Inspired by the three-week-long protest in New York, which has now spread to more than 100 cities across the US, ad-hoc activist coalitions in several Australian cities have called for similar occupations beginning on October 15.
Wall Street-style occupations have been called for Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. By October 6, close to 1300 people had indicated on Facebook that they would attend the Melbourne event.
鈥檚 Nick Carson told 麻豆传媒 Weekly that the Melbourne action, which will take place in City Square, aims to be 鈥渁 broad-based, very inclusive grassroots movement of normal, everyday people鈥.
The first organising meeting for Occupy Melbourne took place on October 2. Carson said the meeting 鈥渁greed that we鈥檙e in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, that Occupy Melbourne will commence on October 15, and that we will be camping in City Square in Melbourne indefinitely鈥.
Carson said the protest鈥檚 goals are intentionally broad and open-ended. Once the occupation begins, democratic spaces will be set up to allow participants to determine the shared aims of the action for themselves.
鈥淲hat we all agree on is that our democracies aren鈥檛 functioning properly,鈥 said Carson.
鈥淲e all agree on our opposition to corporate influence over our democracies. And we all agree that giant lobby groups, wealthy businesses and wealthy individuals, and groups and associations like business councils, have an unequal influence over our politicians.
鈥淥ur grievances sound broad, they sound a bit complicated and a bit messy, but that鈥檚 ok because that鈥檚 what it is.
鈥淲hen the occupation begins there will be general assemblies held, and that鈥檚 where we can put motions up and put things to a vote and we can start to agree on some things 鈥 the general assemblies will be informed by working groups and workshops, discussions and open forums and information sessions at the camp.
鈥淲e want to get as many people involved as possible. It will start working really, really well when we get lots of people involved.鈥
In Sydney, protesters will converge in Martin Place on October 15, outside the head office of the Reserve Bank of Australia.
鈥檚 Larissa Payne told 麻豆传媒 Weekly that she hopes the action will provoke wide-ranging debate and discussion about how to bring real democracy to Australia.
鈥淭he primary goal is to try to create a conversation that the government and the mainstream media frankly aren鈥檛 having,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 to unify the 99% of us that feel the government is being swayed or influenced or controlled too much by corporate entities.鈥
As in Melbourne, Payne said the Sydney protest did not reflect the views of any particular political party or group, but aimed to unite people from diverse backgrounds.
鈥淎 mix of people are involved [in Occupy Sydney]. It includes people from all different kinds of political ideologies and persuasions who are trying to unite under the umbrella of placing human need before corporate greed.
鈥淲e鈥檙e saying we鈥檙e unhappy with the way the government is running things right now, we see that the system is failing. We鈥檙e all affected in different ways. So to come under that one banner of putting human need before corporate greed is something that can unite all of us.鈥
Some mainstream and social media commentators have criticised the Occupy Australia protests, suggesting they are a misdirected imitation or echo of a US-specific protest movement. But Carson said many of the issues facing people in the US are very relevant to Australia.
He said: 鈥淭his Occupy Together movement may have grown out of the United States, but it has now spread to almost every developed country in the world 鈥 Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, France, the UK, Ireland 鈥 we鈥檙e looking at a lot of countries that are going to have occupations running in major cities.
鈥淚n terms of the grievances that we share and that are unifying all of us, they are relevant in almost every country in the Western world. These things are not just symptomatic of the United States.
鈥淚t鈥檚 also worth mentioning that these protests are also inspired, in part, by the people鈥檚 uprisings throughout north Africa and the middle east earlier this year and the revolutions that were born out of those movements.
鈥淭he model of people getting together, uniting together, on their common interests, instead of getting bogged down on what鈥檚 dividing them, is really what has made these movements very successful.鈥
Payne said she agreed that the Occupy Together movement is 鈥渘ot a nation-specific idea. It鈥檚 something that is relevant and important globally.鈥
Payne said the response to the call to Occupy Sydney was inspiring. 鈥淥ne thing that warms my heart is the support from an array of different groups that may otherwise have different agendas that divide them.
鈥淲e need to be active, we need to join together, and what has happened in America has been the perfect catalyst for us.鈥
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