Australia: The Bush protests and rebuilding the anti-war movement

[glparramatta <glparramatta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Bush protests and rebuilding the anti-war movement

COMMENT BY PIP HINMAN
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/559/559p4.htm

Some 10,000 people demonstrated against the visit to Australia by US
President George Bush on October 22-23. This number can’t compare with
the 1 million in February, but it is significant. It shows that the
anti-war movement is rebuilding.

Another reason these protests were significant is that they were
organised by a section of the anti-war coalitions that came together
against the invasion of Iraq, and in Melbourne and Sydney, at least, had
to overcome a sectarian campaign by the more conservative wing of the
movement.

The enthusiasm, the broad range of activists, and the militancy of the
5000-strong Sydney protest on October 22 was marked. This was the first
event to be organised by the newly-formed Stop the War Coalition, a mix
of local peace groups, some veteran peace movement activists, Socialist
Alliance, Greens and Friends of the Earth members and some new to
protest organising.

The coalition was formed after the ALP and its conservative allies in
the Communist Party of Australia and the Progressive Labor Party decided
to wind-up what had been a highly successful anti-war umbrella
organisation — the Walk against the War Coalition.

The ALP’s argument was that differences over the role of the UN in Iraq
necessitated a division. In reality, the ALP wanted to isolate the left
of the movement which, up until then, had often won over the middle
ground in debates over the political character of the rallies. The ALP
and their allies didn’t like that, and sunk the coalition in August.

Stop the War had originally decided to organise a protest in solidarity
with the ANSWER-called march on Washington on October 25. But when the
Bush visit was announced, the protest focus was quickly rescheduled to
coincide with it.

Here was a fantastic opportunity to join with others in the Philippines
and Indonesia organising against Bush’s post-APEC visit, and help
reinvigorate the movement against Washington’s war plans and occupation
of Iraq.

The Sydney Peace and Justice Coalition, the new ALP-controlled group,
decided on a comedy-festival before Bush arrived in the country. But the
“Bushwacked” event on October 19, at which the creators of CNNNN (the
popular ABC-TV political satire show) were the main draw-card, attracted
just 1500 people.

Most in the mainly older crowd, which included many veteran peace
activists, were happy to help build the “Stop Bush” protest on October
22. Some took away piles of leaflets to hit the train stations, and
others signed up for the buses to Canberra on October 23 when Bush was
to address a joint sitting of parliament.

This display of non-sectarianism from the crowd was a stark contrast to
the approach of the Sydney Peace and Justice’s Coalition’s main
affiliate — the NSW Labor Council.

Its secretary, John Robertson, had urged unions to boycott the Stop Bush
protest telling affiliates that the “Bushwacked” event was the one and
only protest they should support. Approaches made to Maree O’Halloran of
the NSW Teachers Federation to speak at the Stop Bush protest were
turned down. Members of the Peace and Justice Coalition tried to
dissuade, unsuccessfully, one of the advertised speakers at the “Stop
Bush” protest from taking part.

In Melbourne, some affiliates from the Victorian Peace Network decided
to organise a city-wide protest after the majority of VPN affiliates
decided against organising one.

Given that most of the trade union and church networks were not involved
in building it — Anglican Bishop Hilton Deakin and the Construction,
Forestry, Mining and Energy Union being the honorable exceptions — the
lively protest of 1200 on October 22 was a good size. Protests in other
cities attracted hundreds of people.

There’s no doubt that the Stop Bush protests would be have been bigger
if the anti-war movement as a whole had got behind them. Only a unified
anti-war movement has a chance of pushing back the government’s
aggressive Iraq policy. This is what the majority of the movement wants,
and this should be the position of its so-called leaders. To do
otherwise is sectarian.

Last week’s anti-Bush protests, while modest, sent an important signal
to the rest of the world that Australia, like the Philippines and
Indonesia, is not united behind its pro-war government. If not for the
radical wing of the movement, this would not have happened.

The protests during Bush’s visit — some of which were very successful
under the circumstances — has kick-started the movement again after its
high point before the war, and re-ignited that important discussion
about building it.

[Pip Hinman is an activist in the Stop the War Coalition in Sydney and a
member of the Socialist Alliance.]

 From Green Left Weekly, October 29, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.



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