Sydney Airport Blockade

It's not often one gets the chance to blockade an international airport so on
Saturday, December 17 1994, I decided to take part, along with 6,000 - 10,000
other people, in Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport blockade.

I had only been in Sydney three days prior to the blockade and in that time
heard and read some of the horror stories of the thousands of people living
under the third runway flight paths.  Despite a long, community-based
campaign against the third runway, it was eventually opened in mid 1994 and
hailed as the international gateway to the 2000 Olympics.  The human and
social effects of the massive increase in low-flying air-traffic over inner
city suburbs have had a terrible impact on people's lives and the fabric of
many communities and is described by some as the worst urban-planning
disaster this century. Noise levels under flight paths have been recorded at
ninety decibels inside houses, with planes flying overhead in some areas
every ninety seconds.  The stress of sleepless nights, living in an already
stressful environment was clearly showing in the anger of many people at the
blockade.  

School classes at over forty-one schools are continually interrupted by plane
noise, as are work environments. The mental health impacts of the noise
levels and blood pressure levels in children, elderly and the mentally ill
are still being monitored with doctors and researchers stating that the
effects are severe.  Added to this is the ever present fear of huge jumbos
flying directly overhead one's home and the pollution (sulphur dioxide)
fallout over areas which are already facing asthma epidemics.  The
construction of the third runway into Botany bay destroyed sixty percent of
the fragile seagrass beds, changed current and tidal patterns, and as a
result decimated fish breeding stocks and the bay's fishing industry.  Three
days staying in Newtown, under a couple of fight paths, was enough to
convince me of the justification for people to nonviolently blockade Sydney
Airport.

Inner-city Sydney communities have a long history of resisting such threats
as over-development, yuppiefication, freeways, casinos, technology parks and
other destructive governmental/corporate decisions.  In many aspects, the
campaign to close the third runway can be seen as yet another attempt to
protect basic community living standards in an increasingly anti-human,
anti-ecological, corporatised city.  	

The campaign since the opening of the third runway has focused on lobbying
the Federal and NSW governments to immediately close the third runway,
re-open the old runway and fast-track the building of another airport to take
air-traffic away from Sydney, but also included calls for compensation and
house insulation.  The major strategy is to make the third runway an election
issue.  Many Green Party and Independent candidates are involved and running
with the issue. 

The blockade on December 17 was endorsed by 10,000 people at a protest
meeting at Leichardt Oval in early December and largely planned by a
committee from eleven noise-affected local councils, with Mayors and
Councillors taking most of the decision-making roles.

The hierarchical nature of the campaign has meant some community based
groups, operating under the umbrella of the Community Advisory Committee
(CAC) have felt left out and not consulted enough by the organising committee
when developing the action plan.  There have been accusations from community
groups that various politicians are 'hijacking' the campaign, and although
the councils have the most resources, are not necessarily behind all of the
community. Although there was a high level of unity on the day of the
blockade, and some of Mayors seemed to enjoy the newly-found status as
virtual folk heroes, there were some obvious and disempowering effects of the
hierarchical, centralised organising. 

In the weeks leading up to the blockade, organising spokespeople including
Marrickville Mayor Barry Cotter, continually called for "a peaceful and
passive rally" that "mums and dads and kids could come along to" and
downplayed any suggestions of arrests or the possibility of going onto the
runway.  Secretly, however, a group of approximately two hundred people, who
had put their names down at the large Leichhardt Oval meeting to take part in
an arrestable action, had met and been briefed in arrest procedures, legal
information and some nonviolence guidelines.  These people were not told
exactly what their part in the blockade was going to be until the morning of
the blockade when they gathered apart from the main crowd and received a
short briefing.   A separate marshalling group made up of Greenpeace
activists was responsible for this group.

Also planned secretly was the armada of fifty fishing and private boats that
gathered at the end of the third runway in Botany bay.  With no fences this
was the most likely place for activists to actually get onto the runway to
halt takeoffs or landings.  Due to the presence of eight water police craft
none of the boats tried to enter the fifty-metre exclusion zone and risk
arrest.  Police were also patrolling the runway near the water.  

The main body of protesters met at the nearby Tempe oval at 10am on the day
of the blockade and from the beginning, the focus was on ten local council
representatives including several in full mayoral ceremonial regalia who led
the thousands-strong march to the airport. 

The bulk of the marchers went to the main airport terminals where, through
sheer weight of numbers, most of the doors were blocked for some time.
Passengers were directed by airport staff to enter various special doors and
only people with tickets were allowed into the terminal. Apart from an
incident I'll mention later there was little if any abuse of or scuffling
with passengers or airport staff at any of these doors.

On the way to the airport terminals the  two hundred or so 'arrestables', who
had remained at the end of the march, broke away and continued walking to the
main car park entrance gates.  As planned and before the police had even
noticed, everybody simply sat down at the car park gates and formed an
effective human blockade.

Meanwhile, a kilometre-long convoy of over 100 council vehicles, including
dozens of thundering garbage trucks entered the airport, encircled the
domestic terminal access ramps and, to the cheers of the blockading masses
stopped at the most appropriate point to gridlock the road access to the
entire airport terminal.

