Video and report of SP anti-war action
Click on the link below to see a video of the Rock Against War action outside the US Embassy on Friday 4th November 2005. Click here. About 100 people turned up outside the US Embassy in Melbourne on Friday night to protest against the continuing occupation of Iraq.
The demonstration was organised by the Socialist Party and was a slightly different format to the usual anti war protests seen in Australia.
A large flat bed truck was used as a stage and it was parked only meters outside the front doors of the building. Four live bands played from the truck including The Defiance Report, The Urviles, Left Hand Cuts Right and high school band the Early Nerd Specials.
All of the bands made political statements and comments during their sets and in between Socialist Party members spoke. SP Organiser Anthony Main outlined why the imperialist powers had invaded and occupied Iraq and offered a class-based, non-sectarian and secular socialist alternative for the Iraqi masses and the anti war movement.
Greg Bradshaw linked the issue to the new ‘anti-terror laws’ and Kylie McGregor made the point that Howard was not just attacking working people in Iraq but also in his own back yard. Kylie urged the crowd to attend the mass workers rally on November 15 against Howard’s new IR laws. SP Councillor Steve Jolly also spoke on the night reading a message of solidarity from US anti war activists.
The event was organised in the lead up to the weekend of protests across Australia against the war. SP members did many interviews in the media about the event and managed to get in quite a few plugs for the mass demonstrations.
The police, including four on horseback, were there in numbers. A sign of the times was the fact that police used a sniffer dog to check out the truck for explosives! Whilst the action was a modest affair it was important because most of those who attended were youth. SP will continue to organise these sorts of actions as a way of connecting working class youth with socialist politics.
