Campaign to ‘work against radical right’

Press, 11 October 1985, Page 8

Campaign to ‘work against radical right’

Wellington has now joined Auckland in setting up an organisation — Campaign for Tolerance — with the sole purpose of combatting the work of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens, reports Oliver Riddell.

Speaking for the new group, Ms Sue Driver said recently that it would work against the “radical right,” and concentrate on “exposing the inconsistencies and superficialities” or radical right thinking l>y setting up information networks and holding seminars for community and other groups. It would also campaign for freedom of choice as a basic component of a democratic society, she said. There was increasing concern at both the message and tactics of radical right groups such as the League of Rights, the Society for the Protection of Individual Rights, and the Coalition of Concerned Citizens.

“Their message of intolerance allows no room for the diversity of opinions, lifestyles, and cultural and ethnic viewpoints, which form the basis of a democratic society,” Ms Driver said.

Important achievements had been made in recent years in the fields of equal pay and the position of women, developments in education, and greater recognition that New Zealand was a multi-racial society. Radical right groups were working hard to undermine these achievements, using a campaign based on fear and

misinformation. At. present, the “radical right” was concentrating on the issue of homosexual law reform, she said. But, given the example of similar groups in the United States, other targets were likely to include child care facilities, women’s groups, trade unions, the peace movement, progressive education and libraries, with attempts to ban books of which they disapproved. The new group would try to provide information to “counter the fear engendered by the radical right,” she said.