About 40 National Front members rallied outside parliament, many with shaved heads and sporting Nazi tattoos. They carried placards saying: “Defend the flag. Our heritage is not for sale.” The fascist outfit campaigns against “foreign ownership” and for jobs for “New Zealanders,” and calls for the repatriation of non-European immigrants.

Tze Ming Mok, a spokesperson for Multicultural Aotearoa (New Zealand), the group that organized the march, said in a press statement, “In the past we’ve thought the best way of dealing with the National Front was to do nothing, ignore them, and not draw attention to them. But this has left them to present their discredited ideas unchallenged in the media. And doing nothing has not stopped the racist attacks and disgusting harassment.”

The proposal for the march came out of a public meeting called in response to two attacks on Jewish graves and incidents of abuse against Somali immigrants that occured in Wellington last August. The stated aims of the protest were to stop the National Front, oppose humiliating immigration policies such as pregnancy testing of Pacific Island women, and to stop Maori bashing.

Jase Blair, 19, came to the march from Palmerston North with a group of fellow students. “We have to challenge the National Front,” he told the Militant. “They are dangerous because of the populist way they present their ideas.”

One young couple, who did not want to be named, said they had decided to march after a run-in the previous evening with a group of skinheads who told the woman “to go back to China.” The couple carried a sign that read: “Asians are not the problem, your narrow minds are.” Other signs included, “Say to the National Front: No fascism, no sexism, no racism,” and “Celebrate diversity.”

A number of union banners were evident at the event. Mike Shakespeare, Wellington Branch president of the Seafarers Division of the Maritime Union, said, “It’s important for trade unionists to oppose racial discrimination, whether it occurs in the workplace or in society.”

Speaking at the end of the march, Tze Ming Mok said the National Front “were a boil on top of a much bigger infection.” Pointing to the parliament building, she said, “Some occupants of these buildings issued a license to racism” by using immigrants as “political footballs.”

Other speakers reflected New Zealand nationalist themes. Government Race Relations Conciliator Joris De Bres said the march had made him “proud to be a New Zealander.”

Scuffles broke out when some of the marchers confronted National Front members as they were being escorted by cops to cars after their rally.
 
 
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