Offside Set

GweedsOSS · Fri Dec 15, 2006 1:16 pm BWB protest on Sunday

You might have read that the BWB are planning a protest on Sunday

http://www.melbournevictory.net/forum/showthread.php?t=22480

I don't think our little group could participate. But I guess we could refrain from chanting and waiving for that time as a sign of solidarity.

Rollins · Fri Dec 15, 2006 6:44 pm

We can still turn our backs to show our support!
Not promising that id make a banner, but would OSS support me if i did?

Was thinking about making something positive, that providing theres no advertising boards, hopefully wouldn't be taken away by security.

something like "FOXTEL thanks YOUR support!!!"
??? Any better suggestions ???

GweedsOSS · Sat Dec 16, 2006 1:44 am

I'd join you Rollins!

I understand the idea of making something positive. But I still think that we should follow the theme of the other support groups in targeting Channel 9, 3AW and the Herald-Sun.

Has to be fairly short considering the space we have at our disposal!

CLMV · Sat Dec 16, 2006 6:25 am

I'll support you

how about

'NO BEAT UPS'

as a simple slogan

GweedsOSS · Sat Dec 16, 2006 7:41 am

CLMV wrote: I'll support you

how about

'NO BEAT UPS'

as a simple slogan

When you refer to 'beat ups' you mean media stories or the police? :o

Sorry only joking!

I like it! Now we need an old bedsheet and a spraycan. A rough and ready banner like they do in Italy for these occasions.

Daydream · Sat Dec 16, 2006 1:20 pm

Before I start on my rant, I need to first point out I haven't seen/heard any of the programmes that people have been so offended by, as I do not watch Channel Nine, or listen to 3AW or read the Herald Scum. I've only read one article via the darkside, which I didn't think was anything extraordinary, not even a particularly overdone piece that the HS is usually reknowned for. So I talk without much knowledge of what everyone is so upset about, but with knowledge of what it is like to be vilified, as a collective group in society, by the mainstream media.

This is not a protest I am overly passionate about. I also think that the focus on the paper and the radio station will give them another negative story to write/screen and could potentially create a spike in readership/viewers. I agree 100% with what Gasbill says on the other forum concerning the articles, this is not a new thing, the Herald Scum make a living off running sensationalised negative press. Commercial stations also run programs that are profit driven and politically skewed to favour their financial investors, and 3AW, well where do I start. This thing has grown legs and created this hyperexcitable state amongst the forumites and supporters groups. It's a very interesting moment when those usually in power and control find themselves discriminated against, I think it comes as a massive shock and the associated response is a sight to behold. I've seen it time and agina in the circles I mix in, when those who have never been discriminated against get a "it's not fair/true" experience.

I'd encourage everyone to boycott these media corporations and also write a letter, both as an individual and on behalf of the supporter groups they belong to, and forward it to each business stating precisely WHAT they have taken offense to and exactly what they will be doing about it, ie not buying/viewing/listening, and encouraging others to do likewise, promoting and distributing TRUE reportive pieces on any events that occur. Ah this takes me back to another point IO made earlier. The blanket ban shut down on ANY discussion on the actual events of Friday night by people who were ACTUALLY there, has left a void to be filled by sensationalist media.

Having said that, I'm not totally against supporting this protest, but need to thinbk exactly where my politics lie on this one. I find it slightly cringeworthy to my activist self to be protestinng about a sporting culture, sorta makes a bit of a mockery of my activism about human rights/environmental stuff. I understand football means very very much to many people, but my sport is my social, my enjoyment, my step outside of the normal drudgery of life, so to protest in support of a number of boys who got rowdy at the south end, then pepper sprayed by the police, then the media going to town over it (it really is a story ripe for the picking isn't it?), sorta doesn't fit comfortably with me. I'd rather take to the streets over water wastage in a drought, lot farming, uranium mining or the latest death in custody (the copper who killed Cameron Doomadgee on Palm Island, got let off two days ago, insufficient evidence to convict). So does this protest support or go against my personal politics? I think if i supported this protest it would make a mockery of my political actions in other realms. If someone can point out how this protest is in harmony with my personal politics I'd be interested to give it more thought.

I seek the truth, communication and promotion of it, not reactive responses to **** media corporations.

Greenwood · Sat Dec 16, 2006 2:03 pm

Ah DD all class, so true to your convictions. A lesson to all of us, well said and well written.

Rollins · Sat Dec 16, 2006 3:02 pm

Well written Daydream, yes there are far more important issues than sport..
What i saw on friday night was a person fighting the police (3 arrested in total all insidethe ground) a few hundred adolescents where chanting from behind the safety of the gate. Was a total media beat up.
Heres the footage DD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha2bNzcUKH4
Having said that i have no sympathy for the kids who got pepper sprayed, for me the protest is about creating awareness against the agenda driven mainstream media, who effect peoples lives, not only in football. The protest could backfire & produce a negative response for MVFC though. :?
Unfortunatly the media controls the masses, who will believe them blindly regardless of whether the truth is uncovered or not.. :(

Daydream · Sat Dec 16, 2006 4:48 pm

IMO this protest, and the specific wording of the banners, doesn't get the point across. It doesn't make it's point precisely, it will only serve to make for another bad news football article. Whoever sees it wont understand what it's all about or what the point is, only that MVFC supporters are pissed off at the mainstream media, and if I was someone who didn't know anything about the events of Friday night, I'd have no idea at what it's all about, or worse, interpret the message as perhaps meaning that MVFC supporters don't want the media to report any incidents that happen off pitch. Truth is stuff happened at gate 7 and it wasn't the beat up that was portrayed, but it was an incident, and ABSOLUTELY newsworthy for those that want to report it. I'm surprised that the media hasn't grabbed hold of this earlier, I suppose the Adelaide (both home and away) game was an alert for the media of potential stories they might be able to run at future games, and guess what, they were right, the Sydney post match reaction by supporters was an exact replica of the Adelaide game except they had a police response. Our supporters need to work out their **** and not go blaming the media for doing what they will do with such incidents. We all know what the media is like and it's important to not give them ammunition.

