Peter McGregor
Encyclopedia
Peter James McGregor was an Australian Anarchist known for his political activism, University teaching and commitment to direct action
. He was actively involved and often lead the major Australian and international political campaigns of the last 40 years.
Born in Sydney
NSW Australia he was brought up by his mother Alice McGregor (née Alderdice) and maiden Aunt, May Alderdice. His father, Charles Roy McGregor, and mother split up soon after his birth and as a consequence of not having a strong male role model in the household he appreciated and loved the company of women. His partner of 28 years, Johanna Trainor, worked with him on many of his political publications and campaigns.
Peter went to North Sydney Boys High School
and continued onto the University of Sydney
where he majored in Psychology
and Maths (1967). He later received a Graduate Diploma of Education from the University of Sydney (1970), a Graduate Diploma Librarianship (1978) and a Master of Arts (Media and Communication) (1984) from the University of New South Wales
.
McGregor’s first foray into political action was a (2 person) demonstration in SUPPORT of the hanging of Ronald Ryan
the last Australian to be executed, in Victoria in 1967. Then in 1967 he joined a sit-in at Sydney University’s Fisher Library, over increases in library fines.
, the poverty and oppressive conditions of indigenous Australians
, and then, amazement at the institutionalised racism of apartheid.
“When initially confronted with the Vietnam War, I was quite immature, though 20 years old, and sat on the fence concerning both conscription
and the war in general. Then the good fortune of not having my birth date picked in the conscription lottery of 1967 prompted me to check the war out more thoroughly. My tentative involvement with the anti-war movement began cautiously and indirectly with my joining the humanitarian aid group Australian Committee of Responsibility for the Children of Vietnam (ACORFCOV), founded by the wonderful Sheila Rowley. ACORFCOV was inspired by the (US) Committee of Responsibility (COR) chaired by Dr. Benjamin Spock
. Evidence of what was happening (Whoops! euphemism) — being done to Vietnamese civilians and children was enough to move one to joining anti-war actions and then the movement itself."
ACORFCOV supported humanitarian aid for the civilian victims of the war and education on what was happening to civilians as a basis for fundraising to provide medical aid and personnel.
In 1970 McGregor worked for a year as a Maths high-school teacher. Initially he failed his Teachers Certificate because the day the Inspector (who was a member of the Returned Services League – RSL) came to assess his teaching he was demonstrating at one of the Vietnam Moratorium marches, which were against Educational Department Policy
, through a group that bordered the humanitarian and the political, he joined (1969) the South Africa Defence and Aid Fund (SADAF - set up by John & Meg Brink white South African refugees). Again a group that was focused on educating and raising consciousness in order to collect money to aid political prisoners.
It was early in 1971, and the campaign against apartheid sport in Australia was reaching its coup de gráce. The main activist organisation in Sydney, the Anti-Apartheid Movement
(with Meredith Burgmann
and Denis Freney) needed a full-time organiser. McGregor took the chance of becoming a full-time ‘professional’ activist and was employed at $20 per week. After the massive mobilisations against the Springbok Rugby tour for that coming winter, effectively stymied future South African involvement in international Rugby. By September Donald Bradman made the statement that “ the South African cricketers would not come until they stopped racially selecting the team” and officially withdrew their cricket invitation. With the proposed cricket tour for the summer of 1971-72 cancelled by the Australian cricket authorities the substantive Australian sporting contact with apartheid sport was over.
McGregor was then employed by the World University Service in Australia (WUSA) – an international, radical aid organisation based in universities in Western countries - as an organiser campaigning about southern Africa. In 1973 he toured New Zealand/Aotearo as an outside agitator supporting the campaign against the forthcoming NZ Springbok tour.
Apart from building grass roots activities in Sydney as well as network interstate, perhaps the most high-profile event during McGregor’s tenure with WUSA was the report on the Australian (Whitlam) Government breaking sanctions on Rhodesia. Despite having spoken out strongly against apartheid, & Ian Smith's illegal Rhodesian regime, Whitlam wasn't doing enough. A high-profile Australian Government delegation was about to tour several independent African nations, & WUSA’s Report reached those African Governments just in time for them to raise the issue with Whitlam’s delegation, to the Australian Government’s diplomatic & public embarrassment.
