This morning, culminating in the fifth day of economic disruption to major ports across the continent.
Blockade Australia activist Aiko (19) has ascended a 9 metre monopole device on the railway line servicing the Port of Melbourne, the ropes supporting their life stretched across five tracks. They are cutting all rail traffic in and out of the Swanson and Appleton Docks, the biggest rail bottleneck inside the largest container port on the continent.
Simultaneously, an activist has entered the Newcastle Coal Port and hit a big red STOP button, stopping all work and export onsite.
Aiko’s banner reads “Stop the system. Protect each other.”
They said:
“We need some radical change, we need some radical resistance against the exploitative system.”
“I’m here because I have seen that the state intentionally inflicts violence on the land and the people, and that those in power are profiting off this exploitation.
It’s important, as people, to take back that power, to resist something that is causing so much violence.”
A Blockade Australia spokesperson said “the machine we call Australia has been built to exploit the land and the people, and will stop at nothing to ensure it continues to grow and consume. This machine is entirely incompatible with the limits of or biosphere. Australia must be stopped, and we are taking disruptive direct action today to create small moments of stoppage. From these moments, we can begin to imagine ways of living that are liberatory and supporting of all life.”
“Our ability to take direct action is significant in stopping Australia’s operations. Political power is protected in institutionalised, authorised channels. Pinch points in supply lines like these three major ports are not.”
“Together we can act to stop this relentless destruction and create a system that supports and nurtures life. Getting there requires a determined and committed resistance movement that physically resists Australia at the most disruptive points in its operating systems.”
Blockade Australia media contact List: https://www.blockadeaustralia.com/subscribe-to-media-updates/
Vision: https://mega.nz/folder/QLcFxLob#bCduj1eCSs46qE5luiepRA
Livestream: https://fb.watch/lkrrmOT66r/