Melbourne Indymedia has the following story by Ignatius Quigley:- http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=16054&group=webcast Week 26 in the world's longest anti-Nike protest by Ignatius Quigley 5:41pm Tue Sep 11 '01 Today, Tuesday 11 September 2001, social-justice and human-rights activists demonstrated outside Melbourne's Nike store - for the 26th successive week. Hey, that's six months -- half a year -- making this surely the world's longest running anti-Nike protest. And we made this one an ALL-DAY event to mark the anniversary of Melbourne's famous S11 protests, which began on 11 September 2000. By 10am today (the normal Tuesday opening time for the Nike store at the corner of Swanston and Bourke Streets), the demo was already under way. Banners were up; drums were starting to beat; and protesters were forming the usual line-up, shoulder to shoulder, in an arc extending from Swanston Street around to Bourke Street, obscuring Nike's entrance on the corner. Through the microphone and amplifiers, activists began informing the crowds of shoppers in Swanston and Bourke Streets about Nike and other sweat-shop scumbags. There were several creative innovations at today's demo. For example, someone erected about 4 or 5 metrers of rope between a tree on the footpath in Swanston Street and the traffic lights on the Nike corner. On it (attached with clothes-pegs) was a label entitled "Clothes Line of Shame", together with various pieces of clothing (pants and tops) that have been made by sweat-shop labour for selling in scumbag stores. Each item of clothing (attached with clothes-pegs) was labelled with the name of the company or store retailing it -- including Nike, Sussan, GAP and Melbourne's very own David Jones. One item from Sussan's (a pair of pants) said: "Retail $50; cost price to homeworker $2.10." Another notice on the clothesline said: "More than 75 per cent of Nike's shoe production occurs in countries where it is illegal to form independent trade unions." The police commander at today's demo -- Superintendent Brendan Bannan (who is not usually at the Friday night anti-Nike rallies -- objected to the clothes line being attached to the traffic lights. Presumably the superintendent thought that his objection would stymie our clothes line altogether but we outsmarted him by taking it off the traffic lights attaching it to a stake which we elevated above a rubbish bin right beside the traffic lights. After that, the superintendent gave in and our clothes line remained. At 11. 15am, Superintendent Bannan became nervous about our line-up of protesters obscuring Nike's entrance. So he announced that (in his humble opinion) we were committing the heinous medieval crime of "besetting premises" and, unless we desisted forthwith, we would be arrested. OK, no problem, Superintendent -- so we merely created a small gap in the middle of our line-up (a gap wide enough for a customer to walk through). This satisfied Superintendent Bannan but he apparently didn't realise that the public's line of sight through that gap was still obscured -- by other protesters milling around on the foopath and by police officers and Nike bouncers standing in Nike's doorway. And one of the protesters made use of this gap. He got piece of chalked and wrote on the footpath, amid the gap: "Warning: democracy-free zone; violent cops ahead; shame Nike shame." The demo had lots of audio and visual effects. There were street-theatre performers and life-size puppets (including one of Queen Elizabeth 11 of Great Britain who will soon be coming to her Australian colonies for the CHOGM conference). Someone blew lots of soap bubbles (my two-year-old daughter would have enjoyed seeing those). There was lots of jiving around on the footpath to the sound of the drums. And lots of community singing - various chants and jingles aimed at corporate scumbags. Some of these tunes were based on children's songs -- I particularly enjoyed one entitled "Ipsy-wipsy Howard" (my two-year old daughter could have done the hand movements for that). Naturally, some of today's speeches denounced John Howard for playing the race-card. A group of pro-refugee activists turned up with a portable "detention centre" -- a framework cage made from light timber, measuring about 8feet 8ft by 8ft. To give you an idea of how big this was, I would estimate that it could hold about 20 asylum-seekers (standing up) or (better still) about 30 Liberal Party MPs (lying down and stacked up horizontally). When this "cage" arrived on the scene, the activists wanted to place it on the very corner of Swanston land Bourke Streets, but Superintendent Bannan objected (doesn't that guy ever rest?) and we had to put it in Bourke Street, about 10 metres from the intersection. Actually, this worked out better because it enabled the passing crowds to inspect it closely and to read the interesting notices and placards that were strung around the cage, giving the real facts about asylum seekers. My prize for today's most entertaining speech goes to the prominent Melbourne comedian Duff, who did a kind of stand-up routine to entertain the crowd. Inter alia, Duff drew the crowd's attention to the gallant and brave Superintendent Bannan and he complimented the superintendent for working so hard today. (Duff is great on irony.) Duff, in an effort to create more love and fellowship in today's world, spoke soberly to the protesters in the shoulder-to-shoulder line-up and got them (on the count of "THREE") to turn around and give a cheery wave to the constables standing behind them. The constabularly returned the greeting with smiles. In fact, there was a spirit of camaraderie all around. At one stage, one of Nike's security staff (who is usually seen inside the store on Friday nights) came out and had a friendly chat on the roadway with Police Inspector Brett Guerin - just as though they are old mates. The media turned up in force today -- I saw Channels 7, 9 and 10. I saw a nice lady sergeant -- Sgt Graina O'Grady -- wearing a badge labelled "Police Media Liaison". The Victoria Police like to make sure that the media gets the official Victoria Police version of events. Not that the corporate media needs much encouraging to do that. The "Herald Sun", especially, acts as an honorary public-relations mouthpiece for Nike and other corporate scumbags. About 1.40pm, the main body of protesters marched off on a "scumbags tour" of central Melbourne, while others remained at Nike. First, the scumbag tour went down the Bourke Street Mall and stopped outside the Sussan's clothing store (opposite the Myer Emporium), where (using the portable amplifier) they exposed Sussan's involvement in sweat-shop practices. Then the protesters marched up towards the Federal Court to give their support to the Civil Liberties lawyers who (without pay) are challenging the Howard Government's kidnapping of the "Tampa" passengers. After that, they marched around various streets, stopping occasionally outside premises of a corporate scumbag (e.g., the Rio Tinto mining corporation in Collins Street and the Liberal Party HQ in Exhibition Street). Jeez, there's no end of corporate scumbags in Melbourne. Throughout the scumbag tour, a base party of protesters (plus police) remained at Nike. These included the various political groups who continued operating their literature tables and handing out leaflets to the city crowds near Nike. Also still outside Nike this arvo was the comedian Duff, plus his fellow comedian Marcus Brumer. Duff and Marcus are both famous for throwing custard pies -- last October Marcus threw one at Victorian Premier "Jeff" Bracks and later Duff shoved a custard pie in his OWN face and then (hilariously) "kissed" Premier Bracks, leaving a lot of egg on the Premier's face. The upshot of that was that Marcus got convicted of assault (or whatever), while Duff got off scot-free. Duff told me this arvo that this discrepancy is most unfair -- Duff reckons he was entitled to a conviction and it was most unfair for the police to charge Marcus and not Duff. About 9am today, before the demo began, Marcus and Duff erected a tent for themselves on the corner of Swanston and Bourke Streets (at Nike's entrance) and announced that they are going on a hunger strike to protest against Marcus's conviction (and Duff's lack of a conviction). These two comedians were still there this arvo, standing beside their tent and chatting to the public about the issues of the protesters. (When they end their hunger strike, Marcus and Duff will each eat a custard pie.) At 2pm, I had go back to work (I work in the corporate world in the city) but I understand that the scumbag tour was due to come back to Nike later this arvo. Melbourne's six-month non-stop anti-Nike demo ought to be noted in the Guinness Book of Records.Can someone please write to Mr Guinness? -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
