Robyn Marshall, Brisbane

An International Women’s Day rally and march on March 5, attended by 400 people, called for the decriminalisation of abortion.

Long-time abortion rights campaigner Katrina Barben condemned the state Labor government for refusing to remove abortion from the state’s criminal code. Beryl Holmes from the Women’s Electoral Lobby was met with strong applause when she said there were “a gutless bunch of politicians in the Queensland parliament — women and men! Not one pro-choice bill has ever been presented to the state parliament.”

Chairing the rally, IWD collective and Socialist Alliance member Coral Wynter pointed to an article in the early Communist Party of Australia’s newspaper, Workers’ Weekly, outlining the demands of the first International Women’s Day protest held in Sydney in 1928. “Many of these demands we are still struggling to win”, Wynter said. “But we must continue the struggle until we do win!”

Local Murri woman Natalie Alberts welcomed the participants to Aboriginal country and said: “International Women’s Day is a day to campaign for human rights for all of us. It is important for white women to support the demands of Indigenous women for equal rights.”

Other speakers included Nell Barkmeyer from the West Papua solidarity movement, Sarah Keenan from the Women’s Legal Service, feminist and socialist academic Carole Ferrier and Resistance activist Stella Reithmuller.

From Green Left Weekly, March 9, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

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