BY KAREN FLETCHER
In the wake of the terrorist bombings in New York and Washington there has been pressure to cancel planned protests against the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Brisbane next month.
The CHOGM Action Network (CAN) has confirmed that its People's March on CHOGM will go ahead. A peaceful mass march for global justice, against racism and war will provide a counterweight to the politics of bigotry, fear and violence that are being peddled by mainstream politicians and the corporate media.
In recent weeks Brisbane has come alive with anti-corporate globalisation activity, abuzz with public meetings, planning and training sessions, briefings, media conferences, seminars, conferences and e-groups. A web of activists from a vast array of political and community organisations has been activated to oppose CHOGM's support for policies that protect the interests of transnational corporations at the expense of social justice, human rights and sustainable life on Earth.
Although the Brisbane protest is sister to those in Seattle, Prague, Melbourne, Gothenburg, Genoa and global justice mobilisations everywhere, the protests here will have its own, special. atmosphere. The march on the morning that the CHOGM opens, October 6, will be led by the representatives of local Aboriginal community and the demand for a treaty tops the list of CAN's five demands: Treaty Now! No New WTO Round! Cancel Third World Debt! Prevent Climate Change! Respect Human Rights!
When CHOGM protesters gather in Musgrave Park at 6pm on October 5, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander tent embassy will already have been established there for two days. Musgrave Park, just a few hundred metres away from the CHOGM venue at the Brisbane Convention Centre, is the site of many indigenous People's protests and gatherings, including huge mobilisations against the Commonwealth Games in 1982.
Local Aboriginal leader and CAN spokesperson Sam Watson spoke at the launch of CAN on September 5 about the unbroken process of invasion and colonisation that indigenous people have suffered since 1788 and still suffer under the most recent project of the colonisers: corporate globalisation.
CAN invited Premier Peter Beattie to attend the launch to debate Watson and other CAN speakers from the Queensland Greens and Friends of the Earth on the topic "Does Globalisation create Common Wealth?" Beattie declined, through the corporate media, claiming "CHOGM is not about globalisation".
This statement is a good example of the deception and double-speak that surrounds CHOGM in Brisbane. As Beattie is well aware, the major declaration of CHOGM '99 — the Fancourt Declaration on Globalisation and People-Centred Development — proceeded from the premise that globalisation is inevitable and "is creating unprecedented opportunities for wealth creation and for the betterment of the human condition".
The Fancourt declaration's claim that "reduced barriers to trade and enhanced capital flows are fuelling economic growth" is looking a bit sick in light of the evidence that has emerged since the defeat of the World Trade Organisation's Millennium Round in Seattle and the coming recession. Nevertheless, on a recent visit to Brisbane Commonwealth secretary general Don McKinnon admitted that the launch of a new round of multilateral trade talks, including expansion of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), from the next WTO ministerial meeting in Qatar would be a major focus for both the Brisbane CHOGM and the Commonwealth Business Forum in Melbourne that precedes it.
People's Festival
In a bid to keep the Queensland population blissfully ignorant of all of this, the first print ads for the Commonwealth People's Festival appeared in the Courier Mail last weekend, illustrated with a picture of a young Aboriginal dancer: "Get ready to enjoy seven days of FREE fun and action as Brisbane is transformed into a whirlwind of colour, music and dance during the Commonwealth People's Festival. Hundreds of captivating performers from around the Commonwealth will descend on Brisbane to celebrate one of the most diverse and eye-catching cultural celebrations our city has ever seen."
A People's Festival has accompanied CHOGM since its 1997 gathering in Edinburgh. For the Brisbane CHOGM the Beattie government has enlisted the assistance of such high profile "non-government organisations" (NGOs) as the Queensland Council of Social Services and its hundreds of affiliated community organisations, as well as a range of indigenous and ethnic organisations to provide political and cultural cover for the real business of the meeting.
Andree Stark, spokesperson for Friends of the Earth and CAN, told the CAN launch that NGOs were specifically excluded from the executive sessions of CHOGM. "Some of us might be allowed to go into the press room if we're very good", she said.
Representatives of the Commonwealth Business Forum, in contrast, will have access to CHOGM delegates throughout the CBF and will be able to directly address executive sessions of the Brisbane meeting.