, Solidarity (UK) and the Brisbane Self Management Group.
Of the established left, McGregor quickly dismissed the various Communist parties – both the Aarons/Sydney independent-of-the-Soviet Union grouping, the Melbourne Maoists, and the pro-Soviet Clancy/Socialist Party (the current Communist Party). Then there were the Trotskyists – all 37 varieties – and the Spartacists (International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist)
) who had the most coherent theoretical position – which appealed to his new-found interest in theory. But it was the grouping round Nick Origlass
, Izzy Wyner and Hall Greenland who were the closest to self-management… Because it was the Brisbane Red & Black Bookshop folks – the Self Management Group (SMG) that really excited him.
As a recent convert to a born-again -anarchist, McGregor embraced a purist position, of refusing to reproduce capitalist daily life - commodity, exchange relationships - by abolishing the limits imposed upon people by wage-labor & private property. Namely, for instance, don't work & don't pay rent.
In the purist spirit of Charles Fourier
's - Some Advice Concerning the Next Social Metamorphosis:
"Never sacrifice a present good to a future good. Enjoy the moment; don't get into anything which doesn't satisfy your passions right away. Why should you work today for jam tomorrow
, since you will be loaded down with it anyway, & in fact in the new order you will only have one problem, namely how to find enough time to get through all the pleasures in store for you."
And Fredy Perlman
's - The Reproduction of Everyday Life:
"The task of capitalist ideology (= the spectacle - PMcG), is to maintain the veil which keeps people from seeing that their own activities reproduce the form of their daily life; the task of critical theory is to unveil the activities of daily life, to render them transparent, to make the reproduction of the social form of capitalist activity visible within people's daily activities."
His re-birthing from politics as external issues - activism for a cause; war, racism
, explicit political repression
- to activism as a way-of-life meant not merely protesting to bring about reforms, but critically exploring the basis of social systems and embracing revolutionary change via a politics of everyday life. Extending the feminist take on the personal being political - addressing interpersonal relations as a primary site of gender
/class
/race/etc politics. And also integrating one's living arrangements ('home'), and what one is doing ('work') into as coherent as possible a life-style. Not unlike, 'be the changes you want to see in the world', and 'change the world by changing yourself', and 'the means are the ends in the making'. So, since property was theft, why not squat; and since work was wage-slavery, then don't.
tabloid RISING FREE, seemed to find both an 'audience' as well as a range of keen contributors.
McGregor discerned considerable similarities between the Situationist International (SI) & Socialism or Barbarism (SoB), let alone more general parallels between the SI (including its Libertarian Marxism
) and Anarchism, especially in its council communist form.
Among other Anarchists from Melbourne and Brisbane and the SAG, McGregor’s interest in Situationism coincided with a period of 'anything goes' carnival anarchism. Spontaneity was essentially the name of the game during 1975 and early 1976 in Sydney. 'Situations' like a room full of stoned people suddenly deciding to go out and do a paint up on the local billboards and buildings often occurred. The local Police Station and Commonwealth Bank and the Medical Association building were often targets.
In June/July 1976, a range of folks - in friend or affinity groupings, who hadn't necessarily know each other previously - had seized-the-time and moved in & sqautted the corner block of Palmer & Stanley St’s Darlinghurst Sydney. The DMR (Department of Main Roads), in order to construct their Freeway, had bought out local residents in preparation for demolition... But there were delays, because of disputes between State and Federal Governments, Green Bans from the NSW Builders Labourers Federation
(BLF), and resistance from local resident groups.
