Aussies to beat the Bush !!

[jonoboy]

George Bush is visiting Australia for 24 hours in October to
thank us for our part in bombing innocent Iraqis..and already
we have thousands of people planning to gridlock Sydney and
Canberra and bring the cities to a halt as a protest against
the illegal war in Iraq and global free trade. It will only
get bigger..it's possible his visit may be cancelled to avoid
the media interest. 

Contrast that with Bill Clinton's visit in '98..40,000 waited
from early morning in a park opposite the Sydney Opera House
to hear his midday speech. 

[wryter2000]

1. Welcome, Jonoboy

Can you give us a link to this quote, or is it your own? Are you an Aussie? (Aussies welcome here.)

[jonoboy]

2. thanks for the welcome

it should appear in the next few days in the local press but will be down played by Murdoch's News Ltd publications.

At the moment it's buzzing around the Stop The War coalition of groups..they managed to get half a million on the streets before the war so I expect it will be a lively time !!

I will post links as they appear !!

[madmax]

3. Welcome jonoboy!!

:hi: to all our Aussie friends.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. Details on the Sydney protest...

We call for those who mobilised against Howard and Bush in February to do so again.

The Sydney Stop the War Coalition invites all concerned organisations to attend an open meeting to coordinate the biggest possible mobilisation on Monday September 15, 7pm, Level 3, Spanish Club, 88 Liverpool Street (near the corner of George Street). We also urge other activists to start planning now to mobilise from their cities and towns to come to Sydney and/or Canberra.

Another world is possible. A world without war, where people come before profit.

STOP BUSH
TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ
DERAIL THE FTA
ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

To endorse this call, click here to email the Stop the War Coalition at: [e-mail] or phone: Brian 0425 347 634; Nick 0409 762 929; Rihab 0405 760 929; Bashir 0413 859 060.

http://www.socialist-alliance.org/antiwar_syd_nobush.shtml


It's too late for the open meeting, but if anyone here is Australian and wants to get involved in helping with the protests, those contacts should steer you in the right direction. I think I might be the only DUer from Canberra, but if anyone else is and wants to help with organising, they had a table set up outside the Manning Clarke Centre at the ANU last week, so I guess they'll be there again after the mid-semester break's over...

Violet...

[jonoboy]

6. thanks for the info Violet

I'll be there !!

Actually Im amazed to read the really wonderful posts here and heartened by all the Yanks that do know what's really going on.

Its odd that in Australia the majority of people were anti-war and the Prime Minister has now been caught out in so many lies, like George W. yet he's having a dream run and still remains fairly unscathed..but it's early days .

[Matilda]

7. We need a Keating to put the boot in ......

Keating on the attack went straight for the jugular (and managed to get a laugh at the same time). Poor old Simon Crean sounds as if he can't even convince himself of anything he says. Howard has been proven to have lied over and over again, and the Opposition should be nailing him to the wall, but nothing's happening. We need a Labor leader with a quick mind and a sharp tongue - Keating, come back, all is forgiven!

[jonoboy]

8. I miss P.Keating's razor tongue

at least he was entertaining as well as telling it how it is.

I still think Simon Crean is a good man but he seems to banging his head against a wall with this lot.

He did stand up to the US Ambassador though when he made an outrageous suggestion that the Labor Party should be more supportive of G.Bush and his policies.

[Matilda]

9. Yes, and I liked what he said when the troops sailed for Iraq ...

"You have our support, but we don't think you should be going". For a moment, I thought Crean had grown a backbone, and was ready to cheer him on, but having stuck his head up, he got nervous again and went back into his hole. I do hear that he is a quite a decent man, and ditto Beazley, but perhaps that's the trouble - too nice for politics. Howard plays really dirty , and it takes a Keating to get the better of him. If only he hadn't spat the dummy - Labor was probably going to lose again last time because of the way Howard played the whole terrorism/boat people card, but maybe this time, they'd have a chance with a Keating at the top. If wishes were horses .....

[Punkingal]

5. That's great.....

but I bet the chickenhawk doesn't show! If only Americans would put up a fight like you Aussies do.

[Matilda]

10. I think you progressives in the U.S. are terrific ..

because I think your country is rather more conservative than we are, and it takes courage to speak out. Percentages in terms of population are probably the same as with us - about 80% of people are asleep most of the time, but you people get stuck in there
day after day, even though you might cop heaps from the conservatives. People here a bit more apathetic, so on one hand,
it's live and let live, but political activism is limited. So don't
knock yourselves - you should take a bow!

