18 June 2011

Free Syria demonstration at Parliament House

| johnboy
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free syria

Andy has sent in a couple of images from the impressive looking Free Syria demonstration at Parliament House last night.

Got an image of Canberra you want to share with the world? Email it to images@the-riotact.com .

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Waiting For Godot5:02 am 04 Jul 11

plin085 said :

Gay men and lesbians are denied the basic human right of marriage; Women workers are on average paid less than male workers; In NSW, the O’Farrell government is introducing the worst attacks on workers in a generation; In Victoria, thugs are employed by the Baillieu government to intimidate minorities and political activists; Here in ACT, the unions are incredibly weak and useless.

Gee, things are looking up. Let’s hope we see more of this good stuff. Bring it on and keep infuriating the leftist stooges. And a bit of advice, guys. Saying the word “WorkChoices” no longer has people quaking in their boots. The Gillard government is now so on the nose that no amount of Howard bashing and scare mongering over WorkChoices will save your rancid government.

averagejoeaussie8:10 pm 03 Jul 11

plin085 said :

foin said :

Free Syria from what? If the slogan means to free Syria from violent dissidents and sponsored activists killing along sectarian lines, then the majority of Syrians and Syrian Australians agree with it. If it means what most Australians presume it to mean, then they don’t. No small matter, that. Would be good to know who created this spectacle at Parliament House so we can know their intention.

“violent dissidents”? No one is nearly as violent as the Syrian regime. “sponsored activists killing along sectarian lines”? I don’t know who you are referring to by that, but what I know is most of the protesters are taking to the streets because they can’t put up with their miserable lives any more. And they shouldn’t! No one is born to suffer from poverty! “Free Syria from what?” Free Syria from the corruptive Assad regime! Free Syria from the killers employed by the regime that are massacring ordinary Syrians every day! Free Syria from political repression! I’m not a Syrian. I attended the protest in solidarity. Let me tell you exactly what we want. We want the success of the heroic Syrian revolution! We don’t want the Australian government to interfere. We want ordinary Australians to share solidarity with the freedom fighters in the Middle East. Free Syria! Solidarity forever!

Ease up, turbo! The guy (or gal) only asked a question – over-reaction much!

dvaey said :

creative_canberran said :

Fantastic photo. I don’t think the protest means for Australia to do anything more than diplomatically join the push for Syria to stop and to show solidarity with Syrians. My hat goes off to the protestors for doing so in such a creative way.

Interesting that in this day and age of radio, TV, email, facebook, blogs, RiotACT and other mass-media options, that these people feel the best way to raise awareness of their cause is to go stand outside in the cold and have a protest.

They might reach an audience of 200 people.. of which 10 are security, 100 are school kids (who just see yelling protestors and dislike the cause straight away), 80 overseas tourists who will remember that part of their visit as anything but calm, and maybe 10 aussies who just expect every minority group to want to protest at parliament house, and just ignore them.

Because too many Australians think they can change society by clicking a few buttons on the keyboard, this country keeps deteriorating. Gay men and lesbians are denied the basic human right of marriage; Women workers are on average paid less than male workers; In NSW, the O’Farrell government is introducing the worst attacks on workers in a generation; In Victoria, thugs are employed by the Baillieu government to intimidate minorities and political activists; Here in ACT, the unions are incredibly weak and useless.

How did we get rid of Work Choices? If your memory can’t go back that far, let’s look at Egypt right now. How do ordinary Egyptians manage to change their country completely? By Facebook? By Al Jazeera? By mobile phones? Those are useful tools, but none of them can replace millions of Egyptians occupying Tahrir Square; none of them can replace the strikes after strikes; none of them can replace people all over the world protesting to share solidarity. Australians really should learn something from the freedom fighters in the Middle East.

dvaey said :

creative_canberran said :

Fantastic photo. I don’t think the protest means for Australia to do anything more than diplomatically join the push for Syria to stop and to show solidarity with Syrians. My hat goes off to the protestors for doing so in such a creative way.

Interesting that in this day and age of radio, TV, email, facebook, blogs, RiotACT and other mass-media options, that these people feel the best way to raise awareness of their cause is to go stand outside in the cold and have a protest.

They might reach an audience of 200 people.. of which 10 are security, 100 are school kids (who just see yelling protestors and dislike the cause straight away), 80 overseas tourists who will remember that part of their visit as anything but calm, and maybe 10 aussies who just expect every minority group to want to protest at parliament house, and just ignore them.

