Fwd: Anti-Globalisation Protesters Claim Victory In Melbourne [2 article

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>Subject: Anti-Globalisation Protesters Claim Victory In Melbourne
>Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2000 07:56:48 -0700
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>Monday, September 11, 2000 by Agence France Presse
>
>Anti-Globalisation Protesters Claim Victory In Melbourne
>
>                  MELBOURNE, Australia - Anti-globalisation campaigners 
>claimed victory Monday after
>                  blockading a major international economic conference in a 
>pitched battle with police in
>                  which scores of people were hurt.
>
>                  Five police officers, two demonstrators and a casino 
>employee were taken to hospital as
>                  violence erupted at the start of the three-day World 
>Economic Forum (WEF) summit at
>                  Melbourne's Crown Casino.
>
>                  One demonstrator had three front teeth
>                  knocked out by a mounted policeman
>                  wielding a truncheon to clear an escape route
>                  for a state premier, Richard Court of Western
>                  Australia, who was trapped for almost an hour
>                  in his vandalised car.
>
>                  *Television footage* [that's different and notable]
showed police charging
>                  with batons and numerous wounded and
>                  bloodied protesters, although it appeared the
>                  injuries were relatively minor.
>
>                  Two young men, aged 17 and 21, were
>                  arrested for police assault.
>
>                  One of the protest leaders, solicitor Pauline
>                  Spencer, later claimed police had used
>                  capsicum spray and batons, injuring more
>                  than 100 peaceful demonstrators with
>                  "inappropriate force."
>
>                  "We had Victoria Police just storming with
>                  batons, thrashing people about the head ...
>                  breaking ribs, breaking hands," she claimed,
>                  adding that batons had been thrust into
>                  stomachs, breasts and genitals. Some
>                  demonstrators had been dragged away by the hair, she said.
>
>                  More than 200 delegates -- almost a quarter of the 850 
>accredited to attend -- and a number
>                  of journalists were locked out of the summit by 
>protesters with arms linked as police stood
>                  by apparently powerless to help.
>
>                  Some of the delegates managed to get to the conference 
>only after being ferried by boat or
>                  helicopter hours late into the casino complex, on the 
>Yarra River's Southbank.
>
>                  Organisers of the summit branded the demonstration an 
>"abuse of democracy."
>
>                  The WEF's Geneva-based public affairs director Charles 
>McLean said one of the buses that
>                  failed to get delegates into the casino had its windows 
>smashed by "street hooligans" and
>                  200 delegates had been forced to turn back.
>
>                  "This is not a case of civil disobedience, defiance of an 
>unjust law," he said. "It is rather
>                  defiance of the very laws that protect free speech and 
>free assembly -- the same laws that
>                  allow peaceful protest and dissent.
>
>                  "I'm sure the people out there are more concerned with 
>getting their faces on television. I
>                  wonder how many realise we are discussing in here many of 
>the things which are supposed
>                  to concern them, such as corporate responsibility."
>
>                  However, protest leaders claimed they were successful in 
>blockading the conference.
>
>                  "I think we can all claim victory tonight," a spokesman 
>for the S11 (September 11) protest
>                  alliance, South Australian union leader Stephen Spence 
>told reporters.
>
>                  The blockade, by an army of Trotskyists,
>                  anarchists, students, gay rights activists,
>                  environmentalists and even Falun Gong
>                  supporters, grew from a few hundred in heavy
>                  early rain to perhaps eight or nine thousand
>                  by late afternoon, their ranks swelled by
>                  school children
>
>                  They linked arms in a weaving chain that
>                  snaked half way around the casino complex,
>                  chanting demands for an end to economic
>                  rationalism, for the Western world to write off
>                  third world debt, and for Asian sweat shops to
>                  be closed.
>
>                  But the demonstrators achieved at least one
>                  major success in persuading Australian
>                  Treasurer Peter Costello, a conference
>                  delegate, of the need to heed public opinion
>                  on globalisation.
>
>                  "If policy makers think that they can ignore
>                  public opinion, I think we would be making a
>                  rather large mistake," he said.
>
>                  "We can talk about the benefits of an open
>                  trading system, but let's remember that the
>                  last opportunity to put some detail on that was in 
>Seattle and it was a failure."
>
>                  The casino, owned by Australia's most conspicuous 
>capitalist, billionaire media tycoon
>                  Kerry Packer, admitted losing millions of dollars because 
>staff and customers had been
>                  scared off and has been closed for until further notice.
>
>                  Deputy Police Commissioner Neil O'Loughlin said police 
>had been successful in getting
>                  most delegates into the forum despite the best efforts of 
>protesters to blockade it.
>
>                  Five police had been injured, receiving back, arm and eye 
>injuries.
>
>                  "They have caused disruption to the city but not to the 
>forum and it is unfortunate
>                  Melburnians have had to suffer the traffic problems and 
>some property damage caused by
>                  the demonstrators," O'Loughlin told reporters inside the 
>casino.
>
>                                          Copyright © 2000 AFP
>
>                                                 ###
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From: "DAMN" <damn@tao.ca>
To: <damn-all@lists.tao.ca>
Subject: DAMN-ALL: 10-SEP-2000: Protesters, Cops Clash at Summit in Melbourne
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2000 09:04:53 -0400
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Title: Protesters, Cops Clash at Summit in Melbourne
Date:10-SEP-2000
Author: Staff Writer
Source: Associated Press
(http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Australia-Economic-Summit.html)
Forwarded by: Julie Rose , julierose@onebox.com
Style: Mainstream Media Article

Keywords: WTO, IMF/WB protest, Capitalism-Globalization, Melbourne,
Australia

Anti-globalization protesters battled police and formed a human barricade
around the site of an international economic forum on Monday September 10,
delaying its start.

Thousands of demonstrators waved placards and attacked the cars of delegates
outside the hotel and casino complex in the southern city of Melbourne,
which was hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Summit of the World Economic
Forum.

One delegate, Western Australia state Premier Richard Court, was trapped in
his official car for about 20 minutes as a crowd of protesters jumped on it
and slashed its tires.

Angry clashes broke out as police, some on horseback, broke through the
crowd to allow Court's car to move on. Police would not confirm reports that
two officers were injured.

``They jumped up and down on the car, let down the tires and painted it,''
Court said later.

The violence quieted quickly, although tense standoffs between police and
protesters continued at several entrances to the complex.

Organizers said most delegates had entered the complex, and the summit would
go ahead.

Dozens of government leaders and senior business executives, including
Microsoft's Bill Gates, are due to attend the summit to discuss future
economic developments in Asia.

The three-day event is organized by the Davos, Switzerland-based World
Economic Forum, a group that brings together business and government heads
to discuss the global economy.

Protest organizer David Glanz said the demonstration was a success despite
the violence, which he said was limited to the ``fringe'' of the protesters.

Fearing it would be targeted by violent protests similar to those that
marred last year's World Trade Organization talks in Seattle, Nike closed
its flagship Melbourne store on Sunday and boarded up the windows.

One group inconvenienced by Monday's protest was the U.S. Olympic women's
basketball team, which missed a 9 a.m. training session after being stranded
in the casino hotel lobby because its bus could not penetrate the protest
cordon.

The team, in Melbourne to play exhibition matches before the Sept.15-Oct.1
Sydney Olympics, later walked through the protest cordon and caught a bus
from the city.

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