By Alex Schlotzer:
The Occupy Melbourne movement is pretty much dead in my opinion. Though it really didn’t come alive as was promised.
On Friday morning the police moved in to remove the Occupy Melbourne protesters that had been occupying Melbourne’s Town Square. Unfortunately as those assembled at Town Square quickly found out, no-one was really paying much attention in the first place. That can be the only description given the calls for support fell on mostly deaf ears.
The problem here wasn’t necessarily the sentiment but more the execution.
From the beginning the Occupy Melbourne movement didn’t seem to have any particular focus other than ‘smashing capitalism’ or ‘smashing the state’. The effort to organise in solidarity with those occupying the streets of cities and towns around the US and the world is commendable. However this was never going to be enough to get people to come out in the numbers required to maintain Occupy Melbourne.
And it was the fact that there was no coherent message that prevented more people supporting Occupy Melbourne. I’m sure it also didn’t help that over the course of the last week more and more of those protesting seemed to be from various Socialist organisations. Many of the flyers and posters that were plastered around Town Square were all in the formats and styles used extensively by the various Socialist factions. It also became obvious that there was a lot more talk going on then any kind of action to redress local and global injustices.
There was nothing being said about the issues affecting Australians, like insecure work, unaffordable housing, the Northern Territory Intervention, the treatment of asylum seekers, or the failing public transport system in Melbourne. And to make matters worse for the ‘movement’ there was not much being proposed about what to do about the global situation and shopping list of issues raised.
Just read the minutes of their General Assemblies.
There was little coverage of Occupy Melbourne in the mainstream media and even those purporting to be at the action failed to tell their stories through social media, though there were a lot of calls for people to support Occupy Melbourne. It was essentially a non-event. Indeed as I walked around Occupy Melbourne last week no-one approached me to discuss what was going on and no-one handed me an informational flyer. Other than my own attempts to speak with different individuals, it felt as though no-one was interested in building up the Occupy Melbourne ‘movement’.
Truth be known it seemed to me that the Occupy Melbourne action wasn’t gaining any new support and would’ve naturally wound up and desolved.
But then in a show of almost complete ignorance Melbourne’s Lord Mayor and the Premier of Victoria decided to start making threats to remove protesters. Sure the Occupy Melbourne protesters were breaking local laws pertaining to structures erected at Town Square but it certainly didn’t warrant the rhetoric used.
Then in a rush of blood to the head Robert Doyle, conservative Lord Mayor of Melbourne, decided to send in the riot police after issuing eviction notices to the protesters. If there is one way of bolstering something like Occupy Melbourne, a benign demonstration, it’s by sending in the riot police.
But the decision to send in riot police to break up a peaceful demonstration clearly reveals what Doyle and Baillieu think of democracy. Instead of going down and speaking with the Occupy Melbourne protesters, things were made worse and ensured that something that was dying away was reinvigorated. If it had been the desire of Doyle and Baillieu to break up the protests, not just move them on, then the strategy failed.
While I don’t actively support Occupy Melbourne because of its incoherent demands and no clear position for which it stands, I cannot stand for the kind of idiotic and dangerous approach taken by Robert Doyle.
These actions suggests that the Lord Mayor doesn’t have the ability to deal with democracy and prefers an autocratic approach.
Robert Doyle can bleat on as much as he likes in the Herald Sun and The Age that what he did was right but he is clearly deluded. By sending in the riot police Doyle sends a clear signal he is for physical confrontation instead of discussion and understanding.
Occupy Melbourne Update
The latest news from @OccupyMelbourne is the occupation will apparently continue at Treasury Gardens.
Alex Schlotzer is a straight talker when it comes to politics and loves to vent his spleen. Actively involved in Australian and international politics with a keen understanding of the dynamics of the political machine, Alex has a prolific online presence and has been a cyber activist for over 15 years. Co- editor of theangle.org, he can also be found at his blog and his exciting online project Australian Politics TV.
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[...] NOTE: This was first published on The Angle titled “Some Thoughts on Occupy Melbourne“ [...]
That's not a shabby thing to consider Jim. There are many that would argue that would make the political landscape more level.
Ban corporate political donations and limit individual donations to a reasonable amount!