As the rising cost of living and housing pressures continue to bite, the populist non-solutions being proposed by One Nation can seem appealing to sections of the working class.
This is one of the reasons why the grassroots anti-racist Hume for Humanity group has called a protest on July 25.
The rally at Broadmeadows Town Hall will reject the racist and anti-migrant rhetoric that the establishment media is widely promoting.
One of the organisers told Green Left: “It will take collective struggle by working people to create a better future and deal a death blow to the racist scapegoating of Pauline Hanson and One Nation.”
Sue Bolton, a long-time Merri-bek councillor and the Socialist Alliance candidate for Broadmeadows told GL that the establishment media is helping to normalise One Nation’s far-right politics. “A number of working class people, including from migrant communities, who would ordinarily vote for socialist or Greens, are being convinced of One Nation’s right-wing anti-migrant explanations about the cause of the housing crisis.
“We have to defeat these false arguments. But that will not be enough. We need to build a broad-based movement to oppose racism. It has to collectively fight for real solutions to social and environmental concerns.”
The rally has been endorsed by: Alliance against Islamophobia, Anti-Militarism Action Network, Craigieburn Mosque, Hindus for Human Rights, Hume for Humanity, Federation of Italian Migrant Workers and Families, Free Palestine Coalition Naarm, Free Palestine Dandenong, Free Palestine Melbourne, Greek Australians for a Free Palestine, Green Left, Menzies for Palestine, Merri-bek 4 Palestine, Muslim Voices of Calwell, Refugee Action Collective (Victoria), Refugee Women Action for Visa Equality, Solidarity, Tamil Eelam Solidarity, Muslim Votes Matters, Eritrean Voices and the Somali Language Show.
The Victorian Trades Hall, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (Vic), Australian Services Union (Vic-Tas), Community and Public Sector Union (Vic) and the Maritime Union of Australia (Vic) have endorsed, as have Socialist Alliance, Victorian Socialists and the Victorian Greens.
Meanwhile, Free Palestine Dandenong has called an anti-racism rally for August 16.
[Join the Hume for Humanity rally on July 25 at Broadmeadows Town Hall. Contact Hume for Humanity if your group would like to endorse it.]