They wanted to silence us. They wanted us to go away. They failed.
Since the Bondi terror attack, ALP state and federal governments, business groups, pro-Israel organisations, the legacy media and the political right have been ceaselessly slandering the movement against the genocide in Gaza. This unity ticket of the ruling class has spilt gallons of ink declaring our movement responsible for Bondi, for terror, for tearing apart the fabric of Australian society and for antisemitism. This slander was accompanied by bans on protests and new laws. Behind this ideological and legal onslaught stood the omnipotent threat of the leather police glove.
The tour of Isaac Herzog, Israel’s president, was meant to be the icing on the cake. It was meant to be the final act in the drama. The anti-genocide movement was meant to be so intimidated by the notion that Herzog was here to help victims of Bondi that we would stay home during his visit.
Instead, the Palestine movement defiantly asserted itself and sent a message to Gaza: we are with you.
Fifteen thousand people in Melbourne, 20,000 in Sydney and thousands more in Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart took to the streets last night. In about twenty other towns across the country, from tiny hamlets on the south coast of Western Australia to regional hubs in NSW and Victoria, people took a stand. With homemade signs and flags aplenty, protesters raised their voices to say that those responsible for the carnage in Palestine should not be welcome here.
No doubt the images of Labor politicians, wining and dining with a man found by a United Nations commission of inquiry to have incited genocide, impelled people out of their homes. The determination to demonstrate was palpable.
My mother, almost 80 years old, told me she took milk in her handbag to the Melbourne protest in case she got pepper-sprayed. High school students at the rally in Perth told me it was their first-ever rally, and they came despite their parents’ disapproval. Queensland rally-goers chanted, “From the river to the sea!” with extra gusto because of the threat that it could be banned by the Crisafulli government. Stories of individual defiance were replicated thousands of times across the country. A chant, “Herzog: lock him up!” morphed into “Albanese: lock him up!” and “Minns: lock him up!” In Sydney, the ALP speaker was heckled, despite her opposing Herzog’s visit.
As images of Minn’s police thugs brutalising protesters have gone viral, calls for people to leave the party in disgust have multiplied on social media, as they should. Anyone with a shred of political conscience should immediately leave the ALP. This whole saga should be a watershed moment for anyone who considers themselves part of the left. A new socialist movement must be built.
Protesters are now also calling for Minns and his police commissioner to step down. There are thugs in the police, but these aren’t just a few bad apples. The violence on display at the Sydney demonstration last night was facilitated and encouraged by the thugs in suits in parliament—from Minns, who clearly gave the green light to the police to run rampage, to National Party Senator Colin Boyce, who said that a Greens senator should be “ripped apart” for questioning the government, to Albanese and Wong, who promote thuggery via their diplomatic and military ties to Israel and the USA. The whole social order of violence and intimidation has been made visible by the defence of the genocide.
The Palestine movement has endured two years of intimidation. Two years of slander. Two years of repression. And yet, it remains strong. It remains defiant. We must continue.
