


The process of reflection
This report is an assemblage of the voices and perspectives of around a hundred of the comrades who came to Disrupt Land Forces. Disrupt Land Forces, or DLF, was a mobilisation by thousands of anti-genocide activists against the Land Forces weapons expo held at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, or MCEC, in September 2024. There are contradictions and opposing takes throughout this report; an array of truths. Sometimes individuals’ experiences of the same event are aligned, sometimes they are totally disparate. The ethic of non-judgemental acceptance of radical difference, applied to tactics, messaging and visual style during the mobilisation, also applies here. We have tried to fairly and honestly represent all views, including those which conflict with our own.
All quotes have been drawn from verbal and written feedback offered during DLF evaluation sessions held over September and October 2024. Many images have been de-identified, meaning that we have covered up any visible tatts or faces. This is sad for us, because our people are beautiful. Unfortunately, at the time of posting (January 2024), cops are still actively pursuing comrades who disrupted Land Forces with us, so … safety first. All voices have been de-identified, with pseudonyms reflecting their approximate ages, cultures and genders. Of course, nothing is as good as a conversation, and a written work cannot replace the interactive thinking of our feedback sessions. Words and writing are never neutral and we acknowledge that the perspectives of note-takers, writers and editors are an active presence throughout this work.

Criteria
While each session was different from the last, all were underpinned by an evaluation framework with three key criteria:
- Effectiveness: We have achieved (some of) our tactical and strategic objectives.
- Tactical: The weapons dealers and their event will have been disrupted. The passive community will have been disrupted.
- Strategic: Social license to hold weapons fairs in Straya has been smashed. We have boosted the movement wide campaign for an effective military embargo against Israel. The mobilisation has created a period of flux during which contracts are cancelled, and trade desks are closed.
- Movement Capabilities: The movement is in a better position for the next round of organising.
- There has been a rapid development of knowledge, skills and capabilities for many new committed organisers.
- Comrades have been able to access organising or participating in many new tactics.
- Sense of Power and Connectedness: People will have built power and relationships.
- We will have better relationships and more relationships that can take the movement forward.
- People’s sense of power and connectedness will have somehow held them in the face of repression and harm by the State.
Demands

The key demand of the 2024 Disrupt Land Forces mobilisation was that ‘Australia’ stop arming the US-backed Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people. Palestinian trade unions made this call at the outset of the bombardment: stop the flow of weapons. DLF gave us a chance to take that demand directly to the war mongers.
Our global call is for earth care not warfare. We can’t solve the climate crisis while corporations are literally holding guns to our heads. For land back, for equality, for the earth and her peoples to heal, we must demilitarise as we go.
This report provides a record of the monumental effort we made towards our goals. We offer here our learnings, hot takes and open questions, hoping these may be useful to others in the global movement for peace and justice.
Principled participation, expansive vision
Vision
A collective vision for the Disrupt Land forces mobilisation was workshopped among core organisers during meetings in April and May ’24. At the public launch on June 21, we were able to present the following goals to the broader community:
- Create a week-long festival of resistance bringing diverse actionists and tactics into joined struggle against the arms trade
- Hold a mobilisation where frontline impacted voices and stories are central
- Make space for cultural, social, tactical and intellectual cross-pollination
- Connect new crews
- Make the harms dealers have a bad time
- Make us have a good time
- Stretch goal: 25 000 people encircle the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre and shut Land Forces down
This vision was beautifully realised, except for the stretch goal of surrounding MCEC with 25 000 activists.
Media and cops ignored the qualifier stretch goal, deliberately misrepresenting and repeating this figure in alarmist terms ad nauseum. Lesson learned: don’t post stretch goals! Anything that can possibly be misrepresented or distorted, will be.
All of the actual (non-stretch) goals expressed in our vision were achieved. The first four goals, about connecting, cross-pollinating, uniting and centering, were met and exceeded many times over.

