Supported by Tickle me pink, it’s Mayday! A new Millennium of May Day celebrations in Melbourne

Andrew Pearson Graffiti Rules, TM. [email protected] Nike charges itself with "Wilful Damage". p.2 There aren't many neighbourhoods in Melbourne that have escaped the announcements S11 protests still alive for this year's May Day celebrations and actions. Police brutality complaints and cream pie stain Posters calling for a blockade of the Australian Bracks. p4 Stock Exchange, stickers persuading us to "shut down corporate Melbourne", emails encouraging The Violence of Globalisation people to form "affinity groups" and make our Women around the world are fed up with boys "resistance as global as capital"; all reflect a playing with toys. p5 growing international sentiment that has found in May Day a common rallying point. May Day Movements for Global Justice The city-wide graffiti slogan "S11=M1" refers to the September 11th protest against the World May Queen and Robin Goodfellow make mayhem on May Day. Global updates, pagan roots of M1. p6-7 Economic Forum, when the exclusive meeting of corporate executives at the Crown Casino was blockaded by thousands of activists for three days Dubya, also known as... last year. Some involved with S11 believe that "Global Warming" Bush commits climate change. 'M1' is the next point of call on the anti- Islands sinking, disease spreading, Dubya beds with globalisation calendar. oil execs. p8 While other activists note that "M1 is a freeway, The Mayday fairy helps a nice police officer with his dusty riot shield May Day a holiday", most will use the day to show From the fire to the pot solidarity with international movements for peace Iraqi people starve under sanctions, flee to escape and justice, and to challenge corporate globalisation speakers. In Melbourne the eight-hour day had anarchists, environmentalists, and community persecution, then locked up in Australian detention and capitalism. already been won by a section of the workforce, activists have worked through networks such as camps. p9 while in Europe the first of May was adopted by the Autonomous Web Of Liberation to organise a So, why May 1st? the Second International Socialist Congress to 'shut down' of corporate Melbourne, starting at Dreaming away Nukes May Day has its roots in early pagan fight the rule of the ten-hour workday. Parliament House at 8:00 am May Day has been celebrated in Melbourne "Corporations are by far the most "Earthdreamers" make nuclear industry go poof. celebrations of the end of winter in Europe. It Waste, however, sticks around. p10 was adopted by the labour movement after since 1893, except in 1941 and 1942 when undemocratic organisations in the world. demonstrations in Chicago in 1886 for an eight actions were banned by the Menzies Everyone answers to someone above them, and hour workday were attacked by police. After a Government. Usually marked by a march and decisions are rarely made in the interest of Angry, not fascists bomb was thrown into the crowd at a mass public meeting, May Day was traditionally communities, but to maximise profits. So people S11 and M1 protesters may be angry, but damn it, meeting two days latter, eight anarchists in organised by the left wing of the Labour are working temporary jobs for bad wages, they're not fascists. p11 Chicago were framed, put on trial, and four movement and its progressive, though not making money for these economic giants. That's hanged, for their involvement. Though later necessarily socialist, allies. In 1896, groups the whole capitalist system,"says Karen, a D-Day pardoned by the Governor of Illinois, the Chicago making up the May Day committees included the Melbourne community activist. "May Day is a "We will fight them on the beaches". p12 anarchists became known as the Haymarket Australian Women's Suffrage Society, the Free day, our day, to fight back, to celebrate our past martyrs. May Day has since commemorated and Discussion Society, the Single Tax League of victories, and imagine a future free from greed celebrated the struggles of working people for Victoria, the Social Democratic Federation, the and injustice." Capitalism is Utopia freedom and justice around the world. Co-operative Propaganda Society and the At their peak in the late 1930s and early Winning lotto numbers, guaranteed money makers, Knights of Labour. 1950s, May Day marches drew over 10,000 free lunches. p13 "Police Searching for Arms" More recent celebrations have included a people. Within the broader theme of international "Business Suspended and Banks Guarded" similarly diverse group of organisations. This labour solidarity, marchers have also spoken out Jedi Knights On Census "Adoption of Repressive Measures" year, a range of socialist organisations, acting as against wars, apartheid, and nuclear power. May Some Australians will list their official religion as Jedi These sensational headlines ran in The Age, the M1 Alliance, is calling for a day-long Day is more than a march, however. There have on the census this August. Darth Vader may not 1890, to introduce Melbourne to the first May blockade of the Australian Stock Exchange on also been public meetings, art and literature accept the results. p13 Day actions in Europe and America. In contrast, Collins Street. Nuclear-Free Victoria has competitions, dances, balls and wreath laying at the "largely attended" meetings at Trades Hall in organised a Picnic for Peace, while Trades Hall the Eight Hours Monument. Melbourne featured a line up of fairly tame sponsors its own Union march. A variety of Story continues on page 4 JediJedi KnightsKnights engageengage DeathDeath StarStar YodaYoda sayssays “May“May TheThe FirstFirst BeBe WithWith You”You” Welcome to M1X Our most offensive shoes ever M1X was put out by a group of independent journalists and community activists. We believe that people around the world working for social change need to deliver their message to the world in their own voice, through their own media. As multinational corporations swallow up media outlets across the globe, and as these corporations consolidate their power to shape our minds through unprecedented mergers and acquisitions, we all need a breath of fresh air. M1X is an open avenue to bring real issues and real discussion back to our public lives. Because we will not fund this effort through advertisements, and because no one is seeking to make a profit out of this venture, we are free to report perspectives, facts and issues that advertisers or corporate executives would find threatening to their market. We are aiming to reach an everyday audience, with articles written by everyday people in an accessible language. We also believe that the "objectivity" strived for by corporate media is merely an excuse to self-censor viewpoints and topics of discussion based on what advertisers and executives demand. Corporate media is neither democratic nor free. Our "bias" is to provide a healthy alternative to the corporate media through accessible, intelligent, and diverse perspectives that challenge corporate and state power. We believe that debates over corporate power, government policy and legitimacy, and the ways that everyday people can build and exercise political power are vital topics of public discourse. Social movements against corporate dominance, globalisation, and capitalism are also movements for peace, justice, environmental sustainability, economic democracy, community empowerment and more. They are movements controlled directly by the people, and thus represent many ideals and strategies for change, and employ many different tactics to demand and make change. One aspect of these movements is the campaign for media democracy, whereby the media is freed from control of corporations and put into the hands of communities, as real tools for discussion. As a way to fight back and provide a positive alternative, we are creating independent community media and encourage everyone, regardless of skill, to write about their lives and the issues that affect us all. We will be putting out other special editions throughout the year, with a variety of names and themes. The success of this May Day edition will influence the direction we take our volunteer work, so your Alex Burns International shoes. They were ('hidden values'). Any activist or feedback and support is extremely important. Turn to page 11 to find out how to help. [email protected] angry about stud patterns and change movement that relied solely If you are interested in writing, please contact us at [email protected], or write tongueless one-piece uppers, angry on these strata for effective M1X c/o The Paper, PO Box 1733 Collingwood Victoria, 3066. Originally published on the Disinformation website (www.disinfo.com) about off-center lacing and dialogue and recruitment could be patented Zoom Air features. They scanned and tracked from afar, and Fans Fight for Fairer Football: were angry that superstar players then manoeuvred into a cul de sac. Made possible by... A Shadowy Activist Group? like Essendon's James Hird and The strategies were not oblique, The Paper has supported the production of M1X in the spirit of creating a forum for One afternoon, my gaze was North Melbourne's Wayne Carey but obvious. First, deny the same critical thought, and enabling the expression of issues that are under or mis-represented drawn to a broadsheet poster by had "sold out" by wearing access to media and control by other, more commercial, media outlets. We hope that M1X will further heighten the Fans Fight for Fairer Football, a performance-enhancing boots. And representations. Second, link discourse around protest and the culture of dissent in Australia. shadowy activist group. Questions even if the world doesn't watch simple ideas, such as "activism" flooded my mind. Had they Australian Rules Football, they and "violence" and "illegitimacy" ABOUT THE PAPER emerged in the wake of the S11 were going to let the world know. within in the public sphere. Third, The Paper began in December last year and in that time has received an amazing protests, which had rocked On their own terms. appropriate the icons and themes, amount of feedback and support. Melbourne's Crown Casino for No scathing critique of detach from any radical self-change The Paper is produced in Melbourne, but incorporates stories from around Australia and mercantile capitalism could be agenda, dumb down, commodify, the world. It is distributed in most major cities, including: Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart, three days in September 2000? Perth, Newcastle, Brisbane, Darwin, Canberra, Ballarat and Coober Pedy. It can also be Were the Media Circus activists found on this broadsheet poster. No and stir. If Nike was marketing the found around Melbourne in various bookshops, cafes and organisations. playing another prank on us? Were revelation about global corporate Air Zoom shoes as their "most We always need more contributors and welcome anyone who wants to get involved with they promoting street art or tyranny. No inspirational messages offensive shoe, ever", was there a production. We invite your participation. dangerous propaganda? for young activists. "What on Earth double meaning beyond sport The broadsheet poster was black is going on?" asked the Fairer analogies? Who was Nike CONTACT DETAILS and white, and had obviously been Football activists. "Think of the offending, or what was Nike To submit content to the paper - covertly printed on someone else's distress and mental anguish felt by conducting an offensive against? E-mail: [email protected] printing press: there were jagged less talented, less tall, and less good It was all too philosophical for Post: PO Box 1733 edges, smudges, and lettering in the looking full forwards?" Don't think me. So, I glanced at a tram shelter Collingwood, 3066 typewriter font that was favoured about the abysmal working ad that said "Get It By 9:00 Or Web site: www.thepaper.org.au by radical activist groups. "Ban The conditions and wage slavery of the You'll Miss It All Day", and just Boots!" screamed the headline, 'employees' who made the Nike Air obeyed it, for some reason. Maybe with a subheading asking "Is Fair a Zoom shoes. "Which raises the the copywriters had studied Spotlight on Indymedia Four Letter Word?" Familiar anti- question, what percentage of the hypnotism. The evening shadows maquiladora sloganeering. Gum tree is determination, grit and were lengthening, and I was The Independent Media Center (IMC), the source of "indymedia", first emerged in Whoever this group was, they had graft and what percentage is suddenly feeling tired. November of 1999 in Seattle to cover massive anti-World Trade Organisation protests. The IMC website, which received 1.5 million 'hits' during its coverage of the weeklong clearly read Naomi Klein's book No technology, equipment and boots?" "Battle of Seattle", uses open source software and allows grassroots