Bordered by the lane from Palmer to Bourke Sts, 'The Compound' was born with considerable idealism. Internal fences between the houses were knocked down, and levels of communalism
and conviviality blossomed. Back-yards, tools, a washing-machine, electricity, etc. were shared, community gardens were planted, a food coop and a squatters shop on the corner were established. Lots of partying, making and listening to music, drinking, cooking & eating, dope (Cannabis (drug)
) & LSD
, sex & raving occurred.
MORE TO COME...
1971
1973
1974
1975-77
1978
1979
1980
1985
1987
1988
1989
1993
1996
1997
1999
2000
2001
2002-5
2006
2007
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
. He was actively involved and often lead the major Australian and international political campaigns of the last 40 years.
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
NSW Australia he was brought up by his mother Alice McGregor (née Alderdice) and maiden Aunt, May Alderdice. His father, Charles Roy McGregor, and mother split up soon after his birth and as a consequence of not having a strong male role model in the household he appreciated and loved the company of women. His partner of 28 years, Johanna Trainor, worked with him on many of his political publications and campaigns.
Peter went to North Sydney Boys High School
North Sydney Boys High School
North Sydney Boys High School is an academically selective, public high school for boys, located at Crows Nest in Sydney, Australia.- History :...
and continued onto the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
where he majored in Psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
and Maths (1967). He later received a Graduate Diploma of Education from the University of Sydney (1970), a Graduate Diploma Librarianship (1978) and a Master of Arts (Media and Communication) (1984) from the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
.
McGregor’s first foray into political action was a (2 person) demonstration in SUPPORT of the hanging of Ronald Ryan
Ronald Ryan
Ronald Joseph Ryan was the last person to be legally executed in Australia. Ryan was found guilty of shooting and killing prison officer George Hodson during a prison escape from Pentridge Prison, Victoria in 1965...
the last Australian to be executed, in Victoria in 1967. Then in 1967 he joined a sit-in at Sydney University’s Fisher Library, over increases in library fines.
Anti-Vietnam War Movement
McGregor was initially tentative in his choice of activism. He found he was most tempted by the social injustices that he had become aware of, issues like the horrors of the Vietnam WarVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, the poverty and oppressive conditions of indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
, and then, amazement at the institutionalised racism of apartheid.
“When initially confronted with the Vietnam War, I was quite immature, though 20 years old, and sat on the fence concerning both conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
and the war in general. Then the good fortune of not having my birth date picked in the conscription lottery of 1967 prompted me to check the war out more thoroughly. My tentative involvement with the anti-war movement began cautiously and indirectly with my joining the humanitarian aid group Australian Committee of Responsibility for the Children of Vietnam (ACORFCOV), founded by the wonderful Sheila Rowley. ACORFCOV was inspired by the (US) Committee of Responsibility (COR) chaired by Dr. Benjamin Spock
Benjamin Spock
Benjamin McLane Spock was an American pediatrician whose book Baby and Child Care, published in 1946, is one of the biggest best-sellers of all time. Its message to mothers is that "you know more than you think you do."Spock was the first pediatrician to study psychoanalysis to try to understand...
. Evidence of what was happening (Whoops! euphemism) — being done to Vietnamese civilians and children was enough to move one to joining anti-war actions and then the movement itself."
ACORFCOV supported humanitarian aid for the civilian victims of the war and education on what was happening to civilians as a basis for fundraising to provide medical aid and personnel.
In 1970 McGregor worked for a year as a Maths high-school teacher. Initially he failed his Teachers Certificate because the day the Inspector (who was a member of the Returned Services League – RSL) came to assess his teaching he was demonstrating at one of the Vietnam Moratorium marches, which were against Educational Department Policy
Anti Apartheid Movement
McGregor was more concerned with campaigning against racism ‘over-there’, in South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, through a group that bordered the humanitarian and the political, he joined (1969) the South Africa Defence and Aid Fund (SADAF - set up by John & Meg Brink white South African refugees). Again a group that was focused on educating and raising consciousness in order to collect money to aid political prisoners.
