Stop Logging Victoria’s Native Forests – Bourke Street Mall 20 December 2013

Posted on December 20, 2013 by melbourneprotests

Another chanced-upon protest, this time organised by The Wilderness Society Victoria and designed to catch the lunchtime bedlam outside the old GPO in the Bourke Street Mall:

A leaflet handed to shoppers and other passers-by gave the background under the heading ” Logging Victoria’s Native Forests Doesn’t Make Cents”:

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Especially catching attention were representatives of two of the species most threatened by logging:

The protest action had been advertised on the Wilderness Society Facebook page …

Be Free – 18 December 2013

Posted on December 18, 2013 by melbourneprotests

This is by way of a follow-up to an earlier post featuring the work of the street artist Be Free. (See also https://www.facebook.com/pages/Be-Free/518697324863586.) On the opposite side of the street from this, high up above a cafe, the young lady is also to be seen, this time spreading rainbow colours:

Melbourne Pig Save – 15 December 2013

Posted on December 15, 2013 by melbourneprotests

We chanced on this and fortunately happened to have a pocket camera. Facebook followers would no doubt have known about it in advance … Here is a closeup of the ‘pig’:

The Facebook page is here, and the website here.

Other sites of relevance:
Voiceless

ALV – Animal Liberation Victoria

http://www.aussiepigs.com/

Make it Possible

Edgar’s Mission

Among the leaflets being handed out, some designed to shock*, Edgar’s Mission offered their ‘Guide to a Kind Christmas’, which included some very delicious-sounding recipes, available for download here.

See also Vegan Easy, and the Vegan society of Australia.

* For example: ‘A Recipe for Tortured Christmas Pork and Ham’, for which the ingredients listed were:
1 pregnant pig
1 small metal cage (sow stall)(2.2m x 0.6m)
1 metal birthing cage (farrowing crate) (2.0m x 0.5m)
1 life of misery and deprivation
1 pair of clippers:

(Images on leaflet not reproduced here)

No Coal Exports Rally – 10 December 2013

Posted on December 10, 2013 by melbourneprotests

Environment Victoria called a rally to protest at plans to extend Victoria’s highly polluting brown coal industry:

WHAT: Rally to say no to a polluting new coal export industry for Victoria

WHEN: 1:00-1:45pm, Tuesday, 10 December

WHERE: Steps of Parliament House, cnr Bourke and Spring Sts

WHY: The Victorian government is on the verge of allocating billions of tonnes of brown coal to the coal industry to kick-start a polluting new coal export industry.

Instead of squeezing the last drops out of a polluting resource, we want clean, safe energy, for a clean, safe climate. So let’s tell the government we don’t want to be part of the problem.

Join us with Friends of the Earth Australia, Quit Coal, Australian Youth Climate Coalition, 350.org Australia on the steps of Parliament House, Tuesday 10 December to say no to brown coal allocations and brown coal exports.

Confusion surrounding train timetables meant we missed the first half hour of the forty-five minute rally, but we were able at least to catch the moment when the “no” slogan on the placards lining the steps of Parliament House was switched to the “yes” one for renewables:

Became:

There is more background to the issue on the Protect Victoria page of the Environment Victoria website:

[...]

The Victorian and Federal governments have each committed half of a $90 million pool of money to support new coal projects in Victoria. It’s called the Advanced Lignite Demonstration Program (ALDP), and already coal companies are lining up around the block to get their hands on it. From what has been reported in the media , it’s clear that the companies putting up their hand for taxpayer subsidies are all interested in coal exports.

At the same time, the Napthine Government is considering allocating another 13 billion tonnes of coal to prospective miners in the Latrobe Valley . This would be bad news for our environment, the community and the diversity of the Latrobe Valley economy. We’ve successfully delayed the allocation twice, but the government has announced that they will make a decision on whether to proceed or not by the end of the year.

Previous government allocations have promised the earth in jobs and investment but delivered nothing. And yet the Victorian Government now wants to do it all over again.

If it goes ahead, the impact on our state will be devastating.

Up to 33 billion tonnes of brown coal could be handed over to coal companies to be dug up, hauled by trucks and trains across the state, and shipped from new ports in protected marine zones to China and India where it would ultimately be burnt.

[...]

More photos from the rally:

More on (NO) McDonald’s in Tecoma – 30 November 2013

Posted on December 1, 2013 by melbourneprotests

November 30th was the day of the End of the Line festival in Belgrave, and also the day chosen for the concrete pour at the site of the ‘controversial’ (read: unwelcome) McDonald’s outlet in Tecoma (see earlier posts here and here, and the local campaign Facebook page. There was ‘No to McDonald’s in Tecoma’ stall at the market in Belgrave, and we also took time out to have a look at the site…

The stall at Belgrave

Quite a few of the t-shirts were being worn on the day

Various views of the site as of 30 November:

The ‘highway’:

Nuggets

Posted on November 26, 2013 by melbourneprotests

Not sure how idiomatic this is, but a trace of satirical roguery counts as a protest?

