Reports from the march: “When the head of the march was at South Bank the tail was still at Queens Park.”
“Big lift to morale”
“What numbers? …. reply 10,000 people”
One sign says ‘Give fossil fuels the arse’ and has a big pink bum on it.
Action of Climate Change Rally: “Almost everything about high-profile climate actions are about singing a sweet tune and telling a heart-warming story via street theater (and increasingly through elaborate art displays). Everything is done to make everyone as comfortable as possible, including the police – who in turn keep things comfortable for the polluters who are supposedly being targeted.”
But what of the Long March in China in the 1930s or the more recent one through the existing institutions. And then there’s:
Black Lives Matter campaign in the USA: “When the Justice Department concluded that Mike Brown did not in fact have his “hands up”, the movement didn’t flinch – many marchers seized the moment to start chanting – Fists up! Fight Back!
Comment
Some confuse the debate over tactics and in doing so re-visit mistakes of the past – i.e. by the Black Panthers.
I do not think it right to conflate ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign in the USA with the anti-climate change movement in Australia.
Or for that matter any other single issue movement in Australia, including the campaign to ‘Stop Black Deaths in Custody’
We are not in Ferguson or Portland, we are in Brisbane..
On the question of numbers – on May Day 1978 – when the head of the march was entering the Exhibition grounds, the tail was still in George and Mary St in the city … it was estimated that 20,000 participated and Brisbane had 1.2M people whereas it is about 2.5M now … for those that say i am still living in the 70s, please don’t say: ‘it is all about numbers’! More than half that march was the Red Contingent which contained a big turnout against Uranium Mining & Export.
Ian Curr
1 December 2015