Palm Sunday 2005 in Parramatta

Maintains Pressure on Howard

by Peter Murphy

About 400 people gathered in Parramatta's Prince Alfred Park, in Sydney's west, for this year's Palm Sunday Rally for Peace and Justice for the Iraqi people. Palm Sunday this year coincided with the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by the Bush – Blair – Howard 'coalition of the willing', and so Palm Sunday was part of the global day of action against the war in Iraq.

The event was held in three parts – a Palm Sunday service and multi-faith prayers for peace, organised by the Ecumenical Council of NSW, a march to the Parramatta Town Hall through the heart of the city, and then a rally with four speakers. Despite the modest size of the gathering, it was quite an event in Parramatta, and was well supported by Federal, State parliamentarians and Municipal Mayors and Councillors from Labor, the Greens and Democrats, many trade unions, peace and community organisations.

Howard to admit he was wrong to invade Iraq and to replace his Western superiority with an acceptance of religious freedom and cultural tolerance. "We must pursue peace by ensuring the corporate giants of the United States cannot exploit war in the name of profit," he said. "We must continue to fight for peace, justice and integrity as the values that underpin Australian society,' he concluded.

Mr Fayez Lababedi, the Vice-Chair of the Arab Council Australia, eloquently expressed his anguish at the role of the Bush Administration in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, in response to the horror of September 11, 2001. He said his children worked near the World Trade Centre, and he liked American people, but he admitted that now he really feared President George W Bush. "His Administration is as dangerous as any in modern history, and imposing President George W Bush's beliefs both political and religious onto a reluctant world could witness the Administration faltering in its arrogance and stumble into a world war," Mr Lababedi stated.

Prof Stuart Rees of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University linked the powerful anti-war message of the day to the wider people's struggles against poverty and exploitation and oppression everywhere. He urged everyone present to make the fight for peace in Iraq and for social justice our 'daily bread' – bake it fresh, eat it every day.

Rose Jackson, President of the Sydney University Student Representative Council, cried out eloquently for the young people who have never known any other Prime Minister than John Howard. "The injustice in Iraq has rekindled the passion of the young generation, and we never forget the lessons of this war, our sense of right and wrong will be forever shaped by this experience," said Rose Jackson. "Young people have seen now the horrors of war, and will forever be struggling for a compassionate and peaceful world."

Controversy

Palm Sunday 2005 was organised by the Sydney Peace & Justice Coalition, and started at 2pm. At noon, in Sydney's Central Business District at Hyde Park, the Stop The War Coalition also held a "Bring the Troops Home" rally and march, featuring John Pilger, Greens Senator Kerry Nettle and Mr Mamdouh Habib, the Australian who was recently returned from three years of torture and detention without charge in Pakistan, Egypt and Guantanamo Bay. Numbers at this rally -at under one thousand - were also down on last year, reflecting the current low ebb in the anti-war movement in Australia, which contrasts to the 50,000 who came out in London, and the 25,000 in New York.

The STW Coalition had booked the venues in the CBD first, and the SPJC had contacted them in the second week of January to see about a cooperative use of the venues on March 20. However, the STW Coalition would not shift their start time from noon to at least 1 pm to accommodate the church people, but instead told the SPJC that they could hold the prayer service at the end of the march. After considerable talk about what to do, the SPJC decided that this option could be quite awkward and make for worse relations between the two groups, and so decided to hold Palm Sunday in western Sydney at 2pm. This would minimise a public perception of division in the anti-war movement, and it would be a challenge to us to provide a western Sydney focus for the anti-war message. After all, the Howard government won several seats in western Sydney last October.

As it turned out, the church participants in Parramatta are more progressive than in the CBD, and were very pleased at the opportunity, and it also allowed the Parramatta Peace Group to assert themselves as part of the larger coalition, against a virtual ban by the Parramatta City Council.

And that night on the TV news, the Prime Minister had to make a more temperate, but no less stubborn defence of his war policy than he did after the one million took to the streets on February 14-16, 2003. Staying active and assertive, despite the despair of many supporters, is the right thing to do.

See all the speeches from Palm Sunday 2005 at 9

Peter Murphy is Coordinator, SEARCH Foundation

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