The Hiroshima Day Rally held on Tuesday 8 August 1967 began in the Old Brisbane Markets in Roma Street just below the Dental Hospital. Children played in puddles as a throng of 200 or so people gathered holding placards and banners that opposed the war in Vietnam, conscription and of course the bomb.
People assembled there to hear speakers address the crowd from the back of a truck with No More Hiroshimas and stop bombing Vietnam banners slung from its side. The march was led by the Brisbane Branch of the Waterside Workers Federation going past Trades Hall in Upper Edward Street and ending up in the Domain between Wickham and Ann Streets in Fortitude Valley.
The crowd was addressed by communists, anarchists, members of the clergy and Labourites from under WWII air raid shelters as children played on Robbie Burns statute.
The Qld Peace Committee had a hand in the organisation of the day as did the Trades and Labour Council led by Alec MacDonald and the Communist Party. The crowd was serenaded with peace songs sung by Geoff Wills and members of the Communist Arts collective from Lota on Moreton Bay.
Here is the (silent) film of the rally and march shot by Grahame Garner from the Tramways Union.
Ian Curr
3 Nov 2020