Apologies, this took a little while to post. Thanks to the Perth Voice for permission to republish this article.

Far-right filtered
by DAVID BELL
The Perth Voice, March 13,2010

AN anti-censorship protest was hijacked last Saturday by members of the far-right Nationalist Alternative movement spreading an anti- immigration message.

The Stop the Filter protest was aimed at the Rudd government’s plan to block material refused classification in Australia.

While Greens senator Scott Ludlam was addressing the 300-strong crowd in Forrest Place a scuffle broke out on the balcony above, when half-a-dozen members of the NA unfurled a banner reading “save water, cut immigration”.

There was a short tussle with the NA, the banner was torn down and a “no room for racism!” chant took hold in the largely left-wing crowd.

Ironic
Jack from the NA wouldn’t give his last name, but said it was ironic his group was censored at an anti-censorship rally.

He said NA opposed Labor’s “nanny state” law and had just as much right to display its banner as the socialist Resistance group did. “They’re pro-censorship…that’s hypocrisy.”

Socialist Ben Peterson, who’d helped tear the banner down, denied his actions amounted to censorship.
“If someone was to spray paint something racist on the side of your house, then removing that isn’t censorship.

“We’d organised Stop the Filter through the council and with the police, and [the NA], in a very hostile manner, arrived and tried to get around that and then tried to claim that it was censorship. “We’re not a group to push racism and it’s not censorship to make sure that our event isn’t associated with that.”

Senator Ludlam agreed, saying there was a difference between free speech and hate speech.
“I certainly didn’t read that ascensorship,” he said. “I’m certainly against hate speech. If they’re running up anti- immigration banners at a rally for free speech, especially behind the speaker, it’s completely out of line. It was a grab for attention, in extremely bad taste.”

But NA says the Resistance banner had nothing to do with the rally theme either, focusing on “planet before profit”. On its website NA said both Resistance’s banner and its own carried environmental messages.

Senator Ludlam called for the campaign against internet censorship to continue, warning Labor was just weeks away from introducing the laws to the parliament. “This is not about whether we trust Kevin Rudd or [minister] Stephen Conroy…what about an Abbott government? Once it’s in this will be impossible to roll back.”