print, photo, audio Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand they queried. Right now, I'd like to © The Disinformation Company Ltd. and video journalists from around the world to personally upload their own work. The IMC Bullies (Picador USA, 2000), query if future generations will All rights reserved. has grown exponentially since Seattle. There are now more than 50 IMCs scattered in which was becoming a "sleeper" uphold Phil Knight, Nike's CEO, as cities across the US and Canada and in countries around the world including Mexico, France, Italy, Israel and Australia. Globalising from below, the IMC may have more bestseller in Australia. This group a moral exemplar of our era. "bureaus" than CNN or the New York Times by the end of 2001. was anti-technology ("Fair Minded To upload your work in Australia, go to www.melbourne.indymedia.org or Footy Fans Say 'Not Fair' Mr. Currents in the Slipstream Slaves to fashion in Australia www.sydney.indymedia.org Technology) and anti-futurist It was only a matter of time In Australia, for every factory worker in the ("What Next, Rocket Packs?"). before Nike copied the 'surface clothing and footwear industry, there are There was no address, no phone or values' (icons, rituals, dress codes, 14 working in sweatshops and garages. fax number, no e-mail. Just a Web artifacts, events, observable There are 500,000 home-based site address that didn't work. activities, behaviours and objects) outworkers in Australia. Most are paid a utilised by activists, I mused, re- wage that is below award and unlivable. Some are paid as little as $2 an hour. The Truth and The Light fashioning the 'hidden values' Fans Fight for Fairer Football (ideas, beliefs, -isms, attitudes, Workers often have to work all night and get family members to help, or risk losing was no activist group, but to the norms, trends, unwritten rules) to their contracts. There is no sick pay, passer-by, it sure resembled one. their own predetermined ends. If no work cover, no annual leave, and no The fans were not fighting against marketers knew the common job security. media censorship or against patterns of change and transition, The Australian fashion industry was worth maquiladora market economics. they could predetermine these ends $8.1 billion in 1995. They were angry about Nike Air by controlling both imagery Fairwear, http://vic.uca.org.au/fairwear Zoom Total 90 and Air Zoom ('surface values') and context 2 Bad chants repeated will Not like a deadhead odyssey mean we are defeated Naomi Klein affect people's lives. For opponents of the FTAA, the Jen Couch Which is precisely why those goal is not to shut down a single As soon as I wrote the sentence, I dedicated to challenging the meeting for its own sake. It is to Last night I had a dream. It was M1 and no one came. deleted it: "Is this really what we want expansion of corporate power have expose this faulty logic, to show how Holding ‘festivals of resistance’ is like having a party, the same -- a movement of meeting stalkers, already changed strategies. The focus the granting of the multinational wish anxiety that no one will turn up. I can see it now. The Herald following the trade bureaucrats like has largely shifted from "summit list is actually playing out on the Sun's Andrew Bolt not being able to get to his computer fast they're the Grateful Dead?" enough to declare the protests ‘a disaster’ and a ‘flop’. While I hopping" (as some took to calling it) ground, not as abstract economic hope like hell this isn't going to happen, I think my anxiety is a It could be taken out of context, I to narrowing in on specific and theory but in people's day-to-day small indication that the ‘movement’ has a problem. thought; better take it out. Then I put ambitious new trade agreements -- lives. Last week, I was sitting on a tram. As the tram chugged it back in: The context was clear, and such as the General Agreement on The protests in Quebec City are down Smith Street, a child next to me started harassing his I was being paranoid. If you let your Trade in Services, and the Free Trade important, but they are only the most mother to get off at the Nike store. The mother looked at me critics steal your sense of humour, Area of the Americas, coming to the visible face of less glamorous but rolling her eyes "unbelievable you know, he feels inadequate they have already won. Paranoia, I've Summit of the Americas in Quebec ongoing local campaigns, ones because I work my guts out to put food on the table rather than since learned, can be a healthy City next week. grounded in cities and towns across let him have Nikes". We started talking. “You were at S11? I impulse The goal of these campaigns, rather the Americas. wanted to go too but I was just too scared of the violence” she That sentence, which was Globalization may seem said. “Yes me too” said an Iranian woman next to me, “I'm a first published almost a year abstract, but it's not. It is migrant and I don't feel secure. I have just managed to escape ago in the U.S. magazine from that kind of violence”. thousands of local stories -- The Nation, has been about energy deregulation in following me around like . . . California, and water oh, forget it. In The privatization in Ontario. It is Economist, on CBC Radio, about the social safety nets in The Globe and Mail just that won't be there to catch last week, it has been used the newly jobless as the exactly as I'd feared: to paint boom turns to bust. anti-corporate protesters as a Globalization is also roving band of thrill-seekers, about export-oriented in it for the party, not the industrial farming that has politics. (On the upside, created the multiple threats Deadheads are now convinced that I than simply having big protests, has of genetic engineering, food scares, alone understand them: "Duuude," become to systematically connect landlessness and mass migrations of If you think that the next big crackdown in the string of anti- they say to me. "It's so true what you these arcane agreements with urgent, people desperate for any jobs they can corporate mass mobilisations is going to happen on May 1st, wrote because Dead shows were all local issues such as health care and get, anywhere they can get them. when demonstrators plan a shut down of the city in response to about community.") homelessness. Which is why a simultaneous anti- global capitalism, then you're wrong. It's already happened - In fact, the sentence never referred Like NAFTA before it, the creation FTAA protest will take place on the with no fuss or bother. In fact, it happens every time a would-be to the culture of the protests (though I of the largest free-trade zone in the border between San Diego and activist reads something in the paper, believes it and decides not can't deny the presence of drumming world is being sold based on the cure- Tijuana. The goal is to expose the flip to go to S11 or M1 to voice their opinion about corporate circles and veggie burritos). all powers of trickle-down economics. side of globalization: the sweatshop globalisation. Protesting, rather than an expression of What I wrote was that there were so The reasoning goes like this: The factories and crackdowns on democracy or a vision of the world you want to live in, has many protests being planned that become an extreme sport - only for the brave, the geared up, and FTAA is designed to create optimum immigrants at the U.S.-Mexican if you have skills in abseiling or parachuting that would help activists who wanted to keep up business conditions for multinational border. too. essentially had to go on tour. After the corporations -- lower tariffs, more Recently, police have taken to After nearly 18 months since the ‘battle of Seattle’ and World Trade Organization shutdown privatization opportunities, extended patting themselves on the back for virtually around the clock organising of large-scale protests, are in Seattle, it seemed as if "a next protections on patents, the power to learning to "control" mass activists heading for battle fatigue? After interviewing over 30 Seattle" was called every time world sue national governments for lost demonstrations with rubber bullets, anti-globalisation activists from Australia and the US, I think leaders got together for any sort of profits, barriers to governments tying border blockades, and fences. But the process is taking its toll. “I am 21 and still getting over S11 meeting. investment to job creation, and so on. how will they adapt to a global and feel completely burnt out, I haven't worked out if I will go And trade bureaucrats and world These incentives to trade and movement that is already to M1 yet” an activist admitted to me the other day. Numerous leaders get together an awful lot. So as investment, we are told, will do much transforming itself into thousands of activists have expressed their frustration at feeling as though the activists tried to mobilize tens of more than increase corporate profits. local mini-movements, all anti-globalisation movement is stuck in large-scale protest thousands of people every couple of mode. Some have doubts about the effectiveness of this method: They will also fix every woe in the internationally linked? “people think if they can sustain the demonstrations, it will months, the effort absorbed almost all hemisphere, from environmental They're going to need a pretty big build, but I'm not sure” said Jeff Perlstein, a Seattle activist. their energy and resources. degradation to political corruption; fence. Naomi Klein also reflects this sentiment: ‘“I think part of it has The protests themselves, from mass poverty to overproduction; to do with a fear that exists that if we don't have another big meanwhile, were in danger of seeming from backbreaking work to the U.S. Originally published on http://www.nologo.org protest really soon, the whole thing is going to disappear”. remote, cut off from the issues that economic downturn. It is obvious the authorities are working as hard as activists to digest the lessons of Seattle. If the World Trade Organisation going to Qatar for its next meeting is any example, activist Whose news is it? thinking and planning will need to rise to new levels. Some serious questions need to be posed. Public Relations is a multi-billion dollar industry, At S11 union members and people of color were largely manufacturing news for corporate clients. They routinely stifle public dissent, critical information, community absent. As the Iranian woman mentioned on the tram, this could concerns, and alternative solutions, thereby censoring be due to fears of police treatment, a warranted concern. public debate. Similarly, the majority of activists were youngish. Where are the "Most of what you see on TV is, in effect, a canned PR older people within the movement? If it's only backed by people product. Most of what you read in the paper and see on with the time, means and courage to attend a protest, can it television is not news," says a senior vice-president with really be a long-term grass roots movement for social change? Gray & Company public relations. Upwards of 40% of all Cameron Levin is from LA-based ‘Rise Up’, a group print news is repeated directly from PR industry challenging the current ways of organising: “Rise Up's model statements. centers on… build(ing) long standing ties with the community The "founder" of the 20th century public relations industry by addressing issues which directly affect people in local Edward Bernays argued in his book Propaganda that scientific manipulation of public opinion was necessary to communities. Our vision is not focused on a single event, but overcome chaos and conflict in society: "In almost every instead on what we can do with our work that contributes to a act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere or politics or movement for social justice. This means being committed to business, we are dominated by the relatively small organising for the long haul 20, 30, 50 years from now. It is number of persons… who understand the mental through small victories in local communities that people processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they become inspired to struggle and stand up. When people have a who pull the wires which control the public mind. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society sense of their own power, transformation is possible”. John Swainton, editor of the New York Times, being remarkably candid constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country." Story continues on page 10 on the day of his retirement while addressing his staff. 3 May Day in Melbourne S11 protestors lodge complaints about police violence Tuesday May 1, 2001 The following is an excerpt from: Beating up: A report on police batons and the news media at the World Economic Forum, Melbourne, September 2000 Nuclear Free Victoria Australian (page 2). However, not a word about wrote yet again about protesters pelting police Dr Bernard Barrett 7.00am WMC Southbank this appeared in the Herald Sun. Instead, the with "rocks, rubbish, ball bearings and urine." 