BY JAMES CAULFIELD

CANBERRA — Around 800 people came to Parliament House on March 13 for an anti-war rally to coincide with Prime Minister John Howard's speech to justify Australian involvement in a US war on Iraq.

Howard's speech was originally to be given at the National Press Club but the venue was suddenly changed to avoid protesters. As Greens senator Bob Brown told the crowd, Howard has been doing his best avoid contact with the people who disagree with him on Iraq.

The rally, chaired by Deb Foskey of the Greens, was addressed by John Brown of the ACT Council of Social Services, Senator Brown, Rick Kuhn of ACT Network Opposing War, Socialist Alliance member James Vassilopoulos and Andrew Wilkie, the high-level public servant who had just resigned in protest at the government's pro-war stance.

Wilkie argued that it is “irrelevant” whether a war on Iraq is “short and clean” or “long and disastrous”. “What concerns me is right and wrong”, he said. Wilkie argued against the oft-heard claim that there are links between Saddam Hussein's regime and the al Qaeda terrorist gang. A war on Iraq would be “completely unrelated to the war on terrorism”, he added.

Vassilopoulos urged the crowd to continue building for the convergence on parliament, to be held on March 23 and 24.

From Green Left Weekly, March 19, 2003.
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