CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
In a humorous news story, it seems that protestors in Melbourne are braving the police horses and pepper spray in an effort to disrupt perhaps the most brazen showcase of the military-industrial complex.
Thousands have gathered in the city CBD this morning vowing to do the exact same thing they did yesterday.
Protesters clashed with police outside the exhibition, throwing horse manure and rocks, while officers made arrests and swung batons in efforts to subdue tensions. Dozens were arrested and the Victorian police have vowed to come down harder today.
But still, the protestors are turning up again in even greater numbers.
And of course they are. Because some moron has decided that Melbourne would be a good place to hold an expo for the manufacturers of human-killing machines and weaponry.
The one city that is most inclined to hit the streets and protest anything. Let alone against the corporations that profit from the misery of war.
And the organisers have made it pretty easy for them to be protested against, by setting up shop in the middle of the CBD.
The biennial Land Forces International Land Defence Exposition is running from the 11th to 13th of September at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. It is expected that the protest will only grow bigger today and tomorrow,
The event attracts hundreds of defence personnel from around the world to the showcase the newest in human-killing technology, with more than 800 domestic and international companies selling themselves to governments and organisations.
Military tanks, heavy-duty trucks and semi-automatic guns are on display for all attendees to ummm and ahhh over which specific killing machines they should spend billions of tax-payer dollars on purchasing.
But it’s not just the location of this expo that is bizarre. It’s also the timing, with the event kicking off on the same week that the findings from the Australian Government’s Royal Commission into Veteran Suicide were tabled in Parliament.
It is not yet known why this event couldn’t be held in an actual military town like Townsville or Darwin – but it’s likely because of Melbourne’s fine dining – and the fact that those who get rich from war actually don’t want to mingle with the young men and women who get sent to war.
