APEC Protesters; Who’s Who
On Saturday morning the LDP will be holding a rally in support of free trade. If you are in Sydney, please do join us as it should be fun. As i know 9am is an early start for most of you (i.e. those without young children), we will be handing out selling free trade coffee sourced from the lowest cost producer and doughnuts purchased from the most competitively priced local shop to brighten your spirits.
Crikey had this to say about our rally,
‘The APEC rally that has really got me interested is being organised by the wild and crazy libertarians of the Liberty and Democracy Party. I can’t make it to Sydney this weekend, but will stand on Smith Street, Collingwood, brandishing a copy of The Road to Serfdom in solidarity. It’s a pity I can’t get there, because I’m a little worried about the turnout. I’m reminded of these words from the philosopher, P J O’Rourke:
“How come,” I asked Andy, “whenever something upsets the Left, you see immediate marches and parades and rallies with signs already printed and rhyming slogans already composed, whereas whenever something upsets the Right, you see two members of the Young Americans for Freedom waving a six-inch American flag?”
“We have jobs,” said Andy.’
It looks like we’re going to have some colourful company. Here’s a brief snapshot;
I Peaceful Protests
‘We know that humanity is staring down the barrel of an environmental disaster and we cannot sit back while the shyster in Kirribilli House peddles nuclear power and so-called “clean coal” as if that were an earnest response.
‘We will be protesting against every manifestation of labour exploitation in the Asia Pacific region and throughout the world. “Economic cooperation” is the title of the summit, but we know they mean economic cooperation for the rich. They may use words like “trade liberalisation”, but we know that this is the kind of “economic cooperation” that results in Work Choices in Australia and Nike sweatshops in Indonesia’
Are organising a ‘a mass protest against the world’s biggest war criminal, US President George Bush. It is a chance to protest against a model of regional “economic cooperation” that will make the rich countries of the region even richer by stifling and distorting the development of poor and underdeveloped nations.’
From their website, they are pro-choice and same-sex marriage so we have some common ground.
3. Iraq Veterans Against The War
It calls for the immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces in Iraq, reparations for the people of Iraq, and full benefits and support for returning servicemen and women. Members will be participating and speaking at the major SBC rally on Saturday.
4. Maritime Union of Australia
‘The rally will assert fair trade, real action on global warming, genuine development to alleviate poverty and respect for the labour rights and human rights of all the peoples of our vast Asia Pacific Region.’
Formed just last weekend by the “proudly Liberal member” John Ruddick, Aussies for ANZUS is a group designed to welcome the US President to APEC and promote the Australian-US alliance.
Intriguingly they include an Ayn Rand speech given to graduates at Westpoint in 1974 on their website.
II Not Quite So Peaceful
6. Resistance
‘War is capitalism with its gloves off, the logical result of a system driven by competition for control over resources and markets. It was not the madness of President George W. Bush that fuelled the war on Iraq, but US capitalists’ desperate drive to control the world’s oil. Using racism, nationalism, sexism and homophobia, the capitalist system aims to divide us.’
Perhaps less common ground here.
III Not Peaceful At All
7. F.L.A.R.E.
This is the group that distributed a manual on how to wear gas masks, confront police and evade fares. It also advises carrying water and a bandanna soaked in vinegar to combat the effects of pepper spray. Terje – please note.
8. The Latin American Solidarity Network
Who will ably be supporting FLARE.
9. AC/DC
AC/DC is an anarchist group that has controversially announced its intention to ‘violently’ disrupt the summit. They also have a quote on their main webpage from one of the world’s worst ever songs, “We’re not going to sit in silence, We’re not going to live in fear.”- John Farnham.
10. Mutiny
Mutiny published a controversial open letter to APEC protest organisers in May. Here are some key excerpts:
“We’re concerned to hear that the Sydney Stop Bush Coalition has decided to produce posters saying ‘join the peaceful protest….Insisting on the image of ‘peaceful protest’ only amplifies the wedge politics of the police and media: and it doesn’t stop police violence. It seems downright irresponsible to promise – or demand – peace. Obedience will not make us safer.’
