"Unite against racism" rally to challenge far-right

April 9, 2010 - for immediate release

An emergency "Unite against racism" rally has been called for 2pm this Sunday, April 11, outside Villawood Detention Centre. The rally has been organized by a coalition of anti-racism groups, in response to the far-right Australian Protectionist Party who are rallying at the same place to attack refugee rights.

"The Protectionist Party are anti-refugee, anti-immigrant and racist," rally organiser Paul Benedek said. "They letterbox leaflets that scapegoat Africans, Muslims and immigrants for crime, unemployment and other social problems. They are big fans of Pauline Hanson and the British National Party, and target 'non-white' immigration, trying to whip up racial hatred."

"Yet the major parties are also to blame. They have given a green light to racism, by also demonizing refugees & using migrants as scapegoats."

"Racism kills. While the APP cowardly taunt refugees who are locked behind razor wire, with tacit support from Liberal and Labor, refugees face deportation to their deaths. Racist attacks on international students and immigrants are increasing."

"This rally will be a peaceful show of support for refugee rights, for equality and justice. We stand with those desperate asylum seekers who have fled war and persecution – not cowardly blaming them for the problems in this country. We will let all racists know their message of hate is not welcome."

Endorsements for the anti-racism rally include: Refugee Action Coalition, Latin American Social Forum, Sudanese Australian Human Rights Association, Social Justice Group, Socialist Alliance, Solidarity, Socialist Alternative, and Resistance.

Full details for the rally are:

"Unite against racism – refugees are welcome, racism is not!"
Rally 2pm, Sunday April 11,
Outside Villawood Detention Centre, 15 Birmingham Ave, Villawood.

More details can be found on facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=109582062406674

The APP's anti-refugee rally is scheduled for the same place at 3pm. To get a sense of the APP’s racist views, just take a look at their website.

For more information or interviews about the anti-racism rally, contact Paul Benedek 0410 629 088 or James Supple 0438 718 348.

Call for Sydney counter-mobilisation to far-right this Sunday

Please forward this rally to ALL people who would be concerned about the far-right taunting asylum seekers, many of whom have fled war and persecution, while they are locked behind the razor wire

UNITE AGAINST RACISM
Refugees are welcome - racism is not!

The Australian Protectionist Party have called a rally attacking refugee rights for this Sunday, April 11, at 3pm outside Villawood Detention Centre.

The APP are anti-refugee, anti-immigrant & racist. They letterbox leaflets that scapegoat Africans, Muslims & immigrants for crime, unemployment & other social problems. However, the major parties are also to blame - they have given a green light to racism, by also demonising refugees & using migrants as scapegoats.

Racism kills. Refugees are still being deported to their deaths. Attacks on international students and immigrants are increasing.

We need a peaceful show of support for refugee rights, for equality and justice - and to let all racists know that their hatred is not welcome.
Rally Sun April 11, 2pm
At Villawood Detention Centre
15 Birmingham Ave, Villawood (nr Leightonfield Stn)

Please forward this message, organise your friends, bring placards and banners in support of refugees and against racism.

Supported by: Refugee Action Coalition, Latin American Social Forum, Sudanese Human Rights Assoc, Social Justice Group, Socialist Alliance, Solidarity, Socialist Alternative, Resistance.

For information, to add your support, or if you have ideas for the rally, please phone Paul 0410 629 088 or James 0438 718 348 or email paul.benedek2@ gmail.com

BNP wins 2 seats in Europe

Via Socialist Unity and Hope Not Hate:

Who is Andrew Brons?

Yorkshire and Humber constituency will return Andrew Brons (at the left of the picture) to the European Parliament if the BNP gets 11.5% across the constituency. So far the results coming in show it to be on a knife edge.

The BNP have 10% in Sheffield, much more in Barnsley.

If they do win a seat there, we will have to deal with that situation as we come to it.