12.00 March through city ending at: Late on Wednesday, S11 protest organisers main angle in Thursday's Herald Sun was that Bags of "urine" had become a constant theme 1.00pm Flagstaff Gardens Mayday Picnic and their lawyers held a media conference, "Victorian taxpayers and businesses face a bill in the Herald Sun, although apparently no accompanied by representatives from the of more than $20 million" for the three-day chemical analysis was conducted by anybody Don't Trade, Blockade! Trades Hall Council and the Victorian Council protest. This included $10 million lost by the to establish that this substance really was urine M1 Alliance a coalition of socialist, labour and community for Civil Liberties (Liberty Victoria). At this Crown Casino because it was closed to the and not, say, just vinegar. As noted above, the groups organizing the Stock Exchange Blockade. conference it was announced that complaints public. protesters' website recommended that 7.00am ASX Collins St had been lodged with the State Ombudsman In fact, the loss of business at Crown and in protesters use "a vinegar-soaked bandana over about Tuesday's baton attacks and about police other businesses on September 11-13 was the mouth/nose" as a defence against capsicum Shut down corporate Melbourne removing name tags. These complaints were largely the result of the expectation of violence, spray." For the Herald Sun, urine makes a A.W.O.L Autonomous Web of Liberation. A non-hierarchical, reported on all TV news bulletins on which had been "talked up" in the preceding better story than vinegar. decentralised and autonomous network formed during the Wednesday evening, with all channels showing months by the media, especially the Herald Andrew Bolt also stated that protesters S11 action. [email protected] footage from the baton attacks, including Sun. On ABC-TV evening news on September "punched" police; this "punching" claim that 8.00am March from Parliament, Spring St scenes of people being struck indiscriminately 6, reporter Natasha Simpson reported that had previously not been stated so explicitly in 3.00pm Street Party at the 8 hours monument on the head and face. Channel Ten showed "Crown expects to lose" several million dollars the various media outlets, although viewers and footage of a whole row of police officers, ready over the three-day Forum; some high-rollers, readers might have assumed such punches after Union and Labour Marches for action, with their name tags removed. she said, were staying away from Crown hearing or reading about so much "protester 9.00am Flinders St Mayday is 1st of May March Channel Ten reported: "Many police breached because of the bad publicity about anticipated violence". 10.30am Trades Hall March May Day Committee regulations by not wearing name tags." Similar "violence". Ironically, much of the expectation footage and comments, about name tags being of "violence" hysteria had been generated by From 1977 until he retired in 1993, the author was the FNB Food Not Bombs removed, was shown on other TV channels. Channel Nine, whose owner, Kerry Packer, is State Historian for the Government of Victoria, Cooking and providing free organic Vegan food on the The Wednesday call for an Ombudsman the owner of the Casino. Mr Packer's own TV responsible for promoting research and public awareness streets and at activist events and benefits. Contact: inquiry was the main item in Thursday's Age channel was hurting his casino. about Victoria's cultural heritage Barricade Books, 115 Sydney Rd, Brunswick, 9387 6646 (page 1) and received a few paragraphs in the In Thursday's Herald Sun, Andrew Bolt 7.00pm May Day Celebration Meal, free vegetarian food at Gertrude and Brunswick St

(i)Xpress Legal monitors Bicycle courier service for Melbourne demonstrations and During the May 1 protests a group of para-legal observers (in yellow activist events www.criticalmass.org.au/ixpress/ vests) will observe, record and monitor arrests and actions by the Victoria [email protected] police and private security. F. O. E. Friends of the Earth If you are arrested or for legal advice, contact: A community based activist organisation campaigning for Fitzroy Legal Service 9419 3744 social justice and environmental sustainability. Organic food Western Suburbs Legal Service 9391 2244 co-op and bookshop at 312 Smith Street, Collingwood. Footscray Community Legal Centre 9689 8444 www.melbourne.foe.org.au, [email protected] (03) 9419 8700 Central Highlands (Ballarat) Community Legal Centre 03 5331 5999 For information on future campaigns and actions, visit: After Hours Call: Alphaline 9419 7427 www.Melbourne.indymedia.org COMPLAINTS AGAINST POLICE www.melbourneactive.org.au Ombudsman. Telephone: 9613 6222 www.wiseworld.com.au Toll Free: 1800 806 314

Tickle me pink, it’s Mayday! functioning of targeted corporations, activists Burke and Wills statue in Collins Street or the It saw galling poverty in monarchical England continued from page 1 use methods like erecting large tripods to block Eight Hours Monument in Spring Street, and as well as in republican America. The Socialists While many marchers would repeat the streets, locking themselves together in human strolled down the southern Yarra Bank. Today, stood for the complete emancipation of mankind saying "In unity there is strength", May Day has barricades, or mounting office occupations to this part of Melbourne has been privatised by from capitalism, from class tyranny." also illustrated the large variety and difference protest corporate involvement in exploitation at the tennis stadium. Some sections of the labour In the 1940s, marchers demanded free of ideology within labour and social home and abroad. movement organised marches on the first of speech; in the 60s a respite from the credit movements. And just as their demands have Marchers have always carried red flags, May instead of the Sunday, until police cracked squeeze, equal pay and the 35 hour week; and in changed with the times, so have the ways they whether illegal or not, and sung working class down during the Great Depression. the 80s they defended union rights, wage levels, organise. hymms like "The Internationale" and "The The red colour of May Day has been used by and working conditions. Today, people are For most of its history the May Day march Marsellaise." Chummy Fleming, an anarchist the working class since the French Revolution. marching for causes such as an end to corporate has been a slow procession, often to the rhythm and one of the founders of the May Day While to many, red is the colour of revolution dominance and the nuclear industry. of bands. These days, form tends to follow celebrations, would carry a red flag emblazoned and socialism, to the upper class it has Melbourne May Day events have not function. Stock Exchange blockaders will have with "Anarchy". Banners in the 1890s traditionally represented disloyalty, subversion occurred without their share of hecklers and marshals with megaphones to coordinate a proclaimed "8 hours or less", "Liberty, and chaos. The red flag was banned during and conflict. Nazis interrupted the meeting in 1966, nonviolent human barrier to the building, acting Fraternity, Equality" and "Free Railways", while after World War One. Today, people have the while Vietnam demonstrators stoned the in unity to deliver the message that the Stock in 1963 pensioners marched behind a banner right to wave any flag they choose, yet police Melbourne headquarters of ASIO in 1970. Exchange represents corporation's control of the proclaiming "We built, now we starve." still do repress political dissent. A decisive clash between members of both global economy, allowing investors to profit Aboriginal marchers have taken part since the May Day events are usually characterised by the Communist Party of Australia and the from exploitation. 1930s, and in 1947, 100 clergymen marched as lively public speakers. A resolution in 1907 Unemployed Workers' Movement, with Trades Other activists taking to the streets of a contingent. Modern day anarchists have called presented demands for immediate reforms, Hall and Labor Party speakers occurred in 1932. Melbourne organise independently in affinity on workers to call in sick every May Day. including: "one adult - one vote, a tax upon land Afterward, the "official labour movement" groups, usually with people they know or This year, anarchists will likely march with values exclusive of improvements, the pulled out of May Day marches. For 20 years members of the same organisation. They black flags and black masks, acting with an providing of employment by the state for the after, the Victorian Socialist Party held its own coordinate their actions through gatherings explicitly anti-capitalist agenda. They argue that unemployed, the establishment by the celebrations, including a maypole, with dancers called spokes-councils that seek to facilitate all both the tyranny of corporations and Commonwealth of old age and invalid pensions, from the Socialist Sunday School and a May participants' right to contribute equally to governments, both democratic and socialist, are Commonwealth and State Department of Labor, Queen. Australians have understood the decision making. In an effort to counter the due to their hierarchical organisation, and their Commonwealth Bank of issue, …Workmen's significance of both the worker's May Day and development of hierarchies in their campaigns, enforcement of disparities in wealth and Compensation Act, the nationalisation of the folk celebration of Spring in the Northern affinity groups often avoid appointing media accumulation of property beyond individual monopolies, the prohibition of child labour Hemisphere. The symbolism of rebirth and spokespeople or official leaders, believing an need. under the age of sixteen, free secondary and regeneration have infused Melbourne May Day alternative to corporate globalization must be They are often misrepresented by the university education with free requisites and celebrations with a sense of holiday. decentrally organized using a process of direct corporate media, at best - and labelled thugs, free meals for school children…" In the 21st century, Melbourne May Day democracy. terrorists and criminals at worst. Many wear The Victorian Socialist Party paper in 1906 organizers are mixing the spirit of pagan May Theatre and Pageantry has consistently masks on such occasions to create unity, counter succinctly summed up their support of May Day Day festivals, the working class solidarity of 20th brought artistic flair to May Day celebrations. In the media's tendency to pick leaders, and celebrations: "Socialists throughout the world century May Day marches, with a new spirit of 1951, Frank and Mrs Hardy produced a "Power prevent police identification, as governments held May Day sacred, because it stood for the grassroots community and international activism. without glory" float calling for the trial of have throughout history targeted anarchists with solidarity of the peoples, the union of all who "Capitalism is like a dinosaur, and its days gangsters, not writers. In 1962, meatworkers violence, jailing, and even assassination. worked and suffered in the wealth-production of are over," says Karen. "Its time for David to beat built a huge black papier mache octopus Initially, May Day in Melbourne was the earth…. Socialism did not stand for Goliath, for the little people to inherit the earth, representing the meat monopolies. celebrated with a march on the first Sunday after republicanism or monarchism, for free trade or for a new society to emerge from the ashes Modern Mayday marches often incorporate May 1st, organised by a May Day Committee. protection. It saw poverty and misery in free- of the old." large puppets, while at direct actions to stop the From 1843 until 1906 marchers assembled at the trade Sydney as well as in protected Melbourne. 