BY NICK EVERETT
On February 5, I attended a meeting of Sydney's Palm Sunday Committee on behalf of the Free the Refugees Campaign (FRC).
I had received an email that day from Labor for Refugees co-convenor Amanda Tattersall that explained, "there has been some informal discussion about the idea that a possible date for a big rally on refugees could be on Palm Sunday — the 24th March". The email invited "people who are interested in the campaign" to attend the committee's organising meeting.
Palm Sunday has traditionally been a day of mobilisation for the peace movement. In the mid-1980s, Sydney Palm Sunday rallies attracted up to 100,000 people in support of nuclear disarmament.
On arrival at the meeting, at the Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross, I was promptly asked to leave by committee member Peter Murphy. "It would be inappropriate for you to attend", he said, adding that I didn't have "an invitation". The committee's "call to action" was also not available for me to read as the committee's secretary, Pat Thoms, had made copies only for the "invitees".
The following day I made some further inquiries. Amanda Tattersall explained that the problem was not that I represented FRC, but that I was a member of the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP). This was confirmed by Friends of the Earth activist John Hallam, who explained that "some members" of the Palm Sunday Committee objected to members of the DSP, the International Socialist Organisation and Socialist Alternative attending the meetings at this stage, although it had been proposed they be invited "at a later date".
However, Reverend Ray Richmond, of the Wayside Chapel, advised me that he was unaware of any exclusion policy and expressed his support for the overturning of such a policy at the committee's next meeting.
At a time when the Bush administration is escalating a policy of global militarisation, stridently supported by the Howard government, peace and refugee activists have a responsibility to build the greatest possible unity between our forces.
Here in Australia, the Howard government has not only welcomed the war on Afghanistan, but is brutalising refugees, who after fleeing war-torn Afghanistan are being turned away from Australian shores or detained in inhospitable refugee camps.
In recent weeks, thousands of Australians have taken to the streets in opposition to the federal government's mandatory detention policy. Large, vibrant protests around the country on Palm Sunday, built by open, broad and inclusive committees, could help to overturn this unjust policy.
[If you would like to sign a letter of support for an open Palm Sunday Committee send an email to <nick.everett@lycos.com>.]
From Green Left Weekly, February 13, 2002.
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