BY TOM FLANAGAN

LISMORE — Around 350 people attended a lively and colourful “No War on Iraq” rally at Spinks Park on November 30.

Speakers included Mavis Davies, a Bundjalung elder, Lismore councillor and former mayor Ros Irwin, Sister Margaret Mazzer, the Greens' Ariel Smith and two candidates for the state seat of Lismore, Peter Lanyon from the Labor Party and Nick Fredman from the Socialist Alliance.

Lanyon said that Labor members were trying to pressure federal ALP leader Simon Crean to take a position that was more opposed to a war on Iraq.

Fredman argued that the NSW Labor government's draconian “anti-terror” laws were designed to allow the police minister to take action without being answerable to the courts. The Socialist Alliance will the attacks on the civil liberties by the federal and state governments a key issue it its NSW election campaign.

Participants marched through the centre of Lismore. Their singing and chanting drew a positive response from shoppers. The march returned to the park for an open mic session.

From Green Left Weekly, December 4, 2002.
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