Mass union march a heavy blow to WEF BY SEAN HEALY (Tuesday September 12, 2000, 3pm) MELBOURNE — Tens of thousands of Melbourne unionists have delivered a stunning blow to the legitimacy of the World Economic Forum and corporate globalisation, filling city streets with noise, colour and people.
The workers have also rebuffed WEF attempts to paint the protesters as “violent” by marching directly to the blockade’s main base on Queensbridge Road from Trades Hall in Carlton.
The marchers filled Swanston Street in downtown Melbourne, marching past the Nike superstore chanting “Stop global sweatshops” and “The workers united will never be defeated”, before not only filling Queensbridge Road but also most of the nearby bridge across the Yarra River.
Official estimates by Trades Hall put the crowd at 10,000, which seemed considerably understated.
The S11 Alliance had agreed to allow Trades Hall use of its stage for a platform, which featured some of the Australian union movement’s most prominent leaders, including the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia’s Michelle O’Neill, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union’s John Maitland and ACTU president Sharan Burrow.
While rally organisers led loud chants of “Fair trade, not free trade”, both the sentiment from the massive crowd and the speeches from the platform were relatively free of protectionist tinge and full of support for the struggles of workers in the Third World.
Indonesian union leader Romawaty Sinaga, the international officer of the FNPBI, received an especially warm reception. “We want Australian workers to support Indonesian workers. We need your solidarity. We all, workers in Australia and workers in Indonesia, have common interests in stopping these people,” she said angrily, pointing at the conference venue across the road.
O’Neill expressed similar sentiments, saying “It’s not good enough to say, we want to save the jobs of Australian workers. We want that, but this rally is about fighting for the rights of workers around the world. We cannot fall into the trap of nationalism and racism.”
The rally has been called “an enormous morale boost for all the committed blockaders down here” by S11 Alliance spokesperson Cam Walker.
The issue of how much the union movement would support S11 has been contentious, with Trades Hall believed to be under considerable pressure from the ACTU and the Victorian Labor government to distance itself.
This tension was clear at the rally. Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown, for instance, told the union rally that he backed the blockade and that nothing was achieved until people stepped off the pavement and onto the street.
But Trades Hall secretary Leigh Hubbard held to the position that the labour council would only support the protests and not the blockade, evoking an angry response from more militant union members at the rally’s end.
Many unionists ignored Trades Hall’s injunction, however, and several thousand marched around the casino before joining the blockaders at different entrances.