We were able to manage only a short stay at this year’s rally, and had to miss the annual march to the EMERGE Festival at Fitzroy Town Hall. Numbers at the rally were respectable but not large – one media report, on ninemsn, refers to ‘hundreds’; The Age says ‘1000’ – and there was a general feeling of disbelief that it should still be necessary to hold these protests now twelve years after the Tampa and under a Labor government at that. The Greens were well represented*, with Adam Bandt one of the speakers, along with Misha Coleman in her capacity also as executive officer of the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce, and Pamela Curr of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (Facebook) was MC. Music beforehand and during the march was provided by The Conch, and Les Thomas sang a song written for ASIO victim Ranjini.
*Flags of the ANF were also visible, but otherwise not much in the way of union support.
A few photos from the rally outside the Melbourne Museum, mostly self-explanatory:
Pamela Curr and Misha Coleman (at microphone)
Les Thomas
Socialist Party stall – https://www.facebook.com/SocialistPartyAustralia. Socialist Alliance and Socialist Alternative members were also active at the rally.
Ballarat’s Circle of Friends / Australian Refugee Association – https://www.facebook.com/CircleOfFriendsBallarat
Also showing support
