Protest the Forbes Global CEO Conference

[Palmares]

Why are we protesting? Because CEO's cost the earth!

On 30 August 2005 one of the world's richest men Steve Forbes and NSW premier Bob Carr will host the fifth annual Forbes Global CEO Conference at the Sydney Opera House.

The Opera House will be taken over by more than 300 CEOs - representing some of the world's biggest war profiteers, environmental vandals and corporate crooks. Like the World Trade Organisation and the World Economic Forum, the Global CEO Conference is a means of promoting economic and social policies that benefit the rich and the powerful at the expense of the majority of the world's people and the environment.

For example, John Howard - who is opening the conference - will have taken totol control of both houses of parliament. In addition to more privatisation, attacks on students and universities, putting mining rights before indigenous rights, locking up refugees, part of the Liberals aggrssively (neo)conservative agenda will be full scale attacks on unions and the right of workers to organise. Howard's aim is an industrial relations system for profit making, more legal power for already dominant employers and more exploitation. One of the mechanisms that the corporate elite use to promote such policies and try to influence public opinion is the Forbes Global CEO Conference.

A $5000 a head event restricted to top executives means that you're not invited - but you can come anyway by joining the 30A protests. By mobilising in big numbers on 30A we can show that the Forbes CEO Conference and the policies that it represents are not going ahead unopposed.

If you think that corporations have too much power then you shold join us on Tuesday, 30 August.

NO TO WAR! - NO TO CORPORATE GREED!
WORKERS RIGHTS, DROP THE DEBT, NO WAR$, NO FORBES

MEET: 5:00pm, 30 August, Circular Quay

GET INVOLVED> The 30 Network is made up of people like you - activists, trade unionists, concerned citizens, artists. Why not come and help out? Your ideas and energy are welcome. Check www.30a.org for meeting times.

CONTACT: [email protected] / Vince 0438 800 244

For more info about 30A and related actions & events visit:

www.30a.org & sydneysocialforum.org

-------------

I might post some more info on other events when I get the information (some of which I already have, but too lazy to post right now :P )

[kilgore_trout]

Ill be there. Fuck the rich ****s. One loud american voice of dissent at thier little aussie barbecue, Ill throw a shrimp up their ass!

[Ian]

We don't actually eat shrimps, biggest misconception right there. We eat Prawns a animal thats very similar to shrimp. and they aren't really barbequed much either.

I'll be there too.

[Hiero]

And prawns arent eating regular. Mainly christmas, easter or new years. Or when they are sol cheap off the road.

[Black Dagger]

NZ is like a prison :P

[apathy maybe]

Bring along your black clothing comrades.

Join the black bloc.

I wanna smash it up for all the people
And for our right to be, to be treated equal
I wanna smash it up for all my friends
I hope you stick around until the very end

[Palmares]

So who's coming? :)

[Hiero]

Ok im coming one day. Probally the first, i will probally drive so i need to find parking. I might park at a sydney suburb trainstation then catch the train into centraland find my way from there.

I will come i just have to figure out what im doing so i can make it.

[Commie Rat]

GRAWWWWWWWW
did you see the report on this in channel 7 sunrise?

presenter 'who has shown up to this summit'
reporter ' well you can pick you poision here , anti-war, anti-capitalism, anti-globalization'
presenter ' [short laugh] well every one if you want to have a winge then head down there'

:angry: fucking media

[4514]

what caused the violence?

the news coverage is a total gip, fucken media!
4514
rank and file

[rioters bloc]

crazy rules and regulations were what caused the violence

a smallish group of people decide to have a sitdown and the cops of horses would surround them, closing in until the horses were kicking and almost trampling the protestors

yesterdays decentralised direct actions around the city were incredible, the anti-war affinity groups managed to shut down all the anz banks in the cbd [anz are war profiteers], the enviro crew occupied and blockaded the buildings of some climate criminals. we also had a small reclaim the streets contingent which was viciously attacked by police. tried to blockade the stock exchange but there were abt 80-odd of us and abt 150 police, including 25 on horses and 15 on motorcycles

here are photos from tuesdays march

http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php?showtopic=39791

none from yesterday cos i left my bloody camera at home..so many good photo ops though

like when we got a girl on a stretcher covered with red paint and bandaged up and tried to cash her in at the anz tellers

also when police were being fucking pricks, like when they made us get off the streets and onto the footpath, and then they surrounded us on the footpath too... like what do you want us to do, go back on the street??

