Dunedin protest report
About 250-300 turned out on Saturday to a Dunedin protest march and rally against Israeli aggression in Lebanon.
About 250-300 turned out on Saturday to a Dunedin protest march and rally against Israeli aggression in Lebanon. Included a sizable turnout from the city's Lebanese community (which is quite significant) plus a fair number of university students from Jordan, Syria and occupied Palestine. Was really pleasing to see so many people, especially given that the protest was only called 4 days ago and that there was only a relatively small group of people helping to organise it. Most of the speeches from the platform were fairly uncopromising in their opposition to the hyprocritical stance of the US and EU in calling for Hizbullah to unilaterally disarm while at the same time sending in express shipments of rockets and ammunition to supply the Israeli military. Also a lot of people drew the link between the plan to forcibly occupy South Lebanon (first with Israeli, then with NATO troops) and the already exisiting occupations of Palestine, Iraq and Afghanstan.
Lots of Lebanese flags everywhere on the demo!
On the way to the Octagon the march also stopped at Labour MP Pete Hodgson's office and called on the government not to resume any military joint-training exercises with the USA (something Winston Peters was trying desperately to secure on his latest trip to Washington DC).
More action in solidarity with the Lebanese and Palestinian people is planned over the coming weeks.
Comments
Re: Dunedin protest report
Great to hear!
Re: Dunedin protest report
Solidarity - especially to the people of Lebanon and the Palestinians. Modern warfare = more dead children than soldiers.
Re: Dunedin protest report
Crap, I was in dunedin and missed it. Pity nothing happening in Chch - what ever happened to Peace Action Network?
Re: Dunedin protest report
Cheers, Tim, for the report.
It was really good to see so many people from such a wide range of backgrounds and "sympathies" rallying together to voice their outrage at what is so obviously a unjustifiable crime
For those of you who are interested, we (The ISO - organisers of the first protest) are organising a second one for Aug 19, 1pm, meeting outside the Museum again.
We would like to hope this one will be even bigger than the last (250 isn't that big after all for a city with nearly 20,000 students let alone non-student residents) but that will only be possible with your support.
Bring banners, placards and flags as you desire.
Kevin