Blockaders set to march on parliament

BY ROBERTO JORQUERA

PERTH — Organisers of the M1 blockade of the Australian Stock Exchange here have added an end-of-day march to state parliament house to their plans. The new Labor state government of Geoff Gallop will be sworn in on that day.

Activists believe such a march will send a clear message to Labor that it should act in the interests of working people rather than business. Greens parliamentarian Christine Sharp told a May 1 Alliance community forum on March 22 that, while Labor had listened to the people when it came to saving the state's forests, the party has a terrible position on the role of corporations.

Speakers at the forum included Greens MP Jim Scott, who noted that the new anti-corporate movement reflected a new form of humanism, and the International Women's Day collective's Sarah Stephen, who called on those at the meeting to help organise a feminist contingent at May 1.

Already, high school students have started meeting to organise a convergence of their own at 8.30am, which will then march on the blockade site, while at the University of Western Australia the founding meeting of Global Action attracted 35 people to organise a contingent of students from that campus.

Support is also starting to build in the union movement. The May 1 Alliance has met with Unions WA secretary Tony Cooke to discuss union support. The next meeting of the Unions WA executive will consider a motion to encourage member unions' participation, while an alliance representative will address the next Unions WA delegates meeting.

Alliance representatives are also planning to meet with union members who work in the stock exchange building to explain the reasons for the action.

The WA branch of the Community and Public Sector Union also voted on March 20 to endorse the protest.

From GLW issue 442