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For months now the establishment media has been giving Hanson and her fellow racists almost limitless coverage, reporting each bigoted statement with glee in the knowledge that stirring up an anti-Aboriginal and anti-immigration frenzy sells newspapers and sends television viewing ratings soaring.
Those statements that they do publish condemning this current wave of racism are usually based on the argument that too blatant racism in Australia will adversely affect tourism and trade relations with our Asian neighbours.
The different approach we have taken at Green Left Weekly is not just because our views are anti-racist. It's because those who write for Green Left actually explain in a rational way how the debate over racism is being used by big business and their cronies in Canberra to divert attention away from the real causes of inequality and suffering in Australia.
GLW provides a voice for those of us who aren't brokering multi-million dollar deals with Asian corporations, yet still find racism repugnant, and want to know more about how to fight it, along with all instances of inequality and oppression.
So where do the five missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fit into all of this? To get the alternative views expressed in Green Left Weekly out onto the streets each week costs money. To cover the production costs of Green Left Weekly this year we need to raise $120,000.
Each piece in the jigsaw represents $6000, so you can see that we've already collected just over $90,000 — leaving $30,000 to go in the next two months.
Any donation, large or small, is a valuable and much appreciated contribution to keeping the best source of progressive news and opinion in Australia coming out each week. See the ad on page 20 for details of how you can help fill the gaps. Green Left Weekly — it's your newspaper.