But I imagine there will be some fun and games inside the BNP is Griffin fails to be elected in the North West, which would give Andrew Brons a higher profile than the leader, and his own significant budget.

So who is Andrew Brons. Certainly if he is elected the press should give this Hitler lover some serious scrutiny.

Brons, 61, started his nazi career in the National Socialist Movement, an organisation that was deliberately founded on Hitler’s birthday by Colin Jordan, the British nazi leader who died in April aged 85. NSM members were responsible for an arson campaign against Jewish property and synagogues in the 1960s.

Brons appears to have approved. In a letter to Jordan’s wife, Brons reported meeting an NSM member who “mentioned such activities as bombing synagogues”. He declared: “On This subject I have a dual view, in that I realise that he is well intentioned, I feel that our public image may suffer considerable damage as a result of these activities. I am however open to correction on this point.”

He also sent Mrs Jordan money to buy a swastika badge and other Nazi material, explaining he was about the undertake a “crash programme” of publicity for the NSM in Yorkshire by deluging areas with Nazi stickers, posters and slogans.

Brons was a prominent member of the National Front, notorious for its extreme racism and violence, from its early days and was voted onto its national directorate in 1974. Later as the NF’s education officer he hosted seminars on racial nationalism and tried to give its racism a more “scientific” basis.

After the departure of John Tyndall from the NF in March 1980 Brons was promoted to NF chairman. One of his allies during this period was Richard Verrall, the author of Did Six Million Really Die?, with whom he edited the NF journal New Nation. In 1982 Brons led an NF march through Northfield on which marchers chanted: “we’ve got to get rid of the blacks”.

In June 1984 Brons was convicted of behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace following his arrest in Leeds while selling papers in a shopping centre.

He and another NF member were heard shouting slogans such as “Death to Jews”, “White Power” and “National Front”. When approached by PC John Raj, Brons stated: “inferior beings like yourself probably do not understand the principle of free speech”.

Brons resigned as NF chairman in 1984 and later faded from public view. He has been a BNP member for around four years.

If you tolerate this...? The BNP are tools.

This is, I guess, a "Guest Post" of sorts. Actually, it's simply a reprinting (with permission, for once) of a comment made on the Green Left discussion list, but we Wombats thought it worth reproducing here and too good an opportunity to miss. (We're in the process of beefing up the posting quality, content and style - less reproductions, more comment. This is just the start...)

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by Duroyan Fertl

Britain's political answer to Homo neanderthalis - the BNP - have proved once again that fascism feeds on the dust left behind by the passage of evolution.

Apparently they can only understand eight words at a time. According to NME:

"The far-right political party were hosting a video on their website, and on a youTube account, under the heading 'The Cesspit Called London' which was soundtracked by the band's 1998 Number One single 'If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next'.

Ironically, the lyrics to that song concern the International Brigade – the group of volunteers, including Welsh farmers, who went to Spain to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War."

IRONICALLY!?!? If the knuckle dragging morons actually had the cerebral skill to understand English (now *that's* irony), they might have heard that the song in question is not only dedicated to the struggle against fascism, taking its name from a slogan on an anti-fascist poster from the Spanish Civil War, it also contains one of the best lines ever written in pop music: "So if I can shoot rabbits/ Then I can shoot fascists". YouTube link.

Of course, the Manics - who grew up in Thatcher-loathing working class Wales, living (well the lead singer, anyway) on the same street in Blackwood as Neil Kinnock, played in Cuba in 2001, met Fidel Castro, dedicated an award to the National Union of Mineworkers' Arthur Scargill (and later donated money to his Socialist Labour Party), and knocked the musical shit out of Blair's Nu Labour ("Change your name to New/ Forget the fucking Labour") - demanded that the offending material be taken down, which it was.

