[New-imc] NAPNT, Darwin Indymedia and Mick Lambe - A brief history

[Gary Meyerhoff]

Hi IMCers

For those of you who are new to the Darwin Indymedia conflict it must
seem very confusing. Emails have flown around many indymedia email
lists and the newswires of some indy sites have been used to further
fuel the conflict.

I am hoping this email can clear things. If you look at the indymedia
resolve list you will see the conflict has been very one-sided, with
Mick Lambe being responsible for abuse that most activists would never
contemplate it being on public websites and email lists.
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/resolve/2006-March/date.html

The Darwin conflict has now even spilled onto the new-imc list.
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/new-imc/2006-March/date.html

The reality is that this whole 'dispute' is actually Mick Lambe versus
anyone who challenges him.

Anyone who challenges Mick Lambe via one of the email lists or a
newswire is automatically attacked by Mick (sometimes anonymously on
various newswires). To further complicate things, anyone who
challenges Mick is automatically labelled a NAPNT member or supporter
by Mick. It doesn't matter who it is and where they are posting from,
they will be labelled by Mick as a Napatista (term used by NAPNT
members to define themselves). Mick always makes this claim with NO
EVIDENCE whatsoever and he has been doing this for years now. This is
one of the first examples of Mick's disinformation and anti-NAPNT
campaign. Mick is determined to do what he can to destroy NAP.

Here's a quote from Mick Lambe from a hidden Melbourne Indymedia
article: "I'm sure things will sort themselves out eventually. I
wouldn't even bother posting this, but it is further evidence of how
Inder-Smith and the other sad losers that comprise the greatly
discredited/diminished Network Against Prohibition (NAP) operate."
See:
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/11/98740.php

Mick alleges over and over again that NAP is "discredited/diminished".
People eventually believe him, especially people who have never been
to Darwin or have never met Mick Lambe. The reality is that the NAP
experiment is going great guns. Since we finally excised Mick Lambe
from NAP, our email list has doubled in size and the NAP website
continues to receive two to three thousand page views per day. The
NAPNT collective (they call it the core group) has also increased in
size. NAP is doing more and more work internationally. NAP volunteers
are inundated with emails every day (requests for support/information
etc). NAP has hardly been discredited except in Mick Lambe's mind but
he will continue to tell his lie over and over again. Check out the
NAP website for yourself and make your own mind up how the NAPNT
experiment is going. I can't keep up with it, to the point where I
need a few weeks break.

Another of Mick's tactics is to label his challengers as racist and
sexist. I refute any allegation that I am a racist or a sexist. Anyone
that knows me personally knows that I am definitely not the racist
scumbag Mick Lambe tries to paint me as.

You are probably wondering what the conflict is all about and how it started.

I should have written this history a long time ago to explain my
perspective, my version of events. The problem has been Mick's
tactics. Anything anyone challenging Mick who posts on an indy email
list is automatically abused by Mick via email. These are public
emails and some of the allegations are fucking outrageous. What this
means is that every time you respond to one of Mick's diatribes, he
cuts and pastes the same allegations over and over again, so any
allegations aren't just on one page, they are on dozens of pages on
the net. So as a result of Mick's tactics I have been reluctant to
reply to any of Mick's emails or to refute any of his allegations.
But, despite the attack I am going to face (from Mick) as a result of
this email, I feel it is my responsibility to set matters straight.
This has hurt too many people!

It all started about two years before Darwin Indymedia had even been
thought about. In 2001, the Northern Territory Labor party (ALP) won
government for the first time in 27 years. Almost as soon as they were
elected, the new Labor Govt implemented a wave of draconian
legislation targeting illicit drugs, including asset confiscation laws
and the infamous 'drug house laws'. (See the following link to read
more about the 'drug house' laws).
http://www.napnt.org/drughouse.html

Prior to the election of the ALP, the incumbent Country Liberal Party
(CLP) government was waging a zero-tolerance campaign of their own.

