S11: Not The Plo, Just A Meeting Of Democrats Who Want A Say

The Sunday Age

Sunday August 27, 2000

JOHN ELDER

Some months ago, before the name S11 aroused the kind of feelings we usually reserve for outfits like the PLO, Halina Strnad received a leaflet in the mail.

It was an invitation for Halina and the members of her group, the Humanist Society of Victoria, to take part in S11, a planned peaceful protest encircling Crown Casino on September 11, the opening day of the World Economic Forum.

The Humanist Society of Victoria belongs to the International Humanist and Ethical Union, which was started by the literary Huxley family after World War II. Bertrand Russell was one of their icons.

Halina's group is committed to actively raising human decency; the members are in their 50s and 60s. ``The leaflet offered to send out a speaker. So a speaker came to my home and we listened." One of the Humanist Society of Victoria's platforms is eradicating world debt, which was on the S11 agenda.

``So I went to a meeting. But it was inaugural and nothing was decided. There were hundreds of ideas thrown in and it was chaos. I said that `when something definite eventuates, could someone come and tell us what's planned?"'

Halina and the Humanist Society of Victoria will be standing at Crown Casino with placards on September 11. They don't feel affiliated with S11, more part of what's happening.

In its purest form, Halina is the face of S11; someone stepping out on the day to have her say. It was a movement more than a group. Everybody welcome.

But soon after S11 came into public light, the respectable big guns - Trades Hall and the Jubilee 2000 - who initially appeared interested in joining the day of action, quickly backed away from linking arms at the casino, opting instead to stage their own events. Leigh Hubbard of Trades Hall said he met S11, asking for guarantees about how the day would be run. ``They couldn't give any, because they didn't know."

Said Grant Hill, national coordinator for Jubilee 2000, a coalition of mainstream church and aid groups: ``We were interested in finding out what was happening at the time, and in there being cooperation and support in spirit, but we never made a decision. There's (still) a loose coordination and cooperation between the groups." As an offering of evidence that trouble is coming on September 11, much has been made of the words loudly displayed on the opening page of S11's website: Seattle + Washington = Melbourne.

The unhappiest inference is that violence plus unrest will break out during high-level economic talks at the roulette wheel.

For weeks now, during any news item related to the planned protest (basically, against corporate greed and exploitation of the Third World) we've seen pieces of what happened in Seattle: chaos under clouds of tear gas, heads held down by booted feet, batons and rifles butting people to the ground, and some idiots breaking windows.

Various voices from S11 have pointed out that much of the actual violence was police over-reaction, and claim that the media driving it was an issue. But wasn't the S11 website asking for trouble?

David Glanz, a member of the International Socialists with a day job, is one of S11's media spokesmen. Regarding the rogue status of the movement he said: ``Seattle has been used as a code word for violence in the media. But there was a positive side that has been lost.

``Seattle was a mobilisation of 60,000 and 80,000 people over four or five days ... a true grass-roots response driven by the Internet. That was the inspiration."