First The Age called the Melbourne protests correctly. Now, even the Trotskyites have made points worth noting.

Red Flag, their newspaper, has published a lengthy account of the rallies. Here are some key lines.

On Monday’s protest outside the CFMEU offices:

The rage was not concocted by outside agitators. And the participants were mostly workers from the industry.

On Tuesday’s rally:

The amorphous hard right remain a minority of this protest. They are littered throughout, rather than being a coherent single group… The majority in the demo, which peaked at maybe 3,000 or more in the early afternoon, isn’t far right in general…

There are lots of young working-class men from building sites, but the union branding is scant, even compared to yesterday. It’s multi-racial, with plenty of people from Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern and, to a lesser extent, African and Asian backgrounds.

And on Wednesday’s more dubious exercise:

It’s not just the traditional far right. It’s blue collar and multi-racial. Again, predominantly young men. There were a few CFMEU tops, at least one ETU and some plumbers’ union, but not more than a dozen I’d say. T-shirts and tops included a “Silica dust is not just dust”, Bunnings Trade, Dulux, Reece and a “Bitter Victorians” hoodie from the 2016 CUB strike… Near the Cenotaph a bit later, two Muslim protesters performed their afternoon prayers.

This article is tongue in cheek, but needs to end on a serious note. If even a radical rag like Red Flag realises that blue-collar workers, independent contractors and business owners have been involved in the Melbourne protests — not just anti-vaxxers and various dubious types from across the political spectrum or just looking for a fight — so should more of the MSM.