[rioters bloc]

and yeah, fuck the media.

no really, fuck it

every single report ridiculed us

every single report said shit like "they're all anti-capitalism, but LOOK theyre wearing clothes! that they bought in SHOPS! omfg!!!!"

JUST BECAUSE WE HAVE TO SURVIVE WITHIN THIS SYSTEM DOESNT MEAN WE DONT WANT TO CHANGE IT

[Guest]

What happened today i heard people protested an ANZ and got arrested?

[rioters bloc]

yeah, hold up ill find what i posted in another thread

here it is:


another friend of mine got arrested today...

we went and occupied 3 anz banks [war profiteers], at the last one the police said if we entered anymore anz branches theyd arrest us

so we went to the one on martin place and leafletted and chanted outside, abt 10m away from the doors

suddenyl police show up, in a police car and 2 vans, jump out and grab my friend. we tried to get them off him and one of the cops pulled out pepper spray, fuck she looked so smug

so we backed off, they read him his rights... we asked what he was being arrested for, and they said theyd charge him when they got to the station

we know enough abt the law to know thats illegal and we told them so. they just laughed.

one of the guys there who was filming all the occupations and stuff for indymedia tried to film the arrest but they told him that if he didnt stop theyd confiscate the camera and arrest him - shows how dodgy the whole thing was. luckily someone got sound on their phone so we can use that if we need to take the officers to court.

we tried to get bystanders involved by telling them what was going on [it was pretty busy] but most didnt seem to care, some even yelled out 'get a job' - fucking intelligent australians. but we kept chanting 'show me what a police state looks like - this is what a police state looks like' and some ppl looked interested and so we gave them fliers and told them what was happening, and one guy joined in by shouting fuck the cops


but anyway end of my long [not that exciting] story

its just so typical of what all the other arrests have been like, stupid and just scare-mongering

arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh okay ill get over it

[rioters bloc]

the people who got arrested on wednesday were mostly reclaim the streets people i think, no1 from the stop-war crews

8 on tuesday 8 on wednesday

no-one yesterday...managed to shut down 9 anz branches in 20 minutes :D with only 20 or so people, cos since the branches are fairly close it was in, occupy, they shut down in 5 minutes, out and walk

we did it to 3 and then they spread the word and the other city branches shut as well

so empowering :D

[Monty Cantsin]

Nice I was with you on Wednesday but I didn’t think anything else was going to happen... wish I stayed now.

[rioters bloc]

yeah yesterdays and todays were rather spontaneous...numbers kept decreasing as expected but it worked nonetheless, i think thats what made it so great


are you a resident of sydney?


i think we're doing more next week, i'll pm you if you want to fuck shit up again :D

[Monty Cantsin]

That’s really cool that you managed to keep the Anti-ANZ stuff going. Who got arrested?

No I’m from Newcastle but I hooked up with the mutiny ‘crew’.

And I met some other people who want to start an affinity group to carry out Anti-war Anti-capitalist actions in Newcastle.

If there’s anything you think is worth it for me to travel PM me.

[rioters bloc]

ahhh i totally know who you are ;)

yeah i was in mutiny too ;) thats mad that youre starting another crew in newcastle, good luck with that

i dont think therell be anything worth coming down for, itll just be random disruptive acts... since most of the people who came up from tassie, brisbane, melbs and perth etc left today we'll prolly only have about 10 or so people but it still works!

[Monty Cantsin]

lol i worked out who you were a while ago but then you gave more account of yourself then i did.

[rioters bloc]

dope :P


anyways, i was thinking of starting up an anti-war zine, would you be interested in distributing them in newcastle once it gets off the ground? i could mail them to you :)

depending on funds though it might end up being an e-zine... which is not nearly as fun... but if vsu goes through then the students association's anti-war collective probably wont have the money to fund it :( oh well

[Monty Cantsin]

i could do that pretty easily...

i was thinking of making a few zines up here also.

[pedro san pedro]

rioters bloc: nice pics, tis a shame i wasnt there! tis always very strange to see someone you know in someone elses photos.....

[Palmares]

I even saw myself in those pics.

