With the announcement that the Land Forces Expo would again be held in Brisbane at the Convention Centre 4-6 October 2022, a core organising group under the banners of Wage Peace/DLF 2022 was quickly established and embarked on a series of regular, intense meetings. We wanted to draw down on the lessons we had learnt, broaden our base, try new strategies, hone our nonviolent action skills, be creative, and work on deepening our relationships with other like-minded protest, peace and faith groups. We sought to highlight the direct role played by the military in climate destruction, by adopting the theme Earthcare not Warfare.  

We worked hard to make the voices of our own First Nations peoples and those from West Papua central to our actions and message. On the Friday night prior to the expo, we held a Solidarity Fire ceremony where affected groups from West Papua and the Philippines zoomed in and lit fires in tandem with us: emotions were high, not to mention the stakes, if detected.

The primary aim was to disrupt and make proceedings uncomfortable and unprofitable for all those involved in the expo, at whatever level. The police presence around the Brisbane Convention Centre precinct more than tripled this year. We faced surveillance cameras, higher rail barriers covered in thick blue plastic to conceal those registered to attend; we were pulled over in our cars as we arrived and departed and the Jagera Hall and drive-way was frequently monitored by the police. Prescient or not, the DLF organisers had, very early on, decided that the campaign would not simply be a repeat of last year. The strategic decision to de-centralise a number of significant actions meant that we were at times one step ahead of the police, enabling us to sufficiently make our mark and deliver our message. Due to participants’ adherence to the campaign’s nonviolent direct-action principles, police were often reduced to observing on the side-lines. We strove to practise what we preached and ensured our actions were creative and threaded with merry mischief making! The collective expertise in the use of social media meant that our messaging and actions were broadcast throughout Australia and around the world.

Intel from inside Land Forces 2022 tells us our disruptions were a success:

• 2 VIP presentations cancelled
• Reduced number of participants overall
• Participants not returning after the first day
• Massive increase in police and security which meant extra money spent because of our protest (nothing compared to the cost of sponsoring and hosting the event in the first place)
• H(arms} dealers ‘intimated’ by truth telling
• H(arms) dealers failing to staff their stalls