Video and photos from Sydney Wikileaks rally

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/12/2010 - 8:22pm

Over 1000 people rallied to support Wikileaks in Sydney on Friday 10th December. Members of the crowd held signs declaring "Julian not Julia", "Supporting Assange not Terrorism" and "In Wikileaks we trust". There were chants of "We are all Julian Assange" as well as condemnation for the Australian government's bid to dismiss and silence Wikileaks with cries of "Shame, shame!"

Speakers included Greens Senator-elect Lee Rhiannon, Greens NSW MP David Shoebridge, Pirate Party activist Simon Frew, Asha Wolf from WLCentral.org, acting director of GetUp! Sam McLean and Green Left Weekly co-editor Simon Butler.

Acclaimed independent journalist Antony Loewenstein chaired the event and said, "As Australian citizens we reject monitoring, we promote transparency and we praise Wikileaks and Assange for that."

VIDEOS FROM THE RALLY

Simon Butler from Green Left Weekly speaks to Sydney Wikileaks Rally. Clip from Youtube

Lee Rhiannon from the Greens speaks to Sydney Wikileaks Rally Clip from Youtube

PHOTOS FROM THE RALLY

Photos on Flickr from Sydney Rally
Photos on ZDNet

MAINSTREAM PRESS COVERAGE

Herald Sun -500 people at Sydney Wikileaks Rally

Pro-WikiLeaks protest rally draws 1200 supporters in Sydney

Note: Photo attached to article
Credit MrReebdoog
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrreebdoog/sets/72157625441844311
Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike Creative Commons Licence

Keywords: 
wikipedia
Geography: 
Sydney
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Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/12/2010 - 10:21pm

More photos from the Sydney Rally: http://www.flickr.com/photos/52089615@N05/sets/72157625567445410/show/

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 11/12/2010 - 7:58am

Here's my opinion for what it’s worth of the rally. In terms of the turnout itself, different media has ranged it from 1200 to 400. Either way, Sydney is a city of 4.5 million people. The turnout was hugely disappointing, and frankly quite pathetic. The Iraqi war protest was in the tens of thousands, blocking streets and making a scene. Protest doesn’t have to be smashing windows, but it is about civil disruption. Where I was standing, there was heaps of empty space. There were more people shopping and having coffee in the QVB than rallying at Town Hall. I felt it was a very docile crowd. I heard the protest in Melbourne was much better, actually saying and doing something. Making a scene. The students in London have been on the streets every week, making huge scenes. Very appropriately outraged. Yet as important as their tuition fee issue is, we were protesting about fundamental human rights being attacked, and couldn’t even manage to gather half the energy the London ones have. So for me the vibe was too docile, people just standing around listening. I don’t know if what I say will reflect broad opinion, but that’s what I felt.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 11/12/2010 - 12:37pm

I have difficulty to find out about the upcoming protests in Sydney and the site WWW.rally4wikileaks.com is not very helpful because you have to log in with your username and password but I don't know what kind of username or password it is talking about. Can anybody explain this to me.