Media sell us the rope to hang them
BY JODY BETZIEN
MELBOURNE — The planned September 11 protests have become the story of the moment for the corporate media — and the most screaming of the screaming headlines are being devoted to a planned walkout by several thousand high school students.
Rupert Murdoch's Herald-Sun gave its front cover on August 25 to a story headlined "Radicals lure kids", about how "schoolchildren as young as 14 have been recruited to protest". Even more outrageous for the tabloid hacks was that the young people have been "trained in civil disobedience tactics and advised of their legal rights".
The commercial television stations have joined the frenzy, with some filming the August 26 meeting of Resistance, which called the high school walkout. Meetings of the S11 Alliance have also attracted considerable media interest.
Resistance high school organiser Tim Doughney rejected the Herald-Sun's attempts to cast students as ignorant of the issues, telling the tabloid, "All these people are students who are concerned about the future. They're not apathetic. It's anti-consumerism and anti-corporation."
Doughney told Green Left Weekly that the media's screaming negativity will only encourage students to join the protest. "Large numbers of young people are aware of the agenda pushed by the Murdoch and Packer press", he said. "No matter what they say, thousands of high school students are going to voice their objection to corporate tyranny and environmental destruction. They can't stop us now."
High school activists have handed out thousands of leaflets at over 30 schools and suburbs across the city. Even before the media attention, Resistance activists reported a very high level of awareness and interest in the protest.
Resistance activist James Crafty, also a high school student, told Green Left Weekly that organisers' ambitions, to make the high school contingent second in size only to that from the trade unions are now well advanced. "That'll really show that young people are the motor force of this movement", he said.
Students are planning to rally at Flinders Street Station at 1pm and then march to join the blockade at the Crown Casino.