Re: The speech that Barnes should have given

["Alan Bradley" <alanb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: Gary MacLennan
> Far better to settle for something more tangible such as a discussion
> group.  Far better to try and create the intellectual and moral climate
> which will restrict the scope of the bourgeoisie and their minions.  In
> some ways it is uncomfortable to try and reach out to and listen to
> people who do not share the 'line' or the 'program'.

Gary, you sound a little depressed.  Keep watching the bourgeois media:
SBS news had a story on what was effectively the first of the S11 protests
tonight.  I've included it below.

(Oh, Steve Jolly is from the Socialist Party (CWI - ex-Militant))

Alan Bradley
alanb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

-----------------------------------------------------------
>From the SBS website:
http://www.sbs.com.au/worldnews_set.html ;

PROTESTERS PREPARE FOR WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

Tension is building in Melbourne in the lead-up to next week`s meeting of
the World Economic Forum. Protesters from the s11 coalition claim that
unlike previous meetings in Seattle and Washington, their blockade will be
peaceful. But the protesters claim Victorian police are on a `knife-edge` -
an allegation denied by Chief Commissioner Neil Comrie, who says his
officers will not seek confrontation.

Two days from the World Economic Forum and Victoria police got a small
taste of what it`s like keeping the lid on protests when they had to keep
pro- and anti-abortionists apart. Today`s demonstrators - including members
of the radical youth group Resistance, who are part of the s11 Alliance -
briefly tested the police line. 1,700 Victorian officers will be on duty
Monday protecting the World Economic Forum from the s11 blockade. Those at
the forefront of the broad coalition insist it won`t be violent.

STEVE JOLLEY, s11 ALLIANCE: We are going to do everything possible to
ensure this rally is the political equivalent of the Y2K millennium bug
when it comes to violence.

s11 has held training camps to teach its supporters the finer points of
civil disobedience. It`s also been criticised for attempts to recruit
teenagers.

STEVE JOLLEY: We want to win, we do want a blockade but we want to do it
through force of numbers.

Media focus on the potential for violence is frustrating protest
organisers. The Victorian Trades Hall will have its own protest separate to
the blockade.

LEIGH HUBBARD, TRADES HALL SECRETARY: I`m here for the big picture, and
that is, the World Economic Forum and what it`s about as a thinktank for
global capital and how they want to run things, is something we all have
concerns about.

SENATOR BOB BROWN: It does remind me a little of the Franklin River. There
is a broad church of people involved here, there are different views about
how that should take place, and it`s part of the vigour of debate on that
that goes along with any great protest.

Next week, both sides of the debate will have their hype tested.