What caused the Cronulla riot?

In: Race & class: a journal for black and third world liberation, Band 48, Heft 1, S. 85-92

Abstract

The outbreak of mass racist violence against young men of 'Middle Eastern appearance' on Cronulla beach, Sydney, in December 2005 was the culmination of a campaign of populist incitement waged in the media and by the state. The battle to reclaim control of the beach for white Australia mirrored, it is suggested here, the battle that the Howard government has waged to reclaim control of the nation itself from asylum seekers and the Muslim/Middle Eastern 'enemy'.