Great job by everyone involved in this protest (and all the affinity actions), and I give a shout out to improving on our weaknesses for the G20 possibly around October next year.

It never hurts to plan ahead.

[Monty Cantsin]

****

[rioters bloc]

nice work... holly wrote up one for enviro bloc, did u get that email?

im waiting for indymedia to get more video footage up :D

[Monty Cantsin]

no i didnt.

[rioters bloc]

Media release

August 31, 12 midday.

ACTION ALERT: PROTEST SHIFT TACT TO TARGET

Today, protests shift tact to target corporate climate criminals in the Sydney CBD. Following a lack of dialogue at the Forbes Global CEO Conference over climate solutions, the Green Bloc have occupied the offices of the world's major fueller of climate change, Xstrata.

From 1:15pm today, protesters will gather with banners and drums to disrupt the Xstrata Office in Sydney. Green Bloc are demanding Xstrata break their profit dependence on fossil fuels by producing a climate change transitional strategy, prioritising investment in clean energy.

Holly C******, a protester with Green Bloc says ³We demand Xstrata cease environmentally destructive reliance on coal exports, and work towards clean energy transition.

³Xstrata are the world's biggest coal exporter - making them one of the world's worst corporate climate criminals. The interests Xstrata are reflected in the Forbes Conference and in Government policy agendas that ignore climate change.²

Naomi H****** from Rising Tide Newcastle says, ³We are targeting Xstrata because of their blatant attempts to railroad any strategy to address climate change.²

Xstrata produce more than 70 million tones of coal each year, more than 50 million is from Australia, predominantly from the Hunter Valley. Xstrata are a major advocate of the Sandgate Rail upgrade in the Hunter Valley, which will increase coal exports by 60%. Newcastle is already the largest coal exporting port in the world.



>>>>REPORTBACK FROM ACTION<<<<

Green Bloc met at Customs Square, possibly the area with the highest level of surveillance in Australia this week. We dispersed in pairs, and met half an hour later.

Somehow we got into the foyer of the building (1 Macquarie Place - it was directly next to Customs Square, where hundreds of cops and horses were waiting).

Somehow we got inside the lift.

Somehow we got to the foyer of Level 38 * the level of Xstrata. The offices were locked.... but SOMEHOW we got inside the offices of Xstrata and began making noise&#33;&#33;

There were about 15 people of Green Bloc who were part of the occupation of Xstrata. We carried banners exposing Xstrata as a corporate climate criminal, a Green Bloc Banner (³Tick tock tick tock, here comes the Green Bloc&#33; People and Planet not Profits²). We chanted cheers about climate change, the exploitation of the environment and of people, and generally weaved throughout the office.

We demanded Xstrata cease their use of coal and abuse of the earth, and demanded to see Xstrata¹s position paper on climate change ;-)

Some staff were meanies. One staff member started abusing us, with the usual ³insult² of ³get a job². On her computer screen desktop was a picture of a HUGE lump of coal&#33; (She was scary&#33;) Xstrata also had framed ³art² on the walls of their offices ‹ framed photographs of coal&#33; It was creepy office.

We had collective discussion about how we wanted to proceed with the occupation, and how we wanted to negotiate with Xstrata and police. We were non-violent, and sat in a small space in the middle of the office.

About 20 police arrived, and immediately began yelling at us. One Xstrata Office Manager said very quietly for us to leave, and then police began forcibly removing people. They were particularly aggressive with 2 womyn.

Eventually we got into the lifts, half of us were herded via the back exit, and the other half via the front. We occupied and disrupted the Xstrata offices for about 45 minutes. There were no arrests, and no-one had details recorded.

I did about 6 live-to-air radio interviews about the Xstrata occupation (yay&#33;&#33;). Think I did Nova, FBI, ABC drive, a Melbourne station... And can¹t remember the rest.

