“Everything Is on the Table”, Says Direct Action Group Targeting Toll Holdings for Driving Genocide

An anonymous group behind a series of late night direct actions involving extreme property damage that has been targeting logistics company Toll Holdings at its various premises on Wurundjeri land across Greater Melbourne of late, have been in contact with Sydney Criminal Lawyers, as they want to publicly explain that they’re undertaking these actions because “Toll Holdings drives genocide”.

Victoria police are currently investigating three property damage incidents targeting Toll Holdings properties across the region over the 15th to 22nd of July 2025. The group has also posted video clips of its actions on Instagram account forautonomydestroyaustralia, as it wants the broader constiuency to understand why it is doing what it is doing in a time of genocide.

The clip of the third incident that targeted Toll Holdings facility at Campbellfield shows two black clad figures holding mallets approaching a building, with the Veronicas 4ever providing background soundtrack, prior to their embarking on some pretty serious property damage, which included smashing windows out, graffitiing the premises, and moving on to use of fire extinguishers.

The anonymous group has targeted Toll Holdings offices in Melbourne, Westmeadows and Campbellfield, and in its efforts, the group gives a nod to the UK’s Palestine Action, which successfully carried out similar campaigns against transport companies Kuehne+Nagel and Front Runner Logistics, which saw them drop contracts with Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.

Paying for its colonial violence

“Toll transports weapons and munitions from Australian manufacturers to America, where they are used as a second supply line to support Israel’s genocidal occupation of Palestine,” the group states during the clip of its initial action against Toll’s Melbourne office.

The anonymous group has set out its reasons for the targeting of the logistics company at tolldeath.noblogs.org

Sydney Criminal Lawyers spoke to the anonymous actors over encrypted messaging, and they explained that they’re “a loose network of people committed to anticolonial and antiimperialist struggle in so-called ‘australia’”. They stand in solidarity with First Nations and Palestinian resistance. They’re not a formal organisation, and anyone who wants to participate can do so.

Firstly, your group committed a series of actions against formerly Australian-owned freight company Toll Holdings, due to its involvement in the transportation of weapons, weapons parts and dual use products from Australia to the US, where they’re then transported on to Israel to be used in the genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.

So, can you tell us a bit about the Toll Holdings campaign? Why target a logistics company?

We have evidence Toll Holdings is driving bombs for public and private clients. Toll has contracts with the Department of Defence to transport “guided weapons and explosive ordnance”.

They have also partnered with arms dealers Thales and NIOA to transport 155 mm artillery shells manufactured in ‘australia’ to the US, where they are used as a second supply line to support ‘israel’s genocidal occupation of Palestine. These are really terrible weapons, and they have been key to the destruction of life in Gaza.

Targeting this supply chain is important because the US and ‘israel’ are running short of munitions, partly because the US is fighting so many wars, it’s overextended itself in terms of imperialism, and partly because the ‘israeli’ army are cowards.

They can’t win a fight against guerilla warriors from the Palestinian resistance. They have to indiscriminately shell everything: old people, hospitals, kids.

So, they’re running short of shells – and that’s where ‘australia’ comes in, as a second supply line for munitions to the US, which are then exported to ‘israel’.

We are targeting Toll to stop them doing this. Toll is a large company which does many things, but no part of Toll is innocent, because the company as a whole provides financial backing.

If Toll isn’t a successful company, these services to weapons dealers can’t be provided in a stable way.

So, all sites and equipment owned by Toll and its parent company, Japan Post, are legitimate targets for antigenocide action.

So far, our actions have involved property damage, vandalism, sabotage and logistical blockades.

We’ve smashed into Toll-owned offices and covered them inside and out with red paint. We’ve cut the internet cables at Toll sites. Toll has been in people’s sights for a while.

Last year, anonymous actionists blocked trucks at an international port used by Toll, spiked tires and built barricades, which were then set on fire. Everything is on the table.

