Media rewrites History on Protests Yet Again
by davey Wednesday November 16, 2005 at 12:19 PM

The newspapers have yet again rewritten history with discussion of yesterday's rally as "Melbourne's Biggest ever. It has only been 2 years since at least 200,000 and up to 300,000 people marched against the war in Iraq.

Everytime there is a big rally in Melbourne the media play the "its the biggest rally since the moratorium rally" game thus writing 30 years of protests out of history. It happened again this week.
With a police estimate of 150,000 people and probably more like 200,000 people in attendance it was a truly huge rally. However it has only been two years since the February 14th 2003 anti-war rally which varied from the police estimate of 150,000 people to organisers who said anywhere up to 200-300,000 people attended.
Lets not forget thehuge "Sorry" march for reconcilation in 2000, 100,000 who attended the 1998 MUA rally and the 100-150,000 who attended the anti-Kennett rallies in 1992 and 80,000 who marched against the First Gulf war in 1991.

Below are some quotes from todays papers.

In Melbourne, the numbers exceeded the Vietnam Moratorium marches of 35 years ago, with police estimating 150,000 demonstrators flooded the city.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17263381%255E601,00.html

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/record-crowds-at-ir-rally/2005/11/15/1132016797361.html
MELBOURNE turned out its biggest political protest on record yesterday as between 150,000 and 210,000 opponents of the Federal Government's new workplace laws marched defiantly through city streets.

About 150,000 jammed Melbourne's CBD in the biggest protest the city has seen.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,17260854%255E661,00.html

Even the Indymedia feature on the rally referred to the rally as possibly Melbournes biggest rally. As someone who was at the February 2003 rally and yesterday's rally I the anti-war rally was far larger. The streets were far more densely packed during the march - you could barely move and it took me 20 minutes just to get out of Melbourne Central station. Yesterday was a great turnout - make no mistake but lets be careful to not forget the other huge expressions of public dissent we have seen in recent years.

add your comments