An NT drug-user group, Territory Users Forum Inc (TUF), led the
campaign against the draconian policies of the CLP and the
organisation continued to do so after the NT election in 2001. By
early 2002 the campaign was growing in size and diversity and a number
of rallies and public meetings had been held. (Note that TUF was
disbanded by the members in November 2005 due to the success of the
NAPNT experiment). This campaign culminated in a rally outside the NT
Parliament on March 7, 2002. See the following link for the poster
advertising the rally.
http://www.tuf.org.au/pdf/stopthewarondrugusers.pdf

One of the campaign activists, Strider, suggested we should have an
informal get together on the evening of the rally to talk about where
we were going to go with the campaign. About a dozen people attended
that meeting at the Darwin Railway Club and somehow, spontaneously,
NAP (the Network Against Prohibition) was born. Many of the people
involved favoured a direct action approach to the lobbying that was
being done by TUF.

NAP activists immediately engaged in a number of direct actions over
the next few months. By April 20, 2002, we had already clocked up a
couple of demonstrations. It was on April 20, 2002 that Mick Lambe
came onto the scene. Mick attended the first community smoke-in that
NAP held in Darwin's Raintree Park on that day. Mick and I were both
arrested as were three other people. See the following link:
http://www.napnt.org/pages/Articles_1.htm

This was the first time I met Mick, other than seeing him at demos but
not knowing who he was. We were released later that day and I ended up
at Mick's flat (actually it was Fiona Clarke's flat but Mick was
staying there). This was when I started getting to know Mick. Up until
April 20, there was no NAP website but Mick set up a free tripod site
for us. At that stage, none of the NAP members had any idea about web
design.

It wasn't long before Mick started to show sectarian and authoritarian
ways. Mick was always right and he really didn't want us to work with
other groups. Many of us were actually new to this hard core activist
stuff so we generally (naively) often took Mick's word as gospel.

On May 14, 2002, a number of Napatistas invaded the NT Parliament
while it was in session to protest the 'drug house' laws. It wasn't
actually planned, but we sent out an email to our contacts saying we
were having a demo and asking to meet us at the NAP house. Mick,
discovering the demo after reading his email, rang us and asked us to
pick him up on the way to the job, which we did.

By this time, NAP was operating out of a house at 19 Gilbert Street,
Ludmilla in Darwin and we remained working and living from there for
three years. It was pretty chaotic at times and sometimes there was up
to a dozen people staying there.

Around mid to late 2002, Fiona Clarke left Darwin and gave up her
flat. That was the first time that Mick Lambe moved into the NAP
house. This was a major mistake. Slowly it became obvious to us that
Mick was going to be a problem. He only lasted 6 months or so in the
Gilbert St house before the tension became too much. He threatened
more than one activist with violence (including myself) and he was
impossible to live with.

Mick eventually moved out of Gilbert street and shared a flat with
another NAP activist, Ema C. This is around the time that anonymous
articles and comments started to appear on newswires attacking NAP. (I
didn't know indymedia existed until mid 2002 and was introduced to it
by Mick).

Some of the tension related to the fact that we moved the NAP website
designed by Mick from the free Tripod server to a server of our own
[http://www.napnt.org]. Until then, Mick was the only person with the
password and the ability to upload stuff to the site and he often did
this without consulting any of us. Mick got very angry about the
website password business.

By this stage, many NAP people had started to notice Mick's social
dysfunction but nobody could have predicted how low he was prepared to
go to slander and defame people. By late 2003, Ema and Mick went their
separate ways. Mick stayed in the flat and Ema left the Northern
Territory.

On February 27, 2004, Mick sent the most disgusting and sickening
email you could imagine to Ema's mother and father. That's right, her
mother and father. The allegations made in the email were beyond
belief. See the following link from Brisbane Indymedia to read it:
http://www.brisbane.indymedia.org.au/front.php3?article_id=9085&group=webcast

By this point we should have realised that Mick was more than just
anti-social and authoritarian. He was seriously deluded and very
dangerous.

