Cotton Ward

Went to “Diverse City: Challenging racism in our communities” held by ACON’s Racial Harmony Working Group and QARC (queers against racists committee).

Sat next to QR peeps E (Asian), P and mathematician N.
The idea for the forum was to discuss racism incidents that keep occurring at gay venues, particularly by stage performers and staff who don’t serve Asians at bars.

A doco was shown about how local queers had had negative experiences when socialising and how they feel their body types will never measure up to the “ideal” and will always be rejected.

We were divided into five groups and as an icebreaker had to pick out a card from about 20 pictures laid out on the floor – mountain, polar bears, masks, people kissing, fences – and explain why we’d chosen it.
“I feel like I’m putting on a mask when i deal with certain people.”
“I feel like this whole issue is a huge mountain.”
“I wish we were all like a group of polar bears – all the same colour, no differences or prejudices.”

Then we discussed our experiences. A group of dyke porn publishers said they’d organised a gig where a performer had applied “black face” makeup and sung negro songs. “We said this was insensitive and she complained out us censoring her. Next time she performed at our gig, she didn’t do the songs, but her supporters in the audience wore offensive Swastika armbands to protest against our “censorship”. We’re just wondering where and how do you draw the line? Why couldn’t they see it was offensive?”
-“I think only black people should sing negro songs cos they share the whole slave legacy – it’s their history.”

Then an Asian actor said he often applies for acting jobs that advertise for a “25-year-old male” to “deliberately fuck with the system”. When he turns up, they say: “But you’re Asian” and he challenges them saying: “But Australia is a multicultural society – deal with it”, but doesn’t get any acting work.

Also, he doesn’t like it when he tells people he’s gay and Asian and they automatically start gushing with sympathy. “Why? I’m happy with being what I am. I work part-time in a sex shop and get heaps of sex. There’s no problem.” But he also advises Asian clients in another job and says he has to “wear a mask” then and feels he has to hide the fact he has “been in an open relationship for seven years with a man”.

Had a break, then went back into our groups and split into smaller groups of three to discuss what we could do to overcome racism in the community.
Person 1: “I’m fucking sick of all the prejudice.”
Person 2: “Can you please stop using the F word so often?”
Person 3: “Are you serious?”
2: “Well, partly. Mostly not.”
3: “I have a friend who’s geeky – like you -and he hates the F word too. Maybe it’s a thing about geeks. He teaches physics.”
2: “It might be a stereotype thing.”
3: “There are some positives to stereotypes.”
2: “Yeah. I was always viewed as being nerdy, but when I came out as being gay, I could take on the witty and stylish aspects of the stereotype. They seemed to override the nerdy image.”
3: “I’m geeky and I play on the positive aspects of that stereotype. Maybe there are some positive aspects to the Asian stereotype. [Turns to Person 1 who’s Asian] Do you work hard?”
1: “I fuck like a rabbit.”
3: “Are there any positive stereotypes about Asian rabbits? [Long pause as we all think about it]. What about cooking? Can you use that?”
1: “Nah, I’m a crap cook. I mainly get approached for drugs.”
3: “Why?”
1: “All the drug dealers are Asian in TV crime shows. The stereotype that really cheeses me off is that we all have close extended families – not all of us do. I don’t. Everyone assumes that.”

Then workshop facilitators from the five groups reported back on our top three suggestions. Our group’s were: rating niteclubs on whether the staff or performers are racist or welcoming; media monitoring of press reports and responding to negative reports; and alternative porn featuring a variety of skin colours/body shapes/ethnic cultures.

“Let’s go round in a circle and introduce ourselves.” There are always new faces.
Main agenda item – the convention.
The search is still on for a building to squat that can be broken into easily, then sealed up like a fortress against prying neighbours and the cops.
“Let’s have the Building meeting at the Townie [hotel].”
“Nah – it’s too bright.”
“What about the Bank?”
“Too many rules.”
“What rules??”
Shrugs. “Too many rules and regulations!”

“Did you see the huge Reclaim the Streets graffiti on King St?
“Awesome!”
“Where?”
“It takes up the front of the old Trocadero building.”
“It’s on next Saturday.”

“Will people please stop mentioning possible squat venues on the list? Someone mentioned the old mardi gras site, and now security have boarded up the ground floor windows. Don’t discuss it.”
“Someone might have leaked it to them.”
“Anyone could be reading our [email] list.”
“I saw a building with a dodgy-looking rollerdoor. A couple of jacks would open that.”
“It’ll take a full day to bump all our stuff in. We can break in the night before.
“Once in, you have to stay in the warehouse – cos then you feel like you’re in a bubble. Time, reality changes to Bubble World.”
“I only showered twice during the last conference.“
“I’m going to have to pop home to feed my cat.”
“The cops might come during the night, but they probably won’t if there’s 100 of us. It’s too much trouble.”

