Australia's Occupy protesters will not give up

Islam Times: About 80 people from the Occupy Sydney movement were removed from Martin Place when about 100 police swooped on the square during dawn raids, ending a week-long protest.

On Friday, violence erupted during the Occupy Melbourne protests when about 400 police evicted demonstrators who had been camping in the city square for nearly a week.

And activists in Perth now say they are nervous ahead of similar protests planned for the centre of the city to coincide with the CHOGM meeting on Friday, which Prime Minister Julia Gillard will attend.

Victoria's Police Minister was forced to defend the behaviour of officers after demonstrators called for the state's ombudsman to investigate 43 alleged cases of police violence on Friday, including eye-gouging, punching and the use of pepper spray on children.

Occupy Melbourne member Ben Convey says the actions of police over the weekend were disgusting but insists protesters will not be silenced.

“Some of the hundreds of people that were gathered in the Melbourne city square confronted this issue of what will we do if the Victorian police try to evict us” he told ABC Radio National's Breakfast program.

“All the people in that group decided if that was to happen, we would defend the space and defend what we thought was a wonderful thing that we created in the middle of our city.”
Sydney's Occupy protest group says further anti-corporate greed rallies are planned, but not in the form of a sit-in.
Protestor Elsie Kennedy says protesters will no longer be occupying Martin Place around the clock.

“We want to strengthen our movement, we want to take the time to do outreach to the suburbs, do outreach to unions, do outreach to other organisations” she said.

Australia's Occupy protests started last week as part of the worldwide movement which began in New York against what protesters describe as corporate greed.

Meanwhile, West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has issued a warning to Perth protesters, despite their intention to peacefully camp in the centre of the city.

Occupy Perth says it will join forces with a group planning a protest march on CHOGM next Friday, but events in Melbourne and Sydney have left organisers apprehensive about the response they will attract from authorities.

"It's a really good time to be doing it because how often does Perth have a meeting like CHOGM," organiser Luke Skinner said.