Students and supporters across the country rallied to oppose the racist, anti-worker and anti-LGBTIQ agenda of the Donald Trump administration in the United States, on May 24.
The national day of protests were initiated by Students for Palestine and called on the Australian government to “cut ties with Trump’s America”.
The rallies opposed Trump’s far-right agenda of trampling the rights of workers, trans people, black people and migrants, including carrying out mass deportations and locking up Palestine solidarity activists.
Speakers condemned Trump for allowing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to escalate the genocide in Gaza, starving Palestinians and threatening to seize the Strip.
Despite more than 19 months of sustained pro-Palestine and anti-weapons protests, the Anthony Albanese Labor government has refused to scrap the $368 billion AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, and has invited Trump for an official visit.
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At the rally in Naarm/Melbourne, Palestinian activist Mai Saif said it is “important to take a stand against American and Australian imperialist brutality”.
Saif condemned the commitment from Labor to make Australia one of the top 10 arms manufacturers in the world, saying: “While we lie about sending arms to Israel, we continue profiting off the genocide.
“Australia has an aim: to be in the top ten weapons traders in the world — that is actually a policy aim.
“We are essentially selling human lives for money and profit, and the US is leading that charge, spreading its capitalism and imperialism, all across the world.
“It is the innocent people who are suffering. We are seeing it now in Gaza and the West Bank,” Saif said.
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Tamil refugee activist Rathi Barthlote spoke about racist border imperialism, refugees and all displaced people and communities fighting for justice and dignity.
She said people could not “remain silent” and that there is a “shared struggle between Tamil Eelam, Palestine and refugees everywhere that demand justice”.
“When our voices are united, no wall can hold us back. When we speak, the tower of cruelty begins to crack.
“At this very moment, children are being torn from their parents at the US border. In Palestine, children are pulled out from under the school rubble, lifeless. In Sri Lanka, Tamil people are continued to be denied justice for genocide. And here in Australia, refugees have spent over a decade in limbo.
"Donald Trump is a symbol of racism, refugee cruelty, sexism and class oppression,” Barthlote said. “We must speak louder, we must fill the streets and force the government to listen, not to money or military contracts, but to the people.”
Protests were also held in Boorloo/Perth, Gadigal Country/Sydney, Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide, Magan-djin/Brisbane, Ngunnawal/Canberra and Tharawal/Wollongong.
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