Pip Hinman
Around the globe, anti-war activists are gearing up for the protest rallies to mark the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Across Australia, activists are doing the same, spurred on by the oil-for-food scandal, the new terror laws scapegoating people of Middle Eastern descent and the US administration's menacing designs on Iran. "Troops out of Iraq!" will be a central demand of the protests.
The Howard government had hinted it may bring back some of the troops when the al-Muthanna deployment in southern Iraq ends in May, a call the Labor Party has been making. But now foreign minister Alexander Downer is canvassing the idea that those troops stay on after the Japanese engineers are withdrawn. The national security committee of the federal cabinet is expected to canvass the options later in February. There has been bipartisan support for more troops to be sent to Afghanistan.
This round of anti-war protests will coincide with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Prime Minister Tony Blair's visits to Australia. The Canberra-based ACTNOW anti-war group is preparing a "welcome" for Blair (and possibly Rice) at Parliament House, and a range of groups in Melbourne are organising a special welcome for these two warmongers at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
In an encouraging sign, the two Sydney anti-war coalitions, Stop the War and Peace and Justice, are jointly organising the rally on March 18. In Brisbane, while the initiative to organise the protest was taken by the Stop the War Coalition, Rally for Peace and Peace Convergence are joining forces for the protest. Terry Hicks, father of Guantanamo Bay prisoner David Hicks, will address the rally, as will Grace Grace from the Queensland Council of Unions and Murri leader and Socialist Alliance member Sam Watson. Melbourne Stop the War Coalition is organising a protest on March 17.
For more information about the March 17-19 protests, or to help organise them, contact the Resistance Centre in your city (details on page 2).
From Green Left Weekly, February 15, 2006.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.