While we're on the topic of political commentary in music (viz Stuart's Lily Allen post), the Manics remain - in my opinion - simply the best in that field, over two long decades now... While the sharpest political commentary might not always make the Top of the Pops, sometimes it does:

Suffering a long love-hate relationship with the British music media (which loved to hate them because of their social comentary, their call for revolution, and their criticism of the truly shit noise that passed for the musical output of most of their contemporaries), the Manics released a deliberately "secret" stand-alone single in November 1999.

They forbade their music company from publicising it, allowing it's existence to be known only through their fan base. The record was deleted on the day of release and the song - The Masses Against The Classes - went straight to number one, and stayed there for 16 weeks. 'Nuff said, really.

The Manics have a new album - Journal for Plague Lovers - coming out in May, including left-over lyrics from their former rhythm guitarist, Richey Edwards, who disappeared 14 years ago.

Oh, and this:

Thailand: PAD thugs close Bangkok airport

Anti-democratic mob blockade Bangkok Airport.

By Giles Ji Ungpakorn

November 26, 2008 -- Bangkok International Airport has now been closed by fascist thugs from the anti-government People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD). The PAD is demanding that the elected government of Thailand resigns. This is despite the fact that the government has the backing of the majority of the Thai population and even the majority of Bangkok citizens. This backing has been proven by repeated elections. The PAD want a dictatorship to replace democracy because it deems the majority of the Thai electorate to be too ignorant to deserve the right to vote.

How did the PAD thugs manage to seize Bangkok International airport? Airports are supposed to be high-security areas. Thai airports are controlled by the Thai military. It is obvious that the Thai military, which staged an illegal coup in 2006, has quietly supported the actions of the PAD. It is obvious that the military is unwilling to provide basic security to air travellers and air crews. But they are happy to rake in huge salaries associated with their control of the Airports Authority. Foreign governments and airlines should reconsider whether the authorities in Thailand are willing to provide international standards of safety and security.

Back in early October, PAD thugs surrounded parliament to prevent the prime minister from making a policy speech. When the police used tear gas to try to disperse the PAD, the police were roundly condemned by the Thai media and most middle-class intellectuals. It is no secret that the PAD are armed with guns, bombs, knives and wooden batons. They constantly break the law with impunity. Earlier on November 26, PAD thugs were filmed by PBS ThaiTV shooting at taxi drivers who were trying to defend their pro-democracy community radio station. The PAD thugs were holding up pictures of the King. Yesterday the PAD kicked and punched a senior policeman. The police are powerless to act.

The PAD is a royalist fascist mob which has powerful backing. Apart from the army, it is supported by the Queen, the so-called Democrat Party, the courts, the mainstream media and most university academics. What these people have in common is a total contempt for the Thai electorate who are poor. They are angry that the Thai people voted for a government that gave the poor universal health care and other benefits. They want to turn the clock back to a dictatorship which they call “the New Order”. They are hoping that the courts will now dissolve the ruling party and that an authoritarian “National Government” will be set up.

It is clear that the PAD, the military, the Democrat Party and the conservative establishment would rather see total chaos in Thailand rather than allow democracy to function. This is despite the fact that we face a serious economic crisis. Interestingly, the anti-government groups are extreme neoliberals with little grasp of how to deal with the economic crisis or how to stimulate the economy. Apart from opposing welfare, they have attacked Keynesian policies of the previous government of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Where is the King in all this? Throughout the three-year political crisis, the King has never attempted to diffuse the problem. Many Thais believe he supports the PAD, but it is more likely that the monarch has always been too weak to intervene in any crisis.

Those who support democracy and social justice in Thailand must condemn the PAD and those advocating a dictatorship. We must be with the pro-democracy Red Shirts, while refusing to support ex-PM Thaksin, who has a record of human rights abuses. I hope that all those friends of Thailand abroad will support all our efforts to defend Thai democracy and to defend those of us who may face arrest in the future.

[Giles Ji Ungpakorn is an activist with Turn Left (formerly Workers Democracy) and an associate professor in the faculty of political science, hulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.]