there were several thousand of people out protesting / partying in melbourne on mayday

just not many went to the well publicised socialist / m1 alliance backed s-ex. blockade

the most fun was to had with the AWOL (autonomous web of liberation) sound system's endless 70/80's dance hits circling central melbourne.

black clad anarchists (the ones the murdoch press hyped would use violent "black block" (sic) tactics) boogied along to the village people and thriller-era michael jackson. as the cognitive dissonance realligned the brains of shoppers like a rubicks cube, dumpster diving flower girls handed yellow chrysanthemums and paper boys gave out M1X to explain it all.

while there wasn't too much in the way of directly effective blockading or protesting (many of the stores closed thanks to self fulfilling proficy anyway) something was achieved for public relations.

amnad - amnad@antimedia.net

BTW the 'real' black bloc, while they didn't make an appearance on mayday, were my highlight of melbourne's s11. when the heat was on they rescued some of the fallen from the way of police baton charges. and when it wasn't they used their imposing and never-before-seen-in-melbourne attire as an element in a boundary blurring street theatre. too comical to be completely threatening, but too bizarre for the comfort of police, they made impassioned and ludicrous bodily attacks on casino's barricade fence, kept on the move - blocking intersections just so long as to cause problems but avoid conflict, and at one point diffused a situation by very suddenly and simultaneously donning hats, dark glasses and removing their black costumes to reveal safari suits.

issues? http://www.s11.org/m1