Australia: Protests against APEC in Sydney
There is an intense security lockdown in Sydney with extraordinary police powers being granted to marginalise and suppress protest of APEC, the war in Iraq and the presence of George Bush and other heads of state.
The NSW Supreme Court granted Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione's application for an order to prevent Saturday's antiwar march moving from Town Hall down George Street, but qualified the decision with statements on people's right to free speech. Some reporters continue the media and police beat-up of 'violent protestors'.
The Stop the War Coalition are considering march options. Outside Court Alex Bainbridge said "our rally and demonstration will be going ahead. As we have always said we intend for this to be a peaceful protest. We have never ruled out non-violent civil disobedience." It is also likely that several banned protesters will defy police at Saturday's march regarding being placed on an exclusion list without judicial reason.
Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) such as Greenpeace, Caritas, Christian World Service, Climate Action Network Australia, GetUp!,Tear Australia, Union Aid Abroad have established an NGO media centre. On September 4 the Australian PM John Howard was invited to discuss climate change, aid and trade at NGO Media Centre. See their Video reports of Day 2 and Day 3. Other thoughtful analysis/opinion stories have included: Carnival of Capitalism - Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation Summit, and APEC, Sydney and the Australian Corporate Dystopia.
APEC & West Papua should be a prominent issue for discussion of APEC leaders, but is entirely absent.
While the NGO invited Howard to discuss issures, Graeme Dunstan organiser of the Friday evening Ghost Dance event invited George Bush. It is extremely doubtful that either will take up these invitations to 'meet the people'.
Other events include on Friday: Sydney Peoples Alternative Rally & Festival, Bums for Bush - World Record Moon Attempt, and the Sydney APEC Ghost Dance. The Big Stop Bush march organised by the Stop the War Coalition, is scheduled for Saturday.
A walkout of schools on Wednesday attracted a few hundred schoolkids to a peaceful protest through the streets of Sydney despite warnings of mayhem and strict policing of truancy rules.
The media and police have continued to beat up the prospect of violence based upon a smear campaign of the Mutiny collective (Mutiny in their own words) and the Flare in the Void convergence in an effort to divide and subdue dissent and protest. Melbourne Alliance for Civil Disobedience Co-ordination (ACDC) has appealed for unity and solidarity and condemned police reports linking the group to threats of violence. "The police are engaging in unfounded scare mongering and they are using this orchestrated smear campaign to undermine civil rights." they said in a media release on September 5.
As APEC was starting on Sunday and Monday climate activists staged dramatic direct actions: Greenpeace targeted a coal carrier in Newcastle, the world's largest coal port; activists from Real Action on Climate Change succeeded in shutting down the Loy Lang Power station in Victoria for 5 hours (Video); and on Tuesday activists disrupted a coal terminal in Newcastle. All these actions highlight the Australian Government addiction to the coal lobby which is behind its spoiler role in international negotiations on climate change.
Photos: Apec Fence, Snipers at APEC, Apec Fence: war on our lives
For updates visit Sydney Indymedia
(Moderationskriterien von Indymedia Deutschland)
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Join petition
This weekend, leaders of 21 nations--including the USA, China and Japan--are meeting at the APEC summit in Sydney, Australia. The summit has become the epicentre of a vital debate: whether to set binding global targets to avert catastrophic climate change, or to retreat to voluntary "aspirational goals" amounting to nothing more than hot air.
We've teamed up with Australian allies GetUp to create spectacles in Sydney, the climate-endangered Great Barrier Reef and around the world—heading off an "Axis of Global Warming" through a media firestorm, and sending our petition to key leaders. Can you help us break the half-million barrier this weekend? Some of you have already signed the petition, but you can help by forwarding this email to five more friends to ask them to add their voices:
Over 400,000 people have already signed, and on Friday we're launching a massive 144-square metre floating canvas "target" at Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach where it will be taken out to sea by surfers. Next stop, Saturday, swimmers will float this banner over the Great Barrier Reef -- which current predictions suggest will be killed off by climate change before 2030. Thousands of people from every continent have joined in by uploading climate target pictures of their own.
George Bush of the US and Australia's John Howard are seeking to derail our efforts for a new global climate deal, and to convert the waverers. But both are lagging behind their publics, with elections expected soon. We need to reinforce the efforts of leaders like New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark, whose chief of staff has confirmed to Avaaz she will be working for binding targets at APEC. Let's win over the undecided countries, and add hundreds of thousands more voices round the world: only binding targets can prevent a climate disaster.
The APEC summit isn't just a talk-shop. It's the kick-off to a string of top-level meetings in the coming months, all leading up to a landmark conference in Bali, Indonesia which will begin to write the next Kyoto Protocol. What happens in Australia could set the direction, for good or bad. But thanks to the worldwide movement that has been growing all year--from the G8 to Live Earth--we now have a real chance to shape the outcome.
Scientists agree, now is humanity's window of opportunity to stop a climate catastrophe. The world can't afford to miss this chance -- so please, spread the word today.
With hope,
Ben, Ricken, Iain, Graziela, Galit, Paul, and the Avaaz team
PS: Here are some links for more information on the issue of climate change at APEC, as well as the Summit's implications for the rest of the world: