150 000 at IR Demo : Melbourne Indymedia

As expected the Labour Party bureaucrats were out in force to capitalise on the discontent for their careerist ambitions but interestingly the video of Bob Brown got a much bigger cheer than that of Kim Beazley, a nice contrast to the previous demo where workers were seen chanting "beazley, beazley".

The demo was a slightly quiet and a bit of a dordle and dominated by speeches but the huge crowd certainly put a smile on most people's faces.

Who Cares?
by Fascism and Unions - Old Mates Tuesday November 15, 2005 at 11:38 AM

There were over 200,000 at the antiwar rally.

It made no difference.

What makes today's union rally unique? -

is it the presence of that subhuman piece of zion-nazi filth called Kim Beazley?

Please explain....

What makes today's union rally unique? - is it the presence of that subhuman piece of zion-nazi filth called Kim Beazley?

Thank you for a wonderful contribution to the debate. Were you wearing your swastika armband at the rally? I would suspect it was Faruque Ahmed who posted that message, however the generally correct spelling suggests otherwise. Either way, there's at least one deadshit online.

Looking at the photos, I can see "Tim from Big Brother" in the background of the stage. Let's see, a guy who can take 14 weeks away from whatever job he had is going to represent the workers? Good one! A bit of a reach isn't it?

As for 150 000 people, that's actually not a bad turnout. It would be instructive however if you quoted it as a percentage of the eligible Melbourne workforce. I'd put it at slightly less than .7 per cent. Tells a different story doesn't it? So will the next election.

I'm hearing 240,000.

Disappointed to see so many there reading Murdochs rag.

The Scum reports that "up tp 50,000 angry workers demonstrated" while The Age reported up to "175,000 protested IR laws".

So why do they keep filling the coffers of these worker hating pieces of shit?

I reckon 200,000 was closer to the mark. Flinders and Swanston intersection was still packed while Exhibition Gardens was nearly full. 2 km plus at 20-30 abreast with huge crowds at either end and lots of people were coming and going the whole time.

200,000 out of workforce of less that 2 million is 10% not .7% Nazihunter you pathetic corportate arselicking shithead. Not bad considering the threats workers received in advance.

So how big are your pro-war, pro IR "reform" conservative rallies? Well?

Our conservative rallies consist of all the people who don't turn up to your whacko rallies.

That's about 3 million in Melbourne today.

No that argument doesn't work.

It might have some credibility if employers weren't threatening workers with the sack or a fine of $22,000 if they attended the rally.

Here's an idea, why don't you organise a rally in favor of the Dickensian industrial relations laws and see how many turn up?

Then we'll compare apples with apples.

Hey and let's have it on a Sunday so we don't interfere with your sacred profit.

Maybe Howard should have told us what he intended doing before the last election then people could have chosen between his time honored tradition of fake fear campaigns and Dickensian working conditions?

Rallies are a waste of time. That's why conservatives don't bother to have rallies -- we concentrate on winning elections and making things actually happen.

This rally was bigger than the anti-war rally.

The police estimarted 150,000 well before all the contingents had joined it.

Workers on the march make history.

Solidarity & Unity

I was at both rallies. The IR rally was half the big anti-war in my opinion.

Why would you want to compare anyway?

It was great to see so many good folks from all the different industries and areas of Melboring stop the City for a while.
Most encouraging to see the Qantas workers facing redundancy if the maaintenance goes overseas to cheaper workforce.
Then the 7 stories high 800 seat passenger super Jumbo will either be safe to fly on or a disaster like the US airlines poorly maintained....
Will the "market forces" appear and save you cheersquad for Capitalism snidey brats then ?
A lot of grins and singinging workers despite Court threats, Bosses intimidation, Corporate and Government propaganda HA HA HA HUMANITY still exists despite all the efforts of the Lie machine !

say what u like about the pointlesness of rallies, the feebleness of the so-called opposition in this country etc etc etc but this was still a very impressive display of community solidarity that i think exceeded many people's expectations!!!! the photos and no doubt the footage we will see over the next few days speaks for itself, it was pretty damn huge!!! not only that, but it was a real community rally that featured a genuine cross-section of said community, it was also peaceful and orderly...hopefully this gets even bigger!!! consevatives (or so-called conservatives, methinks a lot of these people who post disparaging/negative comments on articles are just outright cranks and have no agenda other than being dickheadz!!) can trot out the same old lines...rent-a-crowd, silent majority, blah blah, but it would seem that many many many people are now starting to wake up from their little johnny & the coalition induced delirium and seeing this reigime for what it really is now...surveys on the commercial networks today shows this morning indicated overwhelming support for today's actions, also the corporate msn sites survey indicated overwhelming support and once again the sheer numbers at the rallies speaks volumes!!! i dont if this rally was bigger than the one against the invasion of iraq, i think it was probably of a similar size (IE FUCKING HUGE!!)...howard didnt listen that time and he probably wont listen this time...so i guess we are just going to have to get louder and louder and let that pompous, hysteria/paranoia-wielding, out-of-touch DICTATOR know that enough is enough...i reckon itz time for a general strike combined with a permanent rally in ALL the major cities a-la-ukraine's peaceful non-violent revolution...quite simply set up camp in all the cities and refuse to leave untill howard and his worker-hating war-criminals step down!!! but maybe i am getting carried away, to sum up: it was an excellent rally!!!!
PS: P Brimnut, if u r reading this, sorry i missed u m8 but my boss dropped me off late!!!!

So called is the realist who says"rallies are a waste of time" . Oh really.

"Conservatives don't bother to have rallies -- we concentrate on winning elections and making things actually happen."

Lets estimate 100,000 people were at today's IR rally.

