BY LISA MACDONALD
SYDNEY — Just four weeks before the big day, M1 Sydney activists were debating the possibility of mobilising 2000 people for the May 1 blockade of the Australian Stock Exchange in Bridge Street. Despite persistent rain on the day, around three times that many participated.
The M1 action kicked off at 7am with a committed crowd of few hundred demonstrators immediately taking up positions in front of the two Bridge Street entrances of the ASX while waiting for the arrival of the flat-bed truck which would serve as the stage. The police had delayed the truck, which carried a 10,000-watt sound system, for over an hour in order to search it for bombs!
As the crowd grew, activists assembled in front of lines of police "safeguarding" each end of the street that ran behind the ASX, where there were three ASX entrances. Throughout the morning, these sites were the scene of constant small scuffles with police as blockaders resisted police attempts to shepherd ASX staff and vehicles through the back doors.
At about 8am, a large contingent organised by Sydney's M1 West group marched into Bridge Street, greeted by loud cheering and whistling. Such scenes of welcome were repeated when contingents from the Blue Mountains, Newcastle and Wollongong arrived. At around 9.30am, more than 100 secondary students, who had earlier rallied at Town Hall, arrived at the blockade bearing aloft a four-metre multi-coloured snake, dubbed by the Resistance activists who organised the high school rally as "Sammy the street-fighting serpent".
At mid-morning, the arrival in Bridge Street of a Kombi van belonging to Omms not Bombs activists prompted police to begin their first serious assault on the demonstration. They insisted that the van be removed from the area because prior official permission for it had not been granted. When protesters pointed out that this was unreasonable, that the van was neither harming nor obstructing anyone and that the police had previously agreed to "give" Bridge Street to the M1 Alliance for the day, the police brought in a tow-truck to do the job.
One activist, who managed to get into the tow truck's cabin and throw the keys into the crowd, was punched in the head by police before being arrested and forced into a waiting paddy wagon on an adjacent street. When protesters surrounded the wagon demanding his release, the police response was brutal. Horses were brought in to surround demonstrators and force them back into Bridge Street, and more arrests were made.
The M1 first aid team reported 30 injuries to protesters, including a broken finger and foot. According to M1's 12 volunteer legal observers, at least 50 and possibly up to100 protesters were arrested during the day, but later released in far-flung suburbs to make their own way back to the blockade.
The Kombi van remained in Bridge Street for the rest of the day, a symbol of protesters' defiance of police thuggery. The activist who prevented the tow truck from taking the van away, however, now faces charges of unlawful use of a vehicle, and obstructing and disobeying police. He has been directed to appear in court on May 23.
Throughout the melee, the roughly 100-strong blockades on five entrances to the ASX held firm, with activists doing impromptu talks on issues they felt passionately about, handing out leaflets to passers-by, doing legal rights workshops and blockade training, hearing updates on what was happening at the other blockade points and taking votes on what to do next.
The spirit of solidarity was remarkable. People on the blockade points shared food and drink, and umbrellas and raincoats, and collectively wrote anti-corporate songs and chants, protected injured activists and volunteered to join other, weaker blockade points.
A blockade by refugee rights campaigners of the Australasian Correctional Management offices 4km away was reinforced by ASX blockaders after messages were received that the police had attacked the ACM action. After holding that blockade for about two hours, the activists joined the ASX demonstration.
The M1 protesters were a diverse lot. Many were young, but there was also a significant number of older people, many of whom expressed delight at this "reclaiming" of the best traditions of May Day. Workers and unemployed, men and women, students and parents, migrants and Anglo-Australians, socialists, anarchists and environmentalists — all worked together to maintain a strong sense of the strength in numbers.
M1's communicators reported that the overwhelming majority of the ASX blockaders had not attended S11 and many said that they had never been to a public protest action before.
At noon, the blockades were dismantled so all protesters could participate in the M1 unity rally. By this time the crowd had grown to around 4000 and filled the 6-lane street from end to end.
Despite the police disruption, and their refusal to allow M1 to take a PA system on the march so the protesters could hear speakers along the route, a wide range of organisations addressed the protesters during the day. These included representatives from the People's Democratic Party (Indonesia), the Genethics Network, the Democratic Socialist Party, Friends of the Earth, Aidwatch, NUS NSW, Stop the Women's Jail Campaign, the International Socialists, the NSW Greens, the Global Treatments Action Network, the Indigenous Social Justice Association, the Indigenous Students Network, the Free the Refugees Campaign and the Australian Acehnese Association, among others. Dozens of bands and performers interspersed the speakers, keeping the protesters spirits up and making it clear that many artists see themselves as very much a part of the anti-corporate movement.
While invitations were repeatedly extended to the CFMEU, AMWU, LHMWU and other "left" unions in NSW to speak at M1, the only trade union representatives who agreed to address the blockade were from the National Tertiary Education Union and the Australian Services Union. Despite their leaderships' failure to support M1, many rank and file unionists nevetheless joined the blockade and march.
Large colourful banners and placards calling for the cancellation of Third World debt and for no new WTO talks reflected the issues foremost in many anti-corporate activists' minds. The enthusiastic, often long discussions between people who'd never seen each other before but felt a common outrage at corporate tyranny and found themselves arm in arm at blockade points reflected and reinforced the palpable sense of purpose and militancy throughout the action.
At 1pm, the protest began a 5km march through the city streets. First stop was the World Bank office in Martin Place, where the M1 crowd met up with a separate rally of about 100 people organised by the Global Justice Coalition and supported by the NSW Labor Council.
That GJC brought together trade union leaderships and NGOs which did not support the ASX blockade. In a gesture of inclusiveness, M1 had agreed to attend their rally as part of the M1 march, however, since the GJC's PA system was only strong enough to allow about 10% of the thousands of M1 protesters to hear the speakers, it was decided to proceed with the march to NSW Parliament House, then on to the headquarters of ACM, and finally to PM John Howard's office, before returning to the ASX.
Filling four city blocks and with chants of "This is what democracy looks like", "Hey hey, ho ho, corporate tyranny's got to go", "Kick out Howard, not refugees", and "Cancel Third World debt today" reverberating between the office towers, the march was an inspiring sight.
Clearly, many of those watching from the sidelines thought so too. Early on, the march had almost doubled in size as by-standers joined in, and the cheers, even chanting, coming from office windows, construction sites and the people on the footpaths along the route was testament to the fact that this movement has mass support, even if only a fraction of people could leave work to participate on the day.
Given the enormous success of M1 in Sydney, activists are expecting a big turn-up to an M1-organised public meeting to discuss "Which way forward for the anti-corporate movement?" on May 10 (see the Activist Calendar for details). Whatever plans are made for further specific actions at that meeting, one thing is clear after M1: this new movement has the ideas and moral authority, and is rapidly developing the public support, confidence and organisational ability to seriously challenge corporate rule, not just for one day at one site, but at its very foundations.