World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke to workers and youth protesting the genocide in Gaza last weekend, under conditions where those war crimes are being extended into Lebanon and Iran.
The demonstrations, attended by several thousand people across the country, took place in an atmosphere of repression and intimidation. In Brisbane, 22 protesters were arrested under the state Liberal-National Party government’s draconian “hate speech” legislation, which bans the anti-genocide phrases “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada.”
This followed police raids in recent weeks in Sydney and Melbourne, arresting people who had taken part in previous protests. While the New South Wales anti-protest laws that were the ostensible basis for the Sydney arrests have now been ruled unconstitutional and struck down, the state Labor government still plans to go ahead with the charges.
Official speakers at the demonstrations, including representatives of the Greens and the pseudo-left, sought to downplay and minimise discussion of the US-led assault on Iran and the role of the federal Labor government, which is totally committed to the war of aggression, having already dispatched troops, an aircraft and other materiel to the region.
