Anarchists ready for APEC violence

By Shaun Davies
ninemsn

An anarchist group linked to violence at last year's G20 summit has rejected the idea of "peaceful protests" at September's APEC summit in Sydney.

The group, called Mutiny, has reportedly convinced the group organising the main APEC protest, the Stop Bush Coalition, to remove a reference to "peaceful protest" from its advertising materials.

Organisers of the G20 protests in November last year identified Mutiny members as perpetrators of violence at the summit, along with another anarchist group, Arterial Bloc.

Sydney's streets will be locked down and police given increased powers during September's APEC summit, which will be attended by world leaders including George Bush and Vladimir Putin.

The Stop Bush Coalition has organised a major APEC protest for September 8, which thousands of people are expected to attend.

Mutiny has issued an open letter that opposes billing the protest as "peaceful". "To insist on a 'peaceful protest' seems to be either naive or dangerously cynical — and it aligns with the repression of dissent," the letter says.

The letter blames police for violence at G20, saying protesters there were "terrorised" by "unfounded arrests". It argues for a "diversity of tactics" at APEC, which could include violent action.

"Our fear is that an assertion made now that the protests will be explicitly 'peaceful' will shut down the discussions that need to be had; that people will argue only that the protests should be 'peaceful' instead of accepting that people will organise in diverse ways," the letter says.

The group says it has not yet planned violent protests for APEC, but has not ruled out organising such actions at a later date.

"We write in the hope that we or groups with politics similar to ours would be able to organise for APEC alongside others, in the hope that a diversity of tactics will be possible," the group's letter says.

A report in radical newspaper Green Left Weekly says Mutiny won a motion at a meeting of the Stop Bush Coalition to remove the words "peaceful protest" from advertising material.

Stop Bush Coalition media spokesman Alex Bainbridge would not comment on Mutiny's involvement in his group's planning meetings.

He said the Stop Bush Coalition was still planning a peaceful protest.

"We are worried if anything about the possibility of violence from police," Mr Bainbridge said.

"It's important that people come out on the streets and make their views heard."

He could not say if overseas protesters were planning to come to Australia for APEC, or what specific measures the group would take to prevent violent groups from hijacking the protests.

Eleven people were arrested at the G20 protests in September last year, after rioters in white hooded suits and bandanas smashed a police car and injured a number of officers. Police officers have since been accused of responding to the protesters with excessive force.

Organisers of the G20 protest told the media that members of Mutiny and Arterial Bloc were responsible for the violence.

Violent protests have also erupted at this week's G8 summit in Germany, where masked rioters throwing rocks and beer bottles injured almost 150 police.