By Margaret Allum
While distributing 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly shortly after Pauline Hanson's recent announcement that she would publicly release her pre-election speaking itinerary, a passer-by cautioned: "Don't demonstrate outside her meetings, it only boosts her popularity". This belief that if we "ignore her she'll go away" is held by many people who oppose racism. Yet, it falls far short of an effective strategy to defeat racism.
To think that you can beat racism by ignoring Hanson is to ignore how deeply entrenched racism is in this rotten system. Racism has to be confronted, especially when it's peddled not only by Hanson, but the parties of government (Coalition and Labor), the mass media and academia. All are trying to legitimise racist policies in the name of "equality for all Australians".
The argument that ignoring Hanson will weaken racism is based on the mistaken belief that she is the main driving force behind today's increased racism.
The current climate of racism in Australia didn't start with Hanson and her One Nation party. The Hanson phenomenon is just a symptom of the racist political environment that has been perpetuated by all of the major political parties since the turn of the century. The ALP and the conservative parties were founded on the basis of racist policies. Racism has been a constant feature of Australia since European settlement.
It is true that the politics of One Nation encapsulate racism in a much cruder form than has been seen for several decades. Hanson's recent popularity is also partly due to the simplistic explanations and "solutions" she puts forward to problems facing Australia, and indeed most of the world.
The austerity drives of both the Coalition and the previous ALP government have resulted in increased hardship for ordinary people — massive job cuts, reduced funding for health and education, and now a vicious tax is proposed that will hit the majority, while giving more concessions to the rich.
Hanson provides a nakedly racist explanation for the miserable and worsening situation working people confront. She offers the "perfect" scapegoats (migrants, indigenous people, single mothers and the poor) who, due to years of intense discrimination, find it difficult to fight back.
Her popularity may have been boosted by mass media hype, but the hype did not create it. Many people are disillusioned with the major parties and angry about their worsening living standards and increasing insecurity, especially under the Howard government.
Hanson paints herself as being outside the system — an alternative to the major parties — but in reality she is very much a part of the system, an apologist for capitalism.
Racism is a tool that is used by those in power to divide the working class — the masses of ordinary people who are the worst hit by the politics of putting private profits above all else, regardless of the social cost.
The "ignore her and she'll go away " argument is also promoted by the ALP, which is promoting itself as an anti-racist party. Past and present ALP policy refutes this claim.
If elected, Labor's lack of solutions to unemployment will require it to find convenient scapegoats — just like the present Coalition government has; blaming immigrants and indigenous people has proved a very effective diversion.
Labor's policies do not offer even a hint of a reversal of Howard's racist policies. In fact, the ALP's promises are not significantly different to those advocated by Hanson and Howard in areas such as immigration levels and the waiting period for migrants to receive welfare payments.
While migrants are being forced to wait for assistance, they are prime targets for those seeking to take advantage of their desperate situation by offering illegal "sweatshop" work in appalling conditions.
The only disagreement the ALP has with the government's two-year social security waiting period for migrants is about how flexibly this policy should be implemented in some cases.
On the flip-side of arguing that Hanson will go away if she is ignored is another mistake made by some anti-racist campaigners: that Hanson should be the main (and sometimes only) focus for those fighting racism. As a consequence, the real culprits for fanning racial hatred are let off the hook.
Closing down One Nation's meetings is not only ineffectual, it is counter-productive.
Who decides the criteria for who should and shouldn't be allowed "free speech"? It is not always so clear cut. Are the anti-free speech campaigners attempting to close down Howard's rantings attacking Aboriginal land rights? What about right-wing talk-show hosts? Should the average person on the street who agrees with a racist argument be silenced?
Those who cry "No free speech for racists!" play into the hands of the pro-censorship forces. Any legislative expressions of this sentiment, could be, and frequently are, used to curb the right to free speech of progressive voices — voices that can be painted as left-wing "extremists". We do not need state or even civil regulation of opinions; we need to counter the racist lies by words and actions of our own.
Even if it was possible to stop all Hanson's meetings, this wouldn't defeat her racist movement. The only way to do that is to build a mass movement of people who oppose racist scapegoating and can explain the real source of the social, economic and problems working people face.
We have to build a coherent and effective opposition to the racism of Hanson and the austerity policies of the major parties. We need to explain that it is the capitalist system that causes widespread misery, here and around the world.
The anti-racism movement must oppose One Nation by organising large, peaceful demonstrations outside its meetings, as well as by openly opposing all racist policies and myths propagated by governments.
This is far more effective than the self-defeating stunts and antics of a handful of self-designated "militants". Those who believe that skirmishes with the police or calling on the state to close down Hanson's meetings can build a mass movement against racism are as misguided as those who think that by ignoring Hanson's racism it will go away.
Ultimately, we need to change the conditions that give rise to racist ideas, the institutionalised racism promoted by the big business establishment which fertilises the ground for extremists like those in One Nation to exploit the situation for their own ends.
Racism is embedded in the private profit system. It is much easier to make profits from those who can be super-exploited because of their disadvantaged position in society.
It's not a matter of trying to convince those who profit from racial exploitation to change their ways. The task is to change the way society is organised so that it is impossible to exploit others on the basis of superficial physical characteristics.