A huge meeting of students, climate and mining activists trade
unionists, animal rights and other community activists voted on Sunday to
organise a mass protest to shut down IMARC on 29 October.
“With the environment melting down, we need mass civil disobedience”,
said spokesperson Sarah Garnham from the newly formed “Blockade
IMARC” group. IMARC describes itself as “Australia’s largest mining
event”, bringing some of the biggest climate polluters for what it calls
“four days of learning, deal-making and unparalleled networking”
supported by the Victorian State Government.
The blockade comes in the context of the recent school climate strikes and
direct actions both locally and internationally, in response to government
inaction on climate change.
“Land and water is being poisoned and plundered, Indigenous communities
displaced, ecosystem destruction, killing humans and animals leading to massive
species extinction – this system is designed to make a small elite rich at the
expense of the global majority,” said spokesperson Marian Hart.
“Enough is enough,” said Ms Hart, she described the protest as ‘S11 for climate
justice’, referring to the mass blockade that shut down the World Economic
Forum at Crown Casino back in 2000.
The blockade will be organised alongside a community counter-conference with
workshops, family activities, film screenings and events on topics of
sustainable development and climate justice.
Garnham and Hart from Blockade IMARC are available for comment.