En Passant

Tony Abbott claims we are number one per capita in taking in refugees. We are not. We are not number one but number 27 per capita. This is a good analysis with, you know, FACTS, not Tony Abbott lies, about Australia’s pathetic response to refugees. It is from the Refugee Council of Australia.

It says much about the state of Australian society today that we have a great footballer very possibly being hounded out of his job because he is black while a sleazy untrustworthy and biased politician who has allegedly abused entitlements for decades will in all probability keep her job of throwing Labor politicians out of Parliament.

Just as the Reclaim White Australia racists and fascists plan to rally this Saturday and Sunday across the country, so we are building counter-protests to welcome and defend Muslims. I urge all anti-racists and anti-fascists to attend and spread a message of love against the purveyors of hate, and in doing that help to drive the fascists and their useful idiots back into their cesspits.

The anger provoked by Freddie Gray’s death has been building for years – the result of entrenched racism and economic inequality, not to mention the long history of police brutality and killings, mainly of African American men.

Writing in the Irish Socialist Worker Memet Uludag argues that we must support refugees, oppose the imperialism that drowns them at sea and build a political alternative that embraces our humanity, not hatred. Among other things Memet explains the increase in deaths this year in the Mediterranean are the result of rotten racist anti-immigrant policy changes by the EU.

‘Tomorrow we are going to be hitting the streets to convince people to boycott ANZC Day,’ Mr Neville Nazi-Nutter said. ‘We need to get the word out there that ANZAC Day is a great big Muslim plot. All us great patriots need to unite around this. That is why The ND are saying “Boycott ANZAC Day. Boycott Gallipoli.” ‘ The ND.

The ND.

Why the silence on the racist nature of the Reclaim Australia rallies Mr Abbott and Mr Shorten? Could it be not only that you condone this racism but that your policies and actions have given it life and support? You can’t condemn your own children. Is that it?

James Supple from socialist group Solidarity has written an important and informative article on resisting the anti-Muslim and racist Reclaim Australia. He says in part: ‘The anti-racist counter-rallies were important to confront and expose the far right that is behind Reclaim Australia. But we will need to organise larger numbers if they mobilise again.’

The possibility of a populist Hanson and a neo-Nazi right within Reclaim Australia finding common ground, as they appear to be doing, is frightening. It could herald the development of a proto-fascist organisation, based on the disaffected middle and lower classes and racist fear-mongering. We need to gather our forces and begin the fight against the racist Reclaim (White) Australia movement. It is better to remove the weeds before they destroy the garden than after they have. Apply the weedicide now, not when the weeds have overrun the garden and it is too late.

A strong vibrant and active left and trade union movement, with a clear understanding of the nature of capitalism and the threat respectable racism and its hidden guest, fascism, pose to the left and to working people, could act as a pole of attraction offering hope for these middle and working class people currently driven by fear. Building such a left must be our long term goal. In the medium term it means rank and file workers winning back their unions and building strikes to defend workers’ interests. In the short term we have to confront the racists and their fascist bed fellows every time they poke their slimy necks out from their sewers of hate.