Collingwood residents protest against Banco
At 1pm today, about 160 locals attended a great Collingwood Action Group (CAG) rally at the corner of Webb and Smith Streets in Collingwood. They were there to protest against the State government’s approval with only minor changes of the Banco developers’ plans for the area which include three massive towers, carparks, supermarkets, 161 apartments with not a child care center in sight.Rod Quantock MC’d and the first speaker, CAG spokesperson Louise Grace, drew on the working class traditions of the area to appeal for community action, union support and tougher Council support for the battle. ALP State Members Richard Wynne spoke next and tried to whitewash the Ministers’ decision and even walked into the firing line of community anger when he said “no one here will disagree with the basic principles behind 2030″!
Save Our Suburbs President Ian Quick deconstructed Wynne’s argument in a brilliant way and got a good response when he encouraged people to use their vote at the November State election.
Greens Upper House Parliamentary candidate and ex-Yarra Mayor Greg Barber put the development in the context of state planning policy and called for change.
Union Solidarity convenor Dave Kerin explained the difficult new legal and industrial attacks facing the union movement, especially when it came to offensive action like imposing Green Bans. However he explained that working class solidarity can overcome these obstacles in the months ahead and predicted worker support for the community.
SP Councillor Stephen Jolly spoke last and said that a combination of low interest rates, dodgy speculators and compliant governments led to a situation where unbalanced developments like Banco’s could be on the table. While calling for a socialist vote in November, he said even a socialist or Green victory would not stop this development along the lines it has been presented. He said only community action and union support will save the day a la Richmond Secondary College and House of the Gentle Bunjyip. He encouraged people to sign up for action with CAG and there were queues of people doing that at the CAG stall afterwards.
The rally ended with Louise Grace moving a motion calling on unions for support; pledging community opposition on streets; and calling on Yarra Council to use all in its power to appeal the decision and use by-laws to eliviate the worst features of the development.
SP also had a stall selling the latest issue of our paper and anti-Banco badges.