According to the Albanese government, your actions are redundant because Australia doesn’t export weapons to Israel and hasn’t done so for the past five years, or otherwise, at times, the foreign and defence ministers prefer to say Australia only exports nonlethal parts linked to weaponry being use in the Gaza genocide.

What does your group understand is going on in this country in terms of weapon, weapons parts and dual use products and Israel?

It’s an insult to everyone’s intelligence to suggest ‘australia’ doesn’t export weapons to ‘israel’.

It relies on ridiculous, tongue-twisting justifications. For example, that there’s such thing as a nonlethal part of a lethal weapon, or that bombs going to ‘israel’ via the US somehow don’t go to ‘israel’. We’ve documented some of the flow of munitions on our website, tolldeath.noblogs.org

As another example, ‘australia’ also exports things like the door release mechanism for the F-35 fighter jet, which is used to drop bombs. No one in good faith would say, ‘That’s not a weapon, it’s just a door.’

These arguments are not raised in seriousness. They are Zionist and ruling class propaganda.

How it works is, ‘australia’ supports ‘israel’ directly, but also via its position as a junior partner under US-led imperialism.

In simpler terms, this means there’s a world order with the US at the top, which is enforced through military power. ‘israel’ is obviously a key ally of the US, to the extent that the two countries share weapons stockpiles.

So, when ‘australia’ sends munitions to the US, these are made available for use by both countries. In fact, 155 mm shells of the kind produced in ‘australia’ have been identified as being transferred from the US to ‘israel’.

So, when Albanese and his government say that ‘australia’ doesn’t arm ‘israel’, that’s misleading at best. It’s a lie.

And it’s not just ‘australia’ which is supporting genocide via these kinds of circuits. Toll Holdings is owned by Japan Post, which is part-owned by the Japanese government.

Technically, Japan, as a country, has renounced war since World War II. It’s in article 9 of its constitution. But through investment in Toll, the Japanese government is underwriting the transfer of weapons from ‘australia’ to ‘israel’, which is not very pacifist.

So, we say, Toll Drives Genocide, Japan Posts Genocide.

The campaign against Toll Holdings also considers some of the company’s other problematic practices, which aren’t directly involved in the Gaza genocide. This includes participation in the increasing militarisation of Australian police.

Can you talk about some of the other aspects of Toll Holdings’ dealings that you consider should be more publicly scrutinised?

Toll Holdings drives colonial violence on this continent. NIOA is an arms company which has partnered with Toll to deliver weapons, and as of 2017, NIOA produced 70 percent of ammunition for the ‘australian’ police.

Toll also works for the AOF (the ‘australian’ occupying force, we won’t call it a defence force) – they have huge contracts providing moving and relocation services for ‘australian’ soldiers. They have contracts with the Australian federal police, and Toll fuel trucks have been seen supplying navy ships.

So, when you hear about deaths in custody, police murders of First Nations people, like Kumanjayi Walker and Kumanjayi White, and the poisoning of Aboriginal waters by the ‘australian’ navy – that’s all being supported by Toll.

Toll also has contracts in offshore detention, supporting ‘australia’s white supremacist border regime. It’s involved in ecocidal mining, which is a violation of First Nations sovereignty.

All these dealings need to be scrutinised and more importantly, resisted.

You might notice that many of these contracts involve work for the ‘australian’ state. Toll and the ‘australian’ colony are really intertwined.

So, the genocide in Gaza is the most acute expression right now of the kind of colonial and imperial violence Toll participates in. But all resistance against Toll Holdings opens up space to escalate struggle, not just in Palestine, but also against the ‘australian’ colony.

Your group operates clandestinely, and your actions are considered criminal offences. The group takes these actions as opposed to public street protests against those complicit in the Gaza genocide.

There have been a lot of more these types of property damaging direct actions and protests since the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza commenced in October 2023.

Why do you choose to take these more extreme protest actions that do fall foul of the law?

As Burkhard Garweg from the Red Army Faction in Germany once said, “Legal, illegal, don’t give a damn.”

