BY TIM STEWART
BRISBANE — Members of 20 organisations came together on June 26 to plan protests outside the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Brisbane.
The meeting unanimously decided that a march "to the gates of CHOGM" on the opening day of the international summit — October 6 — would be the most effective form of protest, and formally launched the CHOGM Action Network (CAN) to organise the march.
There was broad agreement at the meeting that the march should involve as many campaigning groups as possible and raise demands for action when international attention will be focused on CHOGM. The provisional demands agreed to are:
CAN members agreed that as new groups join in planning the march, additional demands may be incorporated and the demands developed into a platform that is officially presented to government leaders at the CHOGM meeting.
As well as the march on CHOGM, CAN is planning a parallel conference, public seminars and other protests. CAN conveners agree that the march on CHOGM does not preclude support for a range of acts of non-violent civil disobedience coinciding with CHOGM.
The CHOGM Action Network was initiated by S11 and M1 Alliance activists who were not satisfied with the decision by the mainly student-based Stop CHOGM collective to call for a blockade of CHOGM, instead of other forms of protest.
The state Labor government and the Brisbane City Council are working hard to avoid large protests at CHOGM, buying off many community and cultural groups through a massive cultural program called the CHOGM Peoples Festival and the associated Youth Forum. In particular, Â鶹´«Ã½ of the Murri community have been organised to perform opening ceremonies, dancing and other "celebratory" activities.
Police negotiators have begun regular calls to student unions and set up meetings with groups like Jubilee Australia, which is planning a massive "ring of hands" at Musgrave Park, adjacent to the convention centre where CHOGM will be held. Jubilee has run a significant international campaign to drop Third World debt, and have asked U2 singer Bono, and even British Prime Minister Tony Blair to join in the ring of hands.
In addition, regular media updates on "anti-terrorist" plans, including police, military and secret service collaboration, smack of an Olympics-style effort to intimidate and isolate protesters.
CAN currently involves members of WTO Watch, Australian Coalition for Economic Justice, Spiral Community Information Centre, Grassroots Centre, Democratic Socialist Party, Resistance, Rally for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, the Committees in Solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Australia-Tibet Council, Queensland Conservation Council, Friends of the Earth, Amnesty International, Queensland Council of Unions Executive member Claire Moore, Treaty Circle, the Greens, Socialist Alliance, Jubilee Australia, presenters from radio station 4ZZZ, and the Zimbabwe Information Centre.
At the launch of CAN, the meeting was informed that the official trade union leadership — through the Queensland Council of Unions — had not yet decided what form of protest it was planning for CHOGM, and was awaiting a special meeting of the Australian Council of Trade Unions in Melbourne on July 2 to discuss CHOGM.
CAN can be contacted at <CAN_Brisbane@yahoo.com>.