Melbourne Indymedia has the following story by Ignatius Quigley:- Melbourne's 27th anti-Nike protest rally by Ignatius Quigley junior 10:30pm Fri Sep 14 '01 http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=16246&group=webcast Melbourne's 27th anti-Nike protest tonight, Friday 14 September, was deliberately made a quiet affair -- in light of the terrible events in the USA. Tonight's protest was largely a symbolic one, to keep up our record. Protesters wanted it to be a quiet night with no confrontations. Protesters didn't bring their loud-speaker, and didn't line up in the usual way across the front of the store. However, they did turn up so as to maintain their unbeaten run of 26 weeks. We had two anti-Nike demos this week (Tuesday 11 September and Friday 14 September) -- so tonight was Demo No. 27 in Week 26). Tonight most of the protesters gathered to the side of the footpaths, near their literature tables. Protesters were also very active handing out leaflets to the crowds in Swanston Street and Bourke Street. Surprisingly, police numbers were up and it was quite a sight seeing about 20 police standing alone in front of the Nike entrance, effectively barring entrance to any prospective customers. The police are extremely well trained blockaders and will not budge -- not even for a genuine customer (unless their sergeant tells them to). At about 6.15pm, about 8 of the police were allowed to leave their posts and go home. They weren't replaced. A young student who was handing out leaflets near the police lines was asked to move away from the store. This seemed rather bizarre, since she clearly wasn't blockading -- she wasn't near the store entrance and was merely standing on the footpath next to the police. For a full report of our full-day Nike protest last Tuesday, 11 September, go to:- http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=16054&group=webcast The protest will be on next week -- Friday 21 September. Same time, same place, same Nike channel (at the corner of Swanston and Bourke Streets). ------o -- 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
