March in May - Solidarity from Sydney!
So, I took part in my first ever protest today. Given that, I didn't know quite what to expect when turning up at Belmore Park in Sydney. I've been teetering on the edge of becoming politicially active for a while, but after that budget dropped, I felt, as someone who generally has the time to attend these things, something of a responsibility to get to one of them (which I probably shouldn't, because unlike most, i usually have the legitimate excuse of "I can't get there" because these things on a Sunday. When mum mentioned her standing offer to give me a lift if I wanted to head out on weekends, I leaped on the chance. I was a little worried at first when I turned up. I was earliy, and there weren't many there (apparently, Sydneysiders are slowpokes). There was definitely a buzz in the air. It took a while for the crowd to get going at the rally beforehand, but once it did, there was no doubt it was a fair size crowd. I don't exactly know how many showed up - but it has to be at least as many as the last one. The facebook page shows that 10,000 were definitely attending, a few thousand maybes. A 71,000+ invites were sent out, which is pretty good going though. I'm not the best at catching what people said at the rally, but one thing I did notice was how diverse the crowd was - old people, young people, some children (not as many as I would have expected, but they were there. Though I was surprised how many dogs were floating around. Oh my goodness. they were everywhere (and, I should note, very calm about the whole ordeal. I think one dog started yapping at some point, but overall, given the number i saw about... The yellow labrador right next to me most of the time at the rally seemed fairly content, in particular. Just as the people were diverse, so were the causes championed (all linked together by "get Tony out!" basically. I was glad to hear a strong emphasis on some of the budget's (and previous bullshit actions by this and previous governments) from the First Peoples (First Nations? One of those was what they were using to refer to (forgive me, I'm using the term, even though I much prefer First Peoples/Nations for the sake of clarity) aboriginal people. I was heartened to hear a lot of support for them in the crowd as well. One thing I was glad to see as well was there was a lot of stressing the idea of linking together. It was also good to see Labor not being given a free pass (the Labor party lady not far from me didn't seem too happy about that.). It seemed packed in the park, but it wasn't until we spilled down (there's a slope you have to be careful not to slip down!) into Eddy Avenue,with Killing in the name blaring on the motorised music cart as I descended - nice choice - that I got my first idea of the scale of what I was taking part in. I think the most important part of the experience was the actual march itself. There definitely seemed to be a fair few of us, and there was definitely (for mine, anyway, that may be bias from the fact it being my first experience with activism and I no doubt want it to be a positive memory) at least to my instinct, a definite buzz on the streets. More than a few motorists honking with what I assume to be support (at least one almost certainly was, honking in time with a chant that was going on. At the very least, they were taking notice in the other lane (Broadway is a bit too important of a traffic thoroughfare to block completely, unfortunately).
It wasn't a long walk, but I'd been out all day, and by the time I reached Victoria Park, my feet were rather sore. Still, on the whole, I enjoyed the experience and plan to attend the next one if I can. One thing I do wish I'd done is talked to more people. I was perhaps a little insular - possibly a fault of keeping to myself for so long - though I did have a couple of short chats with a few people. The fact I don't really know anybody that I saw (I went alone) probably didn't help. I really should try to do a placard next time. I'm sure I could come up with something witty. Nice to see folks from Black Rose out handing out fliers to passers-by. I'll probably be ducking in there at some point in the future. Solidarity. If I'd had time to stop and chat, I likely would have. (I had time pressures with the transport, so I pretty much had to turn back as soon as I finished the march, though I did make a point to sign the petition. By the way, on the offchance anyone in southwest Sydney who was there and is involved with some kind of lefty activism in the Glenfield-Liverpool-Cabra-Fairfield-Bankstown sort of area... I'd love to hear from you and link up. The city's a bit far for me to hike for regular protests, but I'd love to link up with any local-ish groups that might exist. Especially if you need folks to help out with writing stuff. This post isn't my best work, but on a good day. And to anyone in the movement to stop Abbott who sees this blog - I'm a songwriter, I have lyrics posted here, and They're free to use as long as credit is given, and you're not promoting some insane hyper-capitalist bullshit. Acknowledgment is sufficient. I'm also open to suggestions to clean up the wording (I've actually toyed with the idea of releasing them under a license that permits modification.
Just putting that out there.