Leichhardt activists organise against war

BY LACHLAN MALLOCH

SYDNEY - The recently formed Leichhardt Stop the War Group is demonstrating the breadth of local opposition to the waging of war on the people of Iraq. Its members include the mayor of Leichhardt, people from progressive parties such as the Greens, the Socialist Alliance and the Communist Party of Australia, the reverend of a local church, activists who are old enough to have marched against the Korean War and a 10-year old local boy and his father.

The group will hold its first public event on Invasion/Australia Day, with a “Picnic for Peace” to be held from noon at Bicentenial Park (end of Glebe Point Road) on January 26. Mayor Maire Sheehan will address the peace picnic, which will also feature entertainment and banner painting. People are asked to bring their own food and drink.

A “Walk against the War” will be held at 7.30pm on the evening of February 1, gathering at Leichhardt Town Hall on Norton Street. Speakers will include Reverend Don Wright, the Leichhardt deputy mayor and Greens candidate for Port Jackson Jamie Parker, anti-war activist and refugee campaigner Paul Benedek, who is the Socialist Alliance's candidate for Port Jackson, 10-year-old Joseph Alcock, anti-Pine Gap campaigner and Communist Party member Denis Doherty and union activist Col Cooper. Participants are asked to bring candles, torches and placards.

The Leichhardt group is holding stalls and leafleting to both build the local events, and build a massive local contingent to protests that are part of the February 15-16 national weekend of action against war in Iraq. The next Leichhardt STWG meeting is at 7.30pm, Thursday January 30 at Leichhardt Town Hall. Phone Paul on 0410 629 088 for information.

From Green Left Weekly, January 22, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

Tools

• Bookmark This Page
• Print This Page