It should be noted that the first period of Mick-related tension
directed at NAP and its members was in 2003, the same time eight
Napatistas and Mick Lambe were representing themselves in a 16-day
marathon hearing in the Magistrates Court. The transcripts of that
court case are available at the following link. Mick made the court
case hell. This was the first time most of us had been in court so it
was extremely stressful without Mick's interference. Mick made it
hell, and to this day he continues to tell the lie that he has
prepared all of NAP's legal arguments. This is just plain untrue. NAP
members have been involved in dozens of cases that didn't include
Mick. See the court transcripts page on napnt.org for evidence.
http://www.napnt.org/pages/transcripts.html

The transcripts for the parliament invasion hearing are here:
http://www.napnt.org/pages/transcripts.html#parl

It was 2003 when the concept of Darwin Indymedia hit town. Late in
that year, a number of student union activists from Charles Darwin
University (CDU) – then Northern Territory University – attended the
annual National Union of Students conference interstate. At least one
of those students, Ella McHenry, attended a workshop on indymedia at
the conference. A group of students got together and a Darwin
Indymedia collective started to come together.

Initially, this new collective used a web blog for discussion and
organising. The web log is still online here:
http://territoryindependent.blogspot.com

This is where Mick first became involved with the Darwin Indymedia
collective. He was incensed that the uni students had taken the lead.
Mick had many arguments with people on the web log and he abused
people with his posts, even threatening to break Ella's arms.
Conveniently for Mick, he has been able to delete ALL of his posts
from that blog. He wore everyone down to the point that they weren't
interested in Darwin Indymedia any more. It was just too much trouble,
and by this stage, some of the students were starting to fear Mick and
didn't want to meet with him in the flesh.

On February 14, 2004, with the assistance of Perth Indymedia, a Darwin
Indymedia site was finally online.

After a number of false starts, a face to face meeting of the Darwin
indy collective was held on April 01, 2004.
http://territoryindependent.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_territoryindependent_archive.html#108017863081319975

No minutes were ever put together and the meeting was only attended by
Mick Lambe, Ella M and I. Mick totally dominated the meeting, even to
the point of demanding that Ella buy him a fucking coffee! That was
the last Darwin Indy collective meeting that Ella attended. All of the
original students also dropped out at this point. Mick Lambe now had
control of Darwin Indymedia, thanks to the inaction of people like me.
I was too gutless to stand up to this bully.

In April 2004, NAP moved into a new house in Stretton Street in Parap.
A few months later, in an amazing development, we actually let Mick
Lambe move back into the new NAP house. Some of the NAP crew,
including myself, felt sorry for him.

In July 2004, the imc-darwin email list was set up but there was
little if any discussion on this. Mick didn't like it if collective
members posted to that list because it was public.
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-darwin

The next collective meeting was held at the Darwin Railway Club on May
13, 2004. Again, there are no minutes. This meeting was attended by
Mick Lambe, Fiona Clarke, Robert Inder-Smith and I. Unfortunately; I
had double-booked with another meeting at the Railway club so it was
really just Fiona, Rob and Mick at this meeting. From what I have been
told, Mick did all the talking and nominated himself imc-liaison and
features editor. He bamboozled Rob and Fiona who were only very new to
the indymedia concept. Most people can't be bothered arguing with Mick
due to his aggressive behaviour so people just accept what he says.
This is another of Mick's tactics.



I want to point out at this stage that although Fiona, Rob and I were
all NAP members at the time, we were involved with Darwin Indy as
individuals and never as NAP members. Darwin Indy is not discussed at
any of our meetings. The Darwin Indy conflict is not mentioned
anywhere on napnt.org. Have a look for yourself:
http://www.napnt.org/napsearch.htm

You will also notice that there is not a single post, article or
comment on napnt.org that defames or attacks Mick Lambe.

By the end of 2004, the NAP people were starting to have serious
problems with Mick at the Stretton St NAP house due to more threats of
violence and aggressive behaviour. The NAP collective had a number of
meetings to work out what we called our 'Lambe Management Strategy'.
We were extremely concerned that he could lose it and attack people.
We also feared damage to our equipment (computers etc).

The disaffiliation of Brisbane Indymedia was another issue that raised
conflict between Mick and myself. I didn't know anything about the
Brisbane Indy situation so I sent an email to the imc-darwin list
suggesting that we should maybe block Brisbane's disaffiliation, even
if it was just for a week or so.
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-darwin/2004-November/1115-zv.html

Kim C from the Brisbane indy collective pleaded with me to block the
disaffiliation. Mick's response to discussion about Darwin Indy
collective blocking the disaffiliation was the standard, domineering
response:
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-darwin/2004-November/1115-36.html

In that email Mick said: "I'm not blocking/supporting - I think this
whole affair is bullshit. As far as I can see, brisbane will still
have the indymedia 'logo' and url - if the proposal goes ahead. I
could be wrong, the 'mixed messages' from some collectives have only
added to my/the general confusion."

