BY SARAH PEART
MELBOURNE — Major industrial unions look set to back the planned May 1 blockade of this city's stock exchange and nearby corporate headquarters, which is continuing to pick up steam both here and around the country.
Representatives of the M1 Alliance, the broad coalition organising the blockade, met with Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Leigh Hubbard and representatives of several unions, including the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, the Electrical Trades Union and the Australian Workers Union, on February 15 to discuss union participation.
While Trades Hall's position will be finalised at its executive on February 23, there was general agreement that there would be a trade union mobilisation at the stock exchange from mid-morning.
The CFMEU could call out workers from city building sites; delegates from its building division have voted to support the M1 Alliance. The union's mining division is also considering participating. CFMEU power workers at Yallourn, in the Latrobe Valley, locked in a bitter dispute with management, have also decided to participate, especially as their employers' offices will likely be one of the blockade points.
The step forward in official union support followed the adoption of a resolution by the M1 Alliance that addressed some of the concerns voiced by the VTHC after S11.
The February 14 resolution, which received overwhelming support from activists present, agreed "That the blockade should intend to block access to the Stock Exchange on the basis of non-violent resistance, as was successful at S11. The M1 Alliance condemns police violence at the S11 blockade."
The alliance also clarified its position towards the workers inside the stock exchange: "That we aim to let workers out of the building in such a way that it does not weaken the strength of the blockade in which case we wait until an appropriate moment or point in the blockade."
"Our target on M1 is not individual workers inside the stock exchange" said M1 Alliance activist Felicity Martin. "We are building a blockade to shut down the ASX for a day; therefore while we do not want to let individual workers into the building, we have no reasons in keeping workers inside."
The alliance agreed to leaflet the workers at the ASX and surrounding buildings in the weeks prior to May 1 to explain to workers why the blockade is taking place and urge them to join, rather than attempting to go to work.
In other M1 developments around the country, Sam King reports from Adelaide that the Flinders University Student Council voted to support the M1 blockade of the city's stock exchange at its February 13 meeting.
The council backed a plan put by councillor Elicia Savaas. A member of Resistance, Savaas told Green Left Weekly that activists on the university are also forming a M1 campus collective to build the May 1 strike. Activists plan to hold an initial meeting on March 8 in room 209 of the Union Building.
In Darwin, Ruth Ratcliffe reports, high school and university students, trade union militants and Democratic Socialist Party activists met on February 15 to form the city's own M1 Alliance.
In the absence of a stock exchange in the city, the group discussed protesting outside the offices of the chamber of commerce, which has begun a propaganda offensive promoting individual contracts. Activists were also keen to use the day to protest the environmental vandalism and racism of mining companies such as North Limited. A decision on the exact target was held over to a future meeting.
Erin Voth, a high school student who attended on behalf of a group of students at Dripstone College, was excited about the meeting.
"We're going to voice the majority's opinion about what is happening in the world today," she said. "We're going to get the government's attention and show them that we, the people, don't want the environmental destruction and poverty that is caused by corporate globalisation."
In Sydney, Andy Gianottis reports, 35 activists from the city's western suburbs met to launch M1 West on February 16.
Motivated by a showing of the film S26 — revolt in Prague, those present decided to organise an anti-corporate rally in Parramatta on March 15 and are planning a public forum and debate on the struggle between people's power and corporate globalisation.
The group will also seek to publicise the May 1 blockade of corporate Sydney by contacting the ethnic media, by reaching out to western suburbs-based union branches and migrant and human rights organisations and by organising on the campuses of the University of Western Sydney.
"This meeting showed there is interest and enthusiasm for M1 wherever people hear about it," M1 West activist Adam Leeman told Green Left Weekly. "This will only get stronger as M1 groups spread in response to the corporate globalisation that is wrecking the lives of the world's people."