By Ben Reid
MELBOURNE — Local residents and migrant communities in inner-city Richmond have decided to organise a community street march against racism and One Nation.
The march will be on Saturday, September 12, at 12.30pm. It will assemble at the Richmond housing commission flats on the corner of Lennox and Elizabeth streets.
Vannessa Hearman, a Senate candidate for the Democratic Socialist Senate candidate and resident of Collingwood, is organising migrant communities to make their voices heard.
"Migrants and ethnic communities need a voice in the federal election", said Hearman, who is of Indonesian Chinese background. "Blaming us for unemployment and economic hardship is fast becoming the political consensus."
"Pauline Hanson's shadow hangs over this election. We aim to organise local communities and migrants in a movement to turn back the racist scapegoating encouraged By One Nation. The success of local street marches in Northcote, Brunswick and Footscray has inspired us to call on the Richmond community to play its part", Hearman told Green Left.
The Richmond street march will call on all political parties to abandon policies that discriminate on the basis of place of birth, skin colour or culture. "If Australia is to have a future that all can take part in, real policies for job creation and economic justice need to replace blaming the victims of unemployment and economic hardship", said Hearman.