Green Left Weekly spoke to M1 protesters at the morning blockades of Australasian Correctional Management in Sydney and the immigration department in Melbourne, about why they decided to protest.

Kylie Evans, a student at Melbourne University said “I saw what the situation is out at Woomera. And I heard the cries of the people and I made promises to those people through two rows of police and a lot of steel wire, that I would continue to fight to free the refugees around Australia.”

Mary Merkenich, a teacher, said she supported refugees because ``once this government has success in isolating one group of people, then everyone’s up for grabs. As a worker I see that all these issues are linked.’‘

Judy McVey, a spokesperson for the Refugee Action Collective told GLW that “ Workers and unionists are scapegoated by this government just as refugees are. They’re scapegoated because this government is promoting capitalist globalisation.”

This outlook was echoed by Ellen Kleimacher, Women’s and Equity Officer from the Victorian Trades Hall Council: “Today is a great day for all of us to show how we are united on issues of refugees”.

Karl-Erich Pasonen from Friends of the Earth told GLW that he felt it was “vitally important to bring back the activist tradition that has historically been associated with May Day.”

Sydney University Free Palestine Collective member Thiago Oppermann explained: ``M1 is the day of labour struggles, a day to remember the things we have won and sometimes lost again. It’s a good day to think about Palestine, because Palestinian workers have had a very bad hand dealt them by Israel. The future is the greatest thing that the Israelis have tried to thieve from the Palestinians.”

From Green Left Weekly, May 8, 2002.
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