BY NICK EVERETT
SYDNEY - On August 18, a special meeting of the Walk Against the War Coalition, which organised the 500,000-strong anti-war rally on February 16, will be held to debate a proposition from former Labor senator Bruce Childs and Communist Party member Hannah Middleton, two of the three co-conveners of the Walk Against the War Coalition, to wind up the coalition.
On July 7, at a meeting that was kept secret from the majority of affiliates of the Walk Against the War Coalition, Childs, Middleton and others formed the Sydney Peace and Justice Coalition, thus effectively splitting the anti-war movement.
Supporters of a united anti-war movement will be putting the following motion to the August 18 meeting:
"This meeting of the Walk Against the War Coalition notes the success the coalition has achieved in uniting diverse elements of the Sydney anti-war movement, reflected in successive mobilisations of tens of thousands of opponents of the war between November 2002 and April 2003. The mobilisation of 500,000 people in Sydney on February 16 was an expression of people's power against the Howard government's support for war on Iraq made possible by the unity of the anti war movement.
"This meeting reaffirms the Walk Against the War Coalition's commitment to building an inclusive and united anti-war movement and rejects any attempt to dispense with the coalition's funds."
This motion has been endorsed by the following groups and individuals (* organisations listed for identification purposes only): Canterbury-Bankstown Peace Group; Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific; Sawiyan Coalition for Palestine; Socialist Alliance; Socialist Alternative; Ashisha Cunningham (Chippendale-Darlington Peace Group*); Bashir Sawalha (NSW Greens*);
Bob Gould (bookseller); Daniel Jardine (vice-president, general staff, Macquarie University branch, National Tertiary Education Union*); Jamal Daoud (NSW Greens*); Greg Adler (Workers League); Jenny Long (secretary, education delegates committee, Public Service Association*); John Hallam (nuclear weapons campaigner, Friends of the Earth*); Leonore Gouldthorpe (Pittwater for Peace*); Jo di Petrio (delegate, Health & Research Employees Association); John Morris (councillor, NSW Teachers Federation*); Leon Parissi (central councillor, PSA*);
Liam Mitchell (delegate, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union*); Luke Deer (editor, Socialist Worker); Marina Carman (Global Justice Sydney*); Marlene O'Beid (Canterbury-Bankstwon Peace Group); Melanie Sjoberg (secretary, housing delegates committee & womens councillor, PSA*); Mike Waterman (convener, Newtown Peace Group*); Noreen Navin (executive member, Canterbury-Bankstown Teachers Association*); Pip Hinman (national coordinator, ASAP);
Rob Wesley-Smith (Darwin No War); Steve Painter (St George Greens*); Susan Price (vice-president, UNSW branch, NTEU*); Tom McLoughlin (convener, ecology action sydney); Vince Caughley (executive councillor, Australian Services Union*); Rashmi Kumar (Students Against the War*): Tara Povey (Students Against the War*); Luke Whelan (Auburn Peace Group*); Mitch Bond (Marrickville Peace Group*); Stephen Langford (secretary, Australia-East Timor Association*); Jacq Ludwig; Austin Mackell; David Murray; Les Gray; Marie McKern.
[Nick Everett is one of the three conveners of the Walk Against the War Coalition.]
From Green Left Weekly, August 13, 2003.
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