Anti-racist rally victory

Simon Butler, Newcastle

In the days immediately following the racist riots in Cronulla late last year, text messages began circulating in Newcastle advertising a "Cronulla-style" rally at the local Nobby's Beach. Within 48 hours of receiving this information, a gathering of 200 people in Civic Park had been organised by anti-racism activists. By contrast, the racists' event failed to materialise.

The December 18 event, titled "A Gathering of All Peoples" and organised by an ad-hoc coalition of progressive performers, anti-racism activists and members of the Socialist Alliance, attracted widespread local media coverage.

Speakers invited to address the peaceful gathering included Newcastle city councillors Ian McKenzie from the Greens and Marilyn Eade from the ALP, Awabakal elder Arthur Ridgeway, Brian Brown from the Hamilton-Broadmeadow Uniting Church, Steve Murphy from the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and Newcastle University sociology lecturer Inta Allegriti.

Rally chair and Socialist Alliance member Peter Robson congratulated the protesters: "Today we have refused to be cowed by the threats of violence and intimidation from a handful of hard-core racists. We have chosen to speak out defiantly against the ugly spectre of racism in Australia."

Robson appealed to the crowd to be prepared to come out again in the future. "We need to make sure that the blame for the Cronulla riots goes exactly where it belongs", he said. "Cronulla is the inevitable result of a decade of the Howard government's racist scapegoating and immoral wars against people from the Middle East."

From Green Left Weekly, January 25, 2006.

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From GLW issue 653