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| This was the view from the middle of the march - my position. People as far as you can see ahead and behind! |
Yesterday I attended the Sydney 'March in March' demonstration against the Abbott government. I braved the pouring rain, thunder and lightning to be there because I feel strongly that the current Abbott LNP government is irrevocably damaging Australia.
The
issues I feel strongly about and wanted to represent through my participation are:-
- Protecting the environment - Including a price on carbon, protection of the Great Barrier Reef and supporting climate knowledge and funding.
- Education - The Gonski reforms - which Abbott and the LNP pledged to support in full before the election and then dropped or watered down substantially - are essential if we are to have equality in our education system.
- Human Rights - The right to
a fair and liveable wage, equal pay and opportunity for women, protection of medicare, marriage equality, advancement programs for indigenous
Australian people and the rights of those seeking asylum from
oppression are vitally important.
The crowd represented a microcosm of our society ... faces from all walks of life were present as well as booths & pamphlet distributors representing specific organisations/beliefs/issues. I even saw a Marxist booth on the outskirts of the initial gathering! They must feel like they're really marginalised in this day and time when there are so many conflicting thoughts and ideologies.
The "Marches" were held across Australia over Saturday and Sunday with tens of thousands of people coming out in both regional and metropolitan areas to show their displeasure with the policies of the current government. Melbourne was the biggest yesterday with an estimated crowd of over 30,000. Sydney is reported to have had over 12,000 marching. I'm sure it would have been bigger if not for the black clouds and rain during the event's first hours.
To me the big WOW factor in the whole success of the weekend was the fact that these events started as a grass roots idea from a group of people on Facebook who were fed up with seeing one injustice and broken promise after the other and having nothing happen. No one - in the press, on TV, on radio, even within the political opposition party - were calling the government on all the lies and broken promises! They decided to organise a nationwide weekend of protest open to everyone without alignment to any political party or organisation.
I believe - hope - the marches were successful ... at least in raising awareness of the community's unease at the current direction of the government. But you wouldn't know if they were or were not from the press coverage. Only one of the news stations covered the event sof Sunday on the 6pm news - the ABC. The coverage in the Newspapers - in print and online - was meagre to say the least. You had to search sites to get even one photo or mention available.
As the issues continue to grow I believe/I hope there will begin to be a louder and louder voice from the community demanding to be heard. I hope.
I've been working very hard here for nearly a year trying to form the city of Briarcliff, inside 285, south of 85, and north of Atlanta-Decatur-Avondale Estates because the DeKalb County government is broken and corrupt and getting worse on all levels. We need to make a city where we can be better shepherds of our money and stop wasting our tax dollars on middle management who does NOTHING to improve anything.
ReplyDeletePolitics here turned really ugly in the last few weeks of the State Legislature's session. I ended up speaking before the House Govermental Affairs Committee! I still remember marching for civil rights, around the State Capitol with then-Mayor Sam Massell's arm around my shoulders when I was a freshman at GA State!
I seriously thought at that time that we could all move forward and put the past behind us, going ahead with equality for all, but sadly that is still not the case. Race rears its head whenever it can :) Our idiot governor has kept Medicaid from expanding in our state, so instead of getting money from the feds to help our poor, we have to foot the bill ourselves.
The Obamacare medical insurance has become a fiasco, where there are thousands of dollars in deductibles now being imposed on the "newly insured", who could not afford the treatment to begin with and still don't have the money for those deductibles!
Yet our politicians keep getting reelected. The recognized name on the ballot gets the vote. Our crooked County CEO from the 90's is running for sheriff, proclaiming that he "knows how the county works" even though he has no experience in law enforcement... yeah ... he is the one who set up the mess we have now! His minions are still there, hiring do-nothings. The school system has 20% more students and 74% more administrators and is so bad that the governor removed the school board from office.
Hubris. It's everywhere. Pseudo science as well. Instead of "carbon credits" we should be planting trees. :( Instead of railing against GMO's we should be screaming about just pouring RoundUp on everything!
I'm hoping that your "we're not gonna take it anymore" spreads this way!