At the same time Mick verbally abused me for daring to take another
stance on the Brisbane indy issue. Once again, due to my inaction, I
directly contributed to the demise of Brisbane Indy by failing to
stand up to a known megalomaniac. To this day I do not know why Mick
was so certain that Brisbane Indy be disaffiliated, but one man was
able to do a lot of damage here.

One complication was that Mick had nominated himself as imc liaison,
basically imc-everything. This was really irrelevant and I should have
challenged Mick. (Please note that at the time, I was suffering from
pneumonia and was very weak. I had also been imprisoned for two days
by 'mistake' in the maximum security section at Berrimah jail. I was
physically, emotionally and spiritually fucked.

Something that still raises questions for me is that warrants had been
issued for Mick, Rob Inder-Smith, Stuart Highway and myself Rob Inders
and Stuart were arrested at their flats in suburban Nightcliff, I was
arrested at the Stretton Street NAP house but Mick was NOT arrested,
despite being face-to-face with the cops arresting me. See the
following media alert from NAP:
http://www.napnt.org/2004/11/human-rights-activists-falsely.html

And this transcript of a Stateline interview on ABC television:
http://www.napnt.org/2004/11/drug-law-protesters-allege-wrongful.html#comments

After much debate and discussion, the NAP collective decided that the
only way to deal with Mick was to ask him to move out. We agreed that
if he refused to leave, we would have to call the local police for
assistance. Without their presence it would probably turn into a
serious physical brawl and someone may have been seriously injured.
Mick had often threatened to throw me off the balcony, even when I was
sick with pneumonia.

Mick was given a deadline. The NAP crew gave him at least one weeks
notice, maybe two. Sometime in December 2004 (I am not sure of the
exact date), NAP evicted Mick Lambe for the second (and final time).
As expected, Mick refused to cooperate. He told the NAP people that he
had until midnight to move out. We had already been waiting for hours
for him to pack up and leave.

As planned in accordance with the 'Lambe Management Strategy' that had
been developed by the NAP collective, the police were contacted by
telephone. Just to clarify one piece of information, I did not make
the phone call to the police. Someone else made the call and the
police asked to speak to me because I was the only person with a name
on the lease.

The police came, left the engine running and didn't even get out of
the car. Mick left immediately. No charges were ever laid against Mick
by NAP members or residents of the NAP house. Mick Lambe repeatedly
points out that the NAP members are 'dogs' but as I have said, we were
doing Mick a favour by doing things the way we did. We were all
extremely uncomfortable with the situation but we handled it as safely
as we could and no charges were ever contemplated.

For another report on Mick's eviction see the following email Stuart
Highway sent to the imc-darwin list in March 2005:
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-darwin/2005-March/0324-ov.html

The Darwin Indy collective didn't meet again until February, 06 2005.
The meeting, called by Mick, was held at the One Mile Dam community in
Darwin where Mick was staying. I attended the meeting but I was
immediately abused by Mick who told me to 'fuck off'. I left without
incident.

The following people were part of this 'collective' meeting – existing
members Fiona Clarke and Mick Lambe. There were also four new
collective members, Vikki Z, David T, Mindy T and I think someone
called Freddy. Apart from Mick and Fiona, none of the new people had
attended a collective meeting prior to this. Mick Lambe then announced
to the world that the 'collective' had expelled myself and Rob
Inder-Smith. Fiona Clarke, who was very ill at the time, has since
refuted any suggestion that anyone was expelled at that meeting,
although Mick continues to tell this lie over and over again. See the
following email from Fiona to the imc-darwin list:
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-darwin/2005-April/0402-na.html

The reality was we had never discussed any procedures about how
someone becomes a Darwin Indy collective member, let alone how someone
would be expelled from the collective.

