BY SEAN HEALY
Support for the May 1 blockades of stock exchanges and financial districts continues to grow, including amongst trade unions.
Progress is most advanced in Victoria where a number of militant unions are growing increasingly keen on participating in the action. On February 23, Victorian Trades Hall Council's executive voted to organise a demonstration on May 1, although the time and place are yet to be decided.
M1 Alliance activist Sarah Peart told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly that VTHC's decision was "an excellent start and a big boost to our efforts". She said she hoped that future Trades Hall executive meetings would resolve to have the union action join the blockade outside the stock exchange.
In Sydney, Zanny Begg reports that the NSW Labor Council has agreed to support and publicise a March 17 "Corporate Scumbags Tour" being organised by the M1 Sydney coalition.
City workers will be asked to nominate their own "corporate scumbag" to be "visited" on the day, with leaflets being distributed by M1 activists and a nomination form being posted on the Labor Council's Workers Online. Likely targets include the offices of the major banks, the giant mining companies and the World Bank.
M1 activists hope the Labor Council's decision will spur other unions to back not just the "Corporate Scumbags Tour" but the May 1 blockade itself.
M1 Sydney's February 23 meeting resolved to sponsor and organise a major anti-corporate conference on March 24, dubbed "Fighting for the Future". Speakers confirmed include Julia Murray of anti-sweatshop group Fairwear, Thea Ormerod of Jubilee 2000 and a representative from the anti-nuclear coalition, SPANNR.
M1 activist Lisa Macdonald explained that she hoped the conference would be a "chance to develop the political level of the anti-corporate movement in Sydney by allowing activists to have a more in-depth discussion on issues such as globalisation, international solidarity and the role of the international financial institutions".
Anthony Polson from M1 Sydney's musicians' working group also reported to the February 23 meeting plans for an M1 benefit concert in April and an M1 benefit CD with songs donated by Sydney bands including Kinetic, Jane's Brown, Second Summit, Pachamama, Urban Guerillas and Crack Pot.
Lachlan Malloch also reports from Sydney that a new M1 organising group has been formed in the city's eastern suburbs, 15 activists attending the first meeting of M1 East on February 17.
The group's plans include a large public forum on globalisation in Bondi in April and a local version of M1 Sydney's "Corporate Scumbags Tour". M1 East is the third local group to be formed in Sydney in as many weeks, following hot on the heels of M1 groups in the western and northern suburbs.
From Canberra, Andrew Hall reports that the ACT group of Members First, a militant rank-and-file network of activists in the Community and Public Sector Union, endorsed the May 1 protest against corporate tyranny at its February 15 meeting.
Members First activists explained that they thought it important to link their work as union activists in the public sector to the broader movement against corporate globalisation, and that M1 was a big opportunity to stress issues of privatisation, outsourcing and working conditions as key components of the growing movement.
The city's M1 Alliance is organising a public teach-in on March 3 with the theme "People and Planet not Corporate Profit". Plenaries and workshops on the anti-capitalist movement, corporate globalisation and saving the environment will be held, the final plenary will be used to resolve the political direction and activities of the Canberra group, including whether it organises an action in the city on May 1 or travels to Sydney to join protests there.
From Hobart, Alex Bainbridge reports that activists have also resolved to blockade the city's stock exchange, which is located on the top floor of the AMP building.
Apart from housing the exchange and the insurance company, which is one of Australia's ten largest corporations, the building also houses stock brokers, the National Australia Bank, the Chase Manhattan Bank and Intellectual Property Australia.
The M1 Alliance publicly launched its plans on St Valentine's Day, February 14. Activists presented a giant heart to the stock exchange because they felt it, and the companies listed on it, were without one.
The M1 Alliance is demanding the cancellation of all Third World debt, abolition of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and World Trade Organisation, a 1% tax on all speculative transactions and other measures to win justice for workers, women, indigenous people and the environment.