A “Fish and Chips” meet and greet for One Nation leader Pauline Hanson in the Perth suburb of Innaloo on 13 October was met with a rowdy protest. 
Protesters chanted “Black, Indigenous, Arab, Asian and white: unite to fight the right!” and “Whose streets? Our streets!” as Hanson supporters arrived for the meeting. A “Honk if you hate Pauline Hanson” sign got an enthusiastic response from passing motorists.
Nick Brown, spokesperson for the protest organising group, United Against Bigotry and Racism, told Red Flag that the group’s aim was to mobilise a popular movement against Hanson similar to the one that dogged her first term in parliament 20 years ago. “In the 1990s, One Nation was met with constant protests that made it difficult for them to organise and promote racism”, Brown said. “We want to continue that tradition by protesting whenever they put on events like this.”
While campaigning for One Nation candidates back in the March 2017 WA state election, Hanson was also confronted by a crowd of socialists, migrants and local workers, chanting “Nazis get out”. On that occasion, the racist, neo-Nazi group True Blue Crew were in attendance both to support Hanson and to intimidate anti-racists. On this occasion it was the Proud Boys – a white male supremacist group founded in the US in 2016 – that provided security. Wearing matching black shirts, they chanted “West is best” and made white power hand gestures. 
Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes, who will be in Perth as part of an Australian speaking tour on 4 November, describes himself as a “Western chauvinist”. In 2016, he told Taki’s Magazine: “The basic tenet of the [Proud Boys] is that [we] are Western chauvinists who refuse to apologise for creating the modern world”. 
Comparing his followers to Archie Bunker, a character from the 1970s US television sitcom All in the Family, McInnes asserted “that they long for the days when girls were girls and men were men”. The Proud Boys are notorious for their violent initiation ceremonies, in which members are beaten and tattooed, as well as for attacks on anti-racist opponents.
United Against Bigotry and Racism is organising a protest against McInnes in an effort to prevent him from cohering a base here. “It is important to challenge the far right”, said Brown. “By presenting an alternative to racism, sexism and homophobia, and by mobilising against far right meetings, we can demoralise the far right’s supporters and prevent the dangerous growth of the far right that is unfortunately happening in other countries.”
----------
To receive protest updates, follow United Against Bigotry and Racism on Facebook.

Phoebe Burrage

Hanson met with protest in Perth

Since the election of Donald Trump, Australia has become the “it” destination for far right provocateurs. The latest is Nigel Farage, former leader of the UK Independence Party and notorious anti-Muslim racist. 
Farage began his speaking tour of Australia and New Zealand on 2 September, arriving in Perth to heap praise on One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and US President Donald Trump at the up to $300 per head event. Unfortunately for his supporters, anti-fascist protesters were waiting. 
Called by anti-fascist group United Against Bigotry and Racism, the crowd of over 50 protesters came to show their solidarity with Muslims and immigrants and that Farage’s ideas are not without active opposition. They chanted as attendees, protected by members of the far right English Defence League, hired to provide security for the event, entered Perth Town Hall. 
The timing made the action particularly relevant. Only a week ago a mosque was firebombed in Perth’s Northern suburb of Mirrabooka, a racist attack in the final week of an Islamic holiday. The WA police revealed where their sympathies lay by giving Jacqueline Blackburn, a long-time activist and the rally chair, a move-on notice for using the word “wanker” in a chant. Another protester, Nicole McEwen, was also given a move on notice. McEwen told Red Flag “The police acted arbitrarily to intimidate protesters and restrict freedom of speech. Swearing is not a crime. It was an excuse to shut down left wing voices”. 
And while Farage has been made welcome here, US whistle blower and critic of the far right, Chelsea Manning, has not been granted a visa by the Australian government, effectively preventing her from speaking here. 
Once the last few Farage supporters had trickled in, the protesters marched in a victory lap around the square, enthusiastically continuing to chant “Farage is a wanker”. Perth certainly has not seen its last anti-fascist demonstration, and neither has Nigel Farage. 
The rest of his tour continued throughout the week, culminating in Melbourne on 7 September. One thing he can be sure of is that wherever he goes, protests will follow.
And more protests in Melbourne
Believe the hype: Melbourne is an established no-go zone for the far right. Arch-conservative Andrew Bolt thinks so. Far right vlogger Lauren Southern thinks so. And Melbourne anti-fascists proved it once again on 7 September when the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism (CARF) held a lively counter-protest against far right UK politician Nigel Farage.
Farage was in town as part of a national speaking tour, following in the footsteps of kindred spirits before him like Lauren Southern, Stefan Molyneux and Milo Yiannopoulos. It speaks to the degeneration of global politics today that in the lead up to his tour Farage was able to portray himself as a “moderate” who’s not anti-immigrant, just “pro-integration”.
Farage is the former head of the far-right UK Independence Party (UKIP) which campaigned for the UK to leave the European Union on the most racist and anti-migrant platform possible. Farage personally unveiled a billboard titled “BREAKING POINT”, depicting hordes of migrants threatening to swamp the UK’s borders, reminiscent of Nazi propaganda.
With Brexit achieved, UKIP has hardened its racist, anti-migrant stance and actively fostered links with the British far right. For example, UKIP has played an important role in the demonstrations in defence of former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson. While Farage is no longer UKIP’s leader, he has spent his time since fraternising with prominent far right figures like the French National Front’s Marine Le Pen and US president Donald Trump.
Fortunately, Farage’s trip to Australia didn’t prove as popular as his promoters were expecting. In Melbourne they had to lower their sights from filling a room at Crown Casino to a venue at the Docklands to finally downsizing to a little room at the Sofitel Hotel. And despite Farage’s protestations that he’s not far right, his event dredged up the bottom-feeding scum of the Melbourne fascist scene, including convicted anti-Semite Neil Erikson and local Men’s Rights activist Andrew Nolch. 
Over 200 anti-fascists turned up to send a message to Farage that whenever the far right try to organise, anti-fascists will be there to give them hell. And with more far right figures like Gavin McInnes, Fraser “final solution” Anning and Milo Yiannopoulos touring Australia in the near future, these protests are vital to building the broad anti-fascist movement we need to relegate these creeps to the margins of society where they belong.

Hanson met with protest in Perth

Farage met with protests in Perth and Melbourne

Other Media

Shop

Manage Your Subscription

Contact Us