“I’m unemployed. I’ve got lots of time on my hands. I used to be with SCAN [squatters network] and I have all the council dates for when they pick up old furniture. In Leichhardt and the North Shore suburbs. We won’t have to buy anything – give me a list – my friend has a ute. I just need storage.”
“Under D’s house. There’s plenty of room.”

“What time should we set aside for lunch at the convention?”
“When we get up.”
“Nobody gets up before 1.”
“It’s better to force people to get up earlier. Otherwise the whole day slips away.”
“Our body clocks are going to be all out of whack – we’ll be living in Bubble Time.”
“Some people will jump up at the crack of dawn like they always do.
“How long should we have it?”
“We’ll have the complaints and grievances meeting at 11.”
“And lunch straight after.”
“For two hours? 12 til 2?”
“It’ll take ages to cook for more than 100 people.”
“It’s all vegan. My contacts are all in organic wholefoods.”

“Let’s have jazz on the first day. And some Spoken Word.”
“Spoken Word! We don’t want to scare everyone away. Call the Spoken Word something else – Mega Mike nite.”
“We’ve got to set the pace with some hard core cabaret performances on the second night. Get us in the right mind space.
“Then bands on Friday. And bands on the first night? Don’t worry about the neighbours – when we go in, they’ll know we’re there. Might as well be full on from the start.
“Some low chill music. Maybe jazz?”
“I don’t know any jazz bands.”

“When’s the Sex Party? Sat?”
“The Mother-of-All Parties will be on Sat. Let’s have the Sex Party on Monday.”
“We should have it once we’ve got to know each other.”
“Nah – have it on day one!”
“”Yeah, and the girls will have theirs six days later after they’ve gotten to know each other.”
“Sexist!”
“It’s true!”

“We’ve got to factor in a rest day.”
“There’s Fair Day on Sunday. We’ll be hot and tired after staying out in the sun all day.”
“We’ll need some people to stay at the squat in case the cops come. And we’ll need about 50 people to stick together at Fair Day and be on hand to rush back.”
“Let’s have the Sex Party on Monday.”
“Or Saturday.”
“We’ll have films after Fair Day. Then more films and an art show during the Sex Party – there has to be an alternative. Not everyone will want to do the sex thing.”

What about visitors from overseas? Will they need translators?”
“Nah – the Germans all speak English.”
“I’ve contacted the Asian groups I know and only the Philippinos were interested. But they freaked out at squatting. They don’t want to be over here doing something illegal.”
“We can put a button on the Web site in different languages asking if they need a translator and they can click it if they need one.”
“So we’ve got four weeks to learn other languages?”
“Just give them a phrasebook.”
“We can customise them.”
“Yeah – this is how you phonetically say `I want to go to the post office’ – Wil yew fuk mee pleez?

“Last supper and big clean up on Tuesday. Sometimes it takes three days to bump out.”
“And everyone disappears at clean up time. Make them earn their supper and spend at least five minutes cleaning before they go.”

QR PLANNING MEETING – FOUR WEEKS TO GO…
“OK – here’s the copy of the program? Do you want to change anything?”
“I’ve got a friend who wants to run a workshop on how to make floggers. She was worried about how to book it in, but I said we’ll squeeze you in anywhere.”
“Book it in! We have 70 workshops – it’s finely coordinated!”

“We need a mobile number contact for the ute so they can quickly grab stuff we see off the street.”
“Ask R – that is the name. And that [pointing to R with bright orange hair] is the visual.”
“We’ll put coloured stickers on the stuff we need to return or want to keep.”
“What colour stickers?”
“Red.”
“I can get lots of white vinyl ones from work.”
“Have you got any other colours – white won’t show up on whitegoods.”
“Nah.”
“How about beige? I like beige.”
“Yeah, your whole Legal Group can wear beige, you yuppie. Where’s your Blackberry?”
“Haven’t got the latest one yet – it’s coming in next week.”

