Cam Smith, one of our contributing writers, was all set to report back from an enlightening weekend at an armaments trade fair in Adelaide, but we just found out that the whole event has been cancelled "amid fears of violence by radical protest groups." The organizers got word that militant protest groups like Mutiny (the same people responsible for a lot of the hoo ha at the last APEC meeting) were planning on showing up to make their presence felt, and decided that the risks were too great, so now Cam has a plane ticket to Adelaide for no reason and the protesters have nothing to do between the 11th and 13th of November. Boring. Here’s what Cam had to say."Many people may claim to be victims of the military-industrial complex, whining colored folk with missing limbs, for the most part, but as far as I can tell none presents as convincing a case for victimhood as myself. This would have been a good story. Besides the morbid curiosity of checking out what our military industry has to offer the world in terms of killing ability, there was also the delicious hypocrisy of the RSL's sponsorship of an arms fair on Remembrance Day, and most importantly, the visceral thrill of the protesters busting in and tearing the place apart. The organizers claim they shut it down because the cops were worried about protesters getting into a bit of argy bargy with the thin blue line, but that is bullshit. The cops love the threat of a violent protest, because it means they get to scam a bunch of new riot gear off the government. As far as I’m concerned, this arms fair was called off because they knew that the protesters had their shit together enough to keep the thing from even starting. And they were actually right.See, about a month ago I attended a planning meeting held by the protesters. Expecting a bunch of glassy-eyed, dreadlocked hippies mumbling about peace and love and soy milk, I was struck by just how fucking organized these cunning bastards were. On the big screen was satellite imagery of the venue, as well as photos taken during a reconnaissance mission the week before. The meeting was interrupted for about 15 minutes by a discussion about how one defines violent and non-violent direct action, but other than that it ran smoothly as people reported back on the decisions made on national phone hook-ups and at face-to-face meetings around the country. Compared to a similar meeting I attended at APEC, during which four hours was wasted on a similar semantic quibble, before those who were keen to participate in the agreed action (which never went ahead in the end anyway) crowded around a Sydways… well, it was clear that these hippies had their shit together.Why did they have to be so goddamned organized? I needed this job! How am I going to pay my taxes for the financial year 2005-06 now?"