The March in March was a festive vote of no confidence in the Abbott government. (Refer https://www.facebook.com/events/501397403315324/)
The Brisbane event is part of the national March in March movement and began in Matthew Donovan’s bedroom. He got on facebook and organised one of the largest rallies in Brisbane for some time. My estimate based on counting the rows of marchers down Alice Street was that over 5,000 people turned up and marched. This video confirms the size of the rally.
The rally started at Queens Park next to Treasury Casino at 11:30am for 12pm start.
Here is one commentary of police behaviour after the march:
Ok so I attended a march today where an elderly man with a high sense of compassion tried to prevent a motorcyclist club member from being harassed by police for protesting his freedom.
The elderly man was run down by the police in their car.
It looked excruciatingly painful and he required urgent medical assistance yet when fought with questioning and anger from the public the police just retorted with “well he shouldn’t have been infront of our car”.
To me this is unjust and should a normal person have run down a man because he was “standing in front of their car” they would’ve been faced with serious charges.
This will probably be taken down from Facebook so I urge those of you who are disgraced by this to share it because current news feeds are stating that he “fell over” [see also Brisbane CopWatch] and fail to mention he was deliberately hit. Being a witness to this crime I would greatly appreciate it.
— report by Yasemin]
NewsCorp reported this as the man ‘collapsing’ (pictured above); this, despite several witnesses saying the man was hit by the police car that chased a bikie wearing his clubs colours.
Curiously, during the incident, the police detained the motorcyclist but then let him and his pillion go. The pillion held a confederate flag aloft as their bike raced off.
There were quite a few confederate flags flown during the rally. I wonder if the people protesting the VLAD laws are aware of the significance of this flag. It was flown on March 4, 1861, in Montgomery, Alabama, being raised over the dome of that first Confederate capitol – a confederacy that fought for the right to enslave African-Americans on the cotton fields of Alabama i.e. it is a flag of slavery and racism. I know ‘bikies’ in Brisbane fly the confederate flag as a symbol of rebellion but its racist past is not a good message to be sending out here in Queensland. A state that has such a racist history against aboriginal people.
The rally had a wide range of speakers from across the political spectrum. The speaking list was cut short by the heat and the march ensued. On return some of the speakers were invited to address the crowd.
It is interesting to note that in a surprise result, both major parties failed to win enough seats to form a majority government in South Australia this weekend, with each now locked in negotiations with independents Bob Such and Geoff Brock. This is a set back for the Abbott government and confirms that he may turn out to be ‘One Term Tony’.
Two Nyoongar women from Perth spoke at the rally about a new stolen generation. They were supported by tent embassy members, Boe Spearim and Karen Fusi. Here is their story.
The Cloudland Collective was handing out leaflets about cuts to the public hospital system on the day. They handed out 2 leaflets. One about the G20 and its policy prescriptions of wealth transfer to the world’s most powerful corporations, and another about our upcoming meeting on the crisis in Queensland’s public hospital system. Give them a call on mob: 0409 877 528 for more info.
The Refugee Action Collective also had a contingent and a flyer. RAC is determined to gain justice for Reza Berati who was murdered on Manus Island Detention Centre.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/ZkMU94zRSkg]
Today I marched with my community at March in March Adelaide, and was honoured to have a chance to speak. Here is my speech:
Thank you to the organisers of March in March for inviting me to speak today.
If you’re wondering who I am, I’m one of you. I’m not a politician. I’m not a journalist. I’m not a lobbyist. I’m not a mining magnate. I don’t own a newspaper. I’m not an ‘insider’.
But perhaps that is a benefit. Because it’s often the people on the outside who can see best what is happening inside. And right now, all I can see in our country’s recent past is the wreckage strewn in the wake of the Tony Abbott wrecking ball. And all I can see ahead is a whole lot more trouble for the country that we all love… http://theaimn.com/2014/03/16/marching-for-my-community/
Big BUSINESS Council RULES! OK?
Abbott and Shorten are but its glove puppets.
The enemy is corporate CAPITAL. Keep it in our sights.
Transfield has the contract to profit from off-shore detention. Its founder, and arts patron, Franco Belgiorno-Nettis, told the company’s official historian: ‘Sometimes you may need to bribe, to be tough, even to be inhuman … We camouflage this with a veneer of civiisation.’ (p. 170)
posh schools lie:
neither private
nor independent
but tax-funded.
NOT ‘MY’ School but OUR-schools.
NAPLAN is serial
child abuse.
