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The Victorian Greens state executive has endorsed a blockade of a mining conference in Melbourne organised by Socialist Alternative, Australia’s largest revolutionary Marxist group.

In an exclusive statement to the Socialist Alliance magazine Green Left Weekly, Victorian Greens co-convenor Colleen Hartland said: “the Greens have always seen a role for mass civil disobedience in bringing about change… The planned protests at the IMARC conference in late October, [are] part of continuing that tradition of resistance. We’re happy to add our endorsement to this important protest.”

In the same article, “Blockade IMARC Alliance” spokesperson and Socialist Alternative activist Emma Black expanded on what exactly the Victorian Greens are endorsing, stating: “We’re planning mass civil disobedience on a scale that hasn’t been seen in Melbourne in decades… At the S11 protests in 2000, thousands turned out to shut down corporate criminals… We’re hoping for the same response for this urgent protest.”

This echoes the previous statements by fellow “Blockade IMARC Alliance” spokesperson and Socialist Alternative activist Sarah Garnham. Ms Garnham has declared in the Green Left Weekly, the Herald Sun and the Socialist Alternative magazine Red Flag that the proposed blockade of the conference being held between October 28 and 31 at the Melbourne convention centre would be “like S11 … only to take on those responsible for climate change.”

The S11 riots to which Ms Garnham and Ms Black refer occurred back in September 2000. During those riots, thousands of leftists led by members of the Socialist Party, The International Socialist Organisation, the Democratic Socialist Party and Socialist Alternative surrounded Crown Casino and attacked police, paramedics and the Premier of Western Australia in an orgy of vandalism, thuggery and urine-filled balloons.

Prominent amongst the rioters were members of Australia’s anarchist community dressed in the black clothes and masks that have become synonymous with political violence in Australia ever since.

Socialist Alternative is a revolutionary Marxist organisation in the Trotskyist tradition, whose ultimate aim is to overthrow the government and implement a totalitarian socialist state. It originated from a political current brought to Melbourne from overseas in the early 1970s by followers of the ascetic Trotskyist ideologue Tony Cliff.

Socialist Alternative formed in 1995 after a power struggle in the International Socialist Organisation saw the expulsion of longtime Marxist extremist Mick Armstrong and several of his followers, including Guardian Australia columnist Jeff Sparrow. With the decline of rival Marxist extremist groups since the early 2000s, Socialist Alternative has come to dominate the Australian radical left and has fully infiltrated the Australian branch of the “Extinction Rebellion” protests.

The Victorian Greens seem entirely comfortable associating with the most violent political extremist group active in Australia today. They now feel absolutely no qualms about endorsing an event whose organisers openly boast it will be the largest act of political violence in Melbourne for two decades.

Socialist Alternative and its fellow travellers are not normal political actors and should not be treated as such. The only reason the Victorian Greens feel so relaxed cosying up to such toxic bedfellows is because they know their friends in the media will never press them on it.

Nevertheless, just you watch the feigned shock of our supposedly well-informed journalistic class when the riot, organised by the extremist group openly calling for a riot, surprisingly “descends” into a riot next month.

Author Details
Lucas Rosas
Lucas Rosas has spent years monitoring far left extremists so you don’t have to. He lives in a secure location with multiple large and hungry guard dogs.
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Lucas Rosas
Lucas Rosas has spent years monitoring far left extremists so you don’t have to. He lives in a secure location with multiple large and hungry guard dogs.
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