It was early in 1971, and the campaign against apartheid sport in Australia was reaching its coup de gráce. The main activist organisation in Sydney, the Anti-Apartheid Movement
Anti-Apartheid Movement
Anti-Apartheid Movement , originally known as the Boycott Movement, was a British organization that was at the center of the international movement opposing South Africa's system of apartheid and supporting South Africa's Blacks....
(with Meredith Burgmann
Meredith Burgmann
Meredith Anne Burgmann is an Australian politician and Australian Labor Party member and a former President of the New South Wales Legislative Council.-Early years:...
and Denis Freney) needed a full-time organiser. McGregor took the chance of becoming a full-time ‘professional’ activist and was employed at $20 per week. After the massive mobilisations against the Springbok Rugby tour for that coming winter, effectively stymied future South African involvement in international Rugby. By September Donald Bradman made the statement that “ the South African cricketers would not come until they stopped racially selecting the team” and officially withdrew their cricket invitation. With the proposed cricket tour for the summer of 1971-72 cancelled by the Australian cricket authorities the substantive Australian sporting contact with apartheid sport was over.
McGregor was then employed by the World University Service in Australia (WUSA) – an international, radical aid organisation based in universities in Western countries - as an organiser campaigning about southern Africa. In 1973 he toured New Zealand/Aotearo as an outside agitator supporting the campaign against the forthcoming NZ Springbok tour.
Apart from building grass roots activities in Sydney as well as network interstate, perhaps the most high-profile event during McGregor’s tenure with WUSA was the report on the Australian (Whitlam) Government breaking sanctions on Rhodesia. Despite having spoken out strongly against apartheid, & Ian Smith's illegal Rhodesian regime, Whitlam wasn't doing enough. A high-profile Australian Government delegation was about to tour several independent African nations, & WUSA’s Report reached those African Governments just in time for them to raise the issue with Whitlam’s delegation, to the Australian Government’s diplomatic & public embarrassment.
Political Philosophy
However, by the mid 70s McGregor’s politics had evolved to an anarchist position, under the influence of Socialisme ou BarbarieSocialisme ou Barbarie
Socialisme ou Barbarie was a French-based radical libertarian socialist group of the post-World War II period . It existed from 1948 until 1965...
, Solidarity (UK) and the Brisbane Self Management Group.
Of the established left, McGregor quickly dismissed the various Communist parties – both the Aarons/Sydney independent-of-the-Soviet Union grouping, the Melbourne Maoists, and the pro-Soviet Clancy/Socialist Party (the current Communist Party). Then there were the Trotskyists – all 37 varieties – and the Spartacists (International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist)
International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist)
The International Communist League , earlier known as the international Spartacist tendency is a Trotskyist international. Its largest constituent party is the Spartacist League...
) who had the most coherent theoretical position – which appealed to his new-found interest in theory. But it was the grouping round Nick Origlass
Nick Origlass
Nick Origlass was an Australian Trotskyist notable for his electoral success in becoming mayor of Balmain, an unusual feat for a revolutionary in Australia, and an unusual electoral success within Trotskyism's international history. Origlass became mayor on a Balmain Labour Party ticket...
, Izzy Wyner and Hall Greenland who were the closest to self-management… Because it was the Brisbane Red & Black Bookshop folks – the Self Management Group (SMG) that really excited him.
As a recent convert to a born-again -anarchist, McGregor embraced a purist position, of refusing to reproduce capitalist daily life - commodity, exchange relationships - by abolishing the limits imposed upon people by wage-labor & private property. Namely, for instance, don't work & don't pay rent.
In the purist spirit of Charles Fourier
Charles Fourier
François Marie Charles Fourier was a French philosopher. An influential thinker, some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in his lifetime, have become main currents in modern society...
's - Some Advice Concerning the Next Social Metamorphosis:
"Never sacrifice a present good to a future good. Enjoy the moment; don't get into anything which doesn't satisfy your passions right away. Why should you work today for jam tomorrow
Jam tomorrow
Jam tomorrow or jam to-morrow is an expression for a never-fulfilled promise. It originates from Lewis Carroll's 1871 book Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There...
