'1,2,3,4, Don't Let Dennis Pass this Law. 5,6,7,8, We have a Right to Demonstrate!'

Shame, Dennis!

Our tunnel picket group met with thousands of other workers at 10am this morning outside the Trades Hall building. We then marched through the CBD to the steps of Parliament House to demonstrate our opposition to the draconian laws proposed by the Napthine government.
Before that we had had our own 'fringe' march through the back streets of Carlton displaying the gorgeous (and heavy!) banner custom-made for the occasion by Bill. Thank you, Bill.

Serial Pests - and proud of it!

It is great that the unions have come out in opposition to legal amendments targeted at tunnel picketers, which apart from having a devastating impact on the unionists themselves, will also affect the homeless, the mentally ill and the young. It felt wonderful to stand in solidarity with other workers at last.

The people united

And we didn't just stand in solidarity. We listened hard to a range of speakers. My personal favourite was Father Bob, who, dressed in his priestly vestments, made the point that parliament has never been located inside the grand Victorian building overshadowing us, but rather on the steps outside, where the people get to have their say.

Listening hard

As well as speakers, we had other entertainment. The drummers punctuated the spoken words with percussive enthusiasm:

Drum roll

There was even an impromptu trumpet solo, which received an enthusiastic response:

Bourbon Street comes to Spring Street

We dispersed after the speeches. But it was interesting to see that while there was clearly a police presence, officer numbers were far fewer proportionally than we experience at our daily picket, which regularly features 4 officers per picketer. Obviously we serial pests present a much greater threat to respectable Melbourne - or at least to the Melbourne of Premier Napthine and his cronies - than do the thousands of workers who peacefully demonstrated their opposition to government policies this morning.

Finished for another day