Left activist receives death threats

By Lisa Macdonald

It seems that right-wingers will go to any extreme to silence the growing public opposition to Pauline Hanson, John Howard and Co's racist attacks.

West Coast Council member Ian Jamieson has a regular column called "Backchat" in the Western Herald, published in Rosebery on Tasmania's west coast. On October 24, Jamieson, who is also a member of the Democratic Socialist Party, used his column to condemn the "venomous attacks on migrants -- Asians in particular -- and Aborigines unleashed by Pauline Hanson". He accused Hanson of "scapegoating the victims and casualties of our economic system", and described Hanson as "cowardly" and behaving like a "school bully".

On the day of publication, Jamieson received his first death threat. Since then he has been receiving regular threatening phone calls (all anonymous), including being told, "I'll put a bullet between your eyes".

Jamieson told Green Left Weekly that the threats reflect only a tiny minority sentiment on Tasmania's west coast and that many of the locals, most of them miners or associated workers, and strong trade unionists, have also begun to speak out against racism.

Late last month, Jamieson was elected to the local council, with the third highest vote of 12 candidates, on a progressive platform of resistance to government attacks on the health and welfare of people in the area. He told Green Left that he will not be intimidated by the death threats and will continue to speak out and encourage people to organise against all attacks on ordinary working people, regardless of their skin colour.

This article was posted on the Green Left Weekly Home Page.
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