Campaign Against Racism continues mobilisation
By Susan Price
MELBOURNE — Despite attempts by the media to undermine anti-racist organisations, 50 people attended a Campaign Against Racism meeting on July 10 to organise a rally at the Werribee launch of the One Nation party on July 14.
The meeting overwhelmingly endorsed the strategy of protesting outside One Nation public activities. The meeting was unanimous in its assessment that the Dandenong rally was not the way the media had portrayed it.
The campaign reaffirmed its aims in protesting outside the Werribee launch of the One Nation party. These included: mobilising the largest number of people to demonstrate that there is more opposition to Hanson's party than support; drawing attention to the issues and explaining why Hanson and Howard are wrong; drawing the link between Hanson's racism and Howard's actions in government; building an ongoing campaign against racism.
The meeting agreed that CAR would not support any action that would divert attention away from these aims.
The meeting explicitly rejected the view that the aim of the rallies was to close down the Hanson's meetings.
The meeting also adopted an attitude to the people attending One Nation meetings. The resolution explained, "Even though we know that some of the people attending the One Nation Party meeting may be extremely conservative and right wing, our position should be to explain that Hanson's views are wrong".
CAR committed itself to explain to rally participants that they should not harass meeting attendees.
The meeting also endorsed a proposal to support any decisions made by the people organising the protest against Hanson's visit to Geelong.