Melbourne’s new Covid-denier group’s ‘uprising’ against ‘Communist scam’
The uprising against lockdown led to wild scenes in Melbourne as a new group denying Covid-19 took aim at “mindless, ignorant” Australians.
A new Covid-19 denier group leading the protest movement against Melbourne’s latest lockdown claims the pandemic is a “Communist plot” to subject humans to “slavery”.
The group, which staged Thursday night’s protest at Melbourne’s Flinders Street station, says “evil tyrants” in government and the media are pushing “the cult of Covid”.
The group, called Project Phoenix, has published a manifesto on its website which claims an “anti-human scam” is operating globally and people are “being played”.
News.com.au has seen video of the Flinders Street station “uprising” on which can be heard members of the group working up the assembled crowd of a few hundred people.
One of the Project Phoenix members who appears before the camera exhorts the crowd to go out during lockdown and get fined $200 for not wearing a mask.
“We must not be afraid of measly monetary funds … because what price Freedom?!” the woman, named Betsy, yells through a loud hailer.
“A $200 fine for not covering your face is a tiny risk to take for your freedom.”
She is succeeded on the steps by Nick Patterson, who speaks to the crowd through a loud hailer labelled “F*** you Dan Andrews”.
After yelling out the Bible quote, “Even though I walk the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil”, Patterson says, “You know what evil is?”
“Evil is half the tyrants who tell you, you can’t work, you can’t travel, you can’t be with your loved ones.
“We’re not going to put up with it because we know it’s evil and everyone here knows it’s evil.
“The beautiful thing is people are really waking up.
“When the media puts fear and dread … and they’re doing their psychological warfare operations on us all the time, they plant it in our minds, that’s what they’re doing to us.”
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Protesters arrested in wild Saturday rally
Police arrested 14 people and pepper sprayed several others in connection with an anti-lockdown protest on Saturday organised by another group dubbed the Health Rights Alliance.
Two police officers and a protester were injured during scuffles that broke out as police cracked down on the protest march, which was aimed at voicing displeasure with Victoria’s lockdown imposed on Thursday and slated to last for seven days.
The protesters marched in defiance of the lockdown, which was imposed after an outbreak of a new variant of coronavirus spread widely in Melbourne and threatened public health.
The lockdown is aimed at making people stay at home in order to stop the spread and save lives.
The officers’ injuries were minor and happened as a group of six people were arrested at Victoria Street in North Melbourne, the force said.
According to a police statement issued on Saturday evening, the protesters numbered around 150 and were given “ample opportunity” to comply with the lockdown orders before police moved in to break up the demonstration.
Police will allege some of the protesters assaulted police officers and committed affray.
They also said many breached the lockdown orders and fines had already been issued to 55 people.
‘Ignorant’: Project Phoenix’s manifesto
In its manifesto, Project Phoenix jeers at the majority of the population, saying most people are “mindless” and “ignorant” and have “submitted to … the great deception”.
It says that the group’s members were ordinary people horrified to see as “the Covid scam transpired, we watched … an orchestrated campaign of propaganda and lies”.
“We watched in horror as the Communist agenda rolled on, the vast majority not only acquiescing but actively embracing an ever-expanding assault on their rights,” it continues.
“Unquestioningly obedient and stunningly complacent, they stayed in their homes, wore masks in their cars, and stood on crosses on supermarket floors.
“Mindless, ignorant, and wilfully blind, they submitted to slavery for themselves and their children.”
In contrast to most people on the planet, the members of Project Phoenix claim they are aware of the “tide of destruction” and are fighting to save the human race.
“We are free, and we will win,” Betsy told the Thursday night crowd in Melbourne.
Holding the loud hailer high over the people below, she flattered the crowd, telling them people who were committed enough and understood the importance of protesting were “actually really rare”.
Her cohorts who were holding the camera and filming the event led a cheer at every point Betsy made, causing the crowd to join in.
“We have had enough of this,” Betsy said. “This whole thing started out as an exciting little adventure.
“Woooo! Stay at home for two weeks, sit on your couch, watch Netflix, get drunk and get paid for it.”
With a woman holding up her typed speech, Betsy reads: “we’re being asked to abandon our day to day responsibilities and movements for a virus we know, with proof, is no different to any other virus we’ve lived with for 500 years”.
A Project Phoenix member yells out “Yes!” and the crowd replies in kind.
“More people are actually snapping out of the haze … are starting to see that we’re being played with,” she continues.
“These governments … know exactly what they’re doing. They put their foot on the neck.”
Someone in the crowd starts up a chant “we won’t break” which continues until Betsy interjects and wrenches back the attention to continue with her typed speech.
The Project Phoenix person filming the crowd, can be heard saying “look at this freedom loving crowd, hey”.
Betsy preaches general disobedience against the lockdown rules and says regarding the “tiny” $200 fine, “I’m willing to risk fine after fine to save out country and this world from the communistic oppression that these vile governments are all about.”
The cohort from behind the camera yells out “yeah!” but it doesn’t catch on this time and Betsy continues, “We must not be afraid to spread the word that we must disobey.
“We have a long journey. Every action counts.”
Behind Betsy, a protester carried a placard saying, “Government lies! This is war. Injections the weapon”.
Project Phoenix promises on its website that there are “fun times ahead” for the Covid-denier movement.
“We are only just getting started and have some exciting things planned,” it says.
“Taking down the new world order can be a lot of fun and we hope you’ll get involved!”
Note: Sydney youth group Phoenix Community Project (PCP) wants it to be known it is not associated with the Melbourne Covid denier group.
“We are a Sydney local not-for-profit group located in the Sutherland Shire and working with neurodivergent youth,” PCP said in a statement.
“The anti-vaxxer group has used a name and logo similar to our own. We are in NO WAY affliliated.”
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