Building Group: “Nobody’s to breathe the name of our preferred building to anyone.”
“Title searches have been done on three buildings and checked with the council to see if a Development Application (DA) has been lodged.
“If someone wants to evict us, they usually say there’s a DA on the building to force us out due to legal obligations. But if we know there’s no DA, it’s easier to argue and persuade them that no financial damage is being done.”
Dress up Group: “Have lots of clothes and sewing machines. Everyone can take the clothes home on the last day.”
Film Group: Need a projector. K says the Wedding Circle has one.
Food Group: Wants to spend $2000 on food for 200 people for a week. That’s $10/person. “I’m sure we’ll be able to do it for less. We can dumpster dive and we have lots of contacts with the Salvos for extra food. There are several companies we can join up with and bulk buy on their accounts.”
Actions Group: “What we do depends on how arrestable people are and what there is to protest about. We could attack whatever company decides to sponsor Mardi Gras – get some dirt on them. If it’s a beer company – well, I heard they filter the water or something. That could be a hook. If it’s a company like Shell, then it’s easy to find dirt.”
“We need $40 for photocopying expenses for publicity stickers. Fliers will be printed and distributed this week.”
Legal/Security Group: Will hold a meeting on Sat. “We need packs of cards for the security people cos they’ll get bored sitting around.”
Sex Party Group: Nothing done yet.

“If QR makes an overall profit, we should decide now how to spend the money. [One of the previous] QRs held a 10-hour meeting and had a huge bunfight discussing how to spend it and I want to avoid that.”
We decided to document the QR week and spend the rest on indigenous groups and the next QR in Spain.

“After last year’s Reclaim The Streets, a bloke recently got a $800 fine and one-year good behaviour bond. Another only got a $200 fine cos he had a lawyer and two witnesses.”
– “It was my first time in court as a witness and I perjured myself. I’d wanted to get a chance to say they’d said: ‘You f**king faggot’, but I didn’t get the opportunity.”

”We had 10 people over last nite and they stayed til 4am. Then I wrote this chart of things to do. So, apologies, I was really out of it when I started on it.”

“Smokers will have to be considerate. People don’t want their food experience to be polluted.”
– “If you’re addicted, you won’t be able to go outside easily, cos it’ll be like a fortress.”
“Generators stink too. And they make so much noise.”

“We’ve got to organise medical and security cos we don’t have any. There’s a nurse who lives nearby who we can ring.”
“We don’t have anyone with bouncer experience.”
“We need an air horn.”

“If the cops turn up cos of a noise problem, first we should tell the bar to clear out the drinks. Then, turn the music down and get the music stuff out. Then the other valuables.”
“What if a couple of Nazi skinheads come in and start a fight? They could cause a lot of damage.”
“We’d have to call the cops!”
“How embarrassing!”

C arrived after taking a detour to get some pot. “How did the building adventures go? Did you walk by and a door fell open?”
“Haha! Yeah!”
“It was a good idea to put red cellophane around the torch.”
“Yeah, really dimmed the light.”
“Did any dogs bark?”
“Nah. We had two people as lookouts. We headed off about 1am and finished about 4am. It took two hours to undo the screws in the window. We couldn’t be seen from the street cos we had to scale a 10ft wall to get there. Getting up was easy – we just lifted each other, but landing was bad. F injured his ankle on the way out. We used a trolley on one side, but the other side was steep.
“We got to a point when we had no choice but to make a lot of noise, so we did. Nobody noticed. We were surprised at 4am when a bloke with a torch arrived at the service station next door to open up.
“We hadn’t realised it was so late!
“Noone can see we’ve broken in – there’s a piece of corrugated iron over the window. There was no electricity, but the water was working.
“It’s close to the Imperial and King Street. If people leave the squat to hang out there, we’re dead.”

“We need everyone to turn up together on Wednesday. If they’re all straggling and hanging about on the street, the neighbours will complain.
-“Too bad there’s no outside area – people will have to stand in the street to smoke.
“We’ll use an airhorn to summon everyone – Morse code to indicate ‘Rush to the door cos there are undesirables coming in” or “Rush to the exits – there’s a fire”.
-“We should use a megaphone instead so we can just say what’s happening.”
-“Who owns the building?”
“We don’t know yet. It’s recently been sold and the new owner hasn’t registered the title deeds yet. We’re hoping to contact the owner to try and get permission. Everyone’s guessing it will be demolished so prestige flats can be built.”

“I’ve done a draft letter to give to the neighbours. It has contact numbers for any noise complaints and invites them to come in and say hello, have free meals, get a program and attend the workshops.”
“Yeah, we want them to contact us direct if they have any complaints.”
“Should we spell out we’re only having two big party nites – the band nite and the dance party? So they won’t think we’ll be noisy every nite?”
“And that the police will tell lies about us if they want to close us down?”
-“One of the cops donated $10 at the RTS rally. He gave me $20 and I said I didn’t have change. But he said: ‘I can see you’ve got heaps of change in the bucket!’, so I had to give him $10 back. I still hate cops, though.”

“We might have to lock everyone in.
-“What if there’s a fire?”
“We’ll all die.”
-“Make sure the bands are good, then. I don’t want to be incinerated to the strains of shit music.”