Students ready to voice anger
at spiritual home of
capitalism
Kim Bullimore prepares flags for
tomorrow's demonstration at the
Stock Exchange ... M1 activists
are hoping police will not interfere
with their blockade. Photo: Jon
Reid
By Joseph Kerr and Kirsty
Needham
In a left-wing den tucked between
Sydney's Carlton and United
brewery and the Chippendale
student warren near the University
of Sydney, they spent the
weekend plotting against global
capitalism.
Banners were unfurled and
painted, speeches were written
and meetings were held - all
reinforcing revolutionary fervour in time for May Day.
Expecting anywhere between
2,000 and 10,000 supporters tomorrow morning
outside the Stock Exchange, the
activists of the M1 movement have spent months
planning their blockade.
Organiser Sean Healy said
police had been notified of their plan.
They hope - but have not been
told in writing - that
police will not line up between
them and the exchange.
Their commitment is to changing
the way the world
works, not to violence - but
tomorrow they may face
hundreds of police as they try
to blockade the exchange, while fellow students,
environmentalists, unionists,
socialists and anarchists protest outside exchanges in
other cities.
"All the things I've been
seeing going wrong with the world ... [like] poverty
... it is
caused by the capitalist
system," said Mr Danny Fairfax.
The 18-year old, who works in
the mail room of an investment banking firm, has
been trying to raise awareness
of M1.
Mr Healy said the movement was
protesting against the incursion of the corporate
ethos into all parts of
everyday life and has targeted the exchange as the
"financial and
spiritual" home of capitalism.
"We want to kick along a social
discussion about what role the corporation plays
[and] whether it is an outmoded
form," said Mr Healy.
Sydney University psychology
student, Mr Daniel Ooi, also preparing for the protest
in Chippendale yesterday, said
Australians should be politically active.
"I think thinking about
political issues is something more people should do
and it is
an important part of being a
citizen in society," said Mr Ooi.
Mr Fairfax agreed: "Any
thought, I think, is better than if we sit on our
arses
watching TV all day."
Whatever unfolds, the
protesters will have the chance to tell their own
version of
events. The Internet collective
IndyMedia, which took stories of the first Seattle
protests online and was last
week raided by the FBI following riots in Quebec, is
planning to open its doors and
computer banks at StPeters to people who attend the
protests.
Other IndyMedia sites around
the world will also publish accounts, photographs and
voice recordings on the day.
Sydney student Mr Matthew
Arnison, who developed the technology used by the
group, said the Internet had
become a crucial network for the anti-globalisation
movement.
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