By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — This is "a great day for Australia in terms of civil rights", visiting US former Black Panther Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin told a media conference here on July 11, after his release from jail. Earlier that day, the federal government was forced to acknowledge in the High Court that it had illegally tried to deport him without allowing him to reply to charges.
In a humiliating defeat, the government backed down on acting immigration minister Amanda Vanstone's decision to cancel Ervin's visa in a videolink hearing before Justice Gerard Brennan, following questions by the judge on whether Ervin had been accorded natural justice.
Ervin congratulated the judiciary for seeing fit to overturn "the prejudicial rulings of the prime minister and Pauline Hanson", who had both demanded that the US activist be deported.
"It is really a shame that a person cannot live down a political past of a time when there were disturbances and political uproar in America", Ervin said.
"The fact that I have been all over the world and never had any sort of harrowing experience like this tells me that there is a problem with the conservative government here."
Ervin, whose tour of Australia is being sponsored by the anarchist group Angry People, had previously visited 22 countries, including Britain for six weeks, without any problem.
He plans to continue his tour, including Lismore, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, over several weeks.
Ervin's solicitor, Terry Fisher, said the Immigration Department had indicated Ervin would face further questioning, but no approach had been made on the day of his release.
"The Aboriginal people have a right to hear what I have to say", Ervin said on July 11.
He supported the right of Irish Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams to enter Australia to speak as well.
"The Howard government has created free speech for racists like Pauline Hanson, but not for indigenous people", Ervin added.
Ervin said that he intends to speak about the black civil rights movement in the US and the lessons that Aboriginal people in Australia can learn from that movement.
This was the main theme of his only public meeting held so far, on a street corner in Brisbane's West End on July 7, prior to his arrest the following day.
"Racist violence is a reality on an international scale, and one of the things I intended to say was we should do something about it", Ervin said.
Ervin blames Pauline Hanson for instigating the campaign to deport him and accused her of adopting similar tactics to those of US anticommunist campaigner Joe McCarthy.
He said Hanson was pushing Australia further to the right and it was heading down the same path as the US, establishing a climate for race-hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
Supporters of Ervin, who had demonstrated outside the Immigration Department and the High Court in Brisbane on July 10, as well as in other Australian and overseas cities, rejoiced at the news of the US Black activist's release as an important victory for civil liberties and the anti-racist movement at a time of increasing attack.