NAPLAN is serial
child abuse
Magicians amuse by distracting us with their left hands while deceiving us with the right. And so it is with SOVEREIGN BORDERS. One hand draws a line in the water. The other sells us out with secret deals in the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership.
FOR AN INDEPENDENT AND
PEACEFUL AUSTRALIA
NO US Bases NO Marines
NO drones NO more Iraqs
LYNCH DEPUTY-SHERIFFS
MILITANT UNIONS
UNIONS!
PROTECT 457-VISA WORKERS.
DEFEND MILITANT UNIONS!
US investment house Blackrock bought 11 % of the shares in the 124 biggest corporations here between 2007 and 2010.
Who asked you to vote for that?
Take un-civil Liberties
to defend our right
to picket and to march
against state-terrorism.
Eternal struggle is
the price of liberty.
MASS Murdoch traded
his Australian passport
for US TV licenses, yet
. still has more political clout
than the rest of us.
What price democracy?
Authorised by Joe Hill and the never-died collective http://www.facebook.com/JoeHillorganiser
http://www.murdochsminion.org/JOIN US
11:30am 12:30pm Monday 17th March (St. Patrick’s Day) on the quadrangle outside The Herald Sun building 40 City Rd. Southbank to demand Murdoch gives Australians their money back!! Australians want their 882 Million back!!
While the Federal Treasurer, Mr. Hockey, said all the right things to his G20 mates about how important it is to reform the international financial system to ensure transnational corporations like Google and Apple pay income tax, he refuses to comment about what is arguably the greatest legal fraud that has been perpetrated on the Australian people since Federation in 1901. During the Federal election campaign in 2013 the Federal Court handed down a decision that will go down in the annals of Australian legal history as legalised grand theft. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation was able to legally engineer a 2 billion dollar tax loss in Australia in 2000/2001 while depositing a 2 billion dollar profit from its international operations in overseas tax havens.
By transferring a few pieces of paper and unwinding a few paper transactions, they were able to claim a 600 million dollar tax refund on their Australian operations. The Federal Court of Australia, in its wisdom, added interest to the paper refund turning a paper shuffle into a 882 million dollar Australian Tax Office CASH refund to News Corporations in July 2013.
At the same time the Federal Court handed this windfall, News Corporation and its subsidiaries declared war on the Labor Party and The Greens and did all they could to get Murdoch’s Minion, Toxic Tony Abbott, elected as Prime Minister of Australia. The Australian Tax Office, in its wisdom, decided not to lodge an appeal against its biggest cash payout in Australian history. To rub salt into an open wound, Mr. Murdoch wasn’t even willing to share his 882 million dollar cash payout with News Corporation shareholders or his employees. In classic Murdoch style the 882 million dollars was transferred into 21st Century Fox to ensure he received the lion’s share of the payout.
The losers in this paper shuffling exercise are the Australian people. While Rupert Murdoch pockets an amount of money that would pay for the pensions of 45,000 Australians for a year, the fourth estate, the Abbott led government and the Shorten led Opposition have let this legal travesty go to the keeper.
It seems they’re afraid their parliamentary puppet master, Rupert Murdoch, will use his enormous media resources in Australia to kneecap their next election campaign if they raised the issue. When the legal system does not have the ammunition to protect the people from legalised grand theft and when our parliamentary representatives refuse to upset their puppet masters, the people need to take extra parliamentary action to ensure the 882 million dollars that was legally stolen from them, is returned to them.
We encourage all Australians to think twice about purchasing products from News Corporation and every other Murdoch owned subsidiary in Australia and overseas. You have the power to bring the giant down in this David and Goliath struggle. Starve the Murdoch beanstalk by not fertilising it with your money.
Until the power transnational corporations exercise over every aspect of our lives is challenged, the Rupert Murdoch’s of the world will continue to usurp the will of the people by using the money and power they exercise to promote their interests before the interests of the Australian people and the interest of the nation as a whole.
Every journey begins with a first step. Take that first step in the long journey to reclaim your inalienable rights and liberties by denying the Murdoch juggernaut the food it needs to survive and prosper YOUR MONEY.
Download the document here and plough through the 15 pages of assets owned by Murdoch. If you discover any of your money is finding its way into Murdoch’s pockets STOP buying, watching or listening to that product until Murdoch gives back the 882 million dollars he legally stole from the Australian people the ball’s in your court. Go ahead, make your day, stop fertilising the Murdoch juggernaut.
Joseph Toscano / Convenor Resist Murdoch’s Minions Legislative Onslaught