, since you will be loaded down with it anyway, & in fact in the new order you will only have one problem, namely how to find enough time to get through all the pleasures in store for you."
And Fredy Perlman
Fredy Perlman
Fredy Perlman was an author, publisher and activist. His most popular work, the book Against His-Story, Against Leviathan!, details the rise of state domination with a retelling of history through the Hobbesian metaphor of the Leviathan. The book remains a major source of inspiration for...
's - The Reproduction of Everyday Life:
"The task of capitalist ideology (= the spectacle - PMcG), is to maintain the veil which keeps people from seeing that their own activities reproduce the form of their daily life; the task of critical theory is to unveil the activities of daily life, to render them transparent, to make the reproduction of the social form of capitalist activity visible within people's daily activities."
His re-birthing from politics as external issues - activism for a cause; war, racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, explicit political repression
Political repression
Political repression is the persecution of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take political life of society....
- to activism as a way-of-life meant not merely protesting to bring about reforms, but critically exploring the basis of social systems and embracing revolutionary change via a politics of everyday life. Extending the feminist take on the personal being political - addressing interpersonal relations as a primary site of gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
/class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
/race/etc politics. And also integrating one's living arrangements ('home'), and what one is doing ('work') into as coherent as possible a life-style. Not unlike, 'be the changes you want to see in the world', and 'change the world by changing yourself', and 'the means are the ends in the making'. So, since property was theft, why not squat; and since work was wage-slavery, then don't.
Squatting
In 1974 he helped resurrect the Sydney Anarchist Group to organise an Australian Anarchist conference in Sydney in January 1975. He later gravitated with other Sydney anarchists around a three-story mansion at 130 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe. The group commenced a successful rent struggle against an intermediate landlord on the Glebe Estate (formerly owned by the Anglican Church), and against the Whitlam Labor Government's Department of Urban and Regional Development (DURD). Many of the squatters from Victoria St, in Kings Cross, had moved to Glebe, where there was an abundance of empty homes, resulting from the transition of The Glebe Housing Estate sale from the Anglican Church to DURD (750 properties). The SAG’s first squattingSquatting
Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....
tabloid RISING FREE, seemed to find both an 'audience' as well as a range of keen contributors.
McGregor discerned considerable similarities between the Situationist International (SI) & Socialism or Barbarism (SoB), let alone more general parallels between the SI (including its Libertarian Marxism
Libertarian Marxism
Libertarian Marxism refers to a broad scope of economic and political philosophies that emphasize the anti-authoritarian aspects of Marxism. Early currents of libertarian Marxism, known as left communism, emerged in opposition to Marxism–Leninism and its derivatives, such as Stalinism, Maoism, and...
) and Anarchism, especially in its council communist form.
Among other Anarchists from Melbourne and Brisbane and the SAG, McGregor’s interest in Situationism coincided with a period of 'anything goes' carnival anarchism. Spontaneity was essentially the name of the game during 1975 and early 1976 in Sydney. 'Situations' like a room full of stoned people suddenly deciding to go out and do a paint up on the local billboards and buildings often occurred. The local Police Station and Commonwealth Bank and the Medical Association building were often targets.
In June/July 1976, a range of folks - in friend or affinity groupings, who hadn't necessarily know each other previously - had seized-the-time and moved in & sqautted the corner block of Palmer & Stanley St’s Darlinghurst Sydney. The DMR (Department of Main Roads), in order to construct their Freeway, had bought out local residents in preparation for demolition... But there were delays, because of disputes between State and Federal Governments, Green Bans from the NSW Builders Labourers Federation
Builders Labourers Federation
The Builders Labourers Federation is an Australian trade union organisation which existed from 1911 until 1972, and from 1976 until 1986, when it was permanently deregistered in various Australian States by the federal Labor government and some state governments of the time. This occurred in the...
(BLF), and resistance from local resident groups.
