BY EMMA MURPHY
ADELAIDE — The massive turn-out here for the February 16 anti-war march astounded everybody. The organisers of the rally, the NO WAR coalition, estimate that 100,000 people took part. Even the police reckon 70,000 were there. Whatever the number, it was the largest anti-war protest Adelaide has ever seen.
Many more people could not get into the city because buses, trains and trams were packed and were not stopping at stations or bus stops.
Sarah Hanson, Adelaide University student union president, told the huge crowd at the rally that the war that US President George Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australian Prime Minister John Howard want to launch "is not about terrorism. This war is not about humanitarianism or democracy. This war is about oil and advancing US foreign interests".
Hanson noted that the "anti-terrorism" handbook sent out to all Australian homes "advises that one way to avoid terrorism is not to gather in large groups. Thank you all for ignoring that advice."
Other speakers included author Mem Fox, Brian Deegan, who is the father of a Bali bombing victim, Ruth Russell from Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, veteran trade unionist Bob Giles and Chris Waugh from the teachers' union.
The gathering was so big that it split into two marches. It took one hour for it to move two city blocks. Thousands of people were still at the starting point when the front of the march reached parliament.
A diverse range of South Australians attended. There were contingents from the Indigenous community, migrant communities, Vietnam veterans, secondary students (who carried their school shields and banners) and a group of dentists, who demanded "Attack plaque not Iraq". There were banners in English, Spanish, Indonesian and Pitjantjatjara.
There were people there of all ages. Older participants who were active in the campaign against the US war on Vietnam in the 1960s and '70s agreed that it was larger than any Adelaide anti-war protest of that period.
Unionists who participated with strong contingents included those from the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, the Community and Public Sector Union and the Australian Education Union.
One shop along the route offered "Screw Bush Lunch".
From Green Left Weekly, February 19, 2003.
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