Principles
Our ‘participants agreement’ was very simple. We asked that comrades agree to two rules:
- do no harm to life
- respect other activists
By ‘harm’ we mean physical, material harm. By ‘respect’ we mean a deep commitment to non-judgemental, open-hearted interpersonal communications and interactions, along with all the usual caveats against bigotry or discrimination. A detailed conflict resolution plan was formulated. In the event of immediate harm or intractable conflict, we proposed a ‘council of seniors’ be deployed, made up of people who have been activists longer than twenty years. We asked that comrades self-manage as far as possible, drawing on affinity group or work team support if needed, and offered a formal community justice process as a last resort. No-one has used the last resort option so far.
We also offered the following principles to guide collaborators:
- No police.
- We don’t police each other’s tactics, messaging or appearance. We don’t repress each other.
- Ask don’t tell.
- Approach with curiosity not judgement. If you are heaps uncomfortable with another person’s tactics, ask them about what it means for them rather than telling them they are wrong.
- Say yes.
- It’s an experiment. Say yes to new things. Try stuff out. Let’s find out what we can do together.
- Solidarity rules.
- Whatever divergences exist between us, we stay united as fuck. We don’t talk to cops, air our grievances in public or spill our secrets to the press.
These principles are harder than they sound. Because of the competitive education system most of us endured and the isolating society we live in, people who grew up in ‘the global north’ are hardwired to criticism and control. Surrendering the illusion of power that comes with policing and judging each other takes conscious effort. Foregrounding solidarity even when we don’t agree with another’s tactics is an underdeveloped skill on this continent. Bringing curiosity rather than condemnation to the table requires, again, a surrender of the colonising impulse to ‘lay down the law’. Saying yes gets harder and harder as the pressure of time starts to weigh in. Our commitment to saying yes, even when the event or tactic didn’t seem possible, kept the collaboration open to new initiatives and creations. We had to abandon the scarcity mindset and throw our trust towards abundance: yes, we can try, yes, there is enough, yes, we are many, yes, there is time. None of this comes ‘naturally’ to people trained under capitalism. It’s deep work.

The organising
DLF was an open-source collaborative mobilisation initiated by Wage Peace / Disrupt Wars. Wildly disparate collectivities across the antimilitarist movement were invited to participate in any way possible, to protest in whatever ways felt powerful and meaningful to them. We asked only that comrades agree to our two rules: no harm to life, and respect other activists.
A plethora of Palestine action groups, along with Filipino, West Papuan, Latin American and East African solidarity contingents came on board. Climate activists from Extinction Rebellion and direct action groups put their shoulders to the wheel. The Quakers became a central supporting pillar, offering both the means to rent the Mission to Seafarers for our home base, and running speak out actions every day during the Expo. Anti-genocide affinities traveled from Kaurna, Ngambri, Ngunnawal, Awabakal, Worimi, Jagera, Djadjawarrung, Bundjalung, and Gadigal country to mobilise with us. Artists offered music, graphics, animations, sculptures and drawing; so much incredible art was created. Hundreds upon hundreds of people answered the call to disrupt the business of genocide.



Imagining the mobilisation began in January 2024 with an open meeting at Camp Sovereignty attended by around 70 people. Outreach to allies began early, with approaches to collectives within the anti-militarist movement to sound out capacity and interest. Gathering our networks and resources intensified through April and May; by June we were ready for a public launch of the Disrupt Land Forces 2024 mobilisation. We met at Black Spark in Northcote, shared delicious West Papuan food and settled in.
Speakers from nine different impacted communities held the crowd in thrall as they addressed the realities of militarism and invoked powerful intersectional solidarity. A ‘blue sky’ brainstorm followed, where comrades were invited to propose disruptive and creative tactics as though anything were possible. Tactics arising included traditional actions such as flyering and banner drops, disruptive tactics such as blocks and lock-ons, and one person imagined surrounding the entire MCEC with barbed wire. (As it happened, the police implemented that tactic for us.) Our priorities were articulated, our strength was asserted, our creativity and commitment were affirmed; we were launched.

Several senior elders supported and guided us all year and we felt very held by those people. Each DLF mobilisation was significantly mentored by local and invited First Nations leaders, and each was launched with a truth telling ceremony about the Frontier Wars. For DLF 24, Uncle Robbie Thorpe invited a number of radical Blak leaders from the West and the North, and hundreds gathered at the sacred fire at Camp Sovereignty to hear them. All of us acknowledge that the fight against militarism is in its essence a fight for land back and justice for Indigenous peoples, starting with the colonised lands of this continent (aka Australia).
At the second public meeting we enjoyed an Indonesian vegan feast, then proposed and ratified an organising structure and established teams to work within it. The structure we proposed was this:
Teams were set up on the spot. Energy and excitement were overflowing; teams had to move into the kitchen and the yard to hear each other speak over the hubbub. Around 150 people came, and almost all had joined one or more organising teams by the time we left. Wage Peace / Disrupt Wars had taken the organising lead up to this point. From that night on, we merged into a broad, horizontal organising structure with dispersed decision-making hubs.
The structure was designed around a Core Organising Group or COG, a system that had worked well for us during DLF 21 and 22. For DLF 24 we developed a greatly expanded model. In previous DLF mobilisations, all we had was the COG; working teams were only established when the mobilisation began. This time round, we had literally hundreds of people keen to offer organising capacity. It was awesome.
The COG was open to all, on the understanding that COG membership entailed a commitment of at least 5 hours per week in the pre-DLF period, progressing to full time work during the mobilisation. Twenty people joined. We were ‘the bottom line’, the people who were prepared to step up to any work that teams were not able to cover. The COG for DLF 24 included senior activists, others who had never organised before, a wide range of ages, genders, cultures and abilities, all united to make the best antiwar mobilisation possible. By September we were a cute af activist family.

