UPDATE: The Occupy Melbourne general assembly has called a rally for 1pm Sunday, which will march from the occupation site at City Square to the Melbourne Club on Collins St. The next general assembly will take place at 4pm. In Sydney, there will be a general assembly at 10am, followed by a protest against coal seam gas at midday.

The system is not working. This is the overriding sentiment of those who turned out today in the “Occupy___!” protests around the country. October 15 is an international day of occupation, and the first protests are underway in Australia and New Zealand.

After a build-up over the last weeks as occupation sites were announced in capital cities, and news of events began circulating through social media, people have come out in solid numbers.

In Melbourne around 1,000 people are in the City Square, having pitched marquees and organising food, sound systems and child care. Political discussions and debates can be heard all over, as people from different backgrounds holding different world views come together around a common hostility to corporate rule.

300 joined a Palestine solidarity action at lunchtime, targeting the Max Brenner chocolate chain for its support for Israeli apartheid. Activists marched on Max Brenner stores in QV and Melbourne Central before returning to the occupied City Square for a general assembly.

In Sydney a general assembly of 1,000 people in Martin Place voted to turn the protest into an ongoing occupation. Logistical planning for that is now underway.

But first protesters will have to see off threats from the police to shut down the camp. Police warned that they would start clearing Martin Place at 4:30, and while that deadline has passed, there is still concern that they will move in

In Brisbane 150 people have gathered at Post Office Square and some have decided to set up an ongoing camp. In Adelaide and Canberra smaller actions were held.

In Perth 200 people protested in Forest Place, but the main game is in 2 weeks time when protesters will be out in the streets to meet the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. The Occupy Wall Street movement has given a significant boost to the CHOGM Action Network, with over 50 people attending its last planning meeting, many of whom had been inspired by the images from New York.

CHOGM Action Network is now planning an ongoing occupation near the CHOGM site for the duration of the meeting – starting on Friday October 28 and finishing on October 30. The action will start with a march from Forrest Place at 10am on October 28.

Uniting different struggles

People from a variety of campaigns have come out today: refugee rights, Palestine solidarity, the Aboriginal struggle, anti-war, anti-corruption in government, action on climate change and anti-corporate circles. Activists involved in all these campaigns from various cities in one place at one time. This is a good thing.

The capitalist system prioritises the creation of wealth above all other considerations. To those 1 per cent who run the world, the bulk of humanity is but a pool of potential commodity producers and consumers, useful only so long as we can participate in the creation of wealth for the ultra rich. Those parasites would see us rot for a quick buck.

They divide us using racism, destroy our environment, lock us up in detention centres, send the military into our communities, use our resources to wage war, and push us to work longer and harder so that they can relax that little bit more in their mansions. That many different progressive causes were and are represented provides an opportunity to make the links between capitalism and abuses of all sorts.

All around the world today conditions are getting worse for the bulk of workers and the poor. In the Middle East, dictatorships continue to dominate the scene, pushing neoliberalism on already impoverished populations.

In Europe and the US economic crisis has ravaged economies and the ruling elite have viciously attacked wages and begun gutting welfare and pension systems. Yet the corporate elite who ran the system onto the rocks are rewarded with bonuses and continue to live lavish lifestyles.

Across Asia and Latin America, hundreds of millions scrape by day to day while a growing minority make the world’s rich list.

In Australia inequality continues to grow. Rents are sky high, unemployment continues to edge up and public transport continues to be run down. Homelessness is at 100,000 yet little attention is paid to creating new public housing. All the while the mining companies and the banks announce record multi-billion dollar profits and CEOs snare obscene bonuses.

That something is not right with this picture is not lost on the people who came out today. This is why the global movement that took inspiration from the mass protests in Egypt’s Tahrir Square, spread to Spain, Portugal and Greece, and that has swept Wall Street over the past weeks has found echoes in this country.

It is one world, one system, and today our struggle is one.

Union support

Importantly, the left activists have received support from the union movement. Officials from the construction union (CFMEU) and the wharfies (MUA) have attended the Sydney occupation and conveyed their unions’ support, pledging to provide resources. Warren Smith from the MUA has announced that his union will provide $1,000 for food, starting with a BBQ tonight; a CFMEU delegates meeting in Sydney had already voted on Friday to support the occupation.

In Melbourne the National Union of Workers had members and organisers in attendance. The NUW said its members were concerned about issues as diverse as increasingly precarious employment, lack of access to affordable housing, and a general “shift of risk” from employers to employees over the past few decades.

The Communication Workers Union has endorsed the call for real democracy, with state secretary Len Cooper writing a letter of support to Occupy Melbourne in which he stated:

All around the globe assemblies of the people are demanding that democracy truly become the will of the people, against greed, excess, militarism and socially induced environmental crisis, and for a future of appropriate scale, participatory democracy, which includes the economy and equality.

I also write to express the frustration that we feel, and that you speak to, at the lack of democracy for unions. In particular over the issue of the right to strike, because the strike is the sword of democracy, the means by which unions could defend each other, our communities and planet, but under the law are banned from doing so…

Some of our members and representatives will be participating across the actions you have organised for real democracy and communication. On behalf of my union I wish you every success in your endeavours, I encourage you in your courageous call for a real democracy, I assure you that your actions are appreciated by compassionate Australians from many walks of life, and I commend you for your concern for our collective future.

Join the occupation!

With protesters determined to try and establish ongoing camps, it would be great to see more people come down tonight and tomorrow to Brisbane’s Post Office Square, Melbourne’s City Square, and Martin Place in Sydney.

That 1 per cent at the top of society never tires of trying to screw us over. The actions today, and in the coming days, are a good opportunity to show them that we are prepared to stand against their greed.

So if you’re reading this and are tired of the growing inequality, the constant refugee bashing, the bankruptcy of the major parties, the racism, the lies, the wars, the hypocrisy, or any other rotten thing that this system dishes out on a daily basis, come on down – join the occupation!

This article first appeared in Socialist Alternative.