BY KAREN FLETCHER
BRISBANE — The M1 Alliance has issued a call for nominations for "Corporate Scumbag of the Week" in the lead up to the blockade of the Brisbane stock exchange on May 1. The campaign was launched and warmly received at the International Women's Day rally here on March 10.
The first scumbag award was presented to BHP Coal on March 16, when forty people gathered at its headquarters, the Riverside Centre, which also houses the city's stock exchange. Speakers slammed the company's attacks on the wages and working conditions of coal miners and the environmental destruction wrought by BHP at its Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea.
The Brisbane M1 Alliance plans to highlight the work of a different corporate scumbag each week before the May 1 stock exchange blockade by paying visits to these corporation's Brisbane offices.
The Brisbane M1 Alliance meets at 6pm on Monday nights at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, South Bank. General meetings alternate with subgroup meetings.