SYDNEY — In one of the most amazing displays of political passion in Sydney’s history, up to 500,000 rallied on February 16 against war in Iraq. Many protesters did not march, but stayed in the rally in Hyde Park because the crowd was so huge that the march gridlocked itself around six city blocks. Some watching from the sidelines said it took two hours for the march to pass them by.

A range of local anti-war groups organised feeder marches to Hyde Park. The trains from Wollongong, the Blue Mountains and Newcastle were all packed to the rafters. At least 5000 trade unionists gathered at Town Hall to march, united as workers against the war, to Hyde Park. They were joined by contingents from every Christian denomination.

And there were several marches out of Hyde Park. The front of the official march was returning to Hyde Park for the second round of speakers even before much of the crowd had been able to start marching out. Many, getting frustrated, headed down different side-streets, forming parallel marches of their own. Police also diverted around 10,000 people onto other roads out of the park to the nearby Domain. The entire CBD soon became a protest zone.

This was the biggest protest march Sydney, and Australia, has ever seen. And the people there knew it. The confidence, solidarity and empowerment in the air was palpable. Many people said they had never marched before, and complete strangers passionately discussed the issues involved, shared drinks as the stood in the blazing sun, and laughed and cried together as they listened to the speakers.

When John Pilger told the crowd “Our movement is too big to be defeated ... its moral power, political power, your power, is greater than theirs...We are the majority”, the applause was deafening.

Other speakers included representatives from the NSW Trades and Labor Council, the Australian Arabic Communities Council, the Muslim Women's Association, Wayside Chapel, Australian Greens and the Democrats. Impromptu speak-outs and musical performances occurred in various corners of the park, while dozens of people climbed into the trees to better hear the platform.

Surprise guest speaker, US singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, talked about the growing anti-war demonstrations in his country and their message to US President Bush: “We reject your methods and we reject your motives.”

Placards with variations on the “No blood for oil” theme were complemented by a wide range of sentiments. The included: “USA/UK/Oz axis of evil”, “Bush scares me far more than Hussein”, “Regime change begins at home”, “NO war — with or without UN approval”, “John Howard = Bonsai Bush”, “Howard is just a Bush-turkey”,”No to the Texan terrorist” and “Somewhere in Texas a village has lost its idiot”.

No-one could have left Hyde Park without feeling more strongly than before that people's power can and must stop the war on Iraq.

From Green Left Weekly, February 19, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

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