The COG managed logistics, ensuring that all other teams had the resources they needed, and served as the communications hub. Each work team was asked to delegate one person to the COG; a spokescouncil model. Work teams were empowered to self-organise ie to make their own decisions about the work, using the COG space to seek collaboration and coordination. Decisions that impacted the entire mobilisation were discussed in the COG, however most of the decision making happened within the teams.
Surrounding the COG was the ‘Collaboration’ space, where delegates from each of the collectives participating in the mobilisation were invited to share info and ideas, seek support and co-organise events. This pool of anti-genocide activists was a great resource for the teams. People could road test an idea, image or message in a space populated by over a hundred anti-militarist comrades. We held open the possibility that affinity groups might take action independently of the DLF network, adding elements of surprise and disruption during the mobilisation. Many autonomous affinity groups were also represented in the Collaboration space.
The bike is the mobilisation. The COG, or front cog, powers the Collaboration, the rear cog. The Collaboration drives the Community, the wheel. Autonomous affinity groups, represented as ninjas, provide extra power, the wind at our back. The bike is a riderless, collectively powered machine sprinting towards our goal, to Disrupt Land Forces.
The COG, Collaboration and Work Teams model functioned like a well-oiled bicycle. Of course, there was cross-over and double up, but mostly there was a massive amount of connection, learning and creativity.
I’m happy I was involved. I learnt so much. It was my first time organising and I felt inspired by all the amazing people. I connected with lots of new activists and learnt heaps of new skills.
Sandy, 16
The collaboration was super inspiring and amazing. We were able to connect with groups that aren’t always easy to talk and connect to.
Kyra, 27
It felt like more was possible than at other protests.
Tati, 28


Our emphasis on decentralisation and our resistance to allowing the COG to act as a ‘management committee’ meant that some people felt alienated from ‘decision making’.
PASA [Philippines Australia Solidarity Association] felt that organising structures were not available to us… it was not clear how PASA would fit in and where the decision making would be for them.
Carl, 61
Most of the decision making took place within work teams. The teams were empowered to act as they saw fit, within the framework of the mobilisation principles, towards our goals. Once the mobilisation was underway, however, we implemented a quick decision-making process within the COG (5 to agree with no dissent = pass) so that we could respond rapidly when needed. This process was rarely engaged, partly because the DIY ethic of the mobilisation was heartily embraced by comrades, partly because work teams handled most issues autonomously.
The DLF organising model is great. Even under duress, it worked beautifully.
Turtle, 60
The part that didn’t work was the participation of the affinity groups, represented as ninjas on the diagram. We left it open to the ninjas to communicate with the COG about their plans, or to act entirely independently. None of them communicated any plans with the COG. We had socialised the idea that blocking the bump in was the ideal action for affinity groups to take. Only one group succeeded, when the Lizard car was deployed on the Westgate exit ramp on Saturday 8th, delaying deliveries to Land Forces for hours.

Lizard Car held Westgate off-ramp to the Melbourne Convention Centre for 2 hours on Saturday 7 September, delaying dozens of deliveries and causing set-up to run late.
During evaluations, we asked ourselves why was there no communication from affinity groups to the COG? Why did the affinity groups not take action during the bump in? There were a few autonomous interventions, at the port, at ALP offices and on the Westgate, but as a movement we did not manage to significantly block the bump in. The war mongers bumped in the big guns (tanks, missiles, killer robots) between midnight and dawn on Saturday 7th, unopposed. We wondered if we might create a ‘ninja liaison’ group next time, to attend in person meetings and handle face to face communications. Closer connections may have facilitated a more collaborative involvement. We don’t know why affinity groups did not achieve more independent actions, we only know that we did not feel that wind at our backs as we were cycling towards our goal.
Will this be the Lizard’s last deployment? The story of Lizard car began on Arabunna country, where Roxby Downs and the Olympic Dam are poisoning country. This action was taken in honour of the late Uncle Kevin Buzzacott.
“The colony must fall.”

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To comment on, edit or add to this report, email disruptwars@proton.me