Rallies were again held across Australia this weekend against the Israeli regimeâs genocide in Gaza. It was the largest turnout since the war began a month ago. As part of a wave of global protests, tens of thousands of workers and youth took to the streets in the main cities, including Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and the regional city of Newcastle, two hours north of Sydney.
Participants condemned the Albanese Labor governmentâs and media establishmentâs support for the Israeli crimes, demanding an immediate ceasefire. There is mounting hostility to the Australian Broadcasting Corporationâs pro-Israeli bias, with the 7,000-strong rally in Brisbane protesting in front of that cityâs ABC offices. The ABC management responded by blacking out the protests.
This is in line with the role of the corporate media in Australia and internationally. The weekendâs protests have been buried or not reported on at all. Below the WSWS is featuring further interviews with protest participants, following our coverage yesterday.
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At the Melbourne rally, the WSWS spoke to Bianca, who is preparing for tertiary studies in community services. âI think the Albanese governmentâs role is disgusting,â she said. âAustralia was founded on genocide, so itâs not really a surprise that weâre condoning it and funding it. The more noise that we make, hopefully we can make a difference.â
She added: âProtesting is definitely not the only thing we should be doing. The situation in Palestine is a part of a much bigger issueâimperialism, capitalism. It is all forms of oppression that continue to thrive. In order to end all forms of oppression you have to be anti-capitalist; you have to be anti-imperialist. Australia has its own imperialist endeavours.
âThe gravity of the situationâin terms of the situation with the working classâis only going to get worse, and people will take note of this. It is only a matter of time before we see more and more people condemning what is going on.
âThe more protests, the more industrial action that is occurring, once the ball starts rolling, everything will keep moving and I think we are going to see more of that. This is not idealistic. Socialism is not idealistic at all. I see it as a natural evolution of events. Itâs going to happen, we just need to get there.â
Rona, a 25-year-old personal trainer, said: âIâm here because in Palestine, they are our brothers and sisters, and they are going through a terrible genocide. It is important to support them, and for everyone just use your voice if you have a platform.
âAustralia is supporting Israel because it is an ally with the US. Here and in America, the economy is really bad. Everyone is struggling with inflation, but governments have billions of dollars to give to Israel for things that arenât even necessary, not even hospitals, itâs for weaponry.â
Torrent, who works in financial services, explained why he joined the demonstration. âIâm a human and I canât keep on watching whatâs on the television news every day,â he said. âItâs too shocking for me and too upsetting.
âI couldnât not be hereâitâs the least I could do. Iâm glad that I am not the only one, because I felt like that for a very long time. Itâs nice to see so many people here, and all different kinds of people.
âMost of us now get our media online, and that canât be censored like it used to be. Censored like they do on the ABC [Australian Broadcasting Corporation], which to me is quite shocking. The ABC has now been toeing the whole official story, and it is shocking how biased they are. I think people just look online and thatâs why theyâre here, they see the real truth. It canât be hidden anymore.â
In Sydney, Celia, an architecture student, explained: âI was looking at [Prime Minister Anthony] Albaneseâs twitter feed over the past couple of weeks. All he had to say was that freedom, peace and equality are core Australian and American values and that they are at the heart of our alliance with the USA.
âI was quite frankly shaking in my boots with anger when I saw that because if you have a basic understanding of history and American involvement in wars across the world you know that they have never fought for freedom, equality or peace for that matter. Iâm not surprised that we would support American funding of war in Palestine considering we followed them into war in the Middle East after 9/11.
âThey are talking about proportionate response, but fundamentally the US went to war in the Middle East and killed four million civilians in the wake of 9/11 and Australia followed them into that war, and we are doing the same thing here. We are following our major ally around the world and letting them fund whatever genocide they please and supporting it publicly. I think it is shameful from our government.
âI think it is interesting the way you see the different coverage on the war in Ukraine and the war in Palestine,â Celia commented. Unlike the Ukraine war, âthey dehumanise the Palestinian refugees. I am a little bit shocked that Albanese immediately fell in line with the US State Department and their support for genocide. I donât know why I expected a bit more from a Labor leader, but I donât think the Labor Party has socialist values at heart.â
In Newcastle, the WSWS reporting team collected a number of video interviews, posted below.
Source: Wsws.org
Workers and youth in Australia denounce genocide in Gaza
Workers and youth in Australia protest and denounce the genocide in Gaza
Australian workers and youth oppose the Voice, denounce Laborâs support for genocide in Gaza
Educators denounce American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingartenâs support to Gaza genocide
Public meeting in Australia: Stop Israelâs genocide against Gaza!
Maritime Union of Australia taking no action to oppose Gaza genocide
âStop Israelâs genocide against Gaza!ââSocialist Equality Party in Australia holds well-attended public meeting
A call to the working class and youth: Stop the imperialist-Zionist genocide in Gaza!
Australia: Newcastle workers and youth oppose Molycop sackings
Mobilize workers and youth throughout the world against Israelâs genocide!
Protests against Israeli genocide grow larger in Australia
Workers denounce Uniforâs extension of Ford strike deadline, call for joint struggle with American workers against Detroit Three