Over the next few weeks, Mick Lambe also claimed that Vikki Z (the new
collective member) and Fiona Clarke had also been expelled from the
Darwin Indy collective. That's when Mick declared that Darwin
Indymedia was Australia's only majority indigenous indymedia service.
He based this on the fact that there were now only three members who
had not been purged by Mick (including himself). So, technically
speaking and for a very short time, two out of three collective
members were indigenous (Dave T and Mindy) and Mick represented the
Anglo minority.

Just like Mick manipulated and bullied Fiona Clarke and countless
other people - including me - he also manipulated Dave and Mindy from
One Mile Dam in the cruellest way. (I fear he continues to do so – and
he'll call me a racist for saying that but I am no racist. I treat all
people in the same manner). Mick is the real racist. Patronising and
demeaning Dave and Mindy beyond belief.

Check out the following 6MB movie, written and directed by Mick Lambe
and starring Dave and Mindy (and Mindy's niece Kayla). You have to see
this movie to believe it. You will probably have to watch it a few
times to actually get a grasp on what Mick has done here. The movie is
on Mick's own site here:
http://country-liberal-party.com/images/dim_collective.mov

As you can see, the picture quality isn't very good but it is obvious
Dave and Mindy were used by Mick. Mick also posted this image, taken
during the film shoot at One Mile Dam. He used a flash so you can see
it:
http://www.country-liberal-party.com/images/testifying.jpg

Fiona Clarke called for a collective meeting in April 2005:
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-darwin/2005-April/0402-na.html

At this stage some of us were still trying to build the collective and
make it more diverse.

A collective meeting was held at the Roma Bar in Darwin city on April
16, 2005. This meeting was attended by Vikki Z, Rob Inder-Smith,
Stuart Highway, Fiona Clarke and I. Vikki Riley arrived at the meeting
just as we finished. For the first time, a proper set of minutes were
published on the imc-darwin email list.
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-darwin/2005-April/0416-n7.html

At the meeting, people agreed to put out a written statement about
Mick Lambe's behaviour. He was using the Darwin indy site to attack
NAP and any NAP activists as well as anyone else who dared to stand up
to him. See the written statement here:
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-darwin/2005-April/0416-my.html

Within weeks of the April 2005 meeting, Perth Indymedia took Darwin
Indy off their server, citing financial problems. As far as I am
concerned, Perth Indy took the site down because of abusive emails
they received from Mick Lambe. They just wanted to wash their hands of
the affair and they just wanted Mick to leave them alone. See:
http://lists.cat.org.au/pipermail/imc-oceania/2005-May/002774.html

Conveniently for the state, Darwin Indy was taken down just before the
2005 NT Government elections in which a number of progressive
candidates, including five NAP members and the NT Greens, ran as
candidates. See:
http://www.napnt.org/election2005.html

By the end of April 2005, the Darwin conflict had spread to the
Oceania Indymedia email list and was becoming a serious problem for
indy activists around Australia and beyond.
http://lists.cat.org.au/pipermail/imc-oceania/2005-April/date.html

By May it was too much for many of the Oceania activists and on May 12
this year, someone proposed that all discussion about the Darwin
conflict be kept off the Oceania list. The list was losing people
because of Mick.
http://lists.cat.org.au/pipermail/imc-oceania/2005-May/002743.html

As at January 2006, Darwin Indymedia was still defunct.

I tried to get things up and running again.
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-darwin/2006-January/0101-t8.html

In another example of Mick Lambe's dodgy tactics, he responded to my
email by misleading the indymedia DNS people and he had
http://darwin.indymedia.org pointed to his rogue IMC site.

I sent an email to the DNS people and the situation was rectified once
the deception had been identified.
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-darwin/2006-January/0109-1l.html

In February this year, the discussion about the Darwin Indy conflict
was shifted to the global indy 'Resolve' list. (This is a list used to
settle indymedia network wide disputes.)

Attempts to resolve the Darwin indy conflict using the Resolve list
have now been happening for nearly two months. I do not think that
this conflict can ever be resolved. The dispute isn't between two
Darwin Indy collectives; it is a dispute between Mick Lambe and anyone
who gets in his way. There is no doubt in my mind that it can never be
resolved. Mick won't allow it to be resolved. If you actually got this
far in this War and Peace email, hopefully you will understand the
problem that the Oceania Indymedia network (and the global network)
face when dealing with Mick.

