BY ZANNY BEGG
SYDNEY — Approximately 20 people came to an M1 Sydney meeting to discuss what the anti-corporate movement would do in Sydney in relation to October 3-5 Commonwealth Business Council forum meeting in Melbourne and the October 6-8 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Brisbane.
The most controversial agenda item was a motion put by Vince Caughly from the International Socialist Organisation which called for a blockade of CHOGM. This was opposed by Thea Ormond from Jubilee Australia. She explained that although her organisation supports a blockade of the CBC forum in Melbourne, it will not be supporting a blockade of CHOGM in Brisbane.
Members of the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance called for a vote on Caughly's motion to be deferred to a larger, more representative meeting of M1 Sydney. However, a vote was taken on the motion and it was carried by 10 votes to seven.
The meeting also resolved to carry out a number of actions which would help involve new activists and publicise why people should protest the CHOGM events. The first of these was a re-launch of M1 Sydney through a June 28 public meeting to discuss the way forward for the anti-corporate meeting.
M1 resolved to publicise and help build Jubilee Australia's "Drop the debt" rally organised to coincide with the G8 meeting in Genoa on July 22. On August 1 Aidwatch has called a protest against the Sydney arrival of World Bank president James Wolfensohn which M1 Sydney will be encouraging people to participate in.
It was decided that M1 Sydney would hold a rally and teach-in to coincide with the first anniversary of the S11 protests against the World Economic Forum in Melbourne. The rally would call for the Australian government, and other Commonwealth governments, to boycott the new round of the World Trade Organisation talks and cancel all debt owed by Third World countries to the imperialist members of CHOGM — Australia, Canada, Britain and New Zealand. The teach-in would allow activists to discuss tactics for the CHOGM protests but also have a more in depth discussion about the issues raised by the Commonwealth — colonialism, indigenous people's rights, debt cancellation, etc.
M1 Sydney will be helping organise buses for people to travel to either Brisbane or Melbourne for CHOGM protests. Call (02) 9690 1977 for more information.