"Unite against racism" rally to challenge far-right

April 9, 2010 - for immediate release

An emergency "Unite against racism" rally has been called for 2pm this Sunday, April 11, outside Villawood Detention Centre. The rally has been organized by a coalition of anti-racism groups, in response to the far-right Australian Protectionist Party who are rallying at the same place to attack refugee rights.

"The Protectionist Party are anti-refugee, anti-immigrant and racist," rally organiser Paul Benedek said. "They letterbox leaflets that scapegoat Africans, Muslims and immigrants for crime, unemployment and other social problems. They are big fans of Pauline Hanson and the British National Party, and target 'non-white' immigration, trying to whip up racial hatred."

"Yet the major parties are also to blame. They have given a green light to racism, by also demonizing refugees & using migrants as scapegoats."

"Racism kills. While the APP cowardly taunt refugees who are locked behind razor wire, with tacit support from Liberal and Labor, refugees face deportation to their deaths. Racist attacks on international students and immigrants are increasing."

"This rally will be a peaceful show of support for refugee rights, for equality and justice. We stand with those desperate asylum seekers who have fled war and persecution – not cowardly blaming them for the problems in this country. We will let all racists know their message of hate is not welcome."

Endorsements for the anti-racism rally include: Refugee Action Coalition, Latin American Social Forum, Sudanese Australian Human Rights Association, Social Justice Group, Socialist Alliance, Solidarity, Socialist Alternative, and Resistance.

Full details for the rally are:

"Unite against racism – refugees are welcome, racism is not!"
Rally 2pm, Sunday April 11,
Outside Villawood Detention Centre, 15 Birmingham Ave, Villawood.

More details can be found on facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=109582062406674

The APP's anti-refugee rally is scheduled for the same place at 3pm. To get a sense of the APP’s racist views, just take a look at their website.

For more information or interviews about the anti-racism rally, contact Paul Benedek 0410 629 088 or James Supple 0438 718 348.

Call for Sydney counter-mobilisation to far-right this Sunday

Please forward this rally to ALL people who would be concerned about the far-right taunting asylum seekers, many of whom have fled war and persecution, while they are locked behind the razor wire

UNITE AGAINST RACISM
Refugees are welcome - racism is not!

The Australian Protectionist Party have called a rally attacking refugee rights for this Sunday, April 11, at 3pm outside Villawood Detention Centre.

The APP are anti-refugee, anti-immigrant & racist. They letterbox leaflets that scapegoat Africans, Muslims & immigrants for crime, unemployment & other social problems. However, the major parties are also to blame - they have given a green light to racism, by also demonising refugees & using migrants as scapegoats.

Racism kills. Refugees are still being deported to their deaths. Attacks on international students and immigrants are increasing.

We need a peaceful show of support for refugee rights, for equality and justice - and to let all racists know that their hatred is not welcome.
Rally Sun April 11, 2pm
At Villawood Detention Centre
15 Birmingham Ave, Villawood (nr Leightonfield Stn)

Please forward this message, organise your friends, bring placards and banners in support of refugees and against racism.

Supported by: Refugee Action Coalition, Latin American Social Forum, Sudanese Human Rights Assoc, Social Justice Group, Socialist Alliance, Solidarity, Socialist Alternative, Resistance.

For information, to add your support, or if you have ideas for the rally, please phone Paul 0410 629 088 or James 0438 718 348 or email paul.benedek2@ gmail.com

Asylum seekers protest on Christmas Island

Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 12:07 AM
MEDIA RELEASE

MASS TAMIL ASYLUM SEEKER PROTEST HITS CHRISTMAS ISLAND

In scenes reminiscent of the early protests that rocked Woomera, Port Hedland and Baxter, under the Howard government, a mass protest by Tamil detainees at Christmas Island began at 4.30pm Christmas Island time, on Thursday, 27 January.

The protest is supported by all the Tamils detainees but, “We are hopeful that the Kurdish, Iranians and Arabs people will join us,” a Christmas Island detainee told the Refugee Action Coalition.

At 4.30 around 60 asylum seekers began marching around the path inside the detention with placards saying, “How Long Do we have to wait’, “Oceanic Viking 6 weeks, Christmas Island 6 months”, and “Protection Not Detention.”

