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Pinched from OZbiker.org
Black Uhlans join protest to try and
free jailed unionist
A 5000-strong march through city streets in support of jailed unionist Craig
Johnston yesterday failed to sway Victorian Premier Steve Bracks.
Led by two honking cranes and members of the Black Uhlans motorcycle club,
supporters marched from the State Library to Treasury Place yesterday shouting
"free Craig Johnston" and punching the air.
Mr Bracks, who was in Ballarat for the day, was blunt when asked what chance
there was of the Government intervening on behalf of Johnston, who describes
himself as a political prisoner.
"Zero. There's no prospect at all," Mr Bracks said.
He said Victoria's judicial system had worked properly in dealing with Johnston
after he pleaded guilty to two counts of affray and one count of criminal damage
after a terrifying "run-through" of two businesses on a union blacklist.
"We do not interfere with the judgments made in the court system in Victoria,"
Mr Bracks said. "I think it's a futile effort . . . to try to urge . . . the
Premier of Victoria to interfere with that process. The answer is I won't."
In August, Victoria's Court of Appeal jailed Johnston, the former Victorian
secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, for at least nine
months.
The judges found his suspended 12-month sentence was inadequate.
The County Court heard that in 2001, Johnston led balaclava-clad unionists in
two run-throughs at Johnson Tiles and Skilled Engineering.
The attacks, which included smashing equipment and spraying a pregnant woman
with a fire extinguisher, came after 29 mainly long-serving staff were sacked
and replaced with cheaper non-union labour.
Speakers at the protest said while Johnston, 47, may have made a mistake, he had
done so in trying to protect workers' rights.
In a letter from his Loddon jail cell, read out at the rally, Johnston claimed
he was a victim of a Howard Government attack on unions.
"We need to send a clear message that there will be no more Craig Johnstons; no
more unionists sitting in jail for doing their job."
He urged unionists to overturn unjust laws.
"We must continue to break these laws. If the law is wrong, break it and break
it again and force the Government to repeal it."
"John Howard and his ilk hate unions and hate working people," he said.
"They believe they're born to rule and we're born to serve."
He said no more unionists should go to jail.
Union leader Martin Kingham took a 10,000-name petition calling for Johnston's
release into Mr Bracks' office.
