G20 Public Meeting Update

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G20 Solidarity protest at Melbourne Magistrates' Court 31 Aug 07

The Ongoing G20 Solidarity Network (Ogasn) organised a show of solidarity outside the Melbourne Magistrates' Court during the latest hearing - an event disrupted by police over-reaction to a totally unthreatening action ...

Produced: 2007/08/31
Duration: 4 minutes 29 seconds
http://www.engagemedia.org/Members/pc/videos/engage-31aug.avi/view

G20 ARRESTEES SOLIDARITY RALLY

outside the Melbourne Magistrate's Court,
cnr William and Lonsdale Sts, City
Friday 31st August
9:30am

Please show your support for those arrested at the G20 protests in
November last year - DEFEND POLITICAL PROTEST! DROP THE CHARGES!

At a time when civil liberties are under threat we should all support the 27 people facing charges resulting from their alleged participation in political protest against the G20 in November 2006.

The charges are overblown and disproportionate – imposed after a media witch-hunt led by the Herald Sun. They are part of a conservative campaign to discredit protest and social movements for change.

Thousands of people joined the protest against the g20 meeting. We did so because the G20 is an unaccountable elite institution that pushes neo-liberal policies that wreck the lives of workers and the poor. Privatisation, cuts to public health, education and welfare, and WorkChoices-style attacks on workers’ rights are all neo-liberal policies pushed by the G20.

We protested because we want a better world – without corporate greed, endless war against Iraq and Afghanistan, and global environmental destruction. The G20, like APEC, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, is an institution set up to promote the interests of the rich and powerful.

It is no surprise that every time they meet, anywhere in the world, they are met with protest and resistance. And that’s why thousands of people will be protesting against the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) meeting, attended by Presidents Bush, Putin, and Hu Jintao, in Sydney in September.

The G20 protest challenged the ‘lock-down’ of the city that the Victorian police imposed to insulate the G20 delegates from the people affected by their decisions. Direct action and civil disobedience have a proud history in movements for social justice, from the suffragettes and 8-hour-day movements to the anti-Vietnam war and Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s.

We need to defend our ability to organise, protest and resist – Drop the charges now!

Called by: Ongoing G20 Arrestees Solidarity Network (OGASN)
Endorsed by: Australian Student Environmental Network, Civil Rights Defence, Unity for Peace, Latin American Solidarity Network, Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group,
Anti-APEC Network, Anarchist Black Cross, Socialist Party, Resistance, Permanent Revolution, Revo, International Socialist Organisation, Solidarity, Refugee Action Collective (VIC).

OGASN meets every 2nd Friday at the New International Bookshop, Trades Hall, Lygon Street, Carlton. For more info call 0421 979 694 or email afterg20@gmail.com. Website: www.afterg20.org

Joint G20 solidarity and Civil Rights Defense Public Meeting

by Anita Tuesday April 24, 2007 at 11:14 PM
afterg20@gmail.com

The G20 arrestee solidarity network (ORGASN) has organised a joint public meeting with Civil Rights Defense at 7pm this Thursday the 26th of April, at the Fitzroy town hall, Reading room (cr Napier and Moor st, enter off Napier).

Dear Friends,

The G20 arrestee solidarity network (ORGASN) has organised a joint public meeting with Civil Rights Defense at 7pm this Thursday the 26th of April, at the Fitzroy town hall, Reading room (cr Napier and Moor st, enter off Napier).

At the meeting we will hear from:

- Marcus Banks from the Austudy 5 about the successful 'drop the charges campaign' run to defend the Austudy 5.
- Anita from ORGASN will speak about the g20 protests, police and media repression that followed, and will update us on the situation currently facing the G20 arrestees.
- Rob Starry, the lawyer who is defending some of the G20 arrestees and the Barwon 13 and will be able to update us on the legal issues in both cases including how the terror laws are being administered in the case of the Barwon 13.
- Colin Mitchell from Civil Rights Defense will update us on the David Hicks, Jack Thomas, anti-terror laws and Barwon 13 campaigns.

Each speaker has 10 minutes to speak. There will be nibbles supplied by Food not Bombs.
Come and get an update, join the discussion and show your support for these campaigns.

Drop the charges! Defend political protest