Brisbane rally and march against racism

By Bill Mason

BRISBANE — "We need united action against racism and the other attacks on the poor in our community — that's the answer for Aborigines, for migrants, and for workers", Jorge Rodriguez, coordinator of the Migrant Workers' Resource Centre, told a crowd of around 350 at King George Square here on April 12.

The Rally Against Racism, organised by the Anti-Racist Campaign, heard Lawrence Ma from the Brisbane Chinese community, Norman Johnson from the Australian Indigenous People's Party and a number of other speakers slam the racist policies of Pauline Hanson and the Howard and Borbidge Coalition governments.

Featuring the themes, "Defend native title" and "Equal rights for migrants", the rally preceded a lively march through city streets to state parliament, with chants of "Migrants are welcome! Racists are not!" and "What do we want? Land rights! When do we want them? Now!" ringing out.

At Parliament House, other speakers called for united action to defeat the attacks of racist and anti-worker forces.

Peter Little, from the Redcliffe Aboriginal community, described those like Hanson, Borbidge and the National Farmers' Federation, who were calling for the extinguishment of native title, as "accessories after the fact" to the "robbery of Aboriginal land."

The marchers applauded the call for further action to stop the racist offensive.

From GLW issue 270