Comment on Neo-Nazis and politicians among protesters at anti-immigration March for Australia rallies
indomara@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Sigh. This was really sad. My family and I went to this today in Brisbane, our best friend said their friends were afraid to go out to lunch with them today, because their parents were verbally assaulted in a grocery store on Friday for being immigrants.
My husband stood there in his suit, I stood in my pretty dress with flowers, our daughters held signs that said things like “so bad even the introverts are here”.
The March was not peaceful and was definitely racist. We started off to the side, sitting with flags my daughters and I made with hundreds of countries on them, and eventually we were swarmed as the crowd veered to come right past us.
They screamed obscenities at us, pushed into me, pushed my husband, tried to rip the sign from his hands. They ripped down the flags we made. Blew an air horn in our faces.
Many claimed they were not racist but my husband got called a f-ing Jew multiple times??? Maybe it was the beard and the hat, I don’t know.
Eventually police came and stood in front of us while we packed our things and left. We would do it again, in a heartbeat.
Before the rowdy crowd came looking for trouble we had immigrants come up and thank us, hug us, and we want them to know that not everyone agrees with this march.
Not wanting immigration is not what this march was about. This march was about fear and racism.
Many claimed they were not racist but my husband got called a f-ing Jew multiple times???
Even stranger is that the entire “mArCh fOr aUsTraLiA” thing was in direct response to the pro-Palestinian rallies. You’d think part of that would be showing “support” for Jewish communities in Australia, but no - they hate Jews as well. Definitely not racist, though!
What was really sad is they held this march on the last day of the multicultural festival, and in Brisbane they started and ended it in the same areas that festival events were being held. It was designed to install fear.
maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone 5 days ago
Thank you for sharing this.
I think there will be a lot of spin about how the people at these rallies are misunderstood, not racist, have valid criticism etc.
We just got word that a friend and his brother were assaulted on a train in Sydney by racist thugs from the Sydney rally.
indomara@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Honestly, the response we got about counter protesting from most people in our lives that agreed the March was bad was “Oh, but isn’t that unsafe?”.
We are a normal middle class white family and we refuse to look the other way while this happens.
I haven’t been to a protest since I was like 17, but this isn’t Australian. This is not what I want for my country. You can want immigration reform without being a bully.
I hope more people will show up.
spiffmeister@aussie.zone 4 days ago
Surely people need to understand that it’s more unsafe to let this sort of shit fester.
indomara@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Exactly. We hope more every day Aussie families will join next time. The standard you walk by is the standard you accept.