Palm Sunday Anti-war rally

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday. It has become common of late to gather together for peace on this day and increasingly, also, for the various faiths to come forward to lend their voice for peace and for social and economic justice in the face of rampant multi-national corporate greed and heartless neo-conservative machiavellian ruthlessness.

Alex and I joined the throng converging on Hyde Park, Sydney to lend our little voices to the larger voice crying for an end to the lies and the bombing. On the other side of Sydney my 79 year-old mum was heading for Parramatta to join in similar demonstrations, speeches and religious dedications there.

Yep! Li'l Johnny Howard, everyone's favourite Australian "liberal" (ha!) Prime Minister has united diverse swathes of Australia's population against the inhumane and deceitful and fawning policies of himself and his "gang of four". Sadly, a larger swathe of Australians swallowed Liberal party scare-mongering propaganda and so couldn't look beyond the next mortgage payment to consider matters of deeper ethical and moral import before voting in the last election.

But also sadly, Sunday's gathering probably only numbered around three thousand or so. Not much compared to the huge numbers in London and elsewhere in Europe. I remember a Polish emigre I once knew who was appalled at Australians' political ignorance and apathy. Alex and I were at the earlier huge demonstrations of popular opposition to the Iraq war on the eve of invasion but now that expression seems to have dwindled to the faithful few.

And I know that I too am guilty of tokenism and apathy and allow myself to be swamped with the day to day, seemingly overwheming, burden of my life but which by comparison with people being bombed or hacked or starved or infected out of existence is nothing.

I'm glad we went, though. Among numerous political, ethnic and indigenous speakers the staunch pillars of dissent were there - Sister Susan Connelly, Catholic nun and peace activist, Greens senator Kerry Nettle and award-winning jounalist, John Pilger. It was particularly good to hear John Pilger's hard-hitting and passionate commentary as I'm reading his book "Hidden Agendas" at the moment.

I guess the high point for everyone, though, was when Guantanamo Bay detainee, Mamdouh Habib, addressed the crowd to rapturous applause. Yeah! Stick it up ya Johnny! 3,000 people are cheering the so-called "terrorist" in the middle of Sydney. Mamdouh spoke humbly of his gratitude at being out of detention and back with his family. I don't know what he was doing in Afghanistan or Pakistan but I do know what he's been doing in Guantanamo Bay - enjoying US hospitality and civil rights! Not! I don't really know what all these small time guys the Howard government likes to trot out as "dangerous terrorists" really are or do. But I do know that what this government is doing is a thinly veiled attempt to curry favour and push dangerous agendas by being an accesssory to national and corporate terrorism of a far more dangerous kind.

You know, some little man or woman straps explosives to his or her chest and blows up a checkpoint or a building in the furtherance of their ideals and that's "terrorism"; the world's only superpower and its lackies bomb and pillage entire nations with cluster bombs, cruise missiles and depleted uranium (the only "weapons of mass destruction" in the the Iraq theatre) and then sub-contract out control of that nation's ruined infrastructure to corporate buddies and that's not terrorism? Mmm! I don't get it! Oh! Yes I do! Terrorism is when the little guy does it, "defence of freedom" is when we do it!