Green Bloc did a debrief afterward ‹ on how people felt, what worked, what didn¹t, and what we¹d like to do as an affinity group in the future (cool&#33;)

Overall, we disrupted Xstrata offices for about 45 minutes, felt great and
effective, felt in control and empowered, had heaps of fun, and learnt lots&#33;

[Monty Cantsin]

The Forbes convergence and disruption in the streets


Dostoevsky once wrote “that apparent disorder that is in actuality the highest degree of bourgeois order” while in London during1862, jump forward to Sydney 2005 and there is disorder not conducive to bourgeois order in the streets. Over the last few days from the 30th of August through the 2nd of September there has been numerus Anti-capitalist and Anti-war actions carried out to coincide with the Forbes conference. The Forbes conference was a meting of around 350 CEO’s and politicians of the neo-liberal or economic rationalist persuasion, Steven forbes, Rudy Giuliani and John Howard we’re all present which give you an idea of the politics represented.

The first day of the Forbes convergence on the 30th of august was planed to be held at the Sydney Opera house starting with a cocktail party giving the elites a space for introductions and networking. I spent the beginning of that day working on banners, discussing Anti-capitalist politics and philosophy at The University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Student Association. At around 2:30 the affinity group ‘Mutiny’ met at ‘The Clare’ a retro bar across from UTS on Broadway to finish organising the Anti-war actions against Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) a war-profiteering corporation. At around 3:30 we concluded the meeting and headed back over towards UTS where a crowd was gathering for a March toward the Opera house. After waiting for about half an hour the March started to move down Broadway towards circular quay and customs house. There were a few hundred protesters in this March 500 being a high estimation comprising many Ant-capitalists but also people with more specific concerns such an assault on unionism and the Anti-student organisation legislation (ASOL) which are often seen by the protesters as interrelated policies driven by neo-liberals.

As the protest moved down towards costumes house it passed central station and one of the main bus stations where “christens against greed” joined in the main march amidst supportive cries which surprised me not only of the group but of myself more so. The ‘left’ is normally pro-secular and highly critical of any strong shake their finger type religious morality or religious foundation in politics. These christens I was told latter were from the uniting church. The procession continued on towards the quay with a large police escort of motorbikes, cars, mounted and police on foot. The police also guarded corporate icons along the route but we won’t give them advertising space here.

Along the way groups of protesters left the march to pull corporate advertising off the walls and place anti-capitalist slogans and stickers. We stoped outside different corporations such as ANZ chanting “100,000 Iraqis dead, who’s made a profit ANZ?” and then “Shame” louder and faster while pointing at their buildings. At this point the sprits where high and it was particularly funny watching suits trying to weave their way through the protesters with their heads lowered.

When we arrived at customs house which was our designated ‘safe’ area there was indecision as what to do next. Some people were of the mind that we should push forward while the police were on the back foot and make a run for the Opera house. Other such as a redheaded socialist alliance girl with a megaphone announced we should wait here because it was the ‘plan’. A man by the name of Dan who I assume was a libertarian socialist of some description because he was at Subplot(a convergence for radical idea’s held at Newtown community centre) shouted out that we should wait until more people came and then go, I thought this was reasonable.

While waiting for the numbers to show up we stood around and listen to speeches delivered by ‘significant ‘activists of different varieties, trade unionists, socialists, refugee supporters, aboriginal rights campaigners and greens. Kerry Nettle a green senator was the only remotely interesting speaker but I couldn’t tell you even an approximation of how long the speeches were they bored me, I wanted to leave but a comrade told me to have patience. I was told latter on that many people left the rally because they didn’t know if any further action was going to take place or if we would just be subjected to speeches.

The speeches finally ended and the large group of people numbering around 2,000 started to March toward the Opera house. This was not the 10,000 people the police had expected but it was enough for the Forbes convergence to change its location. NBN news reported this as an ‘embarrassment’ for the protesters but we already new they had changed their venue and couldn’t or wouldn’t face us. Latter on in the night protestors went to the Overseas Passenger Terminal at West Circular Quay to confront the neo-liberals. The March to the Opera house despite there being a lack of capitalists had an air of defiance but we were walking into a police trap like the Persian fleet into the battle of Salamis. There was a narrow corridor to the Opera house from customs house with the harbour on one side and restaurants to the other. At the end of the narrow corridor the area opened up more but was surrounded by large fences around two meters high weigh down by large concrete bases. Once the protestors were packed into this area police surrounded the whole area keeping a distance with most staying behind the temporal barrier. Almost immediately people started to attack the fences by claiming on them with enough numbers and thus changing the fences centre of gravity enough so they would fall over. Shaking the fence also helped to speed the process.

