BY NICK FREDMAN
LISMORE — Sizeable meetings and lively discussions have been held across northern NSW about the meaning of the S11 protests against the World Economic Forum meeting in Melbourne, reflecting both the many people from the area who participated in the September 11-13 blockade and the considerable interest in anti-corporate campaigning.
Activists from the Rainforest Information Centre organised a debriefing meeting on September 26, attended by 30 people. Although different perspectives were expressed on organisation and tactics, there was agreement that the protests had a positive political impact and that the networks formed there should continue.
A screening of SKA TV's Melbourne Rising documentary at Byron Bay on October 8 attracted 100 people. The event, organised by Byron Bay Global to Local, was addressed by NSW Greens MP Ian Cohen, who described the protests as overwhelmingly successful, but tried to lay some of the blame for violence at the protests on Resistance and the International Socialist Organisation.
The Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance have held several events, including a Politics in the Pub forum on October 13 attended by 30 people. Screenings of Actively Radical TV's This is What Democracy Looks like and Melbourne Rising attracted 15 people at Southern Cross University on October 17 and 40 people in Lismore on October 20.
At many of these events, the proposal by the DSP to focus the anti-corporate campaign on organising Lismore's first May Day march as part of a global day of protest — M1 — was well received.