Bordered by the lane from Palmer to Bourke Sts, 'The Compound' was born with considerable idealism. Internal fences between the houses were knocked down, and levels of communalism
Communalism
Communalism is a term with three distinct meanings according to the Random House Unabridged Dictionary'.'These include "a theory of government or a system of government in which independent communes participate in a federation". "the principles and practice of communal ownership"...
and conviviality blossomed. Back-yards, tools, a washing-machine, electricity, etc. were shared, community gardens were planted, a food coop and a squatters shop on the corner were established. Lots of partying, making and listening to music, drinking, cooking & eating, dope (Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
) & LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
, sex & raving occurred.
MORE TO COME...
Political Activities and Campaigns
1969- Anti Apartheid Activist joined SADAF (the South African Defence and Aid Fund) & CARIS (opposition to racism in sport) 1970
1971
- Full-time Activist of 'The Anti – Apartheid Movement' - joint convenor along with Meredith BurgmannMeredith BurgmannMeredith Anne Burgmann is an Australian politician and Australian Labor Party member and a former President of the New South Wales Legislative Council.-Early years:...
and Denis Freney was paid $20.00 per week to be a full time activist and mobilise against the Springbok Rugby Tour & the SA Cricket Tour 1971-72.
1973
- Campaign Organiser of the World University Service Australia (WUSA) - against South African Apartheid and for Zimbabwe/Rhodesian independence. Travelled around New Zealand in support of their campaign against the upcoming Springbok Rugby Tour. Fell out with Sekai HollandSekai HollandSekai Holland is the controversial Zimbabwean Minister of State for National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration in the office of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai...
& other members & left the organisation disillusioned.
1974
- Sydney Anarchist Group - Brisbane Self Management Group (SMG) seemed to have the most coherent political position and McGregor wanted to set up a similar group in Sydney - used their manifestos "As We See It & As We Don't See It" to call for the National Anarchist Conference in Sydney January 1975. McGregor with other anarchists such as Ken Hauptman, Graham Minchin. Margaret Creagh, and Jim Couch established the Sydney Anarchist Group (SAG).
1975-77
- Squatting & Unemployed - re-birthing from seeing politics as an external issue to activism as a way-of-life ('personal is political'). Property was theft so why not squat & since work was wage slavery then don't. The Sydney Anarchist Group staged a rent strike and squatted 130 Glebe Pt Rd Glebe where they set up an Anarchist Bookshop & Library & printed the squatting Tabloid "Rising Free". Arrested for Dole Cheating. Moved to Hereford St. Squat in Glebe & helped produce "Plague" a squatting paper another publication by SAG.
1978
- Squatted DMR (Department of Main RoadsDepartment of Main Roads (New South Wales)The New South Wales Department of Main Roads was created in November 1932. The DMR undertook works across NSW; including maintenance of all major roads into Sydney and programs of road reconstruction, construction, upgrading and rerouting...
) house in Bondi. Hilton BombingHilton bombingHilton bombing may refer to:*London Hilton bombing*Sydney Hilton bombing...
(13 February) happened and three members of the Ananda MargaAnanda MargaAnanda Marga, organizationally known as Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha , meaning the samgha for the propagation of the marga of ananda , is a social and spiritual movement founded in Jamalpur, Bihar, India in 1955 by Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar .Ánanda Márga followers describe Ánanda Márga as a...
were framed, Paul Alister, Ross Dunn & Tim Anderson. Bondi Squat raided because of HB - printed 'Panic' a Bondi Based anarchist Magazine. Asked to leave squat by other squatters - as McGregor's activism was drawing too much attention from the Special Squad. - Situation - Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
toured Oz & "the Sydney Sewer Rats" aka Peter McGregor, Graham Minchin & Ken Hauptman printed/forged tickets to his show & handed them out to protesters at an Anti-Uranium Rally.
