March 20 Rally Report : Melbourne Indymedia

Approximately 7000 people attended the anti-occupation demonstration at its peak in Melbourne today to show opposition to the American-led occupation in Iraq. Several corporate and alternative media journalists were there to report on the demonstration.

A variety of different people (young and old, sick and healthy) and organisations attended the rally. There were visible represenatatives from: Australian Democrats, Australian Greens, Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, Communist Party of Australia, Geelong Anti-War Coalition, Humanist Society of Victoria, International Communist League, Islamic Council of Victoria, LaTrobe Valley Peace Network, Moreland Peace Group, Muslims for Peace, Philppines Australia Solidarity Association, Radical Women, Socialist Alliance, Socialist Alternative, Spartacist Youth Club, Uniting Church, Victorian Peace Network, and Women for Palestine. (Apologies to any not mentioned.)

Speakers included Terry Hicks, Pamela Curr (Victorian Peace Network), Martin Kingham (CFMEU) and Margarita Windisch (Socialist Alliance), amongst others. Terry Hicks spoke briefly about the the war in relation to his son, David Hicks, currently imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on American soil. The others spoke of the war in general, and why it should be opposed.

The rally started at the State Library and marched around the city before stopping at the Treasury Gardens for more of the speakers, as well as singing and music. An effigy of George W. Bush was also burned in a sign of protest, plus an American flag taken from counter-demonstrators. A variety of light-hearted attractions involved a clown entertaining the crowd, a man dressed in a skeleton costume, and the large papier-mache George W. Bush.

There were a few counter-demonstrators who established their support for the occupation, both at the State Library, and on a smaller scale at the Treasury Gardens. They were quite unpopular. There was a small number of verbal and 'physical' clashes resulting from this. The 'physical' clashes involved a tug-of-war over counter-demonstrator posters, banners and American flags. The verbal clashes involved different views on the occupation.

View the photo gallery.