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October 29th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
A protester makes a stand at the new Occupy Melbourne site of Bowen Lane at RMIT’s city campus yesterday. Photo: Luis Enrique Ascui
It scarcely resembled an impending showdown. Late yesterday morning, Treasury Gardens – where Occupy Melbourne protesters planned to move at lunchtime after being ejected from City Square last week – was quiet. One policeman and two security guards watched over the only people there: a wedding party posing for photos.
But Melbourne City Council was talking tough. If protesters dared set up ”tents or infrastructure”, a spokesperson told The Sunday Age, ”police will let them know they’re in breach of the law. If they continue to disobey, those goods will be confiscated. But people are allowed to protest peacefully.”
This infuriated protesters at the midday rally at the State Library, but an organiser urged caution. If protesters had anything that might ”inflame” police, such as tents, they could leave them with supervisors outside the gardens. Later, he added to this list ”other weapons of mass destruction, such as chairs and picnic rugs”.
Protester Liam Ward was one of the first to arrive at the rally. ”I was one of the people dragged out last Friday,” he said. ”I had one guy grab me around the neck and one guy on each arm … and there was [lord mayor] Robert Doyle looking down like Mussolini while police cracked skulls.”
The City Square clash has shifted the focus from the protest’s original aims to the right to protest itself.
But what were those initial goals? Critics say they’re ill-defined; that the gatherings are an excuse for ”rabble” (read: arts students, union workers, people with dreadlocks) to cause trouble. The movement – one of many sparked by anger at those believed to have caused the GFC – does have some specific grievances. A political system alleged to be unduly influenced by big business, for instance. The growing gap between rich and poor.
By the time the rally reached Treasury Gardens, a different scene greeted them. Police ringed the park, several dozen in all. Yet there were no ”tents or infrastructure” to provoke a clash. If it weren’t for the placards or the occasional megaphone announcement, a passer-by could be forgiven for thinking it was a picnic.
Then, suddenly, there was doubt. Worried they would be removed the instant they pitched a tent, organisers proposed two other possible locations for the occupation: Edinburgh Gardens in North Fitzroy and Bowen Lane at RMIT. Then, more megaphone proposals: to occupy St Paul’s Cathedral, or perhaps the Exhibition Gardens. ”Every time we have a debate about where to go next, we lose half the people,” a protester declared as darkness began to fall.
The thousand-strong crowd eventually voted for Bowen Lane as the least risky option. Plus, it has toilets, tables and nearby cafes – and then they were off. Compared with the earlier march, this was angrier, more chaotic, sweeping up startled pedestrians and drawing bemused shop owners to their front doors.
It took just 15 minutes for the swarm to fill the lane bisecting RMIT’s city campus. Plans were shouted over a loudspeaker: bring in the camping equipment, bring in the food. Small tents sprang up and a bigger one was under construction. Further instructions were drowned out by a chant: ”Occupy Melbourne is here to stay.”
Not so, said an RMIT spokesman: ”The vice-chancellor has decided that people are not welcome to occupy the campus. The operational handling of this is now in the hands of the police.”
Last night, police told The Sunday Age they were yet to determine their next move. ”Enough stuffing around,” said one protester. ”We’re not going anywhere without a fight.”
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