800 attend civil liberties rally

Kamala Emanuel, Hobart

"No police state" and "No to Howard's terror laws" were the mobilising slogans of a civil liberties rally held on November 12 and attended by 800 people.

Organised by the Tasmanian Council of Civil Liberties, the rally was addressed by Greens Senator Bob Brown, who said that he believed that PM John Howard had manipulated the terrorism scare in the previous week to help get his anti-union laws through parliament.

State Greens leader Peg Putt said that Premier Paul Lennon had refused to hold a parliamentary inquiry into Tasmania's involvement in the enacting of national "anti-terrorism" laws.

Socialist Alliance state convenor Alex Bainbridge said that the anti=terrorism laws were really anti-democracy laws and that when the government brought in laws against democracy, the people needed to organise grassroots campaigns in defence of democratic rights.

Representatives of Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists and the local Aboriginal community also addressed the rally.

From Green Left Weekly, November 23, 2005.

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From GLW issue 650