Last Saturday morning may have been sunny in Melbourne but it was also very crisp. Cold, however, did not dissuade an estimated 3500 people from attending a "No Room for Racism" demonstration outside Parliament House.

As the day unfolded, their fortitude was tested by far more than the weather. There were skirmishes with police and with skinheads, and a pepper-spray drenching by police that left dozens of demonstrators in need of medical attention.

Demonstrators in Canberra. Credit:Jeffrey Chan

I reached the crowd at the top of a Little Bourke Street that resembled a war zone, streaming with the milk and water being poured by volunteer medics into burning eyes, and those suffering shock shivering in trauma blankets. Less than an hour later, the medics themselves were pepper-sprayed by police.

The actions of the demonstrators were howled down in certain news sources, with familiar depictions of the protesters as an anarchist rabble and scum. The resilience in the face of hostility demonstrated by a crowd that included a full spectrum of activists, hipsters, Christian pacifists, blue-collar workers, students and professionals should make every citizen in this city proud to be a Melburnian and every right-thinking Australian thankful that on Saturday they took one for the team.