By Chris Spindler and Liam Mitchell
ADELAIDE — Three rallies have so far been organised by the Anti-Racism Alliance in response to National Action's public display of racist propaganda in Old Parliament House.
The display at the Constitutional Museum promotes the Eureka rebellion as part of the heritage of this racist organisation. Quite rightly, many people see as abhorrent the National Action policies and their usual methods (often more violent than a museum display).
The setting up of an open, broadly based alliance opposing and organising mobilisations against the policies of National Action is a real step ahead in the fight against racism.
The most important task is to mobilise an anti-racist sentiment in the broader community, drawing in people from all backgrounds and nationalities.
By building rallies against the National Action exhibition, the movement has created a base upon which we can broaden out and draw in wider public support.
A thorough discussion on how best to go about building the alliance and actually stopping these racist views and the organisations that promote them still needs to be had. It is essential that the discussion is open to everyone who is opposed to racism.
So what should be done to fight these racist views and their fascist overtones?
We think that calling for legislation to outlaw racist displays is not a solution.
The passing of the Racial Vilification Act has been seen by some as a quick step in trying to close down the display and preventing similar displays in the future. However, asking so-called independent arbiters to censor such views leaves us open to future attacks. The same legislation could be used against progressive organisations deemed contrary to the public interest by the government of the day.
What is at issue is not an abstract appeal for democracy for fascists. Rather, the point is how most effectively to stop these groups.
Poisons such as racism and nationalism in a country like Australia are promoted not only by organisations like National Action but also through media owned by an elite which seeks to maintain the status quo through divide and rule.
Racism can be stopped only by a people united beyond racial lines to achieve a common goal.
The movement should be concerned with defending and expanding democratic rights, but not in any abstract sense. These rights are the concrete rights of free speech, assembly, press, the right to organise, strike and picket without which a politically independent movement simply cannot exist.
Capitalism in decline seeks to restrict these rights, which have to be defended and extended in the same way in which they were first won — by the consistent, independent activity of the progressive movement.
It has been stated in literature put out opposing the display that "economic hardship breeds Nazism". However, it is up to us to ensure that the current economic hardship breeds a movement for progressive social change. Only through building such a movement will groups like National Action be isolated and defeated.