Lets estimate 100,000 people have been killed in IRaq.

So I can see now how you go about making things really happen. You say you are conservative? I think you underestimate yourself.

so that's 200000 corporate hos,

fighting for the right to serve,
for the right to be fucked hard...

Combet and the boys like to bend over and take it from Little Johhny and his corporate masters...

Nothing the union lads like more than
executive cock

The gentleman who calls himself David is a clear example of what happens when people work too hard for too many hours without holidays and breaks.

You are confusing Union with sex mate... We need both, but they are v different...

You need a break & you need to go out relax & meet some people. Don't keep eading Indy cos it only upsets you.

writing a phd is an effort
and I do work 27 hrs a week
but I don't think this situation requires reform

Naturally I'm frustrated by union sycophancy,
and the efforts of the oppressed to continue being oppressed at any cost.

Naturally I'd like to see bold action rather than greed, fear, and cowardice from the unions.

Naturally I'd like to see the sort of self-respect from Australians that would lead to positive action against corporations and the Government rather than crawling obesiance.

I'm a little upset and disappointed at the willingness of the union leaders to drop their trousers for a rodgering from the executives, and the willingness of the workers to continue slurping on management cock

I'd rather see PROTEST than acquiescence.

I'd like to see the system that oppresses Australians destroyed, not propped up by self-loathing WORKERS who accept their role as the servants of Howard and his masters.

If workers are whores, what does that make pr and david who both live off the labors of these whores? I seem to recall david writing somewhere that he was self employed, to be consistent with his impeccable principles he should refuse to sell his product to these shameless harlot workers. And pr, if he hates workers so much, should refuse the handouts from the government that are predominantly funded by workers. Accepting his benefit only encourages these bastards to work harder. The mind boggles at how these two clowns would manage their workerless society.

pr"I'm hungry, I've got a bad back and my brain is fucked, grow me some vegies will ya dave?"

dave"go and fuck yourself you cock sucking opPRessor, growing vegies is an act of servitude, I'd rather starve to death"

Or how about trying to form a hunting party with these intellectual giants? The only thing safe would be the proposed prey.

It's not polite to mock those with mental infirmities but when they insist on spouting streams of idiotic gibberish at me I need an outlet to preserve my own sanity.

I don't equate growing vegetables with corporate servitude.

My argument is about servitude and an artificial, corporate superstructure that facilitates hierarchy, centralised control, and hence oppression.

Got nothing to do with vegetables, cept to say don't get them from Coles if you can help it.

I make a number of major purchase during the year -- like everyone else. Most of these purchases come at the end of the year -- closer to Christmas. But, for the last two years, I do as much of my Christmas shopping as possible on "Buy Nothing Day".

I even use that as an occasion to buy big ticket items for my office -- computers and the like.

It fills my heart with a warmth and glee that Christmas shopping never did.

And when I read these poorly spelled screed... I get that warm feeling all over again. Why can't we make that "Buy Nothing Day" feeling last in our hearts all year long?!

Hey Davo, virtually every (successful) social system known to humanity could be described as a...

"artificial, corporate superstructure that facilitates hierarchy, centralised control"

Indigenous culture springs to my mind. Elders councils are a form of centralised hierarchical control. With a sabre tooth tiger hard on your mobs hammer you wouldn't sit down to work out concensus on the best course of action would you? No of course not! The ladies and kiddies relied on the blokes with a bit of experience and testicles like coconuts. So you see hierarchies are natural evolution and consequence of complex human society. What isn't desirable is a system and hierarchies that elevate psychopaths to positions of power. That's our only real problem, the psychopaths, loonies and megalomaniacs have taken control of the project. It's not the workers fault mate, that's just a funny little kink in your mind.

This antipathy of yours to people who work must have strange roots somewhere. Maybe some bad man in a blue singlet bopped you one or something like that and ever since then workers have been responsible for everything wrong in the world.

Seems to me this anti-worker sentiment of yours has been explored previously too. ( http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/97525.php ) You couldn't articulate a sound argument then so here's your chance now to have another go...

OK, listen up youse irresponsible workers, Davo is gonna tell yez all how to subvert the dominant paradigm by growing carrots in yez back yards.

Nah quiet fellas, just listen to Davo on the fine art of carrot growing, all that other stuff about bills, mortgages, famine in the family, coppers and debt collectors on your doorstep etc. will sort itself out if you'd just, for one fucking minute, give Davo a go...

The floor is yours mate, take us away from this place Davo....

fair point about how hard it is to avoid societies resolving into something undesirable

But I wouldn't be so pessimistic
I just prefer minor changes like getting rid of the multinationals. The unions seem to have the power,
but not the courage..

or else they're too corrupt.

Seems to me the union perspective is:
The executive class are total bastards,
and we're going to fight to keep working for them.

Several people have gotten very angry with me for making this point. Isn't it reasonable to suggest we shut the corporates down permanently and own the factories rather than working for the Man?

Seems a pretty clear choice to me. I say stop complaining and take control. Fairly simple.

Others say 'no its too hard we have no choice.'

Australians, compared with almost anyone anywhere else in the world have choices. We are not reliant on the state and the corporates. We can bring them down any time.

The unions and the ALP are in the way.

I was at the rally too and i thought i was great. i agree with David that sometimes the unions are corrupt but to bring Howard down we need the support of the ordinary workers, and the unions often bring them together. All the union reps who spoke at the rally said great speechs, i just hope they actually DO some of what they're suggesting. I think that with the IR laws and the anti-terror laws combined we might have a better chance of getting howard out of the goverment (although kim beazley is a crap person to have instead).
If anything rallies make you realise that you're not alone.
And hopefully eventually we CAN bring the multinationals down.