Many community organisations in Brisbane have been rent with controversy over whether to participate in the People's Festival or join the protests outside. In the absence of a strong boycott campaign, some groups accepted the glossy and seemingly innocuous People's Festival invitations before alternative information was available about the protests. Some have decided to do both: hold a stall in the festival and also take part in the protests.
CAN has worked hard to expose the real business of CHOGM 2001, developing information packages on each of the five demands and running a media campaign designed to focus on the issues rather than on media beat-ups about security arrangements and the potential for violence. Inevitably, it is difficult to counter the massive public relations machine that is pumping out daily press releases against us.
As well as their misrepresentations of the business of CHOGM, the Beattie and Howard governments have threatened to use state violence in a bid to scare off CHOGM protesters. In the wake of the terrorist attacks in the US, local television news has shown militarised police in full riot gear and heavy formation practising their "anti-terrorism" (read anti-protester) manoeuvres. A few weeks ago the state parliament gave police and private security guards almost unrestricted powers within the "special event zones" that will surround the convention centre and city hotels.
Blockade or march?
Despite all of this, some protesters insist that they intend to "Shut Down CHOGM" by blockading the convention centre from 5.30am on October 6. While we in the Democratic Socialist Party supported and built the S11 and M1 blockades and are organising for the blockade of the CBF in Melbourne on October 3, we do not believe that an attempt to blockade CHOGM in Brisbane has any prospect of being even partially successful.
Like us, the state has learned from S11 and our sister protests around the world. In Brisbane, access roads to the convention centre will be closed long before the event and Beattie's "rings of steel" will surround the access points for CHOGM delegates. Practically all civil liberties will be suspended inside the special events zone. A massive campaign of fear, disinformation and bread and circuses is to accompany CHOGM.
If the anti-globalisation protesters in Brisbane were to seriously attempt to counter these measures we would need to massively improve our own level of organisation — to at least that of groups like the Italian Tute Bianche (White Overalls) that have mounted serious attempts to breach the escalating security measures at pro-globalisation summits. Even these groups, though, with their body armour, gas masks and months of training, do not claim to be able on their own to "shut down" these summits. They recognise that mass public support, such as that expressed in events like the 300,000 strong march in Genoa, is critical to the success of the more confrontational acts of civil disobedience.
Unable to recognise this, members of the International Socialist Organisation, Socialist Alternative and a handful of their student allies in Brisbane unilaterally declared after M1 that there would be a blockade of CHOGM, established the "Stop CHOGM Alliance" and refused to countenance any other tactics (even in addition to a blockade) or to enter into any detailed tactical discussion with others involved in organising the M1 action. As a result, there has been no real assessment in Brisbane of police tactics at S11 and M1 and no serious attempt to devise measures to deal with those tactics or the state's other preparations for CHOGM.
One question the blockade advocates refuse to address is whether they will blockade NGOs and members of the public who come to the People's Festival at the convention centre. This element of the event makes CHOGM substantially different to the S11 Melbourne World Economic Forum and Genoa G8 summits, but no serious attention has been paid to this issue by those advocating a blockade of CHOGM. There is real potential that anyone attempting to carry out such a blockade will find themselves physically pitched against the liberal NGOs and tens of thousands of ordinary people seeking access to the People's Festival.
With the corporations and their politicians looking to discredit the anti-globalisation movement by identifying it with "violent protests" and with the threat of terrorism, this is no time for radical posturing.
If the movement is going to continue to win public sympathy and increased involvement in its protest actions, these need to be well-organised and have some practical possibility of achieving their tactical objectives. The proposal to blockade CHOGM completely fails to measure up to the real needs of the movement. The DSP has therefore thrown its support behind the CAN and its People's March on CHOGM.
The march has the support of groups ranging from Friends of the Earth, the Queensland Conservation Council and the Queensland Greens to the local Aboriginal community and a large range of active community-based organisations such as the Grassroots Centre and Spiral Community Hub. The leadership of this march by the Aboriginal community will ensure that it is powerful and militant, as well as peaceful. The march is the best tactic for mobilising the largest number of people in a militant protest against CHOGM's pro-corporate agenda.
[Karen Fletcher is a member of the Democratic Socialist Party and an activist in CAN.]