The national day of action for Palestine on Sunday was a resounding success, mobilising not just the largest nationwide protest for Palestine to date but broadening the movement’s reach into the unions and sections of the Labor Party.
The 300,000-strong march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge earlier this month showed the depth of anger over Israel’s genocide. This time there were rallies in 40 separate towns and cities.
The rallies sent a clear message to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that the Palestine movement will not be fobbed off with meaningless “recognition”. As Israel kills dozens more in Gaza every day, marchers were calling for full sanctions on Israel, including an end to two-way military trade.
Protests took place in regional centres like Cairns (1600 attendees), Geelong (1000) and Coffs Harbour (1200). But even remote areas saw mobilisations—180 in Broome, 150 at Pine Gap, 300 in Bairnsdale and 40 in Broken Hill.
The biggest turnouts were in the capitals, ranging from 4000 in Hobart to many tens of thousands in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
It was a stunning rebuff to supporters of Israel in the media and in parliament who have tried to write off the Palestine solidarity movement as unrepresentative and marginal.
Union solidarity
The union mobilisation for the rallies was among the largest since October 2023. Calling the protests at three weeks’ notice meant there was time for union members to pull together significant contingents.
In Melbourne, 2000 union members formed up at Trades Hall for a feeder march called by the Victorian Trades Hall Council.
They marched to the main rally with contingents from the CPSU (both state and federal), NTEU, ASU, UWU, MUA, CFMEU, HACSU, VAHPA, MEAA and AMWU.
It was a significant step forward in broadening the social base of the movement for Palestine—and drawing in the working class power needed to win.
The size of the rally will give activists confidence to organise in the workplace towards the kind of industrial action that can disrupt links with Israel.
The turnout by teachers was particularly impressive. One AEU activist reported, “At peak we would have had at least 200-250 teachers and school staff from across about 30 schools marching in our contingent.”
Teachers and Schools Staff for Palestine (TSS4P) activists relied on independent rank-and-file networks to build.
The activist said, “The teacher contingent was almost all mobilised through our network in TSS4P. We rang our members asking them to mobilise a group from their workplace.
“The endorsement by Trades Hall and the AEU helped put the feeder march on the map and gave union reps licence to promote it at work. But the notification buried in the members’ bulletin and a late social media post did nothing to actually organise people into coming.
“Our union leaders ignored our resolutions in regional meetings to organise phone banking. So TSS4P AEU members called up schools in our regions and asked to speak to sub-branch reps about the rally.
“Union organisers were telling people not to bring their school sub-branch banners that name the school because of a repressive email sent from the Department of Education last week. So it was great to see the 16 sub-branch banners, including some that had been hand-made for the rally.”
In Adelaide, SA Unions also called for a feeder march from their offices. About 50 union activists rallied. On the main march, unions including the NTEU, MUA, ASU, CEPU, UWU and CPSU flew flags.
In Sydney ACTU Secretary Sally McManus joined the Secretary of Unions NSW Mark Morey to lead a “Unions for Peace” contingent of around 50 people from various unions. There were also around 50 teachers present, mainly in a Teachers Federation contingent, also joined by Teachers and School Staff for Palestine. Three local Teachers Association branches in Sydney passed motions to email their members about the rally. The NTEU also had its own contingent of up to 50.
Addressing the crowd, NSW Teachers Federation President Henry Rajendra denounced the “genocide, starvation and now famine inflicted on the people of Gaza” and declared that “our members educate for peace not war”. He told the rally that the union’s executive had recently reaffirmed its support for the ACTU statement on Gaza, and “strongly supports the call for the Albanese government to impose immediate sanctions on Israel”.
A number of Labor MPs also broke ranks to join the protests nationwide. Four Labor MPs marched behind the SA Labor Friends of Palestine banner, while Victorian Labor MPs Bronwyn Halfpenny and Matt Hilakari marched in Melbourne, NSW MPs Anthony D’Adam and Sarah Kaine in Sydney, two WA Labor MPs in Perth as well as Queensland Labor MP Bisma Asif and Tasmanian Labor MP Ella Haddad.
This follows the move by a dozen NSW Labor MPs to defy Premier Chris Minns and join the march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The movement needs to seek to widen the cracks inside Labor into a broader rebellion against Albanese.
Rank-and-file
Sunday’s rallies were inspiring and union support was a step forward. But Anthony Albanese is still refusing to deliver the kind of sanctions that could put real pressure on Israel to end its genocide.
The horror at Israel’s deliberate starvation and massacres now runs right across society. But with the government continuing to lie about not sending weapons to Israel, we still need to carry the argument for sanctions much deeper into workplaces and local communities.
Building the kind of rank-and-file organisation seen among Victorian teachers to pressure our union officials to do more is of particular importance.
That means bringing delegates together to discuss concrete and effective action against Israel and campaigning within the membership for the need for industrial action against the slaughter.
On 10 September, members of the Australian Services Union at several workplaces in the community and legal sector in Melbourne plan to walk out on strike and rally at the State Library at 1pm.
Students Against War at the University of Melbourne are organising a class walk-out to join the action, hopefully alongside NTEU members.
Union activists in Sydney will rally outside the Department of Defence, with teachers organising photo actions in schools.
The genocide isn’t stopping and neither should our organising—on the streets and in the workplaces.
By David Glanz
