Simon Butler, co-ordinator of the Globalise Resistance contingent for the "People's March on CHOGM".
"The Globalise Resistance contingent is designed to draw anti-corporate youth together in the protest. We took our model, in particular, from the French Revolutionary Communist League's youth [at the July protests against the G8] in Genoa", Simon Butler explained to Green Left Weekly. "We want a similar militant, well-organised contingent."
The contingent is organised around four issues: cancellation of Third World debt, support for a treaty, an end to war and racist scapegoating and opposition to corporate greed.
Currently the organiser of the Brisbane branch of the socialist youth group Resistance, Butler was also involved in organising to blockade the Brisbane stock exchange on May 1. He was first inspired to get involved in politics by the 1999 campaign to defend student unionism.
"As a student at Sydney University I could see the quality of education decline, even in a short time", Butler explained. "Student unions were the only ones doing anything about it, and they were being attacked by the government."
Through this campaign, Butler met left-wing students, many of whom were members of socialist groups.
"I was on the sidelines of debates about how society should be changed, who should change it and so on. I decided that I was a socialist, but I wasn't ready to do much about it."
When, in November 1999, the East Timorese rejected the Indonesian government's plan for regional autonomy in favour of independence, the Indonesian military went on a killing spree.
"East Timorese pople were dying because the Australian government had backed a brutal 24-year dictatorship of their country. It really shattered my illusions in the political system. I wanted to do everything I could to stop the slaughter. I knew that would have to come from people organising on the ground, the government had no interest in defending the East Timorese.
"Resistance was the group doing that — on the streets organising massive demonstrations calling on the Australian government to defend the East Timorese. I couldn't be a spectator any longer. That's when I joined Resistance."
Butler argues that the growing protests against institutions of corporate control are an indication that many others are also deciding that people power will change the world.
"We have to be confident that this movement is growing, more young people are challenging the bullshit which comes through the media and education systems. With the escalation of the US war machine, this will intensify."
Butler is involved, along with Resistance members around the country, in building anti-war and racism groups on campuses.
"We can't avoid the responsibility of involving masses of people, which means big demonstrations. We can expose the real state terrorism — poverty and hunger — implemented through Third World debt, sanctions on Iraq and World Trade Organisation agreements."