Dopers: Did you participate or witness yesterday’s protest, in what city, what was your impression?
I saw Philadelphia’s march. It was orderly. It looked like a ton of people. A local councilman, Angel Ortiz, spoke from a flatbed truck with a PA system. You could tell from the identifications on the signs and from the slogans that a bunch of diverse groups were protesting.
I marched in Brisbane, Australia. We are a small city by world standards, and the organisers were hoping for around 10,000 people to turn out. Instead, close to 100,000 turned up, including large numbers of families and older people, many who had never protested in their lives before. The leaders of the Australian Democrats and the Australian Labor Party and the Lord Mayor of Brisbane were among the anti war speakers.
In Sydney and Melbourne the numbers were closer to 200,000 people in each city. This was an unprecedented response from the Australian people, bigger even than the anti Vietnam marches of the early 70’s. All rallies were peaceful, the police presence in Brisbane was confined to stopping traffic while the march passed through the city centre.
Australians overwhelmingly don’t want war with Iraq and are furious with the Liberal government’s arrogant disregard of their opinion.