Giant anti-war demonstration in Melbourne

From: avatar (avatar@renegadeclothing.com.au)
Date: Fri Feb 14 2003 - 03:38:56 MST

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    FROM THE FRONTLINE

    Yours truly reports just back from Melbourne's second largest demonstration ever, dwarfed only by the nationwide protest several years ago in favour of land rights for Aboriginals. This demonstration, with between 150,000 and 220,000 people, dwarfed both the Vietnam War protest marches and the demonstration against previous conservative State Premier Jeff Kennett.

    I stood ten rows back from the speaker's stage. The stage was set in the midst of the huge ultra-modern public square that now lies at the heart of Melbourne, Federation Square, Australia's monument to 100 years of nationhood, newly completed. It forms the living centre of this city of over 3 million, equal to Berlin in size. Facing the Square was the central city railway station and the Anglican Cathedral. In the distance, along the axis of the march that had would its way down perhaps ten city blocks to the square, was the huge mausoleum to the past, the Shrine of Remembrance, a distance edifice crowning an entire hill, the symbolic centre for all the dead of both World Wars and other conflicts.

    Speaker after speaker spoke: the Anglican Archbishop, Senator Peter Garret (former rock star and now head of the Australian Conservation Foundation), labour leaders, Kurd refugees, Lebanese refugees, Iraqi refugees.

    The common theme was no war, no agreement with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, no agreement with George Bush, no war even with UN sanctions, and ending the sanctions and resulant deaths. The atmosphere was not charged, as with the Vietname demonstrations. One fifth of a million people chanted peacefully and carried banners for peace and human rights. No one supported Saddam Hussein, but all rejected the notion of first strikes, preemptive action, as completely unjustified. Australia has lost citizens in the Bali bombings, so America cannot turn around and claim that we too have not been affected by 9 11. Tthe number of ordinary citizens present and their obvious convinction made me feel that half the population of our nation are wholly against this venture, whether backed by the UN or not. This is perceived, rightly or wrongly, as a war of agression, one that supercedes a successful policy of containment.

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