A few comments on this article.

At 04:34 PM 9/14/2000, Tony Abdo wrote:
>S11 BLOCKADE A HUGE SUCCESS
>WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM PARTIALLY SHUT DOWN A NEW GENERATION OF STRUGGLE
>By John Tully
>
>MELBOURNE: The three-day blockade of the Asia-Pacific wing of the World
>Economic Forum (WEF) here on September 11, 12 and 13 has been a stunning
>success. The blockade was organised under the general slogans of "From
>Seattle to Melbourne, fight corporate greed!" and "Stand up for global
>justice and the environment!" The S11 Alliance, the umbrella
>organisation behind the protest, largely kept its promise to "Shut down
>the World Economic Forum".

The WEF went ahead - severely disrupted, but it wasn't "shut down".

>As one tired, but elated, picket said in a spirit of friendly
>internationalist rivalry: "Hey, Seattle! Melbourne's right up there with
>you!"

The joke going round is that Seattle was a gas, but Melbourne was a hit!

>having lost $10 million in takings. But more than Crown's profits have
>taken a hammering. Rumour has it that the WEF organisers are so
>demoralised that they are considering holding future events by
>teleconference rather than brave the wrath of a new generation of
>anti-capitalist campaigners.

The closest to a statement is that Crown will never hold another gathering
like it.

>The success of the S11 blockade shows that the world-wide upsurge of
>revulsion against capitalist globalisation that began last year at
>Seattle is set to continue. Tens of thousands of demonstrators sealed
>off the conference and effectively disrupted its proceedings. All the
>entrances to the conference venue were blocked by pickets. Ironically, a
>four-metre high chain mesh fence erected by the police to keep out
>protestors also served to keep out WEF guests and personnel, and its
>metre-high concrete base was convenient for the spray painted slogans of
>the demonstrators. A number of high-ranking conservative political
>figures tried to run the gauntlet but turned back.

There would have been over 10,000 people there, perhaps close to 20,000 at
the most.  The police actions served to help s11 blockade the casino, but
on Tuesday and Wednesday they got delegates in by use of overwhelming
violence, including one unmarked police car running over a woman and then
leaving the scene (leaving the scene of an accident is a crime under
Victorian law).

>The premier of West Australia, Charles Court, a virulent opponent of
>Aboriginal land rights, was trapped for an hour in his car by a group of
>Aborigines. "This is the way you've had us for 200 years," jeered one
>burly Aborigine at the clearly discomfited politician. "Now you know how
>it feels."

It's Richard Court, not Charles.  He was trapped by a large group, not
solely Aborigines.

>The march wound through the city streets past the offices and shops of
>such transnational icons as Nike (closed for the duration of S11),
>McDonalds, the banks, and the Melbourne Stock Exchange; all heavily
>guarded by riot police. True to his form as an unmitigated liar, deputy
>police commissioner Neil O'Loughlin insisted that the marchers would
>"ransack" the city. Like all of his other ridiculous allegations, it
>proved baseless.

Absolutely true.  What's worse, after hospitalising a large number of
protestors (police ran into the crowd with motorcycles and horses, and
conducted massed baton-charges using special longer riot batons) there's a
plan for a State reception for them.  Words can't describe the outrage I
feel in that these armoured thugs beating down unarmed and unarmoured
non-violent protestors now get rewarded for their brutality.

>for a better world will continue. Although reactionary media and
>political figures attacked S11 for "involving children", these young
>people refused to be patronised and made it clear that they knew what
>they were fighting for.

This is also true - school students were being "brainwashed" according to
the mass media.  They knew why they were there.

>Government and media hypocrisy was shown when many of these young people
>were bashed by the police ­ we hear no cries of "child abuse" from
>moralising newspaper editors and shyster politicians. Dozens were
>hospitalised after unprovoked attacks by the notorious "Swat Squad", the
>paramilitary tactical response unit. The police rode their horses into
>crowds, savagely batoned passive demonstrators, and even stamped on
>heads in a rampage of violence. In one of the worst instances, the
>police bashed pickets early in the morning when other gates were
>unattended. Several hundred police suddenly erupted through the gates,
>catching a much smaller number of pickets by surprise from the rear, and
>flailing indiscriminately with their fists, boots and three-foot-long
>batons. All in all, several hundred demonstrators were injured, compared
>with a handful of police. The attack followed demands by WEF officials
>the day before that the police get tough with the pickets. In another
>incident, the!
>   police turned fire hoses on demonstrators around 3am, with
>temperatures around 4 degrees Celsius, presumably in order to amuse
>themselves, as the pickets were sitting down with their backs to the
>police.

Buy and large, this is an accurate reflection of what happened.  THe police
were accused of being too lenient after day one, when the largest number of
delegates were unable to attend their sessions.  The above was their
response on days two and three.

>There were also reports that police used capsicum gas spray and many
>police officers removed their identification badges before assaulting
>demonstrators.

No evidence of spray that I've seen, but they definitely removed their ID
badges.  Some were bashed while lying on the ground apparently unconscious.

>In fact, the police were sometimes so hyped up that they assaulted
>journalists and damaged their cameras.

The journalists' union, the MEAA, held a press conference about police
violence against journalists.

>Several hundred S11 supporters retaliated by briefly occupying the
>newspaper offices. The media also played up government threats to
>re-open old asylums and dickensian police cells to ensure that there was
>sufficient space to house arrested demonstrators.

It appears this was a smokescreen.  There was no plans for mass arrests,
just mass violence.  It seems it's easier to bash someone down than arrest
them - saves paperwork, I suppose.


"I simply do not agree that the state, or any other system of
organized power and violence, should have the authority to
determine what people think or say. If the state is granted the
power to shut me up, my counter argument is not that what I am
saying might be valuable. That would be a contemptible position,
in my view."  --> Noam Chomsky