World Refugee Day Rally – 16 June

Posted on June 18, 2013 by melbourneprotests

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 – the only media report to date, on ninemsn, refers to ‘hundreds’ – 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.

https://www.facebook.com/AnarchistAffinity

Ballarat’s Circle of Friends / Australian Refugee Association – https://www.facebook.com/CircleOfFriendsBallarat

Also showing support

AYCC at Federation Square: Climate Game Change – 11 May

Posted on May 11, 2013 by melbourneprotests

We were on our way past Federation Square when we saw something happening that involved familiar blue t-shirts. So we went closer, just in time for this. For an explanation, visit the Australian Youth Climate Coalition on Facebook or the AYCC website.

CFMEU Grocon Rally and March, 30 April 2013

Posted on April 30, 2013 by melbourneprotests

Banner at head of march - Safety for Grocon Workers NOW

The march starting off from Trades Hall

In defiance of threats of thousand-dollar fines for taking part, as many as ten thousand construction workers rallied at Trades Hall this morning before marching to the sites of recent fatal accidents involving construction giant Grocon – the collapse of a wall in Swanston Street where three passers-by were crushed to death, and the Myer site in Lonsdale Street where long-time CFMEU member Bill Ramsay fell to his death on February 18th last. The march was self-disciplined and silent, in addition to the observing of a minute’s silence at each of the locations, with only a short burst of chanting at the end, outside the offices of WorkSafe in Exhibition Street. Victorian Trades Hall Council Secretary Brian Boyd addressed the rally briefly at the start, and at the end introduced the Victorian Secretaries of the CFMEU (John Setka), the ETU (Troy Gray), the PTEU (Earl Setches) and the AMWU (Steve Dargavel).

As well as the construction workers the rally was joined by members of a range of other unions, and banners of, amongst others, the MUA, ANF, TCFUA, NTEU, AMWU, ASU, CEPU, CPSU and United Voice can be seen in the photos below. There were also representatives of the IWW, The Socialist Party, and Socialist Alliance, as well as members of the public and university students – two of those killed by the wall collapse were students at Melbourne University.

Some reports of the rally:

The Age
The Newcastle Herald

The Australian

The PTEU website

The CFMEU website

More background:

http://www.theage.com.au/photogallery/victoria/brick-wall-collapse-20130328-2gwuq.html

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/like-some-bomb-going-off-two-killed-as-wall-collapses-in-winds-20130328-2gxam.html

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/french-family-visit-wall-site-20130406-2hdva.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grocon#Swanston_St_wall_incident

http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/53801