BY JAMES CAULFIELD & STUART MUNCKTON
CANBERRA — They say that this city is the place where anything can happen and usually doesn't. But, for once, on May 1, it did happen: the global anti-capitalist revolt hit Canberra.
Three hundred people came out to join the blockade of Mining Industry House here. Despite claims that employees turned up before the 7am blockade, there was no sign of life inside the building and no cars to be seen, a testament to the effectiveness of the blockading tactic.
The first protesters arrived at 6.30am to find about 20 riot gear-clad police behind orange plastic fencing, but no attempts were made by police to break through the blockade lines, resulting in a completely peaceful action.
Mining Industry House is home to the Minerals Council of Australia, which represents such corporations as BHP and Rio Tinto.
The blockaders heard from a range of speakers, covering a wide variety of themes: such as the unity of the anti-corporate globalisation movement, the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas agreed to on April 22 in Quebec, the planned new round of "free trade" talks and woodchipping at Badger rainforest.
Speakers came from such groups as the Democratic Socialist Party, the International Socialist Organisation, ANU Left Labor, the Greens, Friends of the Earth, Resistance, Socialist Alliance and the Community and Public Sector Union rank and file group Members First.
Also present at the protest was the famous socialist, Robin Hood, who turned up on stilts. He lead the crowd in chanting "Take from the rich! Give to the poor!"
At noon, blockaders marched triumphantly down Northbourne Avenue into Garema Place in the centre of the city to join a loud and lively May Day rally organised by the ACT Trades and Labor Council.
In Garema Place 50 trade unionists and 150 blockaders heard from the secretary of the Trades and Labor Council, Jeremy Pyner, speak of the need to keep up pressure on those responsible for the ongoing and massive human rights abuses in places such as Burma.
Representatives from the Friends of the ABC, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy and the Nurses Federation also spoke to the assembled crowd. The city's nurses are currently embroiled in a bitter dispute with both the ACT and federal governments and the M1 protesters finished the day by marching down to the Legislative Assembly to join a protest organised by the Nurses Federation.