Blackberry
28th August 2003, 11:56
On August 27 at 3PM, between 500 and 1000 predominantly university students gathered in the front of Melbourne's State Library. The Nelson Reforms was the point of anger.
In brief, these reforms would increase university fees, reduce government-funded HECS places, and increase full-fee paying places, thus discouraging poorer students from attending university.
There was a very large police presence, along with federal level agents. Very dominant figures in the crowd were the Socialist Alternative (bearing red flags), and the Socialist Alliance. In a rare instance, there was also an extremely small anarchist presence.
After various speeches, the protest moved towards Bourke Street, where they stopped once again, to make more speeches. Some of the passers-by became quite interested, visible via some of them approaching protestors to have a chat about the subject of disapproval. As usual, there were many passers-by amused and interested by the protest, as seeing social non-conformers is a bit of a rarity in today's society.
The protest moved on once more, to stop in front of the Melbourne Business School in Carlton. There, the people inside the building were booed. Apparently, the building is called the Sony building, because it was corporatised, which the anti-capitalist crowd did not like.
The McLennan Library, also located in this building, ccharges their own students to borrow books, which was also disapproved by the socially conscious crowd. They also deny non-business school students access to catalogues and magazines recommended to them by their lecturers.
Next stop was the Chancellor's House in a Melbourne University campus. As it was the closest university close by, it was a target. Upon arriving at his front gate, there was a call to occupy the house. This call was made to be able to confront the Chancellor to grieve issues on the University's support of the Nelson Reforms.
The protestors ran towards the door, but could not open the door in time. The police arrived, and so started the clashes with police.
No violence from the protestors was displayed, but peaceful direct action was taken. The police on the horses, however, started swinging their batons briefly, and some protestors were pushed to the ground by police. As far as could be seen, no arrests were made.
After more unsuccessful efforts to break into the house, the protest dispersed. There were promises of more action to be taken in the near future.
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Photos can be found here (http://www.anarchist-action.org/news.php) in the same news report as this one on the website (too lazy to link all of those images).
In brief, these reforms would increase university fees, reduce government-funded HECS places, and increase full-fee paying places, thus discouraging poorer students from attending university.
There was a very large police presence, along with federal level agents. Very dominant figures in the crowd were the Socialist Alternative (bearing red flags), and the Socialist Alliance. In a rare instance, there was also an extremely small anarchist presence.
After various speeches, the protest moved towards Bourke Street, where they stopped once again, to make more speeches. Some of the passers-by became quite interested, visible via some of them approaching protestors to have a chat about the subject of disapproval. As usual, there were many passers-by amused and interested by the protest, as seeing social non-conformers is a bit of a rarity in today's society.
The protest moved on once more, to stop in front of the Melbourne Business School in Carlton. There, the people inside the building were booed. Apparently, the building is called the Sony building, because it was corporatised, which the anti-capitalist crowd did not like.
The McLennan Library, also located in this building, ccharges their own students to borrow books, which was also disapproved by the socially conscious crowd. They also deny non-business school students access to catalogues and magazines recommended to them by their lecturers.
Next stop was the Chancellor's House in a Melbourne University campus. As it was the closest university close by, it was a target. Upon arriving at his front gate, there was a call to occupy the house. This call was made to be able to confront the Chancellor to grieve issues on the University's support of the Nelson Reforms.
The protestors ran towards the door, but could not open the door in time. The police arrived, and so started the clashes with police.
No violence from the protestors was displayed, but peaceful direct action was taken. The police on the horses, however, started swinging their batons briefly, and some protestors were pushed to the ground by police. As far as could be seen, no arrests were made.
After more unsuccessful efforts to break into the house, the protest dispersed. There were promises of more action to be taken in the near future.
=====
Photos can be found here (http://www.anarchist-action.org/news.php) in the same news report as this one on the website (too lazy to link all of those images).