Fake gold 'nuggets' with caption 'Maintenant vous êtes riche!'

Spotted in High Street, Thornbury, 25 November 2013

Zombies and Melbourne’s G(eneral) D(ay) of P(rotest) – 12 October 2013

Posted on October 13, 2013 by melbourneprotests

There was much to do in Melbourne on Saturday: the annual Zombie Shuffle was brought forward by two weeks; opponents of the planned destruction of one of Melbourne’s most important live music venues rallied at Parliament Reserve; Melbourne took its part in a worldwide March against Monsanto; and there was the annual March for Babies by anti-abortionists, countered by pro-choice supporters. It was obviously not possible to attend the whole of each of these events, since they overlapped, but we did our best, and the weather helped for once.

Save the Palace

The Palace on Bourke Street, formerly the Metro

The plan is to turn this into a luxury hotel

If organisers were hoping for thousands to turn out they will have been disappointed, but given the competing events it was quite respectable:

MC was Julia Zemiro of RocKwiz and other fame:

The Save the Palace Facebook and event pages contain extensive background material and links to a petition, and the campaign has also been covered in the music world, for example by Tone Deaf and faster louder (see also Music Feeds and this in the Sydney Morning Herald

Later in the day this was the frontage of the theatre:

The original venue for the above rally was announced as the steps of Parliament House, but that had already been earmarked for the end of the annual March for Babies

As in previous years, police had divided the area in front of Parliament House with a view to keeping the two sides well apart, and by 12.30 the side reserved for Pro-Choice supporters was well occupied, while Pro-Life supporters were assembling in the Treasury Gardens prior to marching through the CBD to their side of the steps, where a PA system and banners had been prepared:

(The last photo above was taken somewhat later than the others, on the way to the March against Monsanto, of which more later.)

We had made the decision to move on to the Zombie shuffle, so missed most of what followed. It seems the Pro-Choice supporters marched to meet the Pro-Life march and there was a confrontation, variously reported in the mainstream media (for example http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/10/12/18/50/mp-says-he-was-assaulted-in-abortion-rally and http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/antiabortion-protesters-in-clash-during-cbd-rally/story-fni0fee2-1226738911785) and the respective Facebook pages. After this it seems the bulk of the counter-marchers dispersed, while the rest continued to heckle the marchers and occupy the head of the march:

(This was in Bourke Street heading towards Parliament House; we had been at the Monsanto protest and followed its march down Swanston Street this far, before making for Parliament House just in time to catch up with the March for Babies.)

As the march neared the top end of Bourke Street, the Pro-Choice activists broke into a run and were able to position themselves in front of the Pro-Life stage before the march proper arrived, apparently taking the police flat footed.

At this point the side of the steps reserved for the Pro-Choice counter rally was almost deserted, and a contingent of police occupied the upper steps:

Unfortunately, that is as far as this site is able to provide a first-hand account; our time had run out. But the respective Facebook pages are there to fill in the gaps:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/March-For-The-Babies/105936922804480
https://www.facebook.com/events/428242667285109/
https://www.facebook.com/events/688190664544348/

Overview of crowd outside Parliament House

The scene just before 3pm

Strictly speaking the Zombie Shuffle should have come before this, followed by the March against Monsanto, but the Shuffle produced so many photos we decided to bring the Monsanto event forward – of course, it actually preceded the events just described, but this post has long given up trying to be linear.

March against Monsanto

Once again we have to rely largely on a Facebook page for detail, and indeed, the coming of Facebook has largely made sites of this kind redundant, which in turn is one reason why updates are infrequent (the archive is plodding along). But we do have a few photos, including the one above, taken at the State Library towards the end of the rally which preceded the march down Swanston Street:

We noticed that some participants carried references to a film GMO OMG shown at the recent Melbourne Environmental Film Festival. (That was a hint, although there is so far no word of further screenings here.)

And so we come to undoubtedly the best-attended event of the day, though leaving aside the question whether it can legitimately be called a protest – the
Zombie Shuffle 2013

This year the assembly point was moved to the Fitzroy Gardens instead of the Carlton Gardens, a good move on the whole, avoiding the confusion of last year (see report here) though there seems so have been some difficulty with streets blocked off for other events – something that might not have arisen if the Shuffle had been held at the end of the month, as previously? (See this report in The Age.)

There is probably nothing to say except that the event was obviously a great success, if anything more comprehensively photographed than even last year, and so indeed we pass on to the largest gallery yet posted on this site for a single event, randomly presented from the assembly and the beginning of the march: