R.C. AndersonLabor and IR
September 25th 2006 14:08
Here is a piece I wrote in June about the National Day of Action against Howard's IR Laws on June 28th, 2006.
Had a fantastic day today. I went into the city early and helped out sticking triangles to bits of bamboo and was then given instructions to head down to Bourke St Mall since I'm tall and we needed tall people to hold up triangles. Meanwhile fellow Young Green and candidate for Kew, Emma, was sent up to Spring St to walk down Bourke St with the group coming from Parliament House (there were four different groups converging on Bourke St Mall, from Parliament, Trades Hall, Fed Square and Spencer Street - I'm sorry Southern Cross Station) she tried to get in front of the group but was muscled out by the Labor people.
I got between the truck that had the speeches and the truck that had the media with the Latrobe Greens. Unfortunately that meant we were stuck amongst a group of Socialists. I thought this was a bad thing but I had forgotten that the socialists are great at getting on camera... We also had fun with them singing chants and us challenging them to come up with a chant to different tunes. Then we had the obligatory speeches from Steve Bracks (Victoria's premier) and Kim Beasley (useless Leader of Opposition) saying how good Labor is and how it was noticable that no other parties were there (yeah, that's because you wouldn't let us have a speaker...). My favourite bit though was when they started talking about the Eureka Stockade and how it was all about workers rights and I said loudly "Actually, they just wanted an excuse to beat up the Chinese..." and everyone cacked themselves. It's true though! Not a bad effort getting socialists to laugh, they're generally such a miserable bunch.
At the end of the Rally the Channel Nine cameraman came down to us and screamed at us because we'd had Green triangles in every one of his shots. (woohoo!). I watched Channel 9, SBS and ABC news and it looks fantastic too! The best bits though were both Bracks and Beasley talking with their faces half covered by a Greens triangle in the foreground.
Also, a guy from a new Channel 31 show called Plug In asked Emma to do an interview which was pretty cool. And we talked to them for a while about politics. Plug In is going to be a new show on Channel 31that promotes marginal political groups and ideas, so they've got our number if they ever need more Young Greens. It was awesome though.
And we pissed off Channel Nine... there's my day right there!
So, why am I writing about this? Well, a little bird has told me that Labor have decided to move the next IR Rally from 15th November, ten days before the State Election, to December, after it. Apparently they are concerned that they may lose votes to The Greens.
I mention this because it proves what sort of a difference we can all make. Basically six 19-23 year olds getting between TV cameras and Bracks have caused the ALP heirachy to freak out.
It also proves that Labor view The Greens as a serious political opponent, as do the Nationals who, as previously mentioned have been quite happy to accept the help of the Exclusive Brethren. I would assume Liberals would be the same, although when Emma and I met Andrew MacIntosh, the current member for Kew he didn't seem too concerned about us, he even gave us some tips about campaigning... wonder how he'll feel November 26th...
Had a fantastic day today. I went into the city early and helped out sticking triangles to bits of bamboo and was then given instructions to head down to Bourke St Mall since I'm tall and we needed tall people to hold up triangles. Meanwhile fellow Young Green and candidate for Kew, Emma, was sent up to Spring St to walk down Bourke St with the group coming from Parliament House (there were four different groups converging on Bourke St Mall, from Parliament, Trades Hall, Fed Square and Spencer Street - I'm sorry Southern Cross Station) she tried to get in front of the group but was muscled out by the Labor people.
I got between the truck that had the speeches and the truck that had the media with the Latrobe Greens. Unfortunately that meant we were stuck amongst a group of Socialists. I thought this was a bad thing but I had forgotten that the socialists are great at getting on camera... We also had fun with them singing chants and us challenging them to come up with a chant to different tunes. Then we had the obligatory speeches from Steve Bracks (Victoria's premier) and Kim Beasley (useless Leader of Opposition) saying how good Labor is and how it was noticable that no other parties were there (yeah, that's because you wouldn't let us have a speaker...). My favourite bit though was when they started talking about the Eureka Stockade and how it was all about workers rights and I said loudly "Actually, they just wanted an excuse to beat up the Chinese..." and everyone cacked themselves. It's true though! Not a bad effort getting socialists to laugh, they're generally such a miserable bunch.
At the end of the Rally the Channel Nine cameraman came down to us and screamed at us because we'd had Green triangles in every one of his shots. (woohoo!). I watched Channel 9, SBS and ABC news and it looks fantastic too! The best bits though were both Bracks and Beasley talking with their faces half covered by a Greens triangle in the foreground.
Also, a guy from a new Channel 31 show called Plug In asked Emma to do an interview which was pretty cool. And we talked to them for a while about politics. Plug In is going to be a new show on Channel 31that promotes marginal political groups and ideas, so they've got our number if they ever need more Young Greens. It was awesome though.
And we pissed off Channel Nine... there's my day right there!
***
So, why am I writing about this? Well, a little bird has told me that Labor have decided to move the next IR Rally from 15th November, ten days before the State Election, to December, after it. Apparently they are concerned that they may lose votes to The Greens.
I mention this because it proves what sort of a difference we can all make. Basically six 19-23 year olds getting between TV cameras and Bracks have caused the ALP heirachy to freak out.
It also proves that Labor view The Greens as a serious political opponent, as do the Nationals who, as previously mentioned have been quite happy to accept the help of the Exclusive Brethren. I would assume Liberals would be the same, although when Emma and I met Andrew MacIntosh, the current member for Kew he didn't seem too concerned about us, he even gave us some tips about campaigning... wonder how he'll feel November 26th...
| 106 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog