The opposition to the planned visit to Australia of two Golden Dawn Members of the European Parliament grows by the day.
Last week, ten of the most influential trade unions in Australia co-signed the statement denouncing Golden Dawn which was signed earlier on this month, as was reported by Neos Kosmos, by the ACTU president Ged Kearney, the president of the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia Joe Caputo, the president of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria Bill Papstergiadis and others. That statement was not signed by the Greek Orthodox Archdioceses of Australia as was reported initially, since the honorary secretary of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Council Nicholas Pappas signed as an individual.
The Australian Unions wrote to the federal minister of Immigration and Border Protection this week stating that they endorse the statement which called on all Australians to unite and to demonstrate their detestation of the message of hatred and violence being propagated by Golden Dawn.
The unions who join in the condemnation of Golden Dawn are the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, the Communications Workers Unions, the Community and Public Sector Union, the Construction and General Division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the Maritime Union of Australia, the National Tertiary Education Union, the National Union of Workers and the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia.
In the meantime, the Federation of Greek Worker’s Progressive Associations of Australia, comprising ‘Democritus’ in Melbourne, ‘Atlas’ in Sydney, ‘Platon’ in Adelaide and ‘Socrates’ in Newcastle, with a public statement issued this week also condemned the planned visit to Australia by ‘Golden Dawn’ Members of the European Parliament sometime next month, and called upon the federal government to refuse entry into Australia to the Golden Dawn MEPs.
“We Greeks and Cypriot immigrants have experienced and fought racism and discrimination. We do not forget the racist attacks, threats and challenges faced for decades, by all immigrants in this country and in other countries,” says amongst others the Federation of Greek Worker’s Progressive Associations of Australia, which goes on to call upon communities, associations, federations, trade unions and other mass organisations in the country, to take action and not only not to allow the Golden Dawn Members of the European Parliament to set foot here in Australia but also to isolate politically their local representatives.
Other organisations who came out publicly recently strongly condemning the planned visit to Australia by Golden Dawn representatives are the Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia, the Panepirotic Federation of Australia and the Darebin Ethnic Communities’ Council in Melbourne.