BY JUSTIN RANDELL
BRISBANE — Activists here have described as a big step forward the July 7 merger of local anti-corporate groups into an S11 Alliance to plan and build local participation in protests against the World Economic Forum meeting in Melbourne, September 11-13.
The launch, which attracted 35 people, formed working groups to coordinate contacts with other community groups, the media and student and trade unions, organise transport and accommodation, and give legal support and non-violence training to activists. The group also plans to hold protest actions in Brisbane in the lead-up to the September demonstrations.
The new alliance's first initiative is a public meeting, scheduled for August 1, featuring Dave Perry from the Maritime Union of Australia, Max Lane from Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor and anti-debt campaigner Richard Sanders.
Anti-corporate campaigning here will be further strengthened by a Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance-organised seminar on July 22 on "Why the IMF, WTO and World Bank should be shut down" (see advertisement this page). A screening of the US Independent Media Center's documentary on the anti-WTO protests in Seattle last year, Showdown in Seattle, will also be shown.