So with the airport surrounded and with the airport car park and traffic
blockaded people seemed to settle in to the atmosphere of a festival.  While
the bulk of the blockaders were entertained by speakers and musicians at the
terminals, the car park blockaders shaded themselves from the intense sun and
waited for the expected police response.  Water trucks, ice-cream and
refreshment vans were all surrounded by thirsty and hungry people.

Much fun was had when two people decided to walk back and forth over a zebra
crossing and were soon joined by about fifty other people who would
nonchalantly walk back and forth in front of the halted cars.  The zebra
crossers would even stop periodically to allowed the hot car occupants to
drive on.

The 400 police that were present seemed to be mostly occupied with
re-directing the chaotic traffic.  Many were stationed near and inside the
terminals doors, helping the airport security and there was no concerted
police effort to clear or move people over the three hours the blockade
eventually lasted for. There were also no arrests. 

Marshalling was provided by thirty-eight people who were mainly council
resident group volunteers.  Dressed in flouro workers vests, the marshalls
had two main roles according to the coordinator Ross Bragg.  One was a
peacekeeping role to minimise any aggression or violence that occured during
the blockade and the other was the marshalling; directing the march, giving
directions and helping people find first aid, water, etc.  To prepare, the
marshalls had been given a one and a half hour briefing  and had gone over
some nonviolence principles provided by the Wilderness Society. 
	 
It was obvious to most people that the downside of the blockade would be the
inconvenience of the airline passengers wanting to catch flights.  Although
the vast majority of blockaders were friendly and considerate to airline
passengers and some were apologising for the inconvenience, I noticed a
definite 'local people versus tourist' attitude among some of the protesters.

The worst incident I witnessed during the day occurred near the end of the
blockade when the International Socialist Organisation activists were
building their mass movement with megaphones, calling for a more militant
blockade and marching between terminal doors with a crowd of about a hundred
people that was quickly dwindling. An Asian family with about five children
had got out of a taxi and tried to reach one of the terminal doors.  The
family was surrounded by chanting protesters and equally intrusive media,
and, obviously traumatised, was hounded back into the taxi which reversed to
the cheers of the crowd.  

Clearly, many other passengers and their friends/relatives felt angry and
virtually everybody who caught a plane that day was inconvenienced in some
way.  However, there seemed to be a balance of passengers who supported the
blockade but wished it was on another day!  The blockade disrupted the
airports' operations severely, causing twenty of the 118 flights that day to
be rescheduled and at least two to be cancelled.  The blockade ended  at 2pm
with a united march out of the airport to chants of "we'll be back" and the
clear message that another blockade is planned for early '95 if the
government fails to meet the demands for an end to Sydney's aircraft noise.
	
For future blockades, when there will be an increased likelihood of
aggression and violence due to the lack of government response, some
important steps could be taken to minimise that risk and make the action as
empowering as possible.  A more open, inclusive and non-hierarchical
organising structure would certainly help to maintain a unified blockade and
help the campaign grow and empower more people. 

With such a large action I noticed how important it is for everybody to feel
involved and feel that they are effective in what they are doing.  Protester
violence often occurs at actions when people perceive the action as passive,
think that they have to do something more and act in a way that seems
appropriate to them.  A structure to minimise people's sense of isolation 
and frustration and increase the effectiveness of the blockade would be to
organise in smaller groups, by council area or community, with each group
given a particular part of the airport to blockade or a particular role.  In
smaller groups, even if they are still in their hundreds, individuals will
still be playing a more important role and have more of a sense of community
solidarity.  It would also allow for some preparation in arrest procedures
and legal and nonviolence information, similar to that of the car park
blockaders.  Being in smaller groups would also discourage people simply
leaving the action when nothing was going on.  (Thousands had left before the
blockade had actually finished.)

Peace-keepers could be better prepared, more willing to space themselves
throughout the blockade and aim to reduce tension or aggression well before
it develops into fights or scuffles.  Peace-keepers or other volunteers could
also act as 'action vocalisers', relaying agreements and information to
people throughout the blockade, keeping everybody up-to-date, informed and
involved.

Clear, multi-lingual leaflets that explain the reasons for the action, that
it is nonviolent and seeking their solidarity could be handed out to
passengers, taxi-drivers, airport staff and police.  This simple sign of
respect would do much to lesson the misunderstanding and frustration felt by
people caught up in the blockade and may also discourage blockaders from
venting their anger by abusing innocent passengers.  

The entire blockade on December 17 could have been achieved without the use
of any secrecy.  Organisers need to think carefully about the side-effects of
reliance on secrecy in the future; increased police fear and over-reaction,
the development of elite groups 'in-the-know' and disempowered activists who
are unable to act to their fullest potential because they are not privy to
the entire action plan.  Open actions, if well planned, are powerful actions
because all activists can act with full knowledge, and their commitment to
decisions that they made together is stronger.  Openness encourages peoples
creativity and their courage.  Strategically, being open makes a group harder
to politically marginalise and builds a stronger and more united campaign.

These points aside, the blockade of Sydney Airport was a superbly organised
success and certainly a wonderful and empowering experience for thousands of
people living under Sydney's flight paths and effected by the third runway. 
People were obviously and justifiably proud of their act of resistance and
determined have another blockade if necessary.   As the third runway is only
a part of the devastating changes that face the people of Sydney leading up
to the 2000 Olympics, it is important to maintain widespread, grassroots, and
nonviolent resistance in order to protect what we cherish about inner-city
communities.
Anthony Kelly