COMMENT BY PIP HINMAN
Some 10,000 people demonstrated against the visit to Australia by US President George Bush on October 22-23. This number can't compare with the 1 million in February, but it is significant. It shows that the anti-war movement is rebuilding.
Another reason these protests were significant is that they were organised by a section of the anti-war coalitions that came together against the invasion of Iraq, and in Melbourne and Sydney, at least, had to overcome a sectarian campaign by the more conservative wing of the movement.
The enthusiasm, the broad range of activists, and the militancy of the 5000-strong Sydney protest on October 22 was marked. This was the first event to be organised by the newly-formed Stop the War Coalition, a mix of local peace groups, some veteran peace movement activists, Socialist Alliance, Greens and Friends of the Earth members and some new to protest organising.
The coalition was formed after the ALP and its conservative allies in the Communist Party of Australia and the Progressive Labor Party decided to wind-up what had been a highly successful anti-war umbrella organisation — the Walk against the War Coalition.
The ALP's argument was that differences over the role of the UN in Iraq necessitated a division. In reality, the ALP wanted to isolate the left of the movement which, up until then, had often won over the middle ground in debates over the political character of the rallies. The ALP and their allies didn't like that, and sunk the coalition in August.
Stop the War had originally decided to organise a protest in solidarity with the ANSWER-called march on Washington on October 25. But when the Bush visit was announced, the protest focus was quickly rescheduled to coincide with it.
Here was a fantastic opportunity to join with others in the Philippines and Indonesia organising against Bush's post-APEC visit, and help reinvigorate the movement against Washington's war plans and occupation of Iraq.
The Sydney Peace and Justice Coalition, the new ALP-controlled group, decided on a comedy-festival before Bush arrived in the country. But the "Bushwacked" event on October 19, at which the creators of CNNNN (the popular ABC-TV political satire show) were the main draw-card, attracted just 1500 people.
Most in the mainly older crowd, which included many veteran peace activists, were happy to help build the "Stop Bush" protest on October 22. Some took away piles of leaflets to hit the train stations, and others signed up for the buses to Canberra on October 23 when Bush was to address a joint sitting of parliament.
This display of non-sectarianism from the crowd was a stark contrast to the approach of the Sydney Peace and Justice's Coalition's main affiliate — the NSW Labor Council.
Its secretary, John Robertson, had urged unions to boycott the Stop Bush protest telling affiliates that the "Bushwacked" event was the one and only protest they should support. Approaches made to Maree O'Halloran of the NSW Teachers Federation to speak at the Stop Bush protest were turned down. Members of the Peace and Justice Coalition tried to dissuade, unsuccessfully, one of the advertised speakers at the "Stop Bush" protest from taking part.
In Melbourne, some affiliates from the Victorian Peace Network decided to organise a city-wide protest after the majority of VPN affiliates decided against organising one.
Given that most of the trade union and church networks were not involved in building it — Anglican Bishop Hilton Deakin and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union being the honorable exceptions — the lively protest of 1200 on October 22 was a good size. Protests in other cities attracted hundreds of people.
There's no doubt that the Stop Bush protests would be have been bigger if the anti-war movement as a whole had got behind them. Only a unified anti-war movement has a chance of pushing back the government's aggressive Iraq policy. This is what the majority of the movement wants, and this should be the position of its so-called leaders. To do otherwise is sectarian.
Last week's anti-Bush protests, while modest, sent an important signal to the rest of the world that Australia, like the Philippines and Indonesia, is not united behind its pro-war government. If not for the radical wing of the movement, this would not have happened.
The protests during Bush's visit — some of which were very successful under the circumstances — has kick-started the movement again after its high point before the war, and re-ignited that important discussion about building it.
[Pip Hinman is an activist in the Stop the War Coalition in Sydney and a member of the Socialist Alliance.]
From Green Left Weekly, October 29, 2003.
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