APEC and the police state

The Maritime Union Sydney Branch was a key player during the Asia Pacific Economic Community Forum in Sydney in September. Alongside the Chaser ABC TV comedy team, Branch Secretary Warren Smith and his team of fire fighters, maritime workers and community activists did their bit to highlight the security farce surrounding the forum.

But in the unions' case it was the more sinister side of the police presence that was brought to light.

In the lead up to APEC the union got word that police were using video footage of Sydney MUA officials as well as community activists to rehearse ways to deal with any violence.

"The video utilised racial stereotypes and hysteria to portray the union and community activists as a potentially violent group of thugs," the Sydney branch secretary reported to National Council in October. "In fact the branch was at the forefront of efforts to ensure the demonstrations were peaceful."

In a branch media release in the lead up to APEC the union described the video as "a disgraceful attack on democratic rights and the right of community members to oppose the injustices of globalisation and war".

"This is about linking legitimate protestors to terrorism and violence," said Warren Smith. "The real perpetrators of violence are among the participants of APEC who openly support the illegal war in Iraq. If they want to see real terrorists they should be showing film footage of George Bush. If they want to see violence they should be looking at the devastation of the war in Iraq."

Plundering assets

APEC was formed in 1989 at a Canberra summit to further economic cooperation among countries in the Asia Pacific, but the union argues that while talking equality and harmony, it is yet another forum for imperialist powers to exploit people by looting and plundering their national assets - all in the name of bigger profits.

Dominating APEC means controlling 60 per cent of the world's GDP, 55 per cent of world trade and nearly half of the world's population.

Wherever forums like APEC, the IMF, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum meet, people protest against their neo-liberal economic rationalist policies.

Sydney was in effect turned into a prison for APEC. And the NSW Labor Government joined with the ultra-right Howard Government in the creation of a police state in the very heart of the city.

The MUA and the Fire Brigade Employees' Union were the only unions to join the mass mobilisation against APEC - a forum of capitalism and big business

As it turned out the only violence on the day was police violence.

The unions including around 300 maritime workers, veterans and families led the march from Town Hall. They staged an unscheduled sit-in along Park Street, chanting, "this is not a police state - we have the right to demonstrate"

But at the end of the peaceful march police surrounded Hyde Park trapping innocent men, women and children and refusing to let them go home.

"NSW police, dressed like fascist storm troopers, beat and dragged people from the park," said Warren.

Nine people were arrested, many of them beaten and manhandled. ABC TV footage shows police repeatedly punching a protester on the ground.

"One comrade, Paddy Gibson was on the NSW police proscribed list," said Warren. "He had never committed a crime. He was proscribed without any right of appeal or without any legal basis under an entirely new anti-democratic law, which undermines the very foundation of our legal system."

The branch invited Paddy to march with the MUA from the union rooms up to Town Hall with any of the others on the police list.

Discipline

"We believe that by doing so we ensured discipline during the peaceful protest," said Warren. "The police however, drunk with their new powers, grabbed Paddy at the end of the march and dragged him off in scenes reminiscent of the Burmese junta."

The unions are concerned these new state powers will be rolled out again.

"We are concerned these laws will end up being used against legitimate union protestors, on picket lines and during industrial disputes," said Warren.

The Sun Herald highlighted the extreme nature of the police powers on September 9 with a front-page story on an accountant violently arrested while crossing a road. Yet the ABC's Chaser performers were able to infiltrate the 'declared zone' only days earlier and get within a few metres of US President George Bush's hotel - despite one actor being dressed as Osama Bin Laden. The stunt became the high point of APEC and made world headlines.

"The Chaser made our world leaders, particularly US president and war monger George W Bush and our snivelling excuse for a Prime Minister John Howard, a joke," said Warren.

In terms of political outcomes APEC's dismal failure to make any real progress on combating climate change is worth noting. So much so The Los Angeles Times nominated President Bush, Prime Minister Howard and Chinese President Hu Jintao for best actor at an international summit for their compelling performances in the "Sydney festival of fakery on climate."

Sex, slavery and APEC

APEC must address sex slavery, people trafficking and worker exploitation in the Asia Pacific, says the ACTU.

Stronger international efforts to prevent the exploitation of workers and to halt human trafficking and sex slavery in the Asia Pacific should be a priority for APEC, according to senior trade union leaders from Asia Pacific countries who met in Sydney in advance of the APEC summit. The union leaders exchanged information about human rights abuses among workers in APEC nations. The Asian region is fast becoming a hub for the trafficking of women for sexual slavery. A major research report has estimated 1.36 million people in the Asia Pacific region are victims of trafficking across borders for sexual or economic exploitation -- with children accounting for up to 50 per cent of trafficking victims. Sharan Burrow, president of the ACTU and head of the global union organisation ITUC described people trafficking, the sex trade and the exploitation and abuse of workers, especially migrant workers, as the ugly faces of globalisation.

"An important new Australian film - The Jammed -based on actual events and court transcripts of young women trafficked into sexual slavery in Sydney's Kings Cross and suburban Melbourne has added to growing public concern over the issue.

Trafficking of people across national borders for forced labour and sexual exploitation has become the second most lucrative crime globally -- generating up to US$10 billion annually for traffickers. It is second only to the drug trade, according to the Australian government aid agency AusAid.