Western Sydney protests

BY
MICHAEL DE WALL

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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From GLW issue 531