Following a very tired old script, the overpaid hacks in the corporate sector that abuse the term ‘journalist’ have been working overtime, busy providing a skeptical Australian public with an ideological framework within which the forms of police violence on riotous display in Melbourne six years ago — when repeated on the weekend — may receive political justification. One standard trope of such reportage, dating back to the late 1800s, is the presence of ‘foreign agitators’. Australians apparently require the presence of comrades from other islands to think, act and (who knows?) to even breathe and stand upright. Then it was a plane-load of British anarchists; now it’s “a dozen international activists considered potential trouble-makers”: the International Communist Conspiracy has obviously had to resort to some fairly savage budget cuts in the intervening period…
G-20 trouble-makers fly in
Michael Harvey, Mark Dunn and Matt Cunningham
Herald-Sun
November 17, 2006
POLICE will closely watch a dozen international activists considered potential trouble-makers at this weekend’s G20 summit.
But they don’t believe there is an increased threat of terrorism.
Several agitators are known to have flown to Melbourne from Europe and elsewhere to disrupt the summit.
“There is about a dozen who are very experienced organisers and co-ordinators of protests at international political summits,” a source said.
Treasurer Peter Costello, who will chair the meeting of the world’s most powerful bankers, confirmed intelligence reports that professional agitators were arriving in Melbourne.
“I say to them that we want this to be a successful summit,” he said.
“We do not like violence and disruption in Australia.”
Protesters are expected to stage sit-ins in the foyers of several big companies around the city today…
See also : The Corporation | Manufacturing Consent : Noam Chomsky & The Media
“Professional agitators,” hunh. Where do we go to collect our paychecks, I’m owed a few years back pay for part time work.