A youthful Tim Anderson
First published 1989 in Incredible Times.
David Bradbury and Tim Anderson pay an informal visit to Lismore – 1989.
The forces of Darkness are gathering strength in Australian society. The politics of oppression are spreading. The population is being insidiously indoctrinated by a willing media to accept the establishment line, hook, line and sinker.
Take, for example, the case of Tim Anderson. Because of his very political beliefs and actions, he has been subjected to more than a decade of persecution, alleged police verbals and trial by media, including seven years in prison for a crime for which he was subsequently pardoned. Now Tim Anderson is back in the news and courts again, in committal hearings related to the Hilton Hotel bombings of February 1978.
The message of all this, as espoused by radical film-maker David Bradbury, is chillingly simple. If ‘they” can set up Tim Anderson today, what’s to stop ‘them’ doing the same tomorrow to you, me, or anyone else whose political beliefs seems to threaten the establishment? Big Brother is not only watching our every move, he’s making his own moves and taking steps to circumvent any resistance or opposition.
The time has come, therefore, to choose sides. The forces of light must rally to combat the forces of Darkness before it’s too late. It’s a rallying call that Tim Anderson and David Bradbury are taking to the people of Australia with a series of informal meetings across the country.
In Lismore, those invited included journalists, media workers, members of the legal fraternity, political activists and others, twenty or more of the town’s more enlightened and politically aware decision-makers knee to knee in the lounge room a tastefully renovated weatherboard cottage. The champagne flowed freely, and Lismore being the kind of town it is, most of those present already knew everyone else at the meeting.
After David Bradbury’s introduction – the gist of which opened this article – Tim Anderson spoke. The bizarre events and Byzantine conspiracies of Tim’s life in recent years naturally enough dominated his talk, but he also went to great lengths to stress the wider implications of his particular case.
Tim Anderson is tall (about 5’10”), large-boned with a receding hairline and bulging forehead. His nose is a classic beak, and his dark eyes glare out from beneath bushy, overshadowing eyebrows. His hands move constantly as he talks. The man has a presence, a steely inner purpose and discipline, that is quite remarkable.
The only way that he could make sense of his life, according to Tim Anderson, is to see it in a political context. He has been targeted because of his political beliefs but, as he is quick to point out, he is far from being alone. Aboriginals, the poor, the uneducated and ignorant and fringe political are all bearing the full weight of organized oppression. Right-wing governments across Australia are gearing up for a massive crackdown on dissent and political freedom. Billions of dollars are being spent on prison, the police and other law enforcement agencies, the judiciary and the court system. Fascism is alive and well in Australia, and is growing in strength daily.
Heavy, heavy concepts indeed for a pleasant Friday night in Lismore, where overt Fascists are few and far between, where most political activists are of the Green persuasion, and the only instances of anything remotely resembling police persecution occur during the regular marijuana busts.
The living is easy, good dope is cheap and freely available, and it’s hard enough getting some people politically motivated enough to both registering to vote, for God’s sake.
You can get thousands of people in the streets protesting against Greiner’s education policies or a proposed Rare Earth Plant, but how many people would be interested in joining an anti-Fascist crusade? How do you overcome an atmosphere of political apathy?
