BY NICK EVERETT
SYDNEY — M1 Sydney's plans for a blockade of the city's financial district on May 1 took a significant step forward on March 8 with a successful media launch outside the Australian Stock Exchange's Bridge Street offices.
Two dozen M1 activists, wearing red T-shirts and sandwich boards to promote the campaign, gathered at 8am to distribute thousands of leaflets and nomination forms asking city workers to choose the worst "corporate scumbag" to be "visited" during a March 17 "Corporate Scumbags Tour'" protest action.
M1 Sydney also used the opportunity to explain to a dozen media representatives that its anti-corporate campaign will culminate in "M1" itself, a blockade of the stock exchange on May 1.
"We're taking inspiration for our M1 blockade from the S11 protests in Melbourne, which many of us participated in and helped organise", said group spokesperson Sean Healy.
"It's about time we properly labelled some of these companies, like BHP, Daewoo and Nike", said spokesperson Jarvis Ryan. "They really are scumbags, they don't care about anything other than their share price and dividend payments. They deserve to be protested against."
The event gained considerable coverage in Sydney daily papers and on radio.