4 Violence of Globalisation The Low Road Marge Piercy Two people can keep each other sane, can give grown as a result of structural adjustment and support, conviction, love, massage, hope, sex. Three Vandana Shiva trade liberalization policies. What can they do to you? Whatever they want. They people are a delegation, a committee, a wedge. With We thought we had put slavery, holocausts During 1979-81 and 1992-93, calorie can set you up, they can break your fingers, they can four you can rent a whole house, eat pie for dinner with no seconds, and hold a fundraising party. A dozen can and apartheid behind us - that humanity intake declined by three per cent in Mexico, burn your brain with drugs till you can't walk, can't remember, they can take your child, wall up your lover. make a demonstration. A hundred fill a hall. A would never again allow dehumanizing and 4.1 per cent in Argentina, 10.9 per cent in They can do anything you can't stop them from doing. thousand have solidarity and your own paper; a violent systems to shape the rules by which Kenya, 10.0 per cent in Tanzania, 9.9 per cent How can you stop them? Alone, you can fight, you can hundred thousand, your own media. Ten million, your we live and die. Yet globalization is giving in Ethiopia. In India, the per capita cereal refuse, you can take what revenge you can, but they own country. rise to new slavery, new holocausts, new consumption declined by 12.2 per cent for roll over you. It goes on one at a time, it starts when you care to act, apartheid. It is a war against nature, women, rural areas and 5.4 per cent for urban areas. But two people fighting back to back can cut through a it starts when you do it again after they say no, it starts children, and the poor. A war which is Denying food to the hungry and feeding the mob, a snake-dancing file can break a cordon, an when you say we and know who you mean, and each transforming every community and home markets is one of the genocidal aspects of army can meet an army. day you mean one more. into a war zone. It is a war of monocultures globalization. Countries cannot ensure that against diversity, of big against small, of war the hungry are fed because this involves laws, time technologies against nature. policies and financial commitments which Technologies of war are becoming the are "protectionist" - the ultimate crime in the basis of production in peacetime. Agent globalization regime. Orange, which was sprayed on Vietnam, is Denying medicine to the ill so that the now being sprayed on our farms as herbicide global pharmaceutical industry can make along with Round up and other poisons. profits is another aspect of genocide. Under Plants and animals are being genetically the Trade Related Intellectual Property engineered, thus making our fields sites of agreement of the World Trade Organization, biological warfare. And perverse intelligence countries have to implement patent laws is being applied to terminate life's cycles of granting exclusive, monopolistic rights to the renewal by engineering "Terminator" seeds to pharmaceutical and biotech industry. This be sterile. prevents countries from producing low cost As the violence grows, the stress on generic drugs. Patented HIV/AIDS medicine societies, ecosystems and living beings is costs $15,000, while generic drugs made by reaching levels of breakdown. We are India and Brazil cost $250-300 for one year's surrounded by processes of ecological and treatment. Patents are, therefore, literally social breakdown. Witness the events of our robbing AIDS victims of their lives. times which are now front page news. Cows However, in the world order of in Europe being subject to bovine spongiform globalization dictated by commerce, greed encephalopathy (BSE), millions of animals and profits, it is providing cures through being burnt as foot and mouth disease spreads affordable medicine that is illegal. India, due to increased trade, farmers in India Brazil and South Africa have been taken to committing suicide in thousands, the Taliban the WTO Court (the Dispute Settlement destroying their heritage by vandalizing the Mechanism) because they have laws that Bamiyan Buddhas, a 15-year-old boy Charles allow low cost medicine to be produced. in Koel Karo, where the building of a large dam universal principles for reverence for life and the Andrew Williams shooting his classmates in At the World Court of Women, we declare was stopped. integrity of a culture's knowledge systems. a Californian high school, ethnic cleansing. that laws that force a government to deny But it is not just non-renewable resources like We will not live by rules that are robbing All these are wars of peacetime, occurring citizens the right to food and the right to diamonds, oil and minerals which global millions of their lives and medicines, their seeds, in our daily lives and the last expression of medicine are genocidal. Globalization is a corporations want to own. They want to own our plants and knowledge, their sustenance and violence in a system which has put profit violent system, imposed and maintained biodiversity and water. They want to transform dignity and their food. We will not allow greed above life, commerce above justice, ethics through use of violence. As trade is elevated the very fabric and basis of life into private and violence to be treated as the only values to and ecology as violent technologies. above human needs, the insatiable appetite of property. Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) on shape our cultures and our lives. We will take Cows are herbivores, they are not meant to global markets for resources is met by seeds and plants, animals and human genes are back our lives, as we took back the right. We eat their own carcasses. But, in an industrial unleashing new wars over resources. The war aimed at transforming life into the property of know that violence begets violence, fear begets system of factory farming globalized under over diamonds in Sierra Leonne, over oil in corporations. While falsely claiming to have fear, peace begets peace and love begets love. We free trade rules of agriculture, it was Nigeria has killed thousands of women and "invented" life forms and living organisms, will reweave the world as a place of sharing and "efficient" to grind up the meat of infected children. corporations also claim patents on knowledge caring, of peace and justice, not a market place sheep and cows and turn it into cattle feed. The transfer of people's resources to pirated from the Third World. The knowledge of where sharing and caring and giving protection This has spread BSE among cattle - a disease global corporations also makes states more our mothers and grandmothers is now being are crimes and peace and justice are unthinkable. that can be transmitted to humans. militaristic as they arm themselves on behalf claimed as inventions of western corporations and We will shape new universals through solidarity, Children should be playing with their of commercial interests, and start wars scientists. The use of neem (Azarichta Indica) as not hegemony. friends. Schools are not supposed to be war against their own people. Violence has been pesticide and fungicide, was claimed to be an Women's worlds are worlds based on zones. But a culture of guns and violence, used by the government against tribal people invention by the U.S.D.A. and W.R. Grace. protection - of our dignity and self respect, the combined with one that has focussed so in areas where Bauxite is mined in Orissa and India challenged it and got the patent revoked. well - being of our children, of the earth, of her exclusively on The seeds and plants of diverse beings of those who are hungry and those commerce and basmati have been who are ill. To protect is the best expression of economic growth and claimed as inventions humanity. Those who have tried to transform material accumulation, by a U.S. corporation "protection" into a dirty word, the worst crime of has left future called Ricetec. And the global market place, see the protection of generations uprooted these are only some health, nutrition, livelihoods all call for trade and unanchored, afraid examples of biopiracy sanctions and "punishment" by the W.T.O. and the and violent. Our which will lead to the World Bank. children are robbed of absurd situation where To those who have tried to make the protection childhood. In Iraq, 12 the Third World pays of life a crime we say echoing Archbishop Tutu: children die every hour for knowledge that "You have already lost. You need to get out of the because of a trade evolved cumulatively way so that we can protect each other, our embargo. In other and collectively. children and life on this planet." The future does regions, children are From the Women's not belong to the Merchants of Death - it belongs being pushed into Court, we declare that to the Protectors of Life. prostitution or warfare - patents on life and the only options for patents based on survival when societies biopiracy are immoral Excerpts from Vandana Shiva's testimony at the Women's break down. Across the and illegal. They should Court, South Africa, on March 8, 2001. The author is director, Third World, hunger not be respected Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, and malnutrition has because they violate New Delhi. 5 Modern May Day has roots in fertility festival nation-wide strikes in Canada Shane and the United States to demand Our Resistance is as global More than ribbons tie an 8-hour working day. In together May Day traditions like Chicago, police attacked striking the may pole to modern Mayday workers, killing 6 people. demonstrations in the streets. At a rally on May 3rd 1886 in May Day, celebrated on May 1st Quebec City: Haymarket Square to protest the UK Activists play monopoly in or M1, is a day of working class policing the people police brutality, a bomb went off London activists will take large solidarity, and has a long and in a crowd of police. In the shoot Orlando, Florida: Creating community Judy Rebick board game pieces around the city in rich history predating the labour out that followed, seven A May Day celebration will include leafleting, movements of the past few visiting the sites the game was base policemen were killed as well as When Quebec City, Canada drumming, street theatre, sidewalk chalking, radical centuries. action states: "The game of mo up to three times as many fenced off 4 kilometers for Free Trade cheerleaders, colorful props, and free food. All types Its earliest origins date from demonstrators. Police arrested 7 Areas of the Americas negotiations, of activists are welcome to participate, organisers say. accumulation, making it perfect for pagan Europe, where it came to anarchist trade unionists North Americans learned that they "You do not have to be an anarchist or a union member is for each player to make profits th signify the end of winter, the claiming that they had thrown weren’t exempt from the iron fist that to be part of this event; whether you're a Green Party single commodity - land - and to ex return of the sun and fertility of the bomb. To this day, accompanies the “invisible hand” of member, an anti-death penalty activist, an animal In real life one single commodity g the soil. The Saxons, a Germanic controversy remains as to free marklet capitalism. rights activist, a gay rights activist, etc." - our labour power. Since labour people who settled parts of whether the bomb was the work England, would begin their separated from people, we are litera of a protester or a police agent. "The myriad groups and Night of property destruction celebrations on April 30th with in the market place. To prevent sta One thing is for certain individuals clashing with police are The International Network of Night Workers an evening of games and must constantly expand. Thus we m though. At the trial of the united not as foes of globalization but (INNW) is calling for a night of property destruction feasting. Torch-bearing peasants as well as produce." anarchist workers, their guilt or as objectors to its human cost." - LA against capitalism on May Day eve. They want to would then wind their way to the innocence was irrelevant. They Times. remind people that capitalism cannot be reformed, it can top of surrounding hills, and were radical working class only be resisted through direct action. Their suggested ignite wooden wheels, which organisers who needed to be The People's Summit target list for May Day 2001 include McDonalds, Nike, they would roll down in to the For more fun, visit ww.mayday2001.org taught a lesson, the judge openly An alternative to the FTAA, The Monsanto, Citibank, Shell, and the Gap. fields. declaring, 'Not because you People's Summit, was organised by a Though outlawed by the have caused the Haymarket coalition of unions and non- Catholic Church in the 1600's, it bomb, but because you are governmental organizations from continued to be a popular day of anarchists, you are on trial'. across the Americas. Up to 60,000 celebration with artisans and Four of those charged were people marched, accompanied by peasants. Those not intimidated found guilty and hanged by the giant puppets, street theatre, Movements and Struggles Arou by papal authority would don State of Illinois on November drumming and a lot of dancing. animal masks and various 11th, 1887. Another committed While thousands of people walked costumes, for a festival not suicide on the night before his slowly through the lower part of the unlike the modern day execution. In 1889, a meeting of city, hundreds more - mostly youth - Halloween. It was seen as a day the International Working Men's were locked in battles with the police of celebration for the 'common' Association in Paris declared near the infamous perimeter United States & Canada: Accor people and gave rise to a number Since 1992, San Fransiscio, cities Bank, While the US has 4.6% of May the first an international surrounding the