We would flip the question and ask, in the face of genocide, why is business as usual acceptable? We don’t accept it.

We don’t think the coloniser’s law should dictate our resistance to colonisation. The law has completely failed Palestinians and First Nations people.

But even according to international law, there is supposed to be an arms embargo on ‘israel’. According to international law, Palestinians as an occupied people have a right to armed resistance. The fascist press should wring their hands about that.

We are not interested in so-called protest that is approved by the coloniser state. We are not opposed to public street marches, but if they do not contain a resistance component, and especially if they are organised with permission from courts or the police, they are not protests but parades.

ASIO has described some of the legal mass rallies as a ‘pressure release’. They want you to blow off some steam and go home.

Twenty years ago, massive street protests against the war in Iraq accomplished nothing. By contrast, people often turn to the anti-Vietnam war movement as an example of ‘success’. But that movement also included riots, firebombings, airplane hijackings: a full spectrum of tactics.

So, we will do what hurts Toll and the ‘australian’ colony the most. Obviously, this includes illegal acts, but we don’t make a fetish out of clandestinity. A legal gathering can turn into a resistance event if people take initiative. A blockade can be spontaneous. Riots can start in broad daylight.

Our actions have entailed property damage, vandalism, sabotage and logistical blockades, but also political education and public events.

We share materials on Instagram and other social media channels, and we talk to journalists like yourself.

We want people to understand why we are doing this and to join and support us. There’s a link on our website for people to submit tipoffs about Toll, or even better, their own actions.

Historically, successful movements have had both an above and an underground component. The important thing is for people to resist. Do what you are capable of, then take that capacity one step further.

And lastly, the targeting of logistics companies involved in assisting in the perpetration of atrocity crimes has precedent. So, your group is well aware of the genuine impact campaigning against an entity like Toll Holdings in the manner in which you are, can prove fruitful.

So, ultimately, what is your group planning to achieve?

We demand that Toll drop all partnerships with Thales, NIOA and other arms dealers.

We demand that Toll cease providing services for the ‘australian’ colonial occupation, including its military and mining sectors and border regime.

We demand that Japan Post direct Toll, its wholly owned subsidiary, to drop all partnerships and services for Thales, NIOA and other arms dealers, in accordance with international law.

In terms of why Toll does what it does, the simple answer is money and because they can get away with it.

In ‘australia’, people have traditionally known Toll as this company that delivers parcels. But over time, they’ve become one of the top military contractors. This coincides with growing militarisation of ‘australian’ police and society more broadly.

So, Toll is cashing in on ‘australia’ becoming even more violent and repressive, and they are literally a driver of ‘australian’ society heading down this path.

When you look at Toll’s position within Japan Post, there’s an interesting history. The deal where they bought Toll was overseen by, among other people, Shinzo Abe, the then-prime minister of Japan who has since been assassinated using a homemade gun. (A very direct form of action.)

Abe was this real right wing, fascist guy. He was a good friend of Trump. He wanted to revise the constitution so Japan could re-militarise.

Part of the impetus for Japan Post buying Toll was they want to expand into Asia, which is hugely profitable for them. But lots of people are wary, because they remember what the Japanese Imperial Army did during World War II.

So, it was thought that shielding behind Toll as an ‘australian’ company would look better.

Toll now sits at the nexus of different forms of imperialism. Obviously, US-led imperialism, as we’ve discussed. But also, Japan is trying to avoid reckoning with its past, while at the same time seeking economic opportunities in Asia, Southeast Asia and China.

When Toll transports weapons on the way to ‘israel’, these contradictions start to really intensify, you have ‘australia’ and Japan both wanting to access these lucrative international markets, while at the same time engaging in this incredibly destructive and evil role internationally, sending weapons to a genocidal state, which is destabilising a whole region.

So, there are a lot of reasons for people worldwide to resist Toll Holdings and its parent company, Japan Post, and we know direct action is possible, and it’s only getting hotter in here.