By Chris Latham
PERTH The first public meeting of the anti-racist national Justice Tour by Yaluritja (Clarrie Isaacs) and Reihana Mohideen was held here on May 22.
The meeting was attended by more than 60 people, who reacted warmly to the issues addressed by the speakers.
Isaacs highlighted people's fears over an uncertain economic future, and said that these were being played on by politicians such as Hanson.
Mohideen said that economic problems in Australia could be better addressed by looking at attacks made by both government and business, rather than blaming migrants and Aborigines.
If the government or Hanson were genuinely interested in creating jobs, she said, they would have moved to nationalise the BHP's Newcastle steelworks, to retool for other tasks or use the subsidies given to BHP to create real jobs. "Instead the coalition will 'leave it up to the free market', and Hanson wants BHP to receive more subsidies than the $800 million they received in the last year."
The difficulty in getting coverage in the media and the need to provide solutions to the economic uncertainty were themes of the discussion.
Sheila Suttner said that after writing a letter to the West Australian refuting Graeme Campbell's description of Perth protesters as "brown shirts, thugs, young Liberals and young Labor", she began receiving hate mail and threatening phone calls.
Resistance's Arun Pradhan said the Liberal Party's relationship with Hanson had been through clear stages. After initially ignoring her attraction to Coalition voters, Howard had two options: "to undercut her support or take a public move to the right. The Coalition's immigration cut shows a clear attempt by the Coalition to leapfrog to the right of Hanson."
The tour aims to build on the anti-racist sentiment in the Australian community, to build a strong anti-racist movement, and to combat the attempt by the right to organise and regroup around Hanson. For information on other meetings, check pages 29-31.