One to avoid i think.
Compiled with thanks to Crikey.
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Resistance says:
“Using racism, nationalism, sexism and homophobia, the capitalist system aims to divide us”
I don’t know how in a totally free market anyone with these viewpoints could inflict their hatred onto the rest of society. They would go broke or be jobless.
So unbridled capitalism is to blame for something it isn’t capable of? This is like blaming the dog for farting at Christmas dinner when he is out the back chewing on a bone.
The location details for the LDP organised free trade rally recently changed and are as follows:-
DATE: Saturday 8th of September.
TIME: 9:00am
PLACE: In Hyde Park at the corner of Elizabeth Street and Park Street (north side of Park Street). A prominant Star Bucks coffee shop is diagonally across the intersection from this location . The following URL shows the relevant map:-
http://tinyurl.com/36r7hz
Hope you guys have a good time.
My vote for the worst quote above is the Resistance group quote. So obviously factually wrong to anyone with any capacity for independent thought.
Unfortunately, support for free trade will come across as support for Bush, and all he stands for. I am more inclined towards the Republican Party, but not by much.
Shouldn’t the Liberty and Democracy Party have the Acronym L&DP?
I hear that Suncorp have advised their staff not to wear clothes with multinational logos such as Nike for fear of upsetting the protesters.
What a cowardly and complacent attitude to liberty we all have these days.
You guys will likely be seen as supporting Bush, Does this mean that you will be in danger of attack from the violent protestors?
I would love to come and join in, however, Sydney is out of the way of Tasmania.
Perry
I certainly hope not
Ours is a pro-free trade rally not a pro-Bush rally.
To clarify, maybe we should add a banner with PJ O’Rourke’s great quote,
‘Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work, get elected and then prove it.’
Perry
I certainly hope not
Ours is a pro-free trade rally not a pro-Bush rally.
To clarify, maybe we should add a banner with PJ O’Rourke’s great quote,
‘Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work, get elected and then prove it.’
Given the massive farm subsidies that the USA federal government dishes out the idea that free trade equals support for GWB is almost amusing. Steel tariffs come to mind also.
From what i can tell. Most of the groups present are against free trade, and they tend to carry a mentality of, “If your not with us your against us”.
It would be interesting to see if they live up to their preeching on “Free Speech”.
Im sure that everything will go smoothly though. Good luck to you!
Perry, the LDP needs people in Tasmania. Would you care to contact us? info AT ldp.org.au
I hear that Suncorp have advised their staff not to wear clothes with multinational logos such as Nike for fear of upsetting the protesters.
What a cowardly and complacent attitude to liberty we all have these days.
Pommy; It is probably out of concern for the safety of the staff themselves rather than a company image thing.
It is great that they feel a duty of care to warn them of possible attacks or abuse, its also bloody terrible that they feel it is necessary.
Most of the protesters wear Nike themselves anyway…
Really says it all, doesn’t it.
I’d love to see a whole lot of people dressed in 70s-style punk gear/crusty anarchist groups sit around singing John Farnham. It would give me a great laugh
OK, hurry up and tell us how it went…
I think it went really well. The police were confused about our sign “make poverty history – support capitalism” and asked if we were supporting the protesters or against them. We said we were not here because of George Bush or the war and so they seemed happy to leave us in the middle of the oncoming parade. Then they decided to move us out of the oncoming action. But because we were so co-operative and peaceful in the end they actually asked us to stand in the thick of it again (go figure). Compared with the call I got from the cops the day before they were very positive towards us on the day (until we tried to leave at which point they boxed everybody into Hyde Park for half an hour and would not let anybody out at all).
When the parade arrived we were standing in the thick of it up a few steps and against a statue and the crowd had to pass around us. A few people swore at us, a few people photographed us and a few people argued with us. Some of the socialists even interviewed us with cameras. In fact when channel 9 interviewed me I thought they were students because their camera was so small and they did not identify themselves until afterwards. Pommy got interviewed by channel 7.
