of #ClergySexualAbuse or by congregants against the political activities of their own religious institutions.

"It would also have the unintended consequence of rendering large areas of the state no-go zones for peaceful protest, due to the high number of places of worship. Similar laws in #NSW are already being challenged for their #unconstitutionality.

"Taken together, this suite of laws, which would provide police with extraordinary powers against people peacefully raising their voices against #injustice, would have a chilling effect, deterring #MarginalisedGroups from attending protests and exercising their rights to freedom of expression, which the Victorian government has sought to protect.

"Ultimately, banning face coverings at peaceful protests and banning protests outside places of worship would not have done anything to prevent what occurred over the weekend. Premier Allan knows this. Yet she is stuck in the same reactive law-and-order merry-go-round that saw NSW Premier Chris Minns enact fear-based, repressive anti-protest measures in response to what we now know was an opportunistic criminal conspiracy.

"Encouraging people to express their political views peacefully is the antidote to non-peaceful forms of protest and is something that all governments should be encouraging and facilitating. At times like this, we should be able to trust our politicians not to fuel division and panic through misguided and knee-jerk responses, but to take measures to address the root causes of racism and hatred."

https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/07/09/victoria-anti-protest-laws-police-powers-jacinta-allan-miznon-east-melbourne-synagogue/

#AntiProtestLaws #ProtestLawsAustralia #ACAB #SilencingFreeSpeech #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingProtest #Authoritarianism

Crikey

Victoria's draconian new anti-protest laws will have a chilling effect on free speech — and won't keep anyone safe

Far-reaching anti-protest measures and giving police more repressive powers only serve to increase the risk of escalating violence.
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