Susan Price, Sydney
Held at Olympic Park on August 7, the "Last Weekend" family day, organised by Unions NSW, attracted around 40,000 people.
Workers and their families travelled from all over Sydney for the picnic-style rally, and were treated to free food, rides and entertainment by the Hooley Dooleys, The Whitlams, Kid Confucious and Astro Tabasco.
Corinne Grant, from TV shows The Glass House and Rove Live, did a great job compering the event, and speakers included the new NSW Labor premier, Morris Iemma, and Unions NSW secretary John Roberston.
Workers from Boeing, in Williamtown, who are now in the tenth week of a lockout, collected more than $2000 in donations at the event.
Several campaign and political groups, including the Sydney Stop the War Coalition, the Refugee Action Coalition, the Union Activists Network and the Socialist Alliance, were denied official stalls, however, these and other groups set up card tables and picnic rugs from which thousands of people snapped up campaign information. "Up Yours Howard" T-shirts, sold as a fundraiser for the Socialist Alliance, were very popular and more than 450 copies of Green Left Weekly were bought on the day.
Similar events were held across NSW, including in Armidale, Lismore, Coffs Harbour and Wagga Wagga. Unions NSW is now considering making the picnic an annual event.
From Green Left Weekly, August 17, 2005.
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