meeting place of the worldwide have hosted Critical of traditions. consumes 27% of the world's en working class holiday, in Summit of the Americas. Mass on the last Friday of every agitating for a consumer diet thr Perhaps the most commonly month. Bicyclists gather in a commemoration of the A major controversy among Nothing Day. Initiated in Canda recognised tradition is the dance spontaneous celebration of bicycle the day has prompted consciou Haymarket martyrs. Six years protesters was the decision of the culture and to advocate cheap, around the Maypole. Celebrants campaigns in hundreds of cities later after the incident, the People's Summit organizers to march efficient, and sustainable transport. Activists visit shopping malls ha would erect a phallic pole in remaining three anarchists were away from the perimeter yesterday. "shopping free day"; independe their village for the community shelves and hold community ev pardoned by the Governor. March organizers argued that it was too to dance around, holding ribbons People continue to celebrate dangerous to take such a large march until they became entwined with Mayday as a day of working into the tiny streets of the old city. N30 - Seattle, Nov 30, 1999. their future love. May Day also class solidarity. In the opening 50,000 blockade World Trade heralds the appearance of years of the twenty-first century, The Confrontations A16 - Washington, DC characters like Robin Organization meeting workers around the world are As well, there were a few fierce Goodfellow, or the Green Man April 16, 2000. Over 20,000 discovering a common enemy in and prolonged confrontations with who was the Lord of Misrule. protest World Bank meeting corporations and the institutions police. These exchanges drew most of Robin was the king, priest, and behind globalisation, capitalism, the media attention. In at least two fool for the day and would poke and free trade. They are joining locations, activists battled police in fun at the local priests and lords. forces with environmentalists, what looked more like a war than a It was this satire of authority that students, anarchists and others in demonstration. This reporter has made Mayday less than popular large celebrations and never witnessed such a well- with the Church and State. Mexico: On January 1st, 1994, the demonstrations in many cities organized, sustained fight between North American Free Trade The modern celebration of across the globe, linking today's demonstrators and police. They Agreement, NAFTA, went into effect. Mayday originated from the That morning, a column of struggles for social justice and advanced and retreated as police indigenous people from Chiapas, struggle for the 8-hour day in Columbia: The U'wa people, in ecological survival to those attacked with tear gas, a water cannon Mexico marched into San Cristobal Northern America in 1886. On and four other cities, took them over, a standoff with Shell Oil, have struggles of the not too distant and - later - plastic bullets. It went on threatened mass suicide since May the first, 1886, workers in and declared war against the past. Happy Mayday! all afternoon and into the night. Mexican government. In the 1997 if Shell drilled, and many industries conducted According to Quebec's civil ensueing years, through direct destroyed, their land. democracy and internet activism, the liberties union, Zapatistasand their violence escalated armed, yet peaceful primarily because of movement became a househould name. police tactics. www.ezln.org April 20 2001 Quebec City According to the union - which had This weekend, the face of Canadian politics has changed. It happened here in Quebec City, at a massive demonstration against globalisation. The Free Trade Area of the thirty observers on the ground - only 5 per America's, an expansion of NAFTA, was being negotiated by beaurocats behind a four The Battle Of Bolivia: In 1999, the kilometer "bunker" made of concrete and galvanized steel fencing. The 10 feet high cent of the protesters World Bank pressured the Bolivian "Quebec Wall" encircled part of the historic city centre including the parliamentary confronting police government to "privatise" the public Brazil: In a country where t compound of the National Assembly, hotels and shopping areas. were violent. "Most of the water system in the city of own 20 times as much as th Cochabamba. They only considered tens of thousands landless Passes to get into the city demonstrators in the Upper Town one bid, by a conglomerate led by occupied dozens of giant pr were issued to official [near the perimeter] were singing Bechtel, the giant San Francisco- Setting up camps, schools, delegations, to the CEOs based engineering monolith. The community centers, the pea and dancing and peaceful," said people of Bolivia responded with proven that land is most pro of major banks and spokesperson Sam Boske. protests led by workers, run by those who work it. L corporations, as well as Over the course of the day, a environmentalists, and citizen's have responded with private approved media and groups. A strike and transportation "selected invitees." The growing number of trade unionists stoppage brought the city to a people of Quebec have and others like the Council of standstill. The army attacked, killing Canadians joined the direct six and injuring 175, including two been shut out of their own children blinded from chemical city, just like most action to support the youth who warfare. The uprising was victorious, Americans are shut out of were battling police. with the government scrapping the the supposed benefits of plans and Bechtel fleeing its offices. free trade. www.Quebec.indymedia.org

6 The IMF and the World Bank asas their Capital are funded primarily by taxpayer dollars, investments, and repayments from developing countries. These institutions World Trade Organization provide new loans to developing This 150 member intergovernmental body's main aim is to eliminate "barriers countries only if they abide by far n the streets to trade". Multinational corporations lobby or pressure governments to bring reaching economic policy e puppet Monopoly cases against other countries "trade barriers" to the WTO's secret trade courts. In changes, called Structural n multiple marches, the court, three "expert judges" can overturn national laws if they violate a Adjustment Programs (SAPs). SAPs are devised to curb ed on. There call to corporations right to make profit. Thus far, of over 100 cases challenging inflation and assist governments in addressing fiscal deficits onopoly is one of environmental or labour laws, every one was ruled in favour of corporations. (bringing expenses in line with income) with a central motive our times. The aim Barriers to trade (or perhaps more correctly, profit) can include decent worker's of ensuring government resources for debt repayment. In hrough the sale of a rights, environmental standards, livable wages, and human rights. reality, Structural Adjustment Programs: · favor agricultural exports over domestic production (so xpand their empire. countries can earn foreign exchange to pay off their debts). generates all profits World Economic Forum Farmers who traditionally produced food for the domestic r power cannot be In their own words the WEF "is an independent, impartial, market are encouraged to produce crops for export. ally bought and sold non-profit foundation which acts in the spirit of entrepreneurship · often remove subsidies and price supports for small agnation, capitalism in the global public interest to further economic growth and farmers who traditionally produce for the domestic market. must also consume social progress." But behind the veil, they are a network of the This also results in a decreased production of basic foodstuffs. worlds most powerful 1000 corporate executives, politicians, · often remove price controls on basic foodstuffs which academics, and media moguls exchanging information and make rice, beans, maize or cooking oil more expensive. formulating policy in the interest of, well, themselves. Though · often contribute to rising unemployment and falling real the WEF has no official law making power, its recommendations wages making it more difficult for families to feed themselves. are extremely influential in defining globalisation. The General · often require reducing or rescinding protectionist tariffs. Agreement On Trade and Tariffs, which gave birth to the WTO, Local markets are then flooded with imports which undercut was drafted and promoted by the WEF. domestic agriculture and industry.

Remember the Golden Rule: nd the Globe They who have the gold, make the rules. Gorleben, Germany: On March 29th a train filled with 60 tonnes of deadly 150 million people have been nuclear waste finally arrived from thrust into poverty in the France, over 24 hours late. Over former Soviet Union. 15,000 people - including groups such as x-1000, Robin Wood, Greenpeace, a 'black bloc' of anarchists and local rding to the UN and World farmers - held numerous actions to "Women comprise seventy per cent the world's people, it delay the train. In the largest police of the world's poor, yet only own one nergy. Some Americans are operation in post-war Germany, over per cent of the world's land" rough an annual Buy 20,000 cops used water cannons in by "subvertising" activists, freezing weather to disperse us anti-consumption blockades. At Sueschendorf, it took s across the continent. police 20 hours to remove five plucky anding out coupons for a Robin Wood activists who had chained ent bookstores clear their and cemented themselves in between Iraq: Since the Gulf War for oil was vents. www.adbusters.org the tracks. waged on Iraq in 1991, over half a million children have died as a result of starvation, malnutrition, and disease. The most comprehensive S26 - Prague, Sept 26, 2000. economic sanctions in history have Free Burma: When over 80% of the prevented the rebuilding of people of Burma, now officially Europeans Take on the IMF iinfrastructure destroyed in the war. "Myanmar", voted for a democratic While helping dictator Saddam government in 1989, the ruling Hussein stay in power through a military government responded by lucrative black market, Sanctions annulling the elections, slaughtering have prevented such essential items tens of thousands of students, as penicillin, ambulances, tires, monks, workers and peasants, and school desks, pencils, and more from imprisoning the president elect, Aung reaching the people. San Suu Kyi. The military funds its repression through destructive oil drilling, clearing the world's last Teak rainforests, and supplying a over a third of the world's heroin. While the Burmese people have waged guerrilla warfare, and risked their lives in unlawful, but peaceful, rallies, Nigeria: India: In mounting resistance to the international activists have Since the 1950s, Shell Nigeria has succeeded over the years in extracted over $30 billion of oil from World Bank and WTO, Indian activists have challenged massive pressuring corporations such as the land of the Ogoni people. When the PepsiCo from withdrawing business, Ogoni held peaceful protests to damn projects, rejected genetically engineered foods, and pioneered all of which goes through the demand compensation from Shell for military. www.freeburma.org the poisoning of their environment, people-centered development like Shell used the Nigerian military as a the Grameen Bank, which makes private police force, killing and micro-loans to women to start their torturing thousands. In 1994, prominent own small businesses. activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Ken Saro-Wiwa was arrested and executed. Protests occurred at hundreds of Shell stations, Shell offices were occupied. S11 - Melbourne, Sept 11,

Africa: The International Monetary 2000 World Economic Fund (IMF) received $600 million more in debt payments from Africa in 1997 Forum meeting blockaded he richest fifth than it returned in loans. In Africa, he poorest fifth, governments are now transferring four peasants have times more to international creditors rivate farms. than they spend on basic education Australia - Three years after the kitchens and and health. (UNDP, 98) Activists, commencement of the Jabiluka asants have Churches, and Non Government Uranium mine blockade in the oductive when Organizations are spearheading the Northern Territory, mine owner Rio Landowners campaign "Drop the Debt" to reduce Tinto announced on March 22nd it e armies poverty in the poorest countries, would suspend any development in through further significant progress in the near future. The campaign has the cancellation of unpayable third involved thousands of people and world debt, by the time of the Genoa seen hundreds of arrests. Rio cited G8 Summit in July 2001. strong opposition to the mine by www.dropthedebt.org indigenous owners and the wider community, as well as the low market price of uranium, as determining factors.

