BY LISA MACDONALD
SYDNEY — Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to protest for refugees' rights on the weekend of June 22-23 around Australia. In Sydney alone, organisers believe between 50,000 and 100,000 people will be willing to come out onto the streets in opposition to the government's brutal treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.
The action is Sydney is being organised by a coalition which includes the Refugee Action Coalition, Labor for Refugees, Free the Refugees Campaign, ChilOut, the National Union of Students, Jews for Ethnic Tolerance, the Search Foundation, the NSW Greens and Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific. It has the support of the Trades and Labor Council, as well as the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Independent Education Union.
An April 10 meeting decided to call the action for June 23, with the slogan, "Refugees are welcome". The protest will demand an end to mandatory detention, no temporary protection visas and money for settlement, not the Coalition's "Pacific solution".
The organisers are approaching a range of high-profile personalities to help publicise the protest. Because "we are all boat people", participants will be encouraged to travel by boat to a yet-to-be-determined assembly point near Circular Quay for speakers and a march to Hyde Park.
All organisations and groups which support the demands are encouraged to endorse and help build the march. For information about the organising meetings, phone Ian on 0417 275 713 or Lisa on 0413 031 108.
[Lisa Macdonald is an activist with the western suburbs Free the Refugees Campaign.]
From Green Left Weekly, April 24, 2002.
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