All up a pretty good day. We got some media attention, we made our statement and we avoided any direct physical confrontation. A lot still depends on how the media edit their footage. And I still don’t much know who was media and who was just people with a camera so I hope we put forward a positive message. Several people approached me throughout the day to say things like “I don’t believe in free trade or neoliberalism but I respect you guys for having a go”. The crowd was actually quite encouraging in spite of the few individuals that yelled abuse at us.
p.s. If we end up looking like we were yelling at the cameras it was largely because it was noisey and we were often dealing with multiple questions from different people all at the same time. It was quite chaotic.
Congratulations guys;
I had my doubts about the wisdom of what you were doing but am now glad I kept them to myself.
Jim,
It was a very positive experience in my book. Our “support capitalism” catch cry was clearly provocative but on the whole I think the mainstream of the crowd showed a lot of goodwill. Later in the day I was on the train on my own and a guy approached me and said he recognised me from the march. He said he disagreed with our position but was happy enough to chat and asked for one of our brochures.
We say zero violence despite being in the thick of it with lots of people that disagreed with us and vastly outnumbered us.
Regards,
Terje.
Good stuff guys – sorry I wasn’t there…
Saw some footage of the protests on seven news – none of you guys though
According to reports there were only around 5000 protesters… looked like the cops were pretty heavy-handed on the odd occasion there was an incident. I guess it’s difficult for them to get the balance – we’ve seen them being ineffective in the past – but still…
Thats great, Terje. My real concern was the safety of you guys, the loony fringe can get a bit over the top.
I am really glad that things went well and that a few positives came from it. It sounds like you all did us proud.
Nice work.
At the end of the march the police imprisoned us all without cause. After they had done such a great job in keeping the peace it was quite disgusting. They were “just following orders” and I felt sorry for them as well as angry at them. We tried to leave via several routes and we were physically blocked.
Channel seven made mention of us during their broadcast on the day. They refereed to some pro-capitalist protesters that were probably antagonising the left wing crowd. However there was no footage of us that I saw (other than one where we were in the background and our signs were obscured). As such I don’t think the party name or the URL of the LDP website made it onto TV.
However one guy approached us early in the morning and said he agreed with our counter protest and that he had heard about it on ABC radio.
All that hard work, and you get upstaged by the Chaser crew! Still, no-one seems to have died. Keep up the good work! I was just reading that the Brothel business has been doing great, so some capitalists have capitalised from the gabfest. Anyone else make anything during APEC?
http://apec07.org.au/?page_id=3
My mate, Dave, is the photographer of these photos (he was able to get behind police lines through some arrangement the Stop Bush coalition made on his behalf with the police, on the proviso that he wear a full “press” outfit).
My Internet is capped at the moment, so I can’t actually find any pics as yet, but Dave said that there are definitely some pictures of the LDP group.
High resolution images can be provided if required.
http://apec07.org.au/?page_id=3&px=%2FP1000605.jpg
NEWS FLASH;
My daughter just spotted you on Rove, something to the effect that APEC has adopted a new motto. May be comedy but you made it.
Wish I was there. Hope the web site address got on Rove.
Well done guys.
Another picture here:-
http://ldpblog.wordpress.com/2007/09/10/apec-2007/
Did you guys get a chance to chat with these blokes: http://apec07.org.au/?page_id=3&px=%2FP1000545.jpg
Clinton
Yes, we did. They have balls the size of watermelons. They took their signs and planted themselves in the thick of the action. In the end the police removed their signs because they were ‘antagonising the protesters’.
However, despite the ominous police warnings prior to the event, on the day it was surprisingly peaceful.
The crowd were exclusively white, middle class and predominantly of student age. It confirmed my belief that these ‘anti-globo’ demonstrators are just bored middle class students rebelling against their privileged upbringings before settling down to a career in accounting.
My soccer mums are scarier than this lot.
Clinton – those guys with the home made “socialism sucks” signs seemed to be having a great time. Even after the cops took away their choosen means of self expression they remained cheerful and good natured.
Well done boys, taking it to the streets.