Graham Matthews, Sydney
More than 300 people attended the Sydney Social Forum (SSF), held over the weekend of August 27-28 at Petersham West TAFE. A "super session" at the old mint building in Macquarie Street was held on the evening of August 29.
Major topics for discussion at the SSF were the campaigns against the US occupation of Iraq, to free refugees from detention in Australia, and to halt the federal government's attacks on workers' rights. With the SSF providing the curtain-raiser to the protest against the Forbes CEO conference on August 30, there were also lots of discussions about corporate globalisation, the increasing attacks on the right to protest, and reflections on previous anti-corporate protests.
British Stop the War Coalition activist Chris Nineham stressed the erosion of the legitimacy of the official explanations for the Iraq war. He argued that the July terrorist bombings in London had left British Labour PM Tony Blair exposed, with more than 50 dead commuters sacrificed to his government's support for the war. Nineham said that the anti-war movement had to combat pressure to erode civil liberties, particularly the rights of the Muslim community.
Texan for Peace Charlie Perkins and Australian activist Donna Mulhearn spoke encouragingly of the breakthrough made in the US anti-war movement by Cindy Sheehan and the establishment of Camp Casey outside US President George Bush's ranch in Texas. Sydney Stop the War Coalition activist Jarvis Ryan advocated continuing mass mobilisation as the only way to build confidence in the campaign against the occupation. Ryan urged those present to support the November 5 demonstration in Sydney against the US occupation of Iraq and attacks on civil liberties.
A reportback from two young Australians, Zoe Kenny and Duroyan Fertl, who have recently returned from Venezuela where they witnessnessed the unfolding Bolivian revolution, drew a lot interest. Other international sessions included discussions on Palestine, East Timor and Papua New Guinea.
Around 120 people attended the SSF super session, titled "Our world, our rights, our future". ACTU president Sharan Burrow explained the seriousness of the attacks against the trade union movement contained in the federal government's industrial relations "reforms". Burrow looked forward to the success of the November 15 ACTU-initiated day of action against the anti-worker laws, which she promised would be the "biggest mobilisation of workers across Australia that anyone has ever seen".
Andrew Ferguson, NSW secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, reported that further attacks were to be made on the rights of building workers under the federal government's Building Industry Improvement Bill, which is set to pass the Senate in September.
Cate Faehrmann, director of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, talked of need for urgent action to address global warming. Faehrmann called on the union movement to organise an all-inclusive demonstration against the Howard government and its destructive policies.
Anna Samson from Sydney Stop the War Coalition spoke of the need to continue to organise against the US occupation of Iraq and against attacks on civil liberties.
"We did expect [the SSF] to be a bit bigger", Vince Caughley from the organising committee told Green Left Weekly. "We had around 20 organisations hold sessions at the forum, but they didn't build the forum themselves."
According to Caughley, the strengths of the forum were the "diversity of the organisations involved, as well as the involvement of more of the official trade union movement. The discussion was also more grounded, political and strategic.
"There was a willingness and recognition of the need to build a new left. What form that takes is an open question. We need to continue to the process of building a new left. It's a very open process, with people not wedded to any particular organisation."
From Green Left Weekly, September 7, 2005.
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