Protests were held across the country calling for peace, justice and refugee rights on Palm Sunday, March 29.
About 500 people joined the rally in Gadigal Country/Sydney, which had an anti-war theme, condemning United States President Donald Trump’s destructive, pro-war and racist agenda.
Speakers included Bart Shteinman from the Jewish Council of Australia; Reverend Rod Benson, General Secretary of the NSW Ecumenical Council; Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition Sydney; and Angus McFarland, NSW and ACT branch secretary of the Australian Services Union. It was MC’d by Grace Street, University of Sydney Student Representative Council President.
The rally opened with peace and anti-wart songs performed by the Sydney Trade Union Choir. Speakers condemned Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the US-Israel war on Iran, called on Labor to withdraw from the AUKUS military alliance and said migrants and refugees should be welcomed.
McFarland said the union movement has a proud history of taking action against war, and that it should continue to do so.
“Right now across the world there is ongoing violence, destruction, despair in Sudan, in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Iran, in Lebanon, across the Middle East region,” McFarland said. “And we stand here today with heavy hearts, but hearts that are united against war, united against Trump and Netanyahu's illegal war with Iran, united against Israel's ongoing genocide in Palestine.”
He was joined on stage by representatives from the Maritime Union of Australia, National Tertiary Education Union, Independent Education Union and NSW Teachers Federation.
“The union movement has always understood that the fight for workers rights is inseparable from the struggle for peace and justice because we know who pays the price for war. The billionaires who start wars always seem to make profit from them. War is paid by ordinary people, workers, families, communities.
“A hundred and ten years ago in 1916, it was Australian unions who led the fight and organised mass demonstrations to help prevent conscription. Because peace is union business. Because we know that a cleaner in Tehran, a disability worker in Sydney, a teacher in Gaza, a tradie in Tel Aviv, all have more in common with each other than they do with political and military elites driving war and conflict.
“It's why union members at Port Kembla refused to load pig iron in 1938 that would have been used to invade China.
“It's why union members backed the 1970s Vietnam Moratorium protest. It's why union members marched with half a million people in Sydney against the illegal invasion of Iraq. And it's why union members, including myself, joined 300,000 people to march across the Harbour Bridge, calling for an end to genocide, calling for peace between Palestinians and Israelis.”
Protesters marched from Belmore Park to Victoria Park chanting “Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here” and “Stop the bombing, stop the war, this is what we're fighting for”.
