RAC is a grassroots campaign group unaffiliated with any political party. We’ve been campaigning for refugee rights in Australia since 1999. Our strategy is based on the idea that progressive change comes from below. We can’t rely on politicians to initiate humane refugee policies – they’re the ones who’ve gave us mandatory detention and offshore processing in the first place.
For the situation to improve, we think public opinion will have to shift so that politicians have no choice but to abandon their harsh stance on refugees. That’s an ambitious task, but the long history of progressive campaigns for justice and a better world shows us that it can work. We need your help to make it happen.
Everyone’s welcome – join us on Monday evenings
We meet every Monday from 6-8pm in the Teachers’ Federation Building, 23-33 Mary St Surry Hills, 5 minutes’ walk from Central Station. Our meetings are inclusive, democratically run, and open to anyone and everyone. Meetings usually start with discussion of what’s happened in the previous week: political developments, updates from our sources in detention, feedback about recent campaign activities. We then move on to organising the next moves of the campaign. Afterwards, many of us have dinner at a cheap local eatery.
You have something to contribute to RAC
RAC is inclusive: our activists are young and old, employed and unemployed, experienced and new. We are students, public servants, teachers, artists and retired people. What we have in common is a determination to end the horror refugees face every day. Our campaign depends on an active pool of people available to do campaign work – planning campaign actions, writing material, producing placards and banners, putting up posters, distributing leaflets, speaking at events, liaising with other activists.
There’s a steady trickle of new people contributing, and you could be one of them. We welcome new activists with open arms as the future of the refugee rights campaign. You don’t need to know anything about refugees or have any experience of activism. Everyone has something valuable to contribute: we need your input to the campaign!
More information?
You can just turn up to a RAC meeting on any Monday night. But if you’d like more information, or would like someone to meet you at Central station to show you where the meeting is, ring Nick on 0481 339 937. We look forward to seeing you!
