Anti-Vietnam demonstrations in Sydney. Photos: The Fairfax Photo Library

How big will the peace marches be? Big enough to make a difference? A straw in the wind. A young bloke I sit near at work, a sports writer, says four friends have sent him emails about where to go and when on Sunday. None have ever protested before.

It seems so long ago, but 200,000 people walked across Sydney Harbour bridge in May 2000 in support of reconciliation. John Howard didn’t, of course, and he told Peter Costello not to either. And it was different, that one – a march of affirmation rather than protest.

Still, peace marches can be seen in the same light. At the first Vietnam war moratorium protest in May 1970, when 70,000 people marched in Melbourne and 20,000 marched in Sydney, organiser Jim Cairns said: “When you leave here you have a sacred trust. You have the trust to stand for peace and for the qualities of the human spirit to which we must dedicate ourselves…We can overcome, ladies and gentlemen, and I have never seen a more convincing sight than I can see now to give me confidence that we shallovercome.” Anyone with memories of Vietnam protests they’d like to share?

In 1985, more than 300,000 people marched across Australia in Palm Sunday anti-nuclear rallies. The biggest rally was in Sydney, where 170,000 people brought the city to a standstill. (SMH, 1-4-1985, p.1) NSW Premier Neville Wran told protesters the rally reflected the concern people had for the future, and that “the tens of thousands of children in this march should give a message to every politician.” Some multinational corporations didn’t get it – they helped Saddam and Pakistan with nuclear components. The world’s politicians didn’t hear – they, and their companies, supplied nations with chemical and biological weapons. Now George Bush won’t rule out using nuclear weapons against Saddam. I’d to hear from readers who attended the Palm Sunday rally.

In November 2000, a crowd variously estimated at 40,000 to 80,000 rallied in Sydney city to “Save the Rabbitohs”, the South Sydney Rugby League Club, from expulsion from the competition. Some other recent big protests: Thousands of workers rallied at Melbourne airport to protest the collapse of Ansett in September 2001, 10,000 people protested outside parliament house in Canberra in support of the ABC in February 2001, 10,000 people protested at the World Economic Forum in Melbourne in September 2000, 80,0000 workers in Melbourne protested against the federal government’s workplace relations laws in August 1999.

Here’s the Herald story on the anti-Gulf War rallies in January 1991. For another blast-from-the-past experience, check out the movie Bob Roberts, a devastating satire of American politics set during the first Gulf War.

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Thousands join the fight for peace

by Tony Hewett

Publication date: 21-1-1991

In the biggest anti-war rallies since the Vietnam moratorium marches of the 1960s, thousands of Australians from all walks of life and in every capital city have condemned the Gulf war and Australia’s involvement.

In Sydney, a 25,000-strong crowd marched on the US and Israeli consulates on Saturday before gathering at the Town Hall to hear speakers vent their anti-war messages. More than 20,000 people demonstrated in Melbourne on Friday night, 10,000 in Adelaide, 5,000 in Brisbane on Saturday, 3,000 in Hobart, 2,500 in Perth, 1,000 in Canberra and 400 in Darwin.

And a big crowd of Sydney people will join residents in Canberra today to demonstrate outside Parliament House when the Parliament resumes to debate Australia’s involvement in the Gulf war.

Whether the anti-Gulf war message was carried in the speeches of peace activists like the former Labor Cabinet minister Mr Tom Uren, who called the US President, Mr Bush, “that six-gun specialist”, or in the music of Mr John Schuman, who wrote the song I was only 19 about Vietnam, the crowds applauded in agreement.

At the Darwin rally, Anglican Archbishop the Most Rev Clyde Wood told the crowd: “When war is considered to be a marvellous idea … it is almost enough to destroy one’s faith.”

In the Brisbane rally, Ms Maya Stuart-Fox, from the Environmental Youth Alliance, said the war could mean an environmental disaster, as Saddam had promised to burn the oil fields.

In Hobart, Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen’s Association (FEDFA) State organiser and Vietnam veteran Mr Mike Grey said Mr Hawke had failed to understand the growing mood against Australia’s involvement.

In Sydney, about 50 peaceniks have set up a camp outside the US Consulate in Park Street. Peace groups have loosely aligned themselves under Network for Peace, which hopes to combine the resources and organisational skills of each group to co-ordinate major anti-Gulf war activities.

In Sydney, the Network for Peace includes Bring the Frigates Home, People for Nuclear Disarmament, Australian Peace Committee, Rainbow Alliance, Conflict Resolution Network, Quakers Peace Committee, Greenpeace and the Wilderness Society. The Australian Democrats and some ALP members are also helping to co-ordinate rallies.

Besides marches, the peace groups – which will stage their next major event in Sydney at the Domain on February 3 – have gathered thousands of signatures on petitions opposing the war and Australia’s involvement. These will be sent to Mr Hawke.