On the evening of 3 August, around 250 protesters gathered outside the Tower Hotel in Melbourne’s inner east. Inside, the far-right One Nation party was announcing its candidates for the Victorian state election to be held in November.
A large police presence was sent to protect the event and prevent protesters from getting near the venue. But our voices easily crossed the police lines, with the One Nation supporters being greeted with chants like, “Migrants are welcome, racists are not!” and “Pauline Hanson go to hell—take your racists there as well!” Party leader Pauline Hanson had slinked out through the adjoining bottle-o to avoid the protest.
The crowd heard speeches from a high school antifascist, a Swinburne student and a socialist involved in organising against Hanson when she first emerged as a political figure in the 1990s. The rally was called by the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism, which has been key to organising opposition to the far right in Melbourne over the last decade or more.
The protest was an important and much-needed display of opposition to Hanson, and something we will need more of in the lead-up to the state election. A campaign both in the streets and at the ballot box is needed to push back her racist, sexist, anti-worker agenda. Victorian Socialists candidate for the state seat of Hawthorn, Tess McEnearney, told the demonstration:
“What that looks like starts with each and every one of you here today—an anti-racist, anti-sexist left throughout Melbourne so big that One Nation can’t organise their campaign events without fear of protests, and so Pauline Hanson knows that if she wants to win this state election she is going to be facing a hell of a fight. And that we’re going to keep fighting and fighting and fighting until we win.”