MELBOURNE — Three thousand people turned out on August 30 for a rally outside the State Library organised by the Melbourne Refugee Action Collective (RAC) to demand freedom for refugees.

The very youthful crowd marched through the city, painting slogans on building sites as they went, to the Bourke Street Mall.

Among the speakers at the protest were Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union state secretary Martin Kingham, Actors for Refugees' Anne Phelan, Spare Rooms for Refugees' Kate Duram, psychologist Lyn Bender and RAC member Fluer Taylor

Kingham pledged support from the CFMEU for the refugee rights movement, indicating that moves were underway to form a building workers for refugees group.

Bender, who was working at the Woomera detention centre during the Easter protests, said that mandatory detention re-traumatises already traumatised people. She talked about working with the Baktiyari family, saying: “I don't care whether or not they come from Pakistan, they deserve asylum”.

From Green Left Weekly, September 4, 2002.
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