Re: On Melbourne & S11 - a discussion??

["Alan Bradley" <alanb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: "Tom O'Lincoln"
> 1. There has been a big impact on the climate in Melbourne. The media are
> having a struggle containing it; the editorial line is hostile to us but
> the letters are running in our favour. The police went too far in the end
> and are paying a price.

It will be interesting to see what happens now that the protests are moving
on to Sydney.  There will be attempts to use "interference" with the
Olympics to attempt to set the Left apart from the "sports-mad" masses.  I
think that with a certain amount of political clarity in what we do, and a
bit of toughness to ignore shit thrown at us, we should be able to deal
with them though.

> 2. On ABC radio this morning national correspondents were also taking it
> very seriously. The view seemed to be that concessions would have to be
> made to anti-globalisation sentiment. One ruling class ideological ploy
> is to lump us together with the racist-nativist Hansonite phenomenon a
> few years ago. After all, it's all "anti-globalisation". The trouble is,
> in the case of the trade union bureaucracy, there is indeed an element of
> nationalism and protectionism (under the mask of "fair trade").

In some cases the ruling class ideologists probably don't know the
difference between us and the Hansonites:  we're all rabble to them,
struggling against the inevitable future.  In fact, their attempts to
confuse us with the Hansonites may well bite them on the arse, because it
will tend to undermine their usual attempts to red-bait us if the "commoes"
and anti-communists want "the same thing".

The trade union bureaucrats are more of a problem.

> 3. <snipped>
>
> 4. Could comrades outside Australia let us know what profile, if any, S11
> has had in the mass media in their countries? People here talk about the
> whole world watching us, but when I went to a number of obvious websites
> (CNN, the BBC, American ABC news) I found no mention of it.

What he said.

Alan Bradley
alanb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx