S11 films hit Nimbin
LISMORE â For the first event organised by Green Left Weekly supporters in the famous northern NSW counter-cultural centre of Nimbin, 30 people packed the Timbarra Environmental Caf to watch several documentaries on the S11 protests in Melbourne. Actively Radical TV's This is What Democracy Looks Like, SKA TV's Melbourne Rising, and Why WEF? which was produced by several local film-makers, were all enthusiastically received.
There was interest in continuing the anti-capitalist struggle, including support for the proposed M1 strike against corporate tyranny on May 1, 2001.
Nimbin-based activist Benny Zable (well known as the striking black-clad, gas-masked figure on top of oil-drums at many protests over the last two decades) stated that it would be good to have a radical and political alternative to Nimbin's "Mardi Grass" celebration of marijuana culture, which is held around May Day.
Stop killing Iraqi women
MELBOURNE â On November 25, 100 people joined the International Women's Day Collective 2001 and the Committee in Defence of Iraqi Women to protest against the killing of more than 200 Iraqi women by the Iraqi regime.
Protesters described the terror campaign being waged by President Saddam Hussein's regime against women and the democracy movement. They pointed out that it is the UN-sponsored economic blockade which is responsible for Iraq's problems, and not women.
Third World debt action
NEWCASTLE â Burdened by "ball and chains" to symbolise the unpayable Third World debt Resistance held a lunchtime a protest action in Newcastle Mall on November 24.
The protesters spoke on a megaphone, handed out leaflets and chalked up slogans on the pavement. Resistance member Peter Robson told Green Left that working people and youth needed to globalise solidarity in response to the neo-liberal globalisation which is bringing unprecedented misery to 80% of the world's population.
The action was part of a campaign following on from the S11 protests and leading up to M1, the blockade of stock exchanges on May 1 next year.