The largest Brisbane anti-war rally was on Sunday 16 February 2003. Three of us, Helen Grant-Taylor, Ann Darvall and Dawn Joyce, took the train into the city for an 11 am start.
There was standing room only on the train and at each station, more people squeezed into the carriages. The Brisbane numbers were up to ten times an expected 10 000. There were plenty of people with no hats, no water, even no shoes.
It took an hour for the 100 000 protesters to get from City Hall to the forum at the Botanic Gardens! I really liked the sign that read ‘There are some things worth dying for, but nothing worth killing for’. Another read: NO HOWARD (John Howard was the prime minister at the time).
Some of the chants were not exactly peaceable and not all the signage was politically correct; but we reasoned that every peacemaker is on a personal journey of increasing understanding: sometimes anger can help people to take a crucial first step. Dawn Joyce