VANGUARD - Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
For National Independence and Socialism • www.cpaml.org
On Sunday 1 December, Health Care workers from Adelaide's public hospital system led the fortnightly Free Palestine rally at Parliament House steps and then demonstration along busy North Terrace.
The Free Palestine Sunday rallies in Adelaide entered their 14th continuous month. Each rally focused on different aspects of the heroic Palestinian people's struggle against the genocidal occupation by Israel, supported by the USA and other western powers including the Australian Government.
At this rally two public hospital Health Care workers spoke about the many hundreds of hospital workers in Gaza killed from Israeli bombings of hospitals and the thousands of women and children in particular they were caring for in those hospitals.
The speakers strikingly contrasted working as a Health Worker here in Adelaide compared with working in a hospital in Gaza. They led a minute's silence for all those Palestinian Health Workers who lost their lives and for all the children killed by Israeli bombs or missing presumed dead under the vast urban areas reduced to rubble by the bombing of civilian targets.
Then a student nurse addressed the rally and characterized his response to the genocide of the Palestinian people as "attack one, attack all". He said although thousands of kilometres away, he said he felt more solidarity with the Palestinians than any of the politicians of the major political parties in Australia.
Before the demonstration along North Terrace, one of the convenors of AFOPA, Mike Kazam, said that the resilience of the Palestinian people and the raising of voices by thousands of Australians in many different places and organizations and communities had been the main reason why Albanese and Penny Wong had come out with a slightly less pro-USA position on the decision of the International Criminal Court regarding arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his top cronies for war crimes.
He emphasized that people's actions in support of the Palestinians do make a difference and urged all present at the rally to continue participation in the struggle.