PARTISAN!

Under a hundred activists and locals gathered at civic park for the protest against the visit of Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog.

A lead activist at the protest detailed that the event was “not organised by any single organisation…”, reflecting the total lack of prior planning. Marshalls were appointed moments before the protest started, and spent much of their time circling the small area the protesters gathered to ensure none crowded on the footpaths. Despite this, the protest was relatively well attended. This was a decision forced on the organisers at the last minute by police intervention.

There were four speakers, including a member of Socialist Alternative and a local Indigenous activist. Speakers were not selected prior to the event, and were instead granted microphone time on an ad hoc basis, as an open mic was held. The speaker from Socialist Alternative, a former La Trobe student and activist named Rory, spoke out against the Australian government’s funding and support of the genocide in Gaza. A local Indigenous activist spoke on the similarities between the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and the colonial genocides waged against Indigenous peoples in Australia. He connected the Indigenous struggle in Australia with that of the Palestinians, one struggle against colonialism. A statement of support for Indigenous peoples from a man in North Gaza was also read out to the crowd.

A fourth speaker, a Worimi woman, berated the crowd for “coming out in numbers for Palestine… but not for First Nations”. This drew heckles from the crowd, who were perplexed at this speech, as an Indigenous activist had just spoken prior about the Indigenous struggle, and the crowd had chanted in support of Indigenous rights moments prior.

Many attendees were dismayed by the lack of prior planning for this event. While the protest was widely advertised alongside protests in Sydney, Melbourne and elsewhere, the Newcastle protest was seemingly lacking in any kind of organising whatsoever. The surreal events in Newcastle are quickly overshadowed by Premier Minns unleashing his blackshirts onto the streets of Sydney, assaulting thousands of peaceful protesters with horses, pepper spray, batons, and tear gas.

Tens of thousands of protesters hit the streets across the country to make their views clear: Isaac Herzog is a war criminal, overseeing a genocidal assault in Gaza and apartheid in the West Bank. The liberal order in Australia is crumbling – with every attack against the democratic rights of working people in Australia, it becomes clear that “social cohesion” is a codeword for the unregulated dictatorship of Minns and the Albanese-led Labor Party, enforced with gas and batons.