AND the bottom line is the safety (both perceived and real) of people at games, away supporters, home supporters and players! No one is talking about what we need to do to STOP such incidents happnening, they're talking about stopping the media from reporting them and sensationalising it. Reminds me of a South Park episode, "children are reporting priests for abusing them", "so how are we going to stop them reporting it". Bad analogy, I admit!

CLMV · Sat Dec 16, 2006 4:54 pm

of course there are bigger issues in the world than this

does that make this a non-issue?

the way the media distorts and sensationalises is a real issue, no matter what the subject matter

if there is an issue that can start to politicise people because it touches on their world, I welcome it, even if I think there are other bigger issues they could be thinking about
you always have to start with people from the point they are at

the discrimination against non-English speaking communities that happens in Australia is no less real than any other, and creates real injustices in our world every day
hostility to soccer is part of that same push for cultural homogeneity and intolerance of difference

I don't see how showing solidarity with our fellow supporters for two minutes can make a mockery of anything

I think they have been naive in giving the press the amunition it was looking for - and I been one of the people that has warned them over and again for the last year that this could happen

I think the people who continue to believe that you can flirt with acting like a hooligan, and somehow avoid being labelled as one, are naive, and in some cases wilfully so

but I also believe the press have gone to town on this to a degree far beyond what is justifiable, and it is a good thing to fight back

this game has been successfully marginalised in this country for a very long time
we have a chance to break out now
and we must win the battle for fair treatment by the press to do that

CLMV · Sat Dec 16, 2006 4:58 pm

Daydream wrote:
No one is talking about what we need to do to STOP such incidents happnening,

that is not true

there has been a lot of discussion about how to stop it from happening, and action as a result of the discussion

but the media has gone to town

if I were organising a protest, I would not choose to take that tack either
but I am not organising it
and I cannot influence how they do it

I have a choice between acting in solidarity with the people who are putting in the effort
or saying 'meh'

Daydream · Sat Dec 16, 2006 5:55 pm

CLMV wrote: Daydream wrote:
No one is talking about what we need to do to STOP such incidents happnening,

that is not true

there has been a lot of discussion about how to stop it from happening, and action as a result of the discussion

Please go to a logical context, I mean (but didn't specifically state in this sentence) SINCE the media started reporting the Sydney incident. You and I both know that there has been much serious discussion about management of the mob for a long time now.

Rollins · Sat Dec 16, 2006 7:55 pm

Ive made a slap up banner, the wording is more controversial then i originally had in mind :?, we can decide tomorrow if we wish to unveil. 8)
Protest or no protest the mob mentality is almost impossible to totally control, if the media want to find a anti football story they will regardless.. :(

GweedsOSS · Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:30 am

Whether I agree or not with the protest organised by the North End is one issue which is relevant here. But Daydream has very eloquently raised the issue of protest in the context of protest as an action per se. However Daydream we wil have to disagree on this issue.

My view is slightly different. If I am passionate about something and I feel it has been dealt an injustice then I feel that it is a worthy issue for a protest. Whether it is David Hicks being held in detention, treatment of refugees, the war in Iraq, and the way football has been treated in some sections of the media. I don't categorise 'worthiness' of an issue. There is no reason why I can't protest about Refugees one day and the way football is being treated the next. Of course the seriousness on the first issue is much greater compared to the second, but for me if I am passionate about the issue it has a meaning which is worth stating.

The second issue I want to touch upon is that this goes beyond 'just biased media'. I don't think the protest tomorrow is there to defend any over-excited youngster who should have moved away from gate 7 when asked to. The issue is how this event has been manipulated by certain sections of the media because of their own agendas.

And I don't think that the protest by the BWB pastes over the behaviour of some fans, posts in the Dark Side 99% condemn the actions of those at gate 7.

If we care about football, and its position in Australian society, then it is an issue that we should protest about.

The argument boils down to this: Australian Football is part of our culture, World football is not, and therefore any increase of its popularity is a direct threat to Australian culture.

You can see that as a football follower I am angry that something that I care about is being treated in such a manner in order to marginalise it from the mainstream. I feel a deep sense of injustice is being done by people who view our code as an invasion, something to fear.

The fact that a major media organisation seemed to have 'planted' one of their own to maximise negative coverage is outrageous.

As I said at the start whether we or whoever join the protest is not the issue. But it is a worthy protest and it is the right of supporters to make their views known in the best way they can.

Anyway Rollings I'd be happy to hold up your banner. Cosnidering that the South End will have one too (that had to be made by the north end because they could not be fagged :lol: ) It would be a good show of solidarity that OSS will be there in the eastern sign of the ground (just as well because we would not have been seen at Telstra Dome!)