1976 Defence Fund Appeal Pamphlet

HELP
Nimbin
Cedar Bay

The massive raids on the commune are not just normal police actions,

The raids are attacks on whole communities of people.

They are attempts to destroy efforts to establish alternative lifestyles.

They are intended to create a "drugs scare" and so head off the growing awareness of the need to change the laws concerning marijuana.

*****

Nimbin

The "Nimbin Commune" in a peaceful community of about 160 people living in about 40 residences in a valley about four miles from the town of Nimbin near Lismore in Northern N.S.W.

The residences are partly grouped into hamlets and most of the hamlets try for self sufficiency in food. The commune itself is legally registered as a co operative and it has
bought its 1200 acres of land by selling shares at about $250 each.

During the night of August 11th, 1976, 65 police gathered at Lismore in secret.

Arming themselves with shotguns, armalite rifles and a warrant to search for heroin, they approached the commune in pre dawn darkness. At dawn, eight raiding parties were launched against the sleeping hamlets.

They herded 42 people some at gun point into a cattle truck and vans and took them to Lismore.

At Lismore, the police laid 75 charges, most of which were concerned with alleged possession. smoking or other use of marijuana. (None concerned heroin.)

By combining hard earned personal savings, the Co operative was able to bail its members out. But the expense of defending the Co op members will be great as the cases will be heard individually later this year and next year.

Although several eminent barristers from Sydney have offered their services free of charge, travelling, accomodation, and administrative expenses are expected to cost in the vicinity of $2,000

The Co operative has therefore appealed for assistance.

******

WHICH DOES MORE DAMAGE ?

LAWS AGAINST MARIJUANA?
OR
MARIJUANA?

The conviction and imprisonment of people for possessing, growing or smoking marijuana does far more damage than the actual smoking.

Society has not and cannot stop people from smoking cannabis anymore than it succeeded in stopping people from smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol.

But society can stop convicting people for using cannabis.

It can also stop marijuana being used as a weapon against people police don't like.

******
Cedar Bay

Cedar Bay is about 100 miles North of Cairns. The commune is a series of gardens and huts with communal kitchens built behind the beach along the three mile stretch of sand.

At the North End, the huts stretch along a track which leads from the glistening sand to the towering North Queensland rain forest.

The police began their raid several hours before dawn on August 29, 1976, by taking over a farm with an airstrip some distance inland. They brought in a helicopter to attack the commune from the air, while a naval boat came from the sea and a land party moved in along the land track.

Twelve of the inhabitants were captured. Some were handcuffed with their hands behind their backs around trees. Others were tied up with fishing nets. Others the women were whisked away by helicopter.

While the inhabitants were helpless, the huts were set alight with baby clothes used as kindling. The vegetable gardens were trampled, the water tank shot up, the paw-paw and banana trees slashed.

The charges brought against these people living 40 miles from Cooktown on private property were mainly of vagrancy. Eight were charged with vagrancy, three with possession, one with growing marijuana.

The magistrate from Cooktown was on leave so was the Clerk of Courts so the next clerk down the line found the 12 guilty and fined or gaoled them.

When it was decided he had no power to do so, the gaoled were freed and then re arrested on the same charges.

The Queensland Council for Civil Liberties has set up a fund not only to give legal defence but to give legal aid to civil action against those who burnt and destroyed the communes property.

And the fund will be used to rebuild the Cedar Bay commune.

*****
YOU CAN HELP

By sending a contribution to:

Defence Fund
Box 2377
G. P.O.
MELBOURNE 3000

All contributions will be forwarded
and divided between the two funds, the

"Cedar Bay Fund"

and Nimbin's
"Co-ordination Co-operative
Legal Defence Fund"

The address above is no longer in use. Do not send anything there.

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