The number of people attacking the fence from my viewpoint was small around 20 to 30 people maximum, though this did not stop them from being able to fall a section of the centre fence leaving most of the fence untouched. The falling of the fence was a surprise and as far as I knew was not planed unless done so by a small affinity group. This is doubtful though because a friend of mine helped to fall the fence though it is also not an absolute that he told me all his plans for the action. At the same time the reaction of the majority of protestors was indecision, there was no great surge to overwhelm the police. The police reaction was an overreaction. Their first response was to send in a large group of police on foot from the back of the protest into the area where the fence had fallen. I thought at this time that this would be the extent of their response and enough for them to quell the small group of aggressive protestors. But they had not finished with their offensive coming from the right of the protest (I was facing the Opera house with a fence to the left of me and the harbour just beyond that) a group of mounted police rode through the crowed of protestors to just beyond the section of fallen fence and then doubled back and left the scene almost as fast as they had come. We are lucky to live in a country were police don’t just shoot protestors but seeing the police tactics used on that night was horrific. They rode through a crowd of unsuspecting individuals who were for the most part peaceful and in a celibately mood. People who hand nothing to do with the fence were injured by mounted police and I saw one young man with what looked like a broken arm waiting for an ambulance. It is hard to explain how one feels when seeing peaceful protestors being ridden over, you are fearful for their safety and develop a hatred for the police with their intimidation and violent tactics.

After the police charges things started to settle back down looking half like a street carnival and half a protest. Lots of people that I talked to thought the police action was detestable and a complete overreaction. For a while longer I watched people dance and bang drums while the police looked on and guarded heavily the section of the fence that had fallen. I found out latter on that eight people had been arrested at the Opera house and some more were arrested where the power elites had run of too. But I had left the protest before the break away group went to confront the power elites.

The second day of the conference and its contra-convergence Wednesday 31st of august started early for some protestors who went to blockade the Opera House at around 5, AM. Very few people turned up at such an early time but a friend of mine who did go down to the quay told me about his experience there. He had gone with two other people and realising there was not going to be a blockade they sat down out of the way and ate fruit. This scene of three youths eating fruit in a public space was enough to draw the attention of the police who searched their bags before letting them go. The power to search someone without reasonable suspicion within the foreshore area is part of the “Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority Bill 1998” which gives police many new powers and waves many old rights.

At around 12 o’clock people started to gather at the steps of the town hall for a reclaim the streets procession, at around 12:20 we started to move. Many people ran late and missed the beginning of reclaim the streets (RTS). When the lights went red and the littlie green men began to flash the procession leapt from the steps onto the road but when the littlie green man turned red we were still on the road. There were around 150 people in this march and it started to move down George Street past Queen Victoria and the over priced shops with scant items on there shelves. Amongst the sounds of car horns the protestors went forward and police rapidly showed up and tried to surround the protestors and push them onto the pavement. The tactics of the police was to ride motorbikes into the crowd on diagonal angles one after another closer and closer to the footpath while police on foot created a line just outside of those motorbikes. Anyone who walked outside of this line or close to it was shoved around and particularly hard if they had a covered face which is totality legal but annoys the police.

When RTS was finally pushed onto the footpath we run along the footpath past the police line and then we jumped back onto the road to form the procession once more. Changing things like “whose streets? Our streets” the politics of RTS is about reclaiming space which in modern capitalism is never really public but private and state owned. The original message of such procession was Anti-Car but very few keep to that orthodox. After a while a group of us from Mutiny broke of from RTS around Martin place and headed back towards Hyde Park along the way we met many people who were trying to catch the RTS procession because they had arrived late.


We arrived at Hyde Park around one o’clock to find that most people had already found their way to our meeting place just to the right of the train station entrance. Our action was to be aimed against The ANZ branch on York and Market Sts but before we could move from our meeting place police started to arrive. First we noticed the helicopter over head watching us in the park and then police on motorbikes turned and normal police on foot. At this point we decided to break up into littlie groups and meet up again outside of the bank groups moved off number 3 to 4. I had gotten up and spoken to the police man who was standing over us. He introduced himself as mike at first I thought he was foreign because his accent was quite peculiar but he was a lifelong Sydneysider as he told me. Mike the policeman tried to ascertain information about our activities, where we were going and so forth but when I wouldn’t give him the information he withdrew a few meters. We broke of into littlie groups to travel the short distance to the bank.

