BY ZANNY BEGG
SYDNEY — "We are here today to say we will not support Bush and his allies in their frantic drive to retaliate. Revenge will not stop terrorism, war will not stop terrorism; war will only generate more horrendous terrorist acts", explained Melanie Sjoberg to the 2000 anti-war protesters who gathered at Town Hall on September 29. She was speaking for NOWAR (Network Opposing War and Racism), the rally-organising coalition.
Australian Afghanistan Association chairperson Hassan Besodi gave an impassioned speech to the rally about the plight of his country. "There are twin problems confronting the people of the world — terrorism and the CIA", he said.
Besodi went to outline how the US had funded and supported Osama bin Laden when he worked for the CIA in opposing the Soviet military presence in Afghanistan from 1980 to 1989. He pointed out that the real victims of any US war would be poor people. "We have a world divided between rich and poor and the US maintains this division", he said. Besodi quoted sections from the Koran which called for peace and tolerance.
This sentiment was supported by Socialist Alliance Senate candidate Pip Hinman who told the crowd that US President George Bush's "war on terrorism" will be a "war on the Third World, a war in which the few casualties in the overwhelmingly white, rich part of the world are treated very differently from the casualities in the Third World. This will be a war in which aid agencies like Oxfam estimate 80% of the casualties will be civilians."
Many of the speakers addressed the need to challenge scapegoating of Arabs and Muslims.
Greens NSW MP Ian Cohen told the rally his family came to Australia as Jewish refugees and he felt a shudder down his spine whenever he heard of synagogues burning. He told the crowd "today we are hearing of mosques burning and this must send the same shiver down our spines. I offer to stand with the Muslim community against any attack on their religion and culture."
A crucial issue addressed by many of the speakers at the rally and in many of the placards and banners bought along to the protest was support for the Afghan and Iraqi refugees who were seeking asylum in Australia. Michael Thompson, assistant state secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union, told the rally that the real enemy of the Australian people was not those fleeing here in leaky boats but John Howard and his racist government.
The rally was closed by a group of five young women from Afghanistan who asked why their people were going to be made to pay for the September 11 attack. "Osama bin Laden is from Saudi Arabia, the Taliban are funded and supported from Pakistan, many Afghan people are fleeing both and yet they will be the ones to suffer in a war", one of the women explained.
The anti-war protesters marched through the city to the US consulate. The next anti-war protest being organised by NOWAR will be held on October 13.