On the 11th of December 2005 racial tensions exploded at Cronulla beach in Sydney as a large, intoxicated crowd targeted anyone of middle eastern appearance.

MANY will agree with former NSW Premier Morris Iemma’s summation of the 2005 Cronulla riots as “a dangerous and very dark period” in Australia’s history.

“Those three days had the potential for that initial riot at Cronulla to career out of control.

“It required a very tough and immediate response, which we did,” reported the Canterbury-Bankstown Express.

Police would lay 285 charges against 104 people following the riots and revenge attacks which began on December 11.

But the common view of the Cronulla riots, as a stain on Australia’s recent history, is not one shared by Nick Folkes.

The chairman of far-right group, the Party for Freedom, whose stated mission is to uphold “traditional Australian family values,” says that, on the contrary, those days in December “should be seen as a great time in Australian history.”

This weekend, the Party for Freedom will attempt to hold a “memorial” for the Cronulla riots, in the southern Sydney beachside suburb, to mark 10 years since the events of 2005.

Speakers at the rally are slated to include Kim Vuga, who found fame on the SBS television program Go Back To Where You Came From and self-titled “Great Aussie Patriot” and “hard-line nationalist” Sherman Burgess.

‘WHEN AUSSIES STOOD THEIR GROUND’

But Mr Folkes insists the event isn’t simply about pitting one race against another. On his website, he states it marks a moment “when Aussies stood their ground against years of oppression and intimidation committed by southwest Sydney gangs”.

Yet the website for the event talks of the riots in terms of “Australian” victims of “Muslim” brutality, despite the fact people on both sides that day were likely Australian citizens.

Party for Freedom T-shirts mocking the brutality of 2005 with phrases such as “Sydney’s great, Cronulla’s a riot” and photos with supporters dressed in full-length niqabs haven’t helped Mr Folkes protestations.

Rival protesters, enraged at what they see as the Party for Freedom’s rewriting of history, have promised to come out in numbers in Cronulla. While a community meeting to discuss the possible protest will take place Thursday evening at Cronulla’s RSL club.

But if the local council and the police have their way Mr Folkes won’t get the opportunity to mark the anniversary with furious attempts to get the event shut down.

TENSIONS

While tensions had been brewing for some time in 2005, the fuse for the riot was a fracas on a Cronulla beach that resulted in a group of surf lifesavers being assaulted. A week later, events got out of control when thousands protested on the beach and people suspected to be of Middle Eastern heritage were set upon. It led to revenge attacks with a convoy of cars from Punchbowl travelling to Cronulla that night.

By the end of the skirmishes, 26 people on both sides were injured while images of Australians fighting on sun-kissed beaches were beamed across the world.

This weekend’s commemoration comes at a sensitive time, following on from a string of anti-Islamic demonstrations in recent months. Since August, the United Patriots Front, of which Mr Burgess is a high-profile member, has organised two rallies in Bendigo to protest against the building of a mosque.

Last month, protesters from Reclaim Australia and Rally Against Racism had to be kept apart last month in Melton, north west of Melbourne.

The Party for Freedom say it has had three separate requests to hold a procession in Cronulla, complete with a coffin symbolising “the death of multiculturalism”, turned down by Sutherland Shire Council.

Indeed the local Mayor, Carmelo Pesce, would be happier if Mr Folkes and his supporters would just go away.

CRONULLA: ‘VIBRANT, DIVERSE’

“The Sutherland Shire is a vibrant, diverse and welcoming community,” he told SBS. “The events of December 2005 were a few dark days that are now years in the past.”

The issues championed by the protesters, he said, were Australia wide, not unique to Cronulla.

“They obviously have these concerns with Muslims and I don’t know why it has to be held in Cronulla,” he said.

Last week, The NSW Commissioner of Police launched a last-minute court action to prevent the Party for Freedom from going ahead with its event on Saturday.

Arriving at court on Friday, Mr Folkes denied he was a racist or fascist but also resisted calling the 2005’s events a “riot”.

“It was a rebellion,” he told a man on the steps of the Supreme Court, even though the word “riot” is peppered throughout his own website.

In blog posts, Mr Folkes has denounced the legal action as the result of an “immoral alliance” of his critics and said, “due process has been trashed and violated by elitist multiculturalisms eager to protect ethnic privilege and entitlement, and shut down any righteous opposition.”

It’s claims are rejected by Mr Pesce. “I don’t have a problem with freedom of speech,” he said, reported the Telegraph. “I have a problem with racism, hate speech and violence.”

A decision on whether the rally can go ahead is expected imminently.

Mr Folkes said the group was willing to compromise but not to the point the protest would be cancelled. “It’s going to go ahead, rain, hail or shine, prison or Supreme Court.”

NSW Police say they are well prepared for any contingency and a police operation will be put in place if the rally does go ahead. “Police will not tolerate unlawful behaviour or any action that risks the safety of others; anyone caught breaking the law will be swiftly arrested and charged,” a spokeswoman said in a statement to AAP.

— with AAP