Secondary students won't be intimidated
BY JODY BETZIEN
MELBOURNE — Over the last week, the establishment media have threatened young people with police repression if they attend the September 11 blockade of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Asia-Pacific Summit here.
Quoted in Melbourne's Herald-Sun, Peter Halloran, head of the police force's protective security division, said that high school students who intend to attend the protest "... need to be very wary of the fact that they could be unwittingly involved in violence". The S11 Alliance, which is one of the main organisers of the protest action, is committed to a non-violent, peaceful blockade of the WEF meeting.
Police have contacted schools at which activists are organising a high school walkout for September 11 and warned students not to support the protest. Resistance member and high school student Tim Doughney said, "The police called the school principals and warned them against supporting high school students going to the protest. But this won't stop us from building the protest at our school. The police are trying to intimidate us."
Carey Grammar student and Resistance activist James Crafti told ABC radio 3LO last week: " As a protestor, what do you achieve through a violent protest? You put people offside, people don't want to see a violent protest.
"We want a mass peaceful blockade of the World Economic Forum. If anything, there is a history of police brutality; most of the violence at Seattle was police violence. We hope for no violence whatsoever and will not respond to any police violence. We wish to bring as many people to the protest as possible.
"High school students are going to walk out in spite of the media and police attempts to portray S11 as violent. We are angry about the corporate greed that the WEF represents and we will be there in September in full force."