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Sydney : protesters stopped from bringing down the house

by Open-Publishing - Saturday 3 September 2005

Demos-Actions Police - Repression Trade-Exchange Rates Australia

By Les Kennedy, Samantha Selinger-Morris and Matt Wade

Four protesters railing against a gathering of international business leaders were arrested last night after they breached the security barrier outside the entrance to the Opera House forecourt.

Police quickly secured the gap as about 500 people converged on the Opera House protesting against the Forbes Global CEO Conference.

Protest organisers had hoped to marshall thousands of supporters to disrupt the conference attended by the Prime Minister, John Howard. But as the heads of the world’s top 100 companies gathered inside the Opera House, the best that protest groups could muster in the plaza of nearby Customs House were what police estimated to be 500 demonstrators.

At 6.30pm the protesters - after being told by an organiser that the "corporate pirates" had fled the Opera House - ended their gathering at Customs House and began marching along the foreshore towards the Opera House.

The acting Deputy Police Commissioner, Terry Collins, said yesterday that he had expected as many as 10,000 protesters. All up seven people were arrested.

Protesters were blocked from entering the forecourt by concrete barricades and fences surrounded by policemen.

The protesters, who carried placards that read "corporate greed costs the earth", were surrounded by about 200 police.

The chief executive of Forbes, Steve Forbes, said it was a tribute to Sydney that the conference was held here. "You can’t help but be impressed by the cosmopolitan atmosphere here," he said.

"I’m note sure quite what their [the protesters’] demands are, except that they are against words like ’globalisation’ and they are for the environment, they say."

Mr Howard told the CEOs the Australian economy required further economic reform and underscored his commitment to industrial relations changes.

Mr Forbes said that Mr Howard was "one of the most extraordinary leaders in this extraordinary era", who had the ear of the President of the United States, George Bush. "When he calls the White House the President listens," he said.

http://smh.com.au/news/national/pro...