Upon arriving at the bank we walked past it and started to congregate were we could not be seen from inside. Most of us arrived quickly and about the same time but the other in the planed theatrics were running behind understandably because one of the girls had to change into costume, a dead person covered in blood. We decided to move on the ANZ branch we walked up around the coroner and into the bank. At that point all the nerves went and the adrenalin took over, the night before I had agenized over the different possibilities and went through different moods of enthusiasm and physical sickness therefore I got little sleep. Once in the bank we declared things like “this is not a robbery, we don’t want you’re money we think it’s dirty” and other throw away line of a similar description. After about 15 minutes of chanting “100,000 Iraqi’s dead, who’s made a profit ANZ?”, ripping up deposit slips and writing Anti-war slogans on them, being generally disruptive by creating noise and scattering ANZ pamphlets around. Finally the stretcher and the “dead girl” arrived and I went outside to help carry her into the bank. We took her covered in fake blood with ANZ pamphlets scattered upon her to where the management and consultant staff stood in the far right-hand corner of the bank. We put her down in front of them and tried to exchange the dead person for cash. I said to the staff ‘look I didn’t have any money so I killed her and I thought you know she’s not an Iraqi but she got be worth something’ someone else said ‘if you don’t have any cash that’s ok we’ll take oil’. Other people joined in explaining why we were there and the point of the demonstration, the staff members for the most part were stone faced though we got a smile out of one of them.

Soon after the theatricals were over the police finally turned up after about 20 minutes. They must have been stretched in numbers because there were two other banks being occupied and disrupted and other corporation’s offices by other affinity groups at the time and a RTS procession still moving around the city streets. This was not bourgeois order we were not the official left on official marches in official out of the way places. We were in their faces and they had to deal with us, it was beautiful and empowering to see the drones and the little Eichmann’s shaken out of their normal pattens. On the police arrival though we left the bank carrying our dead person with us, we had pre-planned our action vaguely depending on the actions of the police. There was about 4 police in special uniforms for occasions of civil disobedience and they threaded us “get out or we’ll arrest you”. When we were all outside the police blocked of the bank for us and did not try to disperse us, they didn’t have the numbers to try it yet.

After a while of chanting and handing out flyers (we handed out 400 in the 40 minutes we were there) for a while the special police left probably to deal with the trouble at martin place that we were just starting to find out about through mobile phones. Normal police came after a while two of them and stood in front of the door. During this intermission and change over of the guard a man wnet to use the ATM’s but we wouldn’t let him trying to explain our position he declared that he didn’t care about dead Iraqis and just wanted his money. But there was also positive public response one ex-police officer came and talked to me about how he used to be one of those ‘guys’ and how his had a total change of perspective furthermore supporting what we were doing saying that people need to take this sort of action. After a while the women police officer tied to more us on from ‘private property’ though we were on a footpath. I tried to paraphrase some legislation but she didn’t response with anything intelligent but rather a hard shove. She then tried to arrest a member of our group but people stepped in breaking her grip on the protestor. She gave up trying to move us and we continued to chant and talk to passers-by. After about 20 minutes outside the bank police on motorbikes and paddy wagons arrived and we quickly dispersed moving towards martin place where we new protestors were under siege from police.

The ANZ branch at martin place is the state headquarters of the corporation which might indicate why the police reaction was so harsh there. Upon arriving at martin place I couldn’t seen any protestors only hundreds of police on foot and mounted in this little public square. I was told that within that sea of police were in fact 25 to 30 protestors. The police tactics were blatant intimidation but after a few minutes of my arrival the protestors were let out. The whole group of protestors those once trapped and those in support were herded toward customs house. Along the way a salesman with a microphone was selling his products to a particular demographic, “all you’re protesting needs cheap camouflage and bandannas” and other such items. Upon arrival at customs house people where pined in with cops on all sides I quickly removed myself from the situation. After a while the protestors slowly slipped out of the pen made for them by the police.

