SYDNEY — Just two days before Prime Minister John Howard officially backed the US ultimatum to Saddam Hussein, residents of western Sydney were among thousands of hopeful protesters gathering at anti-war rallies on March 16. About 200 people attended a rally at Mt Druitt organised by the Western Sydney Peace Group.

The protest was remarkable for the social, cultural and political diversity of those present. Spokesperson for the group Tim Vollmer explained: “We've come together, not as one group or a small set of individuals but as a whole range of people who represent a whole community.”

“John Howard has always had the highest level of contempt for people like us, working people from western Sydney”, Tim Chapman from the National Union of Students told the protesters. Uniting Church community minister Ann McPherson concluded the rally with: “It’s an era of a new super-power, the people of the world, and we are waging peace. The work is demanding and we won't achieve our goals quickly or easily, but we are a force to be reckoned with and we won't go away.”

From Green Left Weekly, March 26, 2003.
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