BY MARCEL CAMERON

BRISBANE — The Queen and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will both attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to be held in the Queensland resort town of Coolum from March 2-4, 2002.

The elite summit was to be held in Brisbane from October 6 this year, but, in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York, CHOGM was postponed to allow Blair and other leaders to attend to more urgent business — preparing to bomb Afghanistan.

Behind the hype and fanfare, the real agenda of CHOGM was to be a last-ditch effort by the rich Commonwealth countries to bribe and coerce poor countries into signing a new World Trade Organisation trade round in November.

On October 6 more than 3000 people marched in Brisbane to “globalise solidarity” with the Third World, demand action on climate change and a treaty with indigenous Australians, and to oppose the impending “war on terrorism”.

The march was organised by the CHOGM Action Network.

Network spokesperson Karen Fletcher told Green Left Weekly that the CHOGM summit in March will be an important target for anti-war, pro-refugee and Aboriginal rights protests.

“Tony Blair is, after George W Bush, the world leader most responsible for the devastation in Afghanistan. He's Bush's key ally in the so-called war on terror.”

Activists will meet to discuss protesting CHOGM on Tuesday, December 13, 6.30pm at the Miscellaneous Workers Union, 74 Astor Tce, Spring Hill. Ph 3831 2644.

From Green Left Weekly, December 12, 2001.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

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