The next target that the protestors went to was the Stock exchange, I arrived a bit after 3:30 and there was about 80 protestors and a few police. I saw members from mutiny and crossed the road to talk to them, there was no collective dissection on what we should do and it was left up to individuals. A few people sat outside the stock exchange while more police turned up and guarded the entrance way. At one point before the police turned up on mass I saw a man in a suit attack the protestors and then retreat back into the stock exchange. But not much happened after that point and I joined a group of people heading towards the police station were protestors where being held 8 in total. We walked from the stock exchange to Hyde Park were groups of protestors converged and decided upon further action there was no consensus dissection individuals just declared that they were going to surry hills police station in solidarity with the people arrested. I arrived at the police station around 5 and waited for the last person to be let out around 8 meaning the people kept the longest were kept for 7 hours, the people kept the longest were the people of colour. The prison solidarity was the last action of the day.

The next day saw action but with dwindled numbers, (I was not there personally) I heard of actions carried out by small groups against the ANZ war-profiteers on 2nd of September which managed to shut down all the ANZ branches in the CBD again like we achieved on the 31st of August though this time we incurred arrests. The lessons we learn from theses actions is that preparation is half the battle, the ANZ actions worked well because they were thoroughly planed while the stock exchange occupation had littlie planing devoted to it and more decision had to be made on the day which took away our Initiative and advantage over the police. The inspiring ting about these events is they breed hope and show a way of escaping the everyday counter to the bourgeois billboard I saw at Hornsby station advertising chips which read “Escape the everyday with *****(1)”

Notes.

1) A crappy brand name.

[rioters bloc]

ill write up an account of thursday and fridays actions tomorrow, hopefully by then ill have accompanying photos

til then heres one of the masks a lot of the rts peeps were wearing, and which a cop FORCIBLY MADE ME REMOVE...fucking hell

http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/5649/p62500885uz.jpg

[rioters bloc]

so holly&#39;s given a callout for witness statements/footage of the protest:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About 16 people were arrested and charged during Tuesday and Wednesday’s Forbes protests. They will all be in court on September 27th

>>>Contact point for witnesses:
I’m happy to be a contact point for witnesses. Give me a call or email if you witnessed arrests, or events preceding an arrest, or dodgy cop behaviour. I’m not going to name the people facing charges, but we can work out whose arrest you witnessed, and pass contact details onto the arrested person. If you are required as a witness, the solicitors will contact you.

SUGGESTION FOR PEOPLE: Write your statements now. If you witnessed arrests, events preceding an arrest, or dodgy cop behaviour, write down your account now. Sign it, date it, and keep it. If you are required as a witness, you can be discredited if it can be shown you have forgotten details, etc. An witness statement that is signed and dated is admissible as evidence. You can refer to the written account whilst giving evidence before a court.

>>>Callout for footage/photos:
1. Footage to assist people facing charges, especially footage of fence coming down and arrests on Tuesday night, and arrests at Reclaim The Streets on Wednesday. I will pass it onto people facing charges.

2. General dodgy cop behaviour: some people are setting up a website www.piggywatch.com <http://www.piggywatch.com/> of cops misbehaving. Such footage would also helpful in analysing the nature of police behaviour during the Forbes protests.

Send to:

************
[postal address]
************

Alternatively, contact me, and we’ll figure out a way of making copies, getting access, etc.

>>> Cop complaints:
Very few people made witness statements during the Forbes protests to legal observers. If people want to make a complaint about cop behaviour, one thing that might be useful to add to any complaint might be “For the avoidance of doubt, I don’t want to be visited by a police officer at my home about this matter”. So the cops don’t come a knockin’….


A coupla thoughts from me ;-)

* The arrests and charges are attacks on all participants in the 30A protests, on the right to protest....
* As most of us take action collectively, hopefully we can support arrested people collectively. Facing charges can be an expensive, draining, and incredibly lengthy and exhausting experience Some people facing charges are from Adelaide, Melbourne, and Tassie. Anyone got any ideas on how we can support each other???


Cool. People can contact me with questions, are interested in supporting people on charges, have ideas or time to help, have random suggestions… or have friends in high places….

Holly

*************
[mobile number]
[email address
*************
Or if I disappear into an ASIO cell….
UTS Students’ Association [phone number]
Rebekah D**** [mobile number]

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anyway if anyone does have anything like that, please im me for numbers and email addresses of aforementioned people, it&#39;s very important&#33;

peace all :)

ps sorry for double posting. but we really need witness statements&#33;