1979
- Free Bill O'Meally (Aust. longest serving prisoner) Bill was freed in July 1979 after serving 27 years
- Jose Bilbao (Spanish immigrant who died in Police Custody). Inquest held Police were found culpable but were not charged
- Rent Controlled Flat court case - took Developer (Taubmans, Sydney Paint Manufacturer) to court to reclaim back rent on a rent controlled flat. . Received a payout of $6,500.00.
1980
- Persons Unknown Trial London - six anarchists arrested & framed. Set up General Defence Committee in Sydney.
1985
- Free Anderson, Dunn & Alister - Campaign to free three Ananda Marga members framed & jailed for the Hilton Bombing
- Alison Thorne Campaign - spoke about gay rights on radio & was pulled off face-to-face teaching - campaign to re-instated her as an on class teacher.
- LeichhardtMunicipality of LeichhardtThe Municipality of Leichhardt is a Local Government Area in the inner-west of Sydney, in state of New South Wales, Australia.-History:The Municipality of Leichhardt stands on land that traditionally belonged to the Gadigal and Wangal people, of the Eora nation...
Municipal Council Elections - LC was run by the right wing of the Labour Party. Peter & Johanna opposed local developments & received death threats by Labour Party right wing thugs. Johanna ran for Council on same ticket as Nick Origlass & Issy Wyner ultra left candidates who when elected implemented a more democratic council & ratepayers process.
1987
- Vietnam National conference - co-organised conference that brought together most sides of the conflict. Part of a delegation from the conference invited to visit Vietnam in 1988.
1988
- Aboriginal Deaths in CustodyAboriginal deaths in custodyAboriginal deaths in custody became a major issue because of a widespread perception that a disproportionate number of Indigenous Australians were dying in jail after being arrested by police...
- Member of Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee & editor of their newsletter. Passed a motion at the Convergence Conference Australian Communications Association Armidale 14–16 June calling for the petitioning of the Governor of Queensland for the pardoning of Aboriginal prisoner Kevin Condren - verballed for murder. - Member of the Bicentennial Protest Group.
- Member of the People's History Group.
1989
- Beyond Social Control Conference - organiser & presented paper on " From Free Speech to Freedom "
1993
- Justice Campaign for Hilton Bombing Victims with Terry Griffiths (ex Police Officer & bomb victim) demanded an inquiry into the security forces. The aim/goal of the Campaign was to discover who was responsible for the bombing, and have them brought to justice.
- Aid to Vietnam - member of the Australia Vietnam Society and secretary of the Sydney Branch. Helped organise a successful benefit for the Fred HollowsFred HollowsFrederick "Fred" Cossom Hollows, AC was an ophthalmologist who became known for his work in restoring eyesight for countless thousands of people in Australia and many other countries...
Foundation raising over $4,000.00. - Coalition Against Police Violence. Campaign to gain justice for Gary Hayes who was bashed by WA Police. When he made a complaint to relevant authorities & was ignored he stole an armoured personnel Carrier was captured & forcibly injected with psychiatric drugs and imprisoned.
1996
- Independence for East TimorEast TimorThe Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
. Occupied the Prime Minister Paul Keating's office, in support of East Timorese asylum seekers in the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, and arrested for Trespassing. Case dismissed on grounds it was a public space & the protestors has a right to be there. - Freedom of Speech - How to Vote Neither. An anti voting electoral campaign & justice for Albert Langer who was jailed for advocating voting for neither in the 1996 Federal Election.
- Jura Dispute - attempt to mobilise Sydney Anarchists to reform & develop a functioning Anarchist collective from the dysfunctional ruins of the Jura the Anarchist bookshop & collective. Was thrown off the collective. Bougainville Freedom Movement
1997
- Aboriginal Reconciliation Group at UWS, Nepean. Helped form the group in 1997 as a response to John Howard's refusal to apologise and in support of the Council of Aboriginal Reconciliation (CAR).
- Blue MurderBlue Murder (mini-series)Blue Murder is a two-part Australian television miniseries produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1995, and is based on true events. Given its confronting content, the DVD release was classified MA 15+...
- showed banned DVD of ABC's award winning TV Series BM on Police corruption in NSW to students - reported I n the Sun Herald 31.08.97.
