N14 - Second Day of NoWTO actions in Sydney

Reporter's Diary - Aotearoa IMC Journalist Gives Up On Any Pretence of Objectivity ;P

November 14 in Sydney. Protest against the US government's war drive against Iraq and highlighting the conncections between military adventurism and corporate rule via the World Trade Organisation (WTO). No legal permits to demonstrate have been issued and the "Blue Bloc" are out in force.

Around 9am, as the delegates prepare for their day at the feeding trough at the swank Novotel Hotel at Olympic Park Hotel in Homebush (more on that later), a crowd of around 1000 people from Sydney and around Australia and the world gather in Martin Pl, a cobbled pedestrian street in the Sydney CBD. Many organisations and affinity groups are present waving their coloured flags and engaging in animated discussions of the previous days events and the actions to come.

Like the previous day's demo, paper sellers, leafletters and media both commercial and independent swarm around the rally. But today there are some new elements, the sober tone of yesterdays march replaced by a salvo of creative actions. A missile on wheels bearing the slogan "democracy - we deliver" is overseen by a smiling and waving "George Dubya Bush". A wheeled throne with a paper mache effigy of Dubya is pushed around by snarling "suits". The Reclaim the Streets sound system delivers some pumping sounds from its cleverly adapted "wheelie" rubbish bin.

After the usual loudhailer pep session, the march starts up Martin Pl. 3 women from Melboune lie naked in front of the US consulate, covered in fake blood, between 2 banner saying "End the War on Women" and "We are all responsible for the blood the US sheds". Unfortunately there are so many photographers and videographers crowding around that the public and many people on the march fail to spot them before female police are located to arrest them (more on that later too). One of the daily papers later comments that police covered them to preserve their dignity, a typically patronizing ignorance of the political statement their action was making.

Instead of a following a pre-planned route the march took over intersections, dancing and cheering and used a "spin-the-bottle" approach to decide where to head next. "Another World Is Possible", "Free the refugees", "Say no to corporate greed", "Confront the spectacle with its own irrelevance" Activists chalk slogans on streets and even city-buses accompanied by enthusiastic chanting of "Bullshit, Come off it, This war is just for profit" and "No blood for oil". A lone protestor championed the most unusual cause celebre of the day with a patch demanding "Free Winona". "Peace Police" with hobby horses, banging together half coconuts, form the cavalry of the march.

About 10:30 the march doubles back on the MLC Centre where the US Consulate is housed. A banner declares that "Today cannot be business as usual". The crowd loudly denounces the US Government's warmongering and a US flag is burned, for which one man is later arrested.
Not long after the march moves off again, mounted police charge around a corner and form a line blocking the street. Curious demonstrators run after them and soon fill the street, further immobilizing two city-buses which the police have trapped.

Unsure of what is going on and getting hot and bothered from taking copious notes and then running from the back to the front of the march to take photos, this reporter is helped onto the top of one of the buses for a cool breeze and a photo opportunity. After snapping off a couple of shots and dancing with the sheer joy of pushing the boundaries of media coverage, I notice a knot of unhappy looking riot police break away from the lines surrounding the march and move todays me. They instruct me to "Get down!", which I do.

This is the end of my report on the march, since at this point at least 6 of them leap on me. Despite the valient attempts of the crowd to defend freedom of the press by de-arresting me, with shouts of "Let him go", "Shame" and "the Whole world's watching!", one policeman almost breaks my wrist for trying to hold onto the hat that has slipped off my head in the struggle. I am eventually cuffed with thick, black cable ties and thrown into a gated parking building. Within minutes I am losing circulation in my hands. From the first I try to remain calm and keep explaining to the police that I am with the media and that they have made a mistake. They pay no attention and throw me in a paddy wagon.

I see two fingers help up the wagon window in a peace sign and hear the "Aum" chanting of the Diversional Therapist, an affinity group of the Green Bloc. I am taken to Surry Hill police station and put into a small, perspex-fronted cell. Police take all my gear including my pencil (although they generously allow me to keep my notebook) and my belt, resulting in the next 2 hours spent holding my trousers up every time they make me move somewhere. They want me to remove my Taonga (bone-carving) which I never do for spiritual reasons. When I refuse the officer threatens "take it off or I'll rip it off you", with the justification that I might use it to hang myself. Since he is clearly concerned for my wellbeing I decide to comply.

Solidarity in the cells is strong, with detainees discussing their arrests, enquiring after each other's welfare, sharing legal advice about not talking to the police or answering any questions and singing and drumming on the walls to keep their spirits up. Gradually we are moved in small groups to the holding cells at the courthouse where we are allowed to talk to Legal Aid advocates and then processed through the court.

I am charged with "Hindrance", which the magistrate refuses to accept due to lack of a coherent argument for it. No mention is made in the charges of any offence relating to being on the bus. On my behalf my advocate offers a plea of guilty to "Resisting Arrest". After a small speech about the interest of the public in the protests and the valid role of the media in providing "safe and responsible" coverage of them, the magistrate dismisses my charge and orders me to pay court costs of Aus$60. I have no intention of paying this, instead I am donating it to a solidarity fund for those facing fines.

As the police take me to get my gear, one of them offers that "the organisers [of the protests] should be locked up" for 2 years for "wasting taxpayers money". Clearly this man has not the first clue what the word democracy means and would have been just as happy escorting jews to the handbag factories.

After my release at about 2:30, I hook up with some others of the kiwi contingent here and we head over to join the Reclaim the Streets party beginning in Hyde Park, following the midday 'unity march' from the Town Hall. Here I borrow a cell phone and use Sydney Indymedia's PIMP system to phone in the report linked in the WTO feature. Not until the end of the following day to I get the opportunity to post this article. After a quick boogie, we decide to return to the courthouse to see if anyone else has been released. Which is just as well since it's at this point I realise the police still have my wallet with all my money, ID, cards etc and proceed to get it returned.

Unfortunately this meant I was unable to observe or report on the 5 arrests at RTS which began as the tired crowd began to dwindle in numbers. Luckily a Melbourne Indy reporter was able to phone in reports on this as it happened.

After a quick meal, I head down to UTS (University of Technology Sydney - a sort of UniTec) for the spokescouncil meeting, where the various affinity groups sit down to democratically plan the following days action, each group speaking through a temporary representative or 'spoke'. My day ends at the Grand Midnight Star Social Centre in Homebush, a squatted community space within talking distance of the WTO mini-ministerial venue.