Open Letter to Australia Made Campaign Limited

The letter below is a response to the request by Australia Made Campaign Limited to guarantee their logo would not be used in the future in such protests as the Australia Day anti-racism action. The letter is addressed to the legal representatives of Australia Made Campaign Limited.

 
The request made by your client amounts to demanding that we, and by implication any other community member who has a protest to register, forfeit our freedom of speech.

While the right to free speech is not constitutionally guaranteed in Australia, the High Court has noted and defended this as an important implied right. Such a right does not and cannot preclude the use of any symbols, signs or logos, whether they are registered trade marks or not.

The request made by your client is a direct challenge to freedom of speech and will not be ceded to by us.

Our opinion is that Australia has a racist history and continues to perpetrate this racism as an integral part of a social system which was established through the destruction of Aboriginal society and expanded through the economic exploitation of neighbouring countries.

222 years on from the initial dispossession of indigenous people, racism is only being further entrenched by government policies which violate the racial discrimination act in the Northern Territory, see refugees locked up or kept from Australian shores all together and little to nothing is done to curb the racist violence against Indian students. It is our opinion.

The Australia-Made “Campaign” is based on the racist assumption that it is better to support Australian corporations than foreign ones. It perpetuates the racist myth that Australian workers have more in common with their bosses than we do with fellow workers overseas.

We also see the relevance of making a strong political statement using the combination and appropriation of symbols and texts. They are all composed (the white of the kkk costumes against the greenish hue of the Australian-Made logo and the 'Racism' text placed above the logo) in order to give an overall impression and impact. So, any claim of breach of copyright cannot be used against us. Van Thanh Rudd, as well as a plethora of respected Australian artists, have built much of their artistic practice, upon the appropriation of corporate logos that are excessively visible in the public domain.

We will stand firm in our right to freedom of speech and expression and to campaign against racist lies and ideas, whether they are perpetuated for direct political purposes by government, or by companies seeking to financially profit from such prejudice.

Yours sincerely,

Van Rudd 0430 397 074

Sam King 0423 527 325
Revolutionary Socialist Party