1999
- Australia & East Timor - organised guest lecturers on UWS Campus to talk about East Timor Independence
2000
- S11 World Economic Forum in Melbourne - organised a demonstration in Newcastle.
- National Textile Workers (Rutherford, NSW) - organised a forum at University Western Sydney, Nepean in support of the sacked workers.
- East Timor Independence & Renewal - worked with Mary McKillop Institute to support post independence renewal.
2001
- East Timor Independence - handed out leaflet with 2 others (Brendon Doyle & Susan Connolly) at forum held by Whitlam Institute(Gough WhitlamGough WhitlamEdward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
) highlighting the former prime minister 's complicity with the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. All three were evicted from the Theatre & threatened with police action.
2002-5
- University Funding Cuts - Actively campaigned against John Howard's (Australian Prime Minister) devastation of the Higher Education Sector at his workplace the University of Western Sydney. Leaked internal document re: wages of staff & VC to local paper Penrith Star. Eventually all of his classes were cancelled & McGregor was forced to resign in 2005.
2006
- Opposition to WorkChoicesWorkChoicesThe Workplace Relations Act 1996, as amended by the Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2005, popularly known as Work Choices, was a Legislative Act of the Australian Parliament that came into effect in March 2006 which involved many controversial amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996, the...
Industrial Relations Legistlation - Lone protest against Kevin AndrewsKevin Andrews (Australian politician)Kevin James Andrews is an Australian politician and member of the Liberal Party of Australia. He is a member of the House of Representatives and was Minister for Immigration and Citizenship in the Howard Government, having previously been Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations from 7...
(Federal Minister for Workplace Relations) and the Liberal Govt Workchoices IR legislation at Newcastle City Hall . - Boeing Workers Lockout - supported picket line of Boeing Workers who were sacked because they would not accept individual workchoices style contracts - wanted collective bargaining.
- Kerry PackerKerry PackerKerry Francis Bullmore Packer, AC was an Australian media tycoon. The son of Sir Frank Packer and Gretel Bullmore, the Packer family company owned controlling interest in both the Nine television network and leading Australian publishing company Australian Consolidated Press, which were later...
DisMemorial. Helped plan a demonstration against the State Funeral of Kerry Packer a self-centred businessman who made lots of money for himself. Several protestors were arrested . - Free David HicksDavid HicksDavid Matthew Hicks is an Australian who was convicted by the United States of America Guantanamo Military Commission under the Military Commissions Act of 2006, on charges of providing material support for terrorism...
- Australian prisoner at Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp
2007
- Citizens Arrest of Philip RuddockPhilip RuddockPhilip Maxwell Ruddock is an Australian politician who is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing the Division of Berowra, New South Wales, for the Liberal Party of Australia...
for War Crimes - at a Seminar held by the Law Faculty of UNSW McGregor called on the police to arrest Philip Ruddock Federal Attorney General (a keynote speaker), for war crimes in Iraq. McGregor was arrested for 'unlawful entry on inclosed land....' but case was eventually dismissed. - Citizens Arrest of Philip Ruddock (AG), John HowardJohn HowardJohn Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
(PM) & Alexander DownerAlexander DownerAlexander John Gosse Downer is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was Foreign Minister of Australia from March 1996 to December 2007, the longest-serving in Australian history...
(Foreign Minister) for War Crimes - tried to stand up in Federal Parliament & call for the arrest of these govt. pollies but was arrested. Case was later dismissed. - Lone Campaigner against NSW Council for Civil LibertiesNSW Council for Civil LibertiesFounded in 1963, the charter of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties is to protect the equal rights of all citizens and oppose all or any abuse or excessive power by the State against its people.The Council for Civil Liberties has a committee elected by volunteers whose primary role is to influence...
. Handed out a leaflet (23 May), to people attending a NSWCCL dinner, on their mishandling of the free speech defence of the protestors arrested at the Packer Dismemorial. - Close Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp