Unity in Diversity

I went to an event celebrating multiculturalism on Sunday and enjoyed it much more than any rally I have been to for a long time. I have been to plenty of protests but this one was different in a number of ways.

To start with I was invited to it by non-political friends (nobody is truly apolitical but it's one thing to be political and another to be a hack). The event was organized within a week (indeed the organizing group only formed in the preceding week) as a way of showing another side to cosmopolitan Australia than that seen in the recent Cronulla riots. Those organizing it were politically well-informed but mostly politically non-active. However they had many relevant organizational and human relations skills that were very well transferred to the task of organising a public rally and community picnic.

I missed the rally from the State Library but from what I was told it was different from the standard protest in a few key ways. They only had a few speeches which were all relevant to the issue. The standard protest however seems to have half-a-dozen speakers all saying pretty much the same stuff one after the other. They are chosen on the basis of what groups they represent rather than what they have to say and as a result pet issues creep into speeches and things run late. The event on Sunday was different.

On the march itself there was a lack of monotonous chanting. How the incessant "hey hey ho ho [insert thing one is opposed to here] has got to go!" palls. Chants seems to exist to make protesters feel they are all the same (rather than the disparate collection of distinct and sometimes antagonistic interests they are). Once more the event on Sunday was different (I think many of those present are the sort of person who resists regimentation at the best of times).

The kind of problems I have described for protests in general arise from the tendency protest organizers and associated movements have to be inward-looking. For many of the groups that frequent protests the purpose of such events is to help them access others within wider activist scenes - the assumption here is that one is most likely to get extra participants for your movement from among the participants of other arguably like-minded movements. So protests have more to do with cross-promotion within the crowd rather than getting a message to the wider public. As a result only the biggest protests warrant media attention. And yet the gathering on Sunday - which only numbered in the hundreds rather than thousands - got more media than would be expected for its size alone.

It was also distinctive as its focus was very much on what those gathered stand for rather than what they oppose. This helped to make it a much more relaxed and welcoming event. The picnic in the parks at the end of the march was very nice complete with some excellent live music and BYO picnic food. I had many small world experiences in meeting friends there that I know via different avenues (some of whom it seems also know one another). All in all I think it was a worthwhile event and this can be attributed to the fact that its organizers were free from many of the assumptions and expectations of customary protesters.