BY PHILIPPA SKINNER
KATOOMBA — Five hundred Blue Mountains residents took to the streets on February 15 to protest the Coalition government's treatment of refugees.
Organised by local activists, the theme "Take a stand — free the refugees" was the rallying cry as members of church groups, political parties, environment groups and other concerned locals marched up the main street of Katoomba.
Later, outside the Blue Mountains City Council chambers, protesters listened to a range of speakers and entertainers highlight the refugee issue and offer a range of options for people to participate further in the campaign.
Speakers included celebrity gardener, Mary Moody, who is active in Rural Australians for Refugees; Gil Appleton, well-known Blue Mountains resident and social activist; a representative from ChilOut, an organisation that promotes getting children out of detention centres; Andy Gianniotis from the Blue Mountains Socialist Alliance; and poet David Hill. Local musicians, Pack of Peasants, ended the rally with Iranian folk songs.
Many of the speakers drew the links between the movement against the Vietnam War, the huge marches in 1999 which forced the Howard government to finally respond to the killings occurring in East Timor and the escalating opposition to the government's mandatory detention of asylum seekers.
The February 15 protest was the largest political march many people could remember happening in the Blue Mountains since the '70s anti-Vietnam War movement. The event encouraged participants to continue to demonstrate their anger towards the government's refugee policies.
From Green Left Weekly, February 20, 2002.
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