G20 protest - a success: Statement from Melbourne Stop the War Coalition : Melbourne Indymedia

G20 protest - a success
Melbourne Stop the War coalition statement

For Melbourne Stop the War Coalition, the G20 summit meeting was an important opportunity to mount a protest at which public opposition to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan could be expressed.

This is because the gathering to discuss how to improve the profits margins of the world's richest economies was bringing together some of the biggest war criminals in the world today including Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, and Gordon Brown, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The G20 leaders agree on and promote neo-liberal and militaristic policies to increase their wealth and power. These people are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in the killing fields of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as millions of others across the globe who die needlessly from starvation, human-induced climate disasters and preventable diseases.

Since the G20 collective didn't have plans for a mass rally and march during the summit, the Stop the War Coalition initiated a discussion with them about organising one with a focus on ending the war in the Middle East, ending the war on workers and ending the war on the environment. While there were differences in approach, it was agreed to incorporate the political focus suggested by Melbourne Stop the War.

It struck a chord: the turn-out of 3000 is proof. The G20 collective's Carnival against Capitalism was only going to appeal to a narrower layer - people who defined themselves as anti-capitalists. We felt that the opportunity to mount a serious rally that could bring out masses of people who are against the wars in the Middle East and against the war criminals was too important to waste. And given that the blockade tactic, that was effective at S11 in 2001, was not going to work this time, we argued that the mass rally should march to the G20 summit site.

The mood was peaceful, but angry and determined The speeches were very political, and covered the range of issues that people feel passionately about today.

There was nothing stopping the 3000 people from confronting police with direct actions or trying to get over the barricades. The fact that the vast majority didn't is an indication that most people felt that this form of direct action was not a useful tactic, in this particular instance, to get our message across.

The misguided and counterproductive actions at this protest of a small group of people, centred around the "arterial block'', found no resonance among the 3000 protesters. But it played into the hands of the corporate media, putting an otherworldly spin on what was actually very successful political protest. We also don't think that in current Australian political context wearing masks at protests is either necessary nor useful.

The actions of a tiny minority have subsequently made it easier for the police to escalate their harassment of progressive activists. The very next day, police attacked a peaceful protest at the museum, seriously injuring a woman. They are also carrying out arbitrary arrests and witch hunts of activists.

Stop the War Coalition condemns police violence and harassment, and the media witch hunts stemming from the G20 protests. But we do not agree that the tactics that the ``arterial bloc'' decided on helped to make the protest a success. This is not just because of the media focus on them exclusively. It is because most protesters expected to be taking part in a peaceful protest.

The need to be public about our opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is as urgent as ever, especially now that Bush, Blair and Howard are increasingly being exposed as war criminals

Increasing the strength of the anti-war movement to the point where it manages to win its main demand, that the troops be pulled out, relies on the correct tactics to involve greater and greater numbers of people: those actions in which huge numbers of people feel that they have a voice, and it is being heard, are the most successful.

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