Occupy Melbourne

I attended Occupy Melbourne last weekend and had a very positive experience including attending a GA and staying over on Saturday night in the Treasury Gardens. I was pleased to see positive proposals being made and people working so hard to keep this movement going. A couple of days later I checked out the website and now I feel compelled to write about how whether deliberately or not, General Assemblies have been undermined by some people working within the Facilitation Working Group. I am referring to the decision at the GA on Sunday 6th Nov to only hold General Assemblies twice a week.

The Refugee Action Collective (Victoria)organised a rally and march reiterating demands for an end to mandatory detention and offshore processing. This came in the wake of two events: the High Court decision ruling the government’s intended Malaysia deal illegal, and the drowning deaths of asylum seekers off the coast of Java a few days previously.

I have just spent the last two days at Occupy Melbourne. To say that it has been an interesting political experience is an understatement! I feel we are currently witnessing a battle for the democratic soul of the Occupy movement in Melbourne. There is the linked struggle to decide whether Occupy Melbourne is actually committed to maintaining a protest site within the Melbourne CBD and a struggle to see whether it is the Working Groups or the General Assembly which is the ultimate power within Occupy Melbourne.

On Saturday 29th October, just over 1 week after the brutal eviction from the City Square, thousands of people are in the process of re-occupying Melbourne. Note: this article quickly became out of date due to the authorities at RMIT issueing an eviction notice. The GA then voted to move to the State Library where only a small number of protestors stayed. occupation re-established at State Library. Another group of protestors went and set up camp at the Edinborough Gardens for the night in the City of Yarra. GA at 4PM today (Sunday) at State Library to decided where to from here.