It is vital that all attending George Town on Sunday preserve the civil society that we have. People feel aggrieved on both sides. Nobody wins if the ante is upped by either side. Moments like this call for civility and creativity.

We have to be aware that a protest has been planned in a town that some workers see as their own turf, or close to it. They’ve read about the Beaconsfield protest. They’ve read The Examiner’s and the ex-Premier’s takes on the protest movement.

This calls for the utmost correctness and diligence. The media will allow no quarter. Police who will be out in force are put in a difficult situation again. Thank goodness our police remained civil and professional throughout the clamour that followed the vandalism at the home of Gunns Chairman Gay. Others have not remained civil. These things should be evident to people who value the level of civility that we still have in our community.

Now, I personally want to see more creativity in protest - allegiance with theatre groups, for instance. One dairy farmer was highly theatrical and media-savvy when he poured a carton of milk in the mud today, protesting a woeful deal for farmers.

Some of us can see a smarter future.  We can only make it happen by smart means.

Why not start a creative workshop at this protest to quietly brain-storm some cross-organisational ideas? Who knows, these could lead to attracting big names and reporters from overseas. Gatherings like this are an opportunity for exchanging email addresses to pursue ongoing workshops online. I look forward to impeccable theatrical occasions in Hobart and Launceston. There are graphic symbols such as carcasses and stumps. Smart people can network and stage-manage events that attract coverage from afar.

Meanwhile, if you are going to George Town, I beg you to bring good publicity by your considered actions. Please don’t play with fire.

Re #1
Peter Cundall obviously realises the folly of the shambolic and embarressing performance of the TAP people at Beaconsfield. The Labor Party must rub their hands together with glee every time these lunatics put on a show. The media reckon it is better than having the circus coming to town such was their delight at Beaconsfield.
So Mr Cundall tries to persuade them to be more media savvy and smarter along the lines of Richard Bovill and his dairy farmers. Yes Mr Cundall you are right - pouring mud out of a milk carton for the tV’s was extremely clever. Compare that to 194 lunatics banging plastic containers with sticks all afternoon and you can see why the only place these anti - pulp mill people have any credibility is Salamanca Place. Certainly not in mainstream Tasmania. What is the bet that when the pulp mill begins construction these loonies lie down in front of the trucks - odds on!!!
And the Labour party will be rolling around on the floor laughing there heads off!
It will be interesting to watch the TV news on Sunday night. Will common sense prevail - me thinks not! And Gunns will be laughing all the way to the bank.

I’m just a Launceston citizen, not the well known Peter Cundall. I’m highlighting the necessity for civility. I’m not objecting to the peaceful protest at Beaconsfield. Civility is not maintained by name-calling or provocation. The mill proposal is hurting people in all quarters. Issues can only be addressed with reason.

Yes, let’s all be nice.  Let’s all sing Kum-bah-yah & some nice protest songs, wear some nice badges & hold (not wave) some properly written, nice signs.

On the other hand, how about we bash the crap out of pots & pans & yell & scream & shout until the corrupt bastards can’t here themselves think.  How about we turn up at every scripted, washer-machined media manipulation the bastards arrange for themselves & create so much noise & movement that it can be seen & heard from outer-space!  These bastards don’t give a damn about us, the people, unless we are impeding on their carefully managed plunder of taxpayers’ money.  Fuck them!  Beaconsfield really did put the wind up the bastards & that obviously offends some nice people who think that we should play by the bastards’ own rules.  Think again. I’m sure us loonies can supply the bastards with some more side splitting hilarity.

A thousand apologies if you are not Peter Cundall. I do however believe there is no such person as Peter Rundall. Peter Randall maybe.let us call you Peter.
I reiterate - the protest at Beaconsfield was not peaceful [far from it].
You say Peter that “The mill proposal is hurting people in all quarters.“I would suggest the only quarter that is ‘hurting’ is the green movement itself because they know only too well the pulp mill is their last hurrah! Lose this one and it is all over red rover. Little Johnny Howard &  Bluey Lennon got their heads together and stitched them up a treat over the Styx Valley and thay are still reeling from it.

I was at Beaconsfield the whole time, and the protest was indeed completely peaceful.

The ones who were arrested “just stood there”. They did something deemed illegal, but were certainly completely peaceful.

Those who congregated on the street (none of whom were arrested) were very noisy. But what is non-peaceful about that? Nobody was getting pushed, shoved, being poked with sticks or verbally abused. Plenty of people in society are noisy on occasions, e.g. football crowds on grand final day. The Beaky crowd had at least as good a reason in my opinion.

Some of the street crowd momentarily surged into the school grounds in an act of support for the Pulp The Mill “deliberate arrestees” after the latter had miraculously appeared. “If they can be there why not us” sort of thing. When asked to leave by police or face arrest, they left. What they did would only have been illegal had they ignored the police direction.

One person lay on the ground attempting to prevent a police van with arrestees aboard from leaving the school grounds. He was physically picked up by police and taken to the other side of the road. I think his action was pretty unnecessary - the arrestees had already made their point - but he was not unpeaceful, just a little unthinking when he applied what he saw as a spontaneous act of support for like-minded individuals. It delayed police operations for maybe 1 minute.

If anyone is further interested in my thoughts about the sort of noise made at Beaconsfield, they could check out my Pots and Pans article on TT today (21/10). The action actually does have a bit of a pedigree.

Of course apologists for the present Labor government will object that what South Americans, Icelanders and Turks do is irrelevant, and completely inappropriate in straight-laced middle Tasmania. But they have their reasons for saying that, don’t they?