7 The Global Warming President Climate Justice Facts Last year CorpWatch launched an initiative to redefine the global warming issue as a question of local and Joshua Karliner If it is not curtailed, carbon dioxide emissions global justice. In November 2000, CorpWatch organized the First Climate Justice Summit in The Hague bringing representatives from communities already adversely impacted by the fossil-fuel industry from the US President G.W. Bush will have to reverse course soon unless will cause climate change resulting in increased and Southern countries together to join the climate change debate. he wants to go down in history as the global warming president. frequency and severity of storms, floods and The President pulled the U.S. out of the global treaty negotiated drought. And it will cause the spread of diseases, Climate Change Is Real in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. such as malaria. It will increase hunger and bring "Projected climate changes during the 21st century have the potential to lead to future large-scale and Most of the world's governments, some large corporations, about displacement and mass migrations of people possibly irreversible changes in Earth systems, resulting in impacts on continental and global scales." -- for example, Alcoa and DuPont, and even members of Bush's with ensuing social conflict. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001 own administration, such Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and The US, with 5 percent of the Earth's population, The 1990s were the warmest decade and 1998 was the warmest year on record. EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, have recognized already produces one-quarter of the world's man- The increase in temperature in the 20th century is likely to have been the largest of any century during that climate change is a serious concern. made carbon dioxide. Deciding to bail out of the the past 1,000 years. But Bush has catered to his campaign contributors in the oil Kyoto Protocol makes the US the world's number There has been a widespread retreat of mountain glaciers during the 20th century. The icecap atop industry. In announcing his decision on carbon dioxide Mount Kilimanjaro, which has decreased in size by 82% since 1912, will completely disappear in less one environmental rogue state. than 15 years. emissions, Bush said that the "scientific knowledge of the European governments are challenging the US. causes of, and solutions to, global climate change" is Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions account for 64% of global warming gases. 75% of human caused CO2 ''This isn't some marginal environmental issue that emissions come from burning oil, gas and coal. "incomplete." can be ignored or played down,'' said European If it is not halted, climate change will most probably result in increased frequency and severity of storms, Bush also said that carbon dioxide emissions from power Union Environment Commissioner Margot floods, drought and water shortage; the spread of disease; increased hunger; displacement and mass plants are not officially classified as "pollutants." But Carbon Wallstroem ''It has to do with trade and economics.'' migrations of people and ensuing social conflict. dioxide emissions account for 64 percent of global-warming There is talk in European capitals of building a Who's Responsible? gases. A full 75 percent of human-caused carbon dioxide coalition among Europe, Japan and Russia to emissions come from burning oil, gas and coal, this according implement the Kyoto accord without the US. Climate change is seen as a political issue among nations. The US, responsible for about a quarter of all to a February report by a U.N. panel of the world's top climate global warming gasses, is calling for greater CO2 reduction by developing nations. But many corporations emit more CO2 than most countries. scientists and experts. Joshua Karliner is executive director of CorpWatch. Just 122 corporations account for 80% of all carbon dioxide emissions. Oil produced by just four companies-Shell, Exxon-Mobil, BP-Amoco-Arco, and Chevron-Texaco- accounts for 10% of all carbon emissions. Oil produced by Shell emits more carbon dioxide than most countries in the world including Canada, Brazil and Mexico. BP-Amoco's production accounts for more emissions than those of its home country, the UK. Exxon-Mobil's production creates emissions equivalent to 80% of those from all of Africa or South America. Royal Dutch Shell sent 43 official representatives and lobbyists to the November 2000 climate negotiations in The Hague, a delegation larger than most countries and nearly half the size of the 100 plus person US delegation. Economic globalization advances global warming and the fossil fuel industry's bottom line. Since the 1992 Earth Summit, the World Bank has spent 13.6 billion dollars on fossil fuels projects which will generate 37.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide. Ninety percent of these World Bank-sponsored oil, gas and coal projects will benefit transnational corporations based in the world's seven richest countries. Meanwhile less than 9 percent of this energy lending is devoted to meeting the energy needs of the world's poorest 2 billion people. Who Pay s the Price? "The impacts of future changes in climate extremes are expected to fall disproportionately on the poor." -- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Rural Poor and Indigenous Peoples: "Climate change would probably exacerbate hunger and poverty around the world... People who are highly dependent on farming, fishing or forestry will well see their livelihoods destroyed." -The United Nations Environment Programme The Urban Poor: "Climate change will be accompanied by an increase in heat waves, often exacerbated by increased humidity and urban air pollution, which would cause an increase in heat-related deaths...The impact would be greatest in urban populations, affecting particularly the elderly, sick and those without access to air-conditioning." -- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Coastal Dwelling Poor: IPCC predicts "a widespread increase in the risk of flooding for many human settlements... from both increased heavy precipitation and sea-level rise." Particularly hard hit will be low- lying countries like Bangladesh and small island states whose very existence is threatened. Communities Already Affected by the Oil Industry: Communities that already bear the brunt of oil company activities-such as the Ogoni in the Niger Delta, the Gwich'in in the Arctic Refuge, or African Americans in Norco, Louisiana-face a "double whammy." First they are hit by the local environmental and human rights problems associated by the oil industry. And then they face the prospect of their communities being flooded or destroyed by climate change. Keeping Carbon Dioxide in the Ground Halting Shell, Chevron, Exxon-Mobil and other companies' oil extraction in the Niger Delta would protect the human rights and environment of the Ogoni, Ijaw and other indigenous people, while keeping 770 million tons of carbon out of the atmosphere. Preventing Occidental Petroleum from extracting oil from indigenous U'wa territory in Colombia would protect the U'wa while keeping 154 million tons of carbon out of the atmosphere. Halting the UNOCAL-Total-Fina sponsored Yadana gas pipeline in Burma, would end associated forced labor and environmental degradation there, while keeping 156 million tons of carbon out of the atmosphere Banking on climate change Sourced from: http://www.corpwatch.org Daphne Wysham Land use changes, Fossil fuel burning from World Bank projects THE GREEN MACHINE forestry 24.4% completed after 1992 will contribute an Methane immense burden of carbon dioxide to the Sectors responsible earth's atmosphere - 38 billion tonnes in total - for emissions Rotting vegetation equivalent to 1.7 times the total emitted by all The main culprits and the world's countries in 1996. Between 1992 gases and 1998, the world bank has in fact spent 25 Australia emits about Agriculture 15.2% times more money in fuelling climate change Methane 572,000 kt of greenhouse Energy 53.4% through fossil fuel projects than in averting it by gases a year - 1-2% of the By-product of feed Carbon dioxide renewable energy generation. This is despite world total digestion by livestock the bank's acknowledgement that climate Coal-fired change is disastrous for poor nations, and that powerstations efficiency and renewable resources such as Industrial processes solar power are the best ways to serve the two 1.9% Waste 5.1% billion rural poor world-wide who have no Carbon dioxide Methane electricity By-product of production Landfill decomposition From Climate Change and the World Bank processes

8 Economic sanctions leave Iraq in the stone age Syndrome among countless US and over 300 Australian Andrew Pearson soldiers. "Spilling blood to guarantee multinational “The policeman’s Iraq is a cradle of civilization. The cultural heritage companies' control over access to oil commits us to a from Babylon is immense, yet 11 years of economic military economy, increases our dependence on sanctions have constituted a total war against the past, automobiles, and makes us prey to high gas prices", riot club functions present, and future of this Middle Eastern nation. argues one activist website. Scott Ritter, former head Sanctions are weapons of of the weapons inspections mass destruction team in Iraq for 6 years, said like a magic wand, Iraq has experienced a shift in 1999 that "Today, Iraq no from relative economic prosperity longer possesses arms of to a condition verging on mass destruction. The under whose hard complete disaster, and it gets inherent inhumanity of worse every day. UN Resolution economic sanctions damages 687 impose sanctions that have those who impose it. As an caress the banal denied Iraq imports of every American, I resent having my conceivable item necessary for national character stained this people's health, safety, and well- way." being. Pencils, school desks, soul grows vivid bicycles, medicine, hospital Sanctions keep Saddam equipment, water purification in power systems, books, and more. In targeting civilians, and the nameless According to UNICEF (8/99), sanctions have fostered if pre-war trends in child resentment among Iraqi mortality had continued through people toward the U.S., not recover their the 1990s, Iraq would have had Saddam Hussein. They have 500,00 fewer deaths of children strengthened Hussein's power under 5 during the period from & undermined institutions of authenticity”. 1991-98. UNICEF reports that civil society necessary for "4,500 children under the age of 5 Iraqi woman with dehydrated and malnourished democratic change. Surma are dying each month from child, Saddam Hussein Childrens Hospital Hamid, a Representative of hunger and disease" (1996). the Committee in Defense of "This is equivalent to two or three Hiroshimas" said Iraqi Women's Rights in Victoria, notes that "The Ba'th Ashraf Bayoumi, former head of the World Food regime denies the existence of the working class and the Programme Observation Unit. When asked about this formation of a legal system to protect their rights. The Refugees fleeing persecution kept tremendous cost of life, former US Secretary of State death penalty is used against those who demand Madeline Albright remarked, "we think the price is freedom and rights of assembly and protest." locked up in Australia worth it". Sanctions are Hussein's most powerful propaganda tool on which he can blame the Iraqi people's suffering. Judy McVey Bombed into the stone age Furthermore, U.S. indifference has elevated anti- People fleeing persecution in brutal dictatorships, war and poverty come to Australia seeking refuge. What Picture a country before 1990 with 18.3 million American sentiment in other Arab nations. they find is further persecution, getting locked up in detention camps which have been labelled "concentration people and a Gross Domestic Product of AUS$120.5 Iraq is not Saddam Hussein. Retired Army Col. camps" by the Bishop of Perth and condemned by editorials in The Australian and The Age newspapers. billion, GDP growth at 10.4%, and $7000 per capita Harry Summers notes the US has a long history of Every asylum-seeker who arrives in Australia without the necessary papers is locked up in a detention centre income. Iraq produced 2.8 million barrels of oil per day, demonizing enemies - "It always makes it easier to fight while their refugee status is assessed, and then they are granted only 30 month visas. 60% of its economy. a war if you demonize people so that you're not killing Most of the refugees who recently came to Australia fled Iraq as a result of the US war for oil in 1991, and Today, GDP and per capita income have fallen by human beings, you're killing the devil." Iraq is a country the campaign of bombing and sanctions that continues today. While Australia supported the US intervention, the government refuses to acknowledge responsibility for the refugees that war produces. Perhaps they are 2/3. In 1990, 90% of the population had access to of 18 million people - teachers, students, doctors, and worried that refugees bring a different story of what the war was about. abundant safe drinking water and sanitation. Today, farmers - most of whom have no desire for war or the One man, Mohammed, has been seeking refuge for ten years. He faced political persecution in Iraq, and access to potable water is 35-50% of what it was. current regime. after fleeing through Iran and Turkey, finally arrived in Australia. After seven months in detention, he was only Children, being the most vulnerable, are hardest hit by "It is the sanctions that are weapons of mass granted a Temporary visa, so he is still seeking refuge. He cannot leave Australia to visit his family and they easily preventable diseases. 