Re: AUT: RE: antiwar movement

[Thiago Oppermann <thiago_oppermann@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 22/3/2004 4:35 PM, ".: s0metim3s :." <s0metim3s@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> As for unity: The desire for unity within the
> largest antiwar coalition in Sydney was expressed
> through denouncing the kids who threw chairs at
> police as "traitors to the cause".  In Melbourne,
> there was a determined exclusion of any
> Palestinian issues and presence.  In both cases
> (the kids in Sydney being mostly of Arabic
> backgrounds and the Palestinian groups in
> Melbourne), the coalitions were and are determined
> to exclude the most radical expressions of
> non-Australian nationalism that exist in those
> cities as a condition of this unity.  When an
> organiser of the Victorian Peace Network was asked
> on radio prior to the last round of large protests
> about the breadth of 'the movement,' he effusively
> replied that the movement included "everyone", "
> ... Labor, the Greens, Democrats and even One
> Nation."

To be fair, the kids throwing chairs were yelling anti-Semitic slogans.
There was certainly something to be said, though what Amanda Tattersall and
pals said was obviously deeply reactionary.

Those people - Walk against War - have been effectively sidelined now. They
simply vanished as soon as the possibility, as you put it, of delivering
people to the party apparatuses diminished. The whole network, comprising in
fact a good many superannuated fair dinkum Stalinists, is dormant. For now.
They will surely spring back to life if they smell blood in the water.

In its place we see a much stronger showing by independent activist networks
I only mean to use independent here to designate their lack of affiliation;
I do not mean any positive assessment on that ground alone. Having said
that, the politics is certainly a lot more uncompromising. I haven't heard
any talk of 'bring the UN in' over the last couple of weeks. Anna Samson,
who is the most visible Stop the War Coalition member around cannot be said
to have very conciliatory politics.

The latest demos here had substantial Palestinian contingents and included
unambiguous support for Palestine next to the demand to end the occupation.
Also very clear insistence against Star Wars, which is hard to phrase in a
nationalist way, though not impossible.

Thiago











     --- from list aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---