Please accept the following proposal from me to the Resolve list:

Proposal: That the discussion on the Resolve list regarding the Darwin
Indymedia conflict cease at midnight Australian Central Standard Time
on 31 March 2006 and that no more emails about the Darwin Indy
conflict be posted after that.

What do others on this list think?

As you can see from this email and the links contained herein, far too
much time and effort has been wasted by indy activists who have
struggled to deal with Mick Lambe. This email is a reflection of years
of Mick's interference and spoiling actions. This must not continue.
It is time for us all to leave Mick behind.

Over the past few years, Mick has infiltrated and caused major dramas
for NAP, scared off the original Darwin Indy collective, ensured that
Brisbane Indymedia went offline and he has attacked many indymedia
activists. This has caused significant emotional, social, spiritual
(and for some people physical) hardship. It has been too much for some
people.

I haven't been able to get everything into this email; there is so
much more to say. This email is a start anyway.

I have discussed Mick Lambe with some of my friends. Now more than
ever part of me thinks that Mick Lambe is a police agent/agent
provocateur/saboteur. Just look at the evidence in this email of
Mick's spoiling tactics. I hope I am wrong!

As far as I can tell, Mick Lambe is one of the following:

1. A police agent/agent provocateur/saboteur;

2. A raving lunatic; or

3. Both.

It's time people woke up to him.

Before I finish I would like to refute Mick Lambe's claims that he has
been stalked by NAP members. Both alleged 'stalking' incidents
involved Rob Inder-Smith. With regards to the first incident (Saturday
November 05, 2005) I have been told by Rob Inder-Smith that he was out
sticking up NAP posters and by coincidence, stuck one on a pole
outside the house Mick Lambe was apparently staying at. Rob had no
idea where Mick lived. Here's one of Mick's versions of the incident,
hidden by Melbourne Indymedia:
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/11/98740.php

So, by coincidence, Mick Lambe and Rob Inder-Smith had a bit of a
rumble. Surely after reading this email, you will be able to empathise
with Rob. Mick has made many allegations against Rob Inder-Smith but
what has really made Rob angry is the fact that Mick and his cohort
Nudl Oestring (goonbags) used the internet to attack fellow activist
and extremely close friend Stuart Highway (also a highly respected
anarchist, locally, around Australia and globally) while he was
serving three months in atrocious conditions at Berrimah jail. Stuart
had only served two weeks when the attacks against him started. Talk
about hitting someone while they are down.

Here's a quote from Mick from the hidden Melbourne Indy article: "Gary
Meyerhoff - Con artist… While the gullible Stuart Highway bakes in
Berrimah prison..."

Mick's friend Nudl Oestring posted articles/comments/emails while
Stuart was in jail in which he called Stuart 'Stupid Highway'. This
brings me to the most recent 'stalking' claim by Mick Lambe. What
actually happened during the second incident was not stalking. Rob
Inder-Smith and Stuart H attended a sedition public forum at the
Groove café in Nightcliff. There was an open mike and Nudl Oestring,
being a poet, got up to say a poem. Rob Inder-Smith yelled out to
Nudl: "Are you going to apologise to Stuart Highway?" or words to that
effect. Once again this is hardly stalking, but Mick Lambe will always
add some spin and push his own deluded version of the truth.

Finally, I would like to apologise to anyone that has suffered abuse
and hardship as a result of my naivety and the fact that I didn't
stand up (wake up) to Mick year's ago.

Solidarity peoples
--
Gary Meyerhoff
Freelance Journalist
PO Box 701
Parap NT 0804
Australia

Phone: +61 (0) 8 8941 9921
Mobile: +61 (0) 434393008
Email: garywmeyerhoff (at) gmail.com
Web: http://garywmeyerhoff.blogspot.com
---------------------------------------------------------------
"Individuals have international duties which transcend the national
obligations of obedience.
Therefore (individual citizens) have the duty to violate domestic laws
to prevent crimes against
peace and humanity from occuring."

Nuremberg War Tribunal - 1950