32% of children under five, destruction, used against the Iraqi people," Ahmad says. cannot join him here. some 960,000 babies, are chronically malnourished - a "It kills large numbers of people, innocent children and There are many Afghans in the detention camps, refugees of the brutal Taliban government, which denies rise of 72% since 1991. As many as 70% of Iraqi adults without discrimination." basic rights to women and the Hazara people. Political opponents of these regimes are tortured and murdered, unless they can find asylum elsewhere. Instead of treating them as a threat, Australia should be women suffer from anemia. From 1990 to 1997, welcoming these courageous people. maternal mortality rates increased from 50/100,000 live Taking action around the world For more than a year detainees have been protesting against their conditions in all six of Australia's detention births to 117. Since the Gulf war, thousands of people worldwide camps - Port Hedland, Curtin, Woomera, Perth, Maribyrnong and Villawood. Some have engaged in hunger While Iraq was a leader in education among and others have united in protest of the war against the strikes, while others have sewn up their lips to protest their conditions. Refugees have rioted, and at developing nations, with 75% secondary school Iraqi people. Many have mounted campaigns to ship Woomera in South Australia, they broke out of the camp for two days. enrollment and illiteracy at 20%, today thousands of basic medical supplies to hospitals in Iraq, and Activists have been building a campaign to challenge government policy, demanding the closure of all camps, kids work to support their family, and school enrollment protesting their governments' refusal to allow such aid at an end to mandatory detention and full rights for the refugees. Mandatory detention is supported by both the for ages 6-23 has declined to 53%. So many schools local Post Offices. Thousands of activists have risked Liberal and Labor parties. were damaged or have deteriorated since the war that milion dollar fines to visit Iraq and pay witness. Around Of the 5.7 million people who have migrated to Australia since World War Two, Australia has accepted almost 600,000 under humanitarian programs. Australia is the only schools are filled to 6 times their capacity. Most people the world High School students have staged walkouts, western country with a policy of mandatory detention, in effect in Iraq face power outages at least 6 hours a day. people have shut down highways, interrupted "My name is Sara. I am nine since 1992. Hospitals have remained without repair since 1991, government sponsored "town meetings", staged civil years old. I have a seven-year- The Liberal Party justifies the practice as deterrence which and are often short of basic necessities like clean disobedience at military institutions, and more. old sister called Tara. prevents a flood of refugees. There are approximately 23 million needles, insulin, painkillers, beds, ambulances, and "While sanctions escalate the violence against I come here with my family 14 refugees in the world today, victims of wars and economic crisis. incubators. While over 500 civilians have died directly Iraqis, we must escalate our nonviolent efforts until months ago because we are From July 1989 to January 2001 10, 156 people arrived by boat from Air attacks, which have continued since the Gulf sanctions are lifted and a peaceful way to promote scared. I have never seen on Australia's coastline, as so-called boat people, without visas. War, over 1 million people have died because of democracy is initiated" states Rania Masri, a US Iraqi Melbourne because we are The numbers increased since the first mandatory detention centre was opened at Port Hedland in 1992. locked up in this place." economic sanctions. activist. Progress is slowly being made. Russia and The government has made reference to refugees as dangerous An Iraqi political dissident, Rebwar Ahmad, has seen France broke the official air embargo by flying in planes - Sara Eslami, Maribyrnong criminals or terrorists, and claimed that they are "queue jumpers" the impact of sanctions first-hand. He asks, "What kind of medical supplies and journalists. There is mounting Detention Centre, February 2001 taking someone else's rights to our protection. In 2000, 2,945 of savage and inhumane policy is it that punishes the pressure on the US and Britain, the two main advocates arrived and two-thirds were still in detention in February 2001. But of 1,114 about whom a decision was made, almost 90% got some kind of visa. They qualified under Saddam regime by killing thousands of children and of sanctions, by their allies in the Gulf War. Australia, Australia's own system. cutting the milk, food and medicine supplies for however, still supports the sanctions. There are no queues for refugees. People in desperate fear of their lives have no time to join a queue and newborn infants?" Activists like Hamid believe that with international cannot apply for a visa in their own country. pressure, the US led sanctions will end. She Refugee groups around Australia are preparing for a Day of Action on 3 June, including rallies in major cities, Iraq is no longer a threat passionately states that the sanctions are "imposed by to demand an end to mandatory detention. In Victoria, the rally is already endorsed by the Australian Council More ordinance was dropped on Iraq during the Gulf the ruling class, but the workers never remain silent and of Trade Unions and the Ethnic Communities' Council of Victoria. The Melbourne rally is planned for 1pm War in 1991 than was used during the entire Vietnam indifferent in their struggle. The protest and strikes by on Sunday 3 June in Melbourne, at the State Library. War. Besides military installations, barracks and the workers on the streets testify their determination to government building, factories, bridges, hospitals, water abolish slavery and exploitation." Refugee Action Collective-Victoria (RAC). treatment plants, and farms were bombed. Phone 0418 347 374 or 03 9386 4815. RAC meets every Tuesday, 6pm at Trades Hall. The US fired over 300 tons of Depleted Uranium in For more information: Iraq, a dangerously radioactive metal causing cancer www.saveageneration.org and birth defects, and suspected cause of Gulf War www.iraqaction.org 9 Earthdreaming a nuclear-free future at Beverley approval, the waste acid solutions are discharged back into the and diesel fumes. Police involved in the operation are subject to an Graham St John aquifer, which Heathgate is under no obligation to rehabilitate. investigation by the Internal Investigations Branch for report to [email protected] Protestors learned that despite receiving final government the Police Complaints Authority. Helen Johnson, an 11 year old "Black, white, brown or brindle - we'll fight this mine." approval in April 1999, grave concerns about the purported safety Adnyamathanha, was also pepper sprayed in the incident. All of Ronnie Coultard - senior Adnyamathanha representative) of the operation remained. Under what hydrogeologist Gavin this ensured national media coverage - indeed all the major Mudd describes as a 'veil of secrecy', the Environmental Impact networks arrived several days later to film Earthdreamers return to In early May 2000, Wilpena Pound in South Australia's Flinders Statement process, mining trials and assessments were conducted the site to engage in silent witness in solidarity with a large Ranges became the initial staging ground for peaceful actions without public consultation, enabling Heathgate to conduct an contingent of Adnyamathanha including the last surviving mounted against local manifestations of a burgeoning nuclear operation that failed to address 'fundamental questions about Wilyaru (initiated man), Artie Wilton. industry. Wilpena marked the beginning of Earthdream2000 - a environmental and operational safety'. Most Earthdreamers were fresh to the sight of Arabunna elder series of events which would attract hundreds of pilgrims, Heathgate (and Southern Cross Resources, who have proposed Kevin Buzzacott at this blockade. His confrontation with Star performers and protestors who, over a period of five months, made another acid ISL operation at Honeymoon 200 kms to the south), Force officers - where, with fire stick in hand, he attempted to their way north through Central Australia to the Top End, East have failed to demonstrate or release data demonstrating that the 'make a fire for peace' - made a remarkable impression on Timor, and across to the east coast in a convoy of assorted vehicles. acidic, heavy metal and radioactive pollution caused by acid ISL everybody (the scene has been immortalised in the film An annual event, Robin Cooke of the sculpture group Mutoid Waste mining can 'attenuate' over time. Based on his review of operations documentary Emu Spew - the title alluding to Adnyamathanha Co, had envisioned Earthdream as a pilgrimage to Australia's using acid ISL, especially in the former Soviet Union where such Kelvin Johnson's story of a strangely sick emu coughing up 'spiritual heart land' - a kind of 'reconciliatory' movement. operations have resulted in horrendous ground water contamination, yellow bile). Following these events, members of the convoy were The Earthdream carnival of protest will sets sail again this year, Mudd stated that these corporations "can't demonstrate such invited to make camp near the Adnyamathanha community of gathering at Wilpena Pound campground between May 1-5 2001, miraculous restoration by nature and hence they won't release their Nepabunna, where they spent several days de-briefing amongst and later in the month at 'Mutonia' (Alberrie Creek) mobilising for trial data". Furthermore, Beverley poses a risk of contaminating the themselves and communing with Adnyamathanha people. Upon desert adventures and action that evoke storylines from cult movie continent's precious Great Artesian Basin with radioactive and invitation, they then headed north to Kevin Buzzacott's Keepers of classics 'Mad Max', 'Priscilla Queen of the Desert', and 'Tank Girl'. heavy metal solutions. According to Mudd, such a proposal would Lake Eyre Camp (KOLE) where Kevin and his supporters hold At Wilpena in 2000, Earthdreamers responded to the call of not be accepted by regulators in the United States. vigil to the ecologically and culturally disastrous operations of senior Adnyamathanha representatives opposing the Beverley Earthdreamers also learned that, despite the region's uranium mining heavy weight Western Mining Corporation. uranium mine - the first commercial mine to start up under the significance to the Adnyamathanha community, they have not The Beverley protest proved to be a significant site for the pro-mining Howard Government, and Australia's first new been properly consulted about the mine. Sidestepping the generation of an intercultural alliance which has grown to combat uranium mine in twenty years. Upon the invitation of the requirements of the Aboriginal Heritage Act (1998), Heathgate the local operations of a diabolically irresponsible industry. Adnyamathanha, and in conjunction with the Flinders Ranges gained approval for its EIS without affording their representatives Mounting support for both Aboriginal sovereignty and sound Environmental Action Collective (FREAC), Earthdreamers (the Flinders Ranges Aboriginal Heritage Consultative ecological practice, the Beverley protest and subsequent convoyed out past the Gammon Ranges and Lake Frome to the Committee) adequate consultation. Furthermore, in order to Earthdream events have catalysed a new mobile DiY party/protest mine site. Operated by Heathgate Resources Pty Ltd., a wholly legitimate their operations, there are widespread reports that movement in Australia. This year, the scheduled events following owned Australian subsidiary of the US-based General Atomics Heathgate manipulated and exploited divisions in the the Earthdream Wilpena Pound convergence (May 1-5) will Corporation, Beverley is located on Adnyamathanha land. Adnyamathanha community, pressuring Native Title Claimants to include a major gathering at the home of the 'plane-henge', Over several days, a non-violent protest camp blockaded the sign off on agreements. Such circumstances had already led to an Mutonia, from May 26-30 (Mutonia is on Arabunna land at main entrance to an operation which proposes to produce 1000 intercultural protest at Beverley in October 1999, an occasion Alberrie Creek on the Oodnadattaa Track near Lake Eyre South). tonnes of uranium oxide (or U3O8) a year over 15 years marking the end of the 1000 km 'Humps not Dumps' trek Be prepared for visits to Beverly, Roxby Downs, the Keepers of employing the notorious acid In Situ Leach (ISL) technique. With undertaken by eight female cameleers. Lake Eyre camp and the proposed radioactive waste dumps near full scale mining having begun in late November 2000 (and with During the Beverley blockade, over 30 people were detained Woomera. Coober Pedy, Central Australia (Winter Solstice - June the mine officially opened on February 19 2001), Beverley is the for 'trespassing' on the mine lease. Most claimed that, under the 21), Darwin and Perth will host further party zones. western world's first commercial acid ISL uranium mine. In this invitation of Adnyamathanha elders, they were 'witnessing' for the relatively low cost procedure, sulphuric acid solutions are pumped community. Most, including a Seven Network camera operator, into the Beverley aquifer dissolving the uranium mineral into a were subject to the brutality of South Australian police special For Further Information: solution, which is drawn back to the surface where it is extracted operations group Star Force. While being detained in a tight Earthdream: and processed into yellowcake for exporting. With government shipping container, they were subject to noxious welding gases http://www.beam.to/earthdream