Even in our day, standing up for what you believe in means leaving the house. But you may have missed the point and possibly the photo at the top of page. Protests provide pictures to run with the story.

creative_canberran said :

Fantastic photo. I don’t think the protest means for Australia to do anything more than diplomatically join the push for Syria to stop and to show solidarity with Syrians. My hat goes off to the protestors for doing so in such a creative way.

Interesting that in this day and age of radio, TV, email, facebook, blogs, RiotACT and other mass-media options, that these people feel the best way to raise awareness of their cause is to go stand outside in the cold and have a protest.

They might reach an audience of 200 people.. of which 10 are security, 100 are school kids (who just see yelling protestors and dislike the cause straight away), 80 overseas tourists who will remember that part of their visit as anything but calm, and maybe 10 aussies who just expect every minority group to want to protest at parliament house, and just ignore them.

foin said :

Free Syria from what? If the slogan means to free Syria from violent dissidents and sponsored activists killing along sectarian lines, then the majority of Syrians and Syrian Australians agree with it. If it means what most Australians presume it to mean, then they don’t. No small matter, that. Would be good to know who created this spectacle at Parliament House so we can know their intention.

“violent dissidents”? No one is nearly as violent as the Syrian regime. “sponsored activists killing along sectarian lines”? I don’t know who you are referring to by that, but what I know is most of the protesters are taking to the streets because they can’t put up with their miserable lives any more. And they shouldn’t! No one is born to suffer from poverty! “Free Syria from what?” Free Syria from the corruptive Assad regime! Free Syria from the killers employed by the regime that are massacring ordinary Syrians every day! Free Syria from political repression! I’m not a Syrian. I attended the protest in solidarity. Let me tell you exactly what we want. We want the success of the heroic Syrian revolution! We don’t want the Australian government to interfere. We want ordinary Australians to share solidarity with the freedom fighters in the Middle East. Free Syria! Solidarity forever!

Free Syria from what? If the slogan means to free Syria from violent dissidents and sponsored activists killing along sectarian lines, then the majority of Syrians and Syrian Australians agree with it. If it means what most Australians presume it to mean, then they don’t. No small matter, that. Would be good to know who created this spectacle at Parliament House so we can know their intention.

creative_canberran said :

My hat goes off to the protestors for doing so in such a creative way.

Creative in what way? Looks the same as Getup’s campaign on mental health.

Diggety said :

Good luck to them.

But what exactly do they want Australia(ns) to do?

Are you serious? Send Capt. RAAF over there duh!

It’ll be a bloodbath, but perhaps it won’t be the intended outcome the protesters were hoping for.

Syria will be free all right, free of anything that used to move!

On second thoughts, perhaps we should keep the good capt here as a secret weapon in case ‘Tommorrow when the war began’ ever comes true.

luther_bendross6:44 pm 18 Jun 11

Free syrah?!?! I’m there!

Classy.

Unfortunately, every time I see a ‘Free XXX’ slogan, it reminds me of a piece of graffiti I used to pass every day in Sydney.

Free Nelson Mandela!

under which someone had written:

Archbishop Tutu, 50% off

troll-sniffer6:04 pm 18 Jun 11

I normally can’t resist a free event but even at the price of admission I baulked at this, not the idea per se, it’s just too cold to stand around waiting for something to happen.

Disinformation5:35 pm 18 Jun 11

creative_canberran said :

I don’t think the protest means for Australia to do anything more than diplomatically join the push for Syria to stop and to show solidarity with Syrians. My hat goes off to the protestors for doing so in such a creative way.

That pretty much nails it. I think that the Syrians in Australia (and a lot of the supporting members of the Arabic community) would just like the world to know that they’re not happy about what is going on in Syria.

creative_canberran4:33 pm 18 Jun 11

dungfungus said :

What happened to “Free Tibet”?

Still a very active movement in Canberra and other parts of Australia working on that cause. Unfortunately, the political and diplomatic realities mean it won’t happen anytime soon.

What happened to “Free Tibet”?

creative_canberran2:42 pm 18 Jun 11

Fantastic photo. I don’t think the protest means for Australia to do anything more than diplomatically join the push for Syria to stop and to show solidarity with Syrians. My hat goes off to the protestors for doing so in such a creative way.

Good luck to them.

But what exactly do they want Australia(ns) to do?

Amazing photo. Impressive protest.

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