BY ROHAN GAISWINKLER
HOBART — More than one thousand people protested against war on March 15, in a protest organised at less than a week's notice in response to the escalation of US plans for war.
The rally, called by the Peace Coalition, included an open microphone, in which dozens of people got up to make short statements against the war. Protesters also heard from two keynote speakers: David Cody, a philosophy lecturer who has been attacked for his anti-war stance by a pro-war academic through the pages of the local newspaper, and Greens state MP Peg Putt.
Cody focused his speech on arguing that the US has no interest in strengthening democracy or human rights in the Middle East, pointing to the lack of democracy in "liberated" Kuwait as an example. Putt was cheered when she announced that state parliament had passed a motion opposing any war without UN backing.
From Green Left Weekly, March 19, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.