Sydney says NO to racism
Sunday December 18th 2005, 7:26 pm

Around 3000 people showed up on rather short notice in Belmore Park this afternoon to send a message to nazis and racists:

"Not in our Australia, mate."
 
 
Protesters marching from Town Hall to Belmore Park
identify Racist Number One. (image: abc.net.au
 
  
At Town Hall: Ashamed to be Australian (image: abc.net.au

 
Belmore Park, wall to wall with 3000 peaceful people.


The message was quite clear. 


Aboriginal singer & rights activist Jimmy Little spoke about the common ancestry of all peoples.


A proud moment for peace- and lovely weather for it!


This man’s sign says it all. 


Proud to be herself in Australia.


A Who’s Who of the lefty blogosphere in attendance at Belmore: Antony Loewenstein finds some shade. Also on hand, but not pictured: Marcus (Combination Short Soup), Suki (Has An Opinion), Polywise, Gail Thomas of 12th Harmonic


Too right, mate. 

 
Keysar Trad moved the crowd to spontaneous applause several times. 


One nation, many peoples


Rally co-organiser Mat ‘Darp’ Henderson of FightDemBack speaks his part of The Belmore Declaration.


Antony Loewenstein with Jon Fox of 12th Harmonic & 4th Estate Radio

There was a busload of about 20 NSW Police officers waiting on the edge of Belmore Park- they didn’t see the need to bother getting off the bus.

There was a representative of just about every ethnicity in Australia in the park today, with only one message:

We may all be different, but we will live together in peace.

-weez 


8 Comments so far
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One week ago some parochial Cronulla locals and neo-Nazi racist trash rioted at the beach and attacked anyone of Middle Eastern appearance. Their stated aim was to eject all “wogs” from their territory. In the process they also attacked ambulances and emergency workers doing their jobs.

This weekend there has been a police cordon around Cronulla beach and others up and down the coast. Police are stopping any undesirables {Lebanese, Arabs and Muslims, perhaps?} from visiting the PUBLIC beaches.

Well, THAT will certainly teach the racist pricks who started the riot, that they can’t exclude people at will!

It’s going to be an ugly summer…

BTW Were there any reps from major political parties at the rally, or were they to scared to upset their core voter base?

Comment by mars 12.18.05 @ 9:22 pm

[…] We had a beautiful day with about 3000 other people at Harmony in the Park and it was a great pleasure to meet a bunch of other bloggers in the flesh, including Weez from Machine Gun Keyboard (whose generator ran the sound system), Suki from Suki has an opinion, Antony Loewenstein, blogger and co-organiser of the rally Darp, Polywise and Marcus from Combination Short Soup . The days events started with a march beginning at town hall and ending with a rally in Belmore Park. There were some great speakers including Legendary aboriginal singer Jimmy Little, aussie film director Rowan Wood and Keysar Trad. […]

Pingback by 12thharmonic Blog » Sydney unites against racism 12.18.05 @ 11:31 pm

Not sure if there was a formal representative (was one invited?) but I know a bunch of Young Labor members were going along. I certainly would have been there if I was in Sydney.

Comment by Robert 12.18.05 @ 11:47 pm

I see a big Democrats banner in the crowd, but I don’t think any political parties were involved in the organisation.

Comment by weezil 12.18.05 @ 11:57 pm

Good meeting you yesterday, Weez. A successful day, to be sure.
Re the Parrot, keep me in the loop. I’m keen.

Comment by Antony Loewenstein 12.19.05 @ 9:13 am

Count on it, Antony.

One must first complain to 2GB. They then have 60 days to resolve the complaint to your satisfaction. If they fail to respond adequately, you can then file a complaint with ACMA.

I’ll post a bit more detail soon.

Comment by weezil 12.19.05 @ 9:19 am

Hey luvs – this is Nikki from Citizens Against Hate in the states. Geez…I am so impressed at the turnout – ya’ll gave me goose bumps! Anyway – hang tough and keep up the good fight. (((HUGS))) from all of us!

Comment by Nikki 12.19.05 @ 11:45 am

Thanks, Nikki.

There are some people in this world who will be racist to their dying day. Can’t do anything about those poor, sad souls.

However, out on the streets yesterday, all across the country, Australians let it be known that if the racist talkback radio hosts and their nazi mates think they are going to manipulate our communities through disinformation, rumourmongering, terrorism and violence, we will not sit idly by and let them do it.

Comment by weezil 12.19.05 @ 12:27 pm



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