The protest coincides wit h the visit to the island by Senator Fielding and Opposition spokesperson on immigration, Scott Morrison.

“People are sick and tired of waiting so long for their the applications to be processed. There are scores of Tamils now who have been waiting for six months and much longer. The government has no explanation for why Tamil asylum seekers are having to wait so long. As their placard says, processing on the Oceanic Viking was done in
six weeks, ” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.

“They are also angry at the people being charged for last year’s so-called riot and being put into the Red Compound management units.

“Australian of the year, Professor Patrick McGorry, was right when he called detention centres ‘factories for mental illness’ Perhaps Julia Gillard and Chris Evans will face up to the fact that Christmas Island is just as much a mental illness factory as Woomera or Baxter.

“There is no adequate torture and trauma counseling available and medication of the detainees is increasing. A government with a humane policy towards asylum seekers would close Christmas Island,” said Ian Rintoul.

There will be more protests in the days ahead. The detainees said they will maintain their protest “until we get answers.”

The protest also comes after detainees were told that under a new rule, management would no longer allow detainees to have mobile phones. Detainees in mainland detention centres are allowed to have mobile phones, and Christmas Island detainees have been allowed to have phones for months.

Meanwhile, it is expected that the two Australian refugee activists detained by Indonesian immigration authorities will return to Australian on Saturday morning. Tamil community activist, Sara Nathan will arrive in Sydney (Flight QF 042) at 7.40am. She will be available for media comment/interview at the airport.

For more information contact Refugee Action Coalition Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713

MEDIA RELEASE: Shooting leaves "Indonesian solution" in tatters, but pressure mounts on asylum seekers in Merak

“The Australian government did not pull the trigger, but it provided the bullets and loaded the guns that were turned on Afghan asylum seekers on the weekend,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.

“How ironic that in the same month there were celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Indonesian border guards have shot asylum seekers trying to get to Australia. But the stark reality is that the opportunity, the bullets, the guns, the patrol, boat and the training are provided by Australia. Asylum seekers are now fleeing persecution in Indonesia, sponsored by the Australian government.

“Kevin Rudd’s policy has made vulnerable people even more vulnerable. The demand for bribes is a common experience of asylum seekers in Indonesia.

“But the shooting of two Afghan asylum seekers has blown a gaping hole in Kevin Rudd’s Indonesia Solution and his claim for a humane asylum policy. No-one is going to accept that people fleeing the bullets of the Taliban should be shot in Indonesia by Australian-funded guards.

“Until there is adequate accommodation, reliable processing and a guarantee of re-settlement in Australia, there is no possibility of an Indonesian solution,” said Ian Rintoul.

Meanwhile, Indonesia authorities are steeping up pressure on the 250 asylum seekers in Merak. In what may the first steps to forcibly removing the asylum seekers, Indonesian authorities have restricted access to the port.

On the weekend, the Indonesia navy evacuated a woman who had fainted after the International Organsation for Migration (IOM) refused to call an ambulance and a doctor refused to board the boat to attend to the woman.

The IOM which has been providing assistance to the asylum seekers has now abandoned the group at Merak. There is now no direct medical support for the group.

“The IOM has been pressuring us to leave the boat since it arrived deserted us, and now they have left completely. We are urgently calling for the Red Cross to take responsibility for us,” said “Alex” the representative of the Merak asylum seekers.

On Saturday, a man claiming to be an Indonesian policeman called for “Alex”, to leave the boat, then threatened to shoot him.

“Australia should bring the asylum seekers at Merak and the Oceanic Viking to Australia. Rudd is prolonging the agony to save face, but he has already guaranteed that those with UNHCR refugee cards will come to Australia. One hundred and nine people on the boat at Merak also have UNHCR refugee cards.

“Reports that Indonesia may be considering deporting some of the Merak asylum seekers makes it more urgent that Kevin Rudd intervenes to ensure the safety of these people,” Ian Rintoul.

For more information contact Refugee Action Coalition, Ian Rintoul 047 275 713

The war on refugees: Is Rudd becoming Howard?

A Socialist Alliance Forum on Refugees, Racism & War

Sat Nov 21, 2pm
Resistance Centre
23 Abercrombie St
Chippendale

The Sri Lankan government's genocide of the Tamil people and its detention of 300,000 people in concentration camps has provoked a mass refugee flight.