Bad chants repeated... Zapatistas struggle so successful. Contrary to achieving this. Not to mention the fact that it is Ultimately the success of the movement will continued from page 3 what we would like to think, it's more than not nearly half as exciting working as part of a depend on a large number of people coming On the tram that day, talking with Pam from wearing a ski mask and yelling Ya basta! It has local based group in Sunshine than being on a together around a common goal and working Thomastown, I realised that despite the been their ability to create a broad-based political barricade at crown. through the hard questions. It is time to turn movement's successes, it has failed to and ideological dialogue, their democratic There are always ebbs and flows in symbolic victories into long-term change. Many successfully link global struggles with local thinking and obedience to the will of the majority movements. But perhaps now comes the hard of the issues the movement raises reflect popular community struggles. that has enabled them to mobilise large sections work after the major flows like N30, A16, S26 concern about the rough edges of globalisation - The predominance of white middle-class of Mexican society. and S11. Some activists doubt whether the fears about the growing division between rich young people within the movement fails to To build a broad-based and pluralised movement is up to it. “We are going to pour all and poor, harming the environment, caring about reflect the various communities that are being movement, massive public education and, for these resources and creativity into M1 and it will profits before people, genetically modified foods directly impacted by globalisation. Who is want of a better word, conversion is needed. We get covered like a sports game or something. and the rest. These are widely shared anxieties, speaking on behalf of whom? Who is being have to address issues that we know impact How many people did S11 get? - that sort of across all borders. The real challenge lies in us represented? Whose stories are being told? As people here in Melbourne. In a movement where thing… and if its any less… they will say the agreeing on what we are 'for'; which is far more Susan George recently commented many activists avoid political labels and Seattle movement is in decline. Seattle, difficult than what Naomi Klein calls ‘a laundry ‘globalisation benefits only 10% of the ideological debates this is no small feat. In order Melbourne and Prague were important meetings list of what we are against’. population, so we should have 90% of the to work with people who are most affected by that needed to be stopped, but now the pressure population with us’. While the anti-globalisation globalisation, we need to work with community is on, we have to keep momentum up and I think movement is celebrating the use of creativity and and grassroots groups, in an effort to support the only way this movement has of doing that is Jen Couch teaches community development direct action by groups like the Zapatistas, it is their work and offer our resources. There is no by keeping numbers on the street” a young and is undertaking research in the culture of important to be clear what has made the denying there are a whole host of ambiguities in activist commented recently. anti-globalisation resistance. 10 Angry we may be, “fascist” we are not This article was published on oriented action. identifies McDonalds as the defenseless they shape trade policy themselves, to www.indymedia.melbourne.org While it is true that most within the victim of "a gigantic, unaccountable, pour money into their own pockets. We just prior to the s11 protests movement are angry, most will do all transnational monster (the green have an extremely dangerous situation: they can to avoid acts of violence. movement)". the laws are not fair. Those that make Marni Cordell Secondly and more importantly, it McDonalds is by no means the rules have most of the money (read The tone of discourse surrounding discounts the basis of the protest itself: defenseless, and demonstrated its power "power"), and no watchdog. s11 misrepresents the aims of the the reclamation of community and the in the McLibel case (and since) by There is one widely effecting, movement. rights of the individual; and the rejection deciding and controlling the level of widespread reason to be wary of the It's difficult not to become outwardly of corporate power. In reality and if information that you and I (and Imre) World Trade Organisation: the fact that angry when you are informed about nothing else, the movement is about were entitled to receive. "Proposed it operates without a monitor. We need Your baking bravado and culinary injustice. Generally, the more you find making a future that is people-friendly. transmissions (of the McLibel to ask ourselves why it is not entirely creativity are required for a series out, the less able you are to divorce your The people involved with this documentary) on the BBC and channel 4 accountable to a public whose living of cake stalls to raise money for M1X, Friends of the Earth, AWOL, emotions from the facts. The less able movement, care about people. This were pulled for fear of libel. Both conditions it alters and determines. and similar projects. Please bring you tend to become to explain your concern is not reflected in catch-cries companies have been threatened with such as "smash corporate tyranny". legal action by the company in the past, Why do the decisions made by a cakes, brownies, pies, tarts, position, rationally and calmly, to those muffins, and more with your name Contrary to the belief of at least one along with more than 90 other greedy minority affect the lives of less knowledgeable than yourself. When and ingredients on a card, to the it comes to social and environmental mainstream journalist, Imre Saluszinsky organizations in the UK". Money means every one of us? following places, or on the day at causes, an angry tone can often disguise (Welcome to the Wetland, Land of Pious power, and when you're as rich as Acting against the degradation of the stall location: Activists, 14/8/00) those planning to McDonalds, your best defense is the community and the environment, while good intent. Friends of the Earth demonstrate against the World power to tightly control your public it may make you unpopular in richer The movement against corporate Bookshop, 312 Smith St autonomy is no different. Much of the Economic Forum in Melbourne on image - it's interesting that Imre feels the circles, does not make you irrational, a Collingwood 9419-8700 By discourse being generated from within September 11th, do not operate under a need to defend an entity that obviously ranter, difficult or a fascist. I urge Friday May 5th, 6:00 or at the S11 movement is threatening, angry "kind of green-left fascism". This has the means and will to defend itself. people to see the inter-connection 10:00 am on Saturday May and hard-hitting. Yes, there are issues to dangerous generalisation needs to be Imre then goes on to claim that between each others plights and causes, 6th for cake stall at shop. be angry about. Yes, the World examined. "Maccas" is a wholesome company that to realise that so many injustices Melbourne University Food Economic Forum is a huge and Although I am aware that Imre "simply tries to provide tasty and originate in, and are fertilised by, the Co-op, Student Union 2nd multifaceted enemy. But I think the tone claims himself a satirist, I believe his convenient meals", and "acts strictly greed of a very few. Floor. Monday May 14th by of communication has betrayed the unique brand of 'humour' is an within the laws of every country in The protest against the World 4:30 pm, for cake stall on movement in two major ways. extremely persuasive and subversive which it operates". Economic Forum needs and aims to campus Tuesday 15th, Firstly, it overlooks the fact that force upon mainstream audiences. His Although I would dispute the be an inclusive movement, but it will 10:00am most, if not all, protestors preparing for arguments therefore need to be accuracy of the statements themselves, only succeed if we put aside our Friends of the Earth S11 actually plan to do so peacefully examined in much the same way as the essence of what Imre has failed to differences and form one united, very Bookshop By Friday May and with fun. They plan primarily to those of a political opinion writer. see is that Multinational companies are loud voice. We do have the power to 25th, 6:00 pm, for cake stall demonstrate an alternate way of life to In his article, Imre defends the able to operate "within laws" (even challenge the priorities of Multinational Cake Stall Fundraisers for M1X over weekend. Location the self-oriented, profit-driven one that integrity of McDonalds Family when their actions are highly corporations. After all, together we TBA. is increasingly being fostered in our Restaurants, and asserts that the questionable,) precisely because the constitute their very lifelines: a market Call Andrew at 9384 6240 with society. They plan to do this on the day, company suffered a grave injustice in laws in question are tailor-made to suit and a labour force. questions or to help at the stalls. with games, theatre and community- the infamous McLibel case. He their needs. The rich get richer because Nothing is true, everything is permitted All the news that fits Workplace bullying affects one in four Australians according to research by Drake Personnel. Drake A sign of our times? chief Diane Utatao said some companies protected Bosses of a publishing firm are trying to work out why no and even encouraged bullying in the pursuit of improving sales figures. "There's a fine line between one noticed that one of their employees had been sitting dead at performance management and bullying when his desk for five days before anyone asked if he was feeling managers are competing to meet figures," she said. okay. George Turklebaum, 51, who had been employed as a proof- Aboriginal activist Geoff Clark says that, on the tenth The choice is to look beyond reader at a New York firm for 30 years, had a heart attack in the anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal open-plan office he shared with 23 other workers. He quietly Deaths in Custody, Aboriginal death rates in prison the obvious and empty dualities of have not been lowered and more Aboriginal people Labor or Liberal, the News on passed away on Monday, but nobody noticed until Saturday are being jailed than ever. Seven or the News on Nine, Coke morning when an office cleaner asked why he was still working or Pepsi. The lies you are being during the weekend. Anarchist News Service fed will not see light of day in any His boss Elliot Wachiaski said "George was always the first PO Box 503 courtroom; not when the guy in each morning and the last to leave at night, so no one Newtown, 2042 courtroom is itself a product of the found it unusual that he was in the same position all that time same lies. and didn't say anything. He was always absorbed in his work The choice is to understand and kept much to himself." yourself and your fellow human A post mortem examination revealed that he had been dead LICK HERE! beings, not as economic units or a for five days after suffering a coronary. Ironically, George was means to achieving an end, but as proofreading manuscripts of medical textbooks when he died. You may be one living, breathing, spirited elements of the lucky 25 of a world we are bound to share. My Karma ran over your Dogma M1X Needs Your Financial Support! “The Paper” Subscriptions Whether or not you agree with the opinions expressed in individual information is completely confidential and will not be traded, sold, or We will deliver 10 issues to you for $15 non-waged and articles, if you support the idea of an independent media, distributed given to any other individual or group for any purpose. concession or $25 if you are working. Fill out your details below widely and for free, then take the next step and support or join us in our and send it to us. If you are an organisation and would like to efforts. Name______receive more than one copy, please contact us for details. 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