[jonoboy]

11. yu got it right Matilda

actually I am very proud when I see Americans that speak up for truth as I think it's harder there even with 'free speech'and all that..they seem much more in danger of attracting loonies.
Every time I see some demonstrators being interviewed there always seems to be abunch of rednecks that drive by in a SUV screaming 'four more years' or something scary like that.


Numbers are skyrocketing to demonstrate against George W in October when he visits to thank John Howard for his part in bombing innocent Iraqis.

[Punkingal]

12. Hey, Aussies....

:yourock: Thanks for the compliment...we are trying very hard.

[Djinn]

13. Hey it's the antipodean thread!

I started coming to DU first to remind me that Bush is not supported by all or even most Americans, and this is by far the most polite political forum I've been on - so far no-one's called me anything nasty and the "dean sux" "clark sux" toing and froing seems to be as harsh as it gets. So this is what I keep in mind when someone (usually influenced by little john or the mad monk) tells me that my opposition to PNAC, the war in iraq and Bush & Co is purely caused by "anti-americanism" which is a fashionable term of abuse right now.

It's a weird one because presumably all the AMERICANS who also feel this way should be called anti-americans too - or maybe they're "self hating americans" so I try to remember that I'm pro american, FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt, the new deal, a bill of rights, free speech provisions, the simpsons, the dead kennedys, bagels and cream cheese, DU, eminem, noam chomsky, edward said (RIP)buffy the vampire slayer, Michael Moore - are just some of the good bits and that not agreeing with Bush is not the same as diagreeing with americans.

For the aussies: while I also catch myself saying come back paul all is forgiven (esp in relation to refugees and aboriginal disposession) but then I take off the rose coloured specs - Keating was one of the most right wing PM's we ever had and it was HIS government that first introduced mandatory detention of asylum seekers.

[jonoboy]

14. afraid your right there..

a lot of things I admire about Keating but he was a right wing laborite..after all remember he is a great friend of Tony Blair who modelled himself off Keating and what is New Labour , just a version of the Young Conservatives.
So come back FDR, Ben Chifley , Harold McMillan and H.Wilson.etc all is forgiven. I liked my polies when Conservatives were truly conservative and Labor was a working mans party and both had a mutual respect for each other.

All that tosh about anti-Americanism which drives me batty is the same as Republican chickenhawks accusing Democrat war veterans of being 'traitors'

[Djinn]

15. exactly

scarilly though - in relation to Blair modelling himself on Keating - the Vic Labor party sent a delegation to UK to study Blair and his govt so they could model themselves on that - which is why it's really hard to tell that Bracks is ostensibly a leftie!

what brought you to DU? do you post at any Aust sites - I don't seem to be able to find any decent ones, I guess we save up the bandwidth for important stuff like AFL (damn magpies!)

[jonoboy]

16. are there any Oz sites?

I lived in the New York for a few years so I like to follow the politics...but these days life in Australia is caught up in it as well..wherever George W goes, we go with him..even to hell!!

[Matilda]

17. You're right about Keating - so sad, really.

He has intelligence, wit, and charisma, and he can still sock it to Howard. And I think somehwere there's even a soul. But he and Hawke modelled their style of government on Thatcher, and he forgot about the battlers while he courted big business. It was also Hawke and Keating who made it so easy for Murdoch to get control of the media, and it's hard to forgive him for that. I just wish there was somebody out there on the left who could hit Howard where it hurts,
because I don't think I can stand another four years of Howard. I think I might move to New Zealand.

[Matilda]

18. BTW, Bush is expected here on October 23rd.

That seems to be the most likely date, but the Government isn't giving out any info. Whether 22nd or 23rd, there will be demos in
every capital city - the one in Sydney will be 5.0 pm at the Town Hall, on the day he arrives. I'll be there!

[jonoboy]

19. wear white arm bands

Labor party MP's who were considering turning their backs on George Bush when he addresses the Australian parliament this month are now re-considering as they do not want to insult the US or the institution of the Presidency.

Instead they will wear white arm bands in memory of the Iraqis and Allied personel who have died because of the illegal Iraq invasion.

Show solidarity..wear your white arm band during the visit of this creep who will be utter yet more inanities to bolster John Howard's re-election chances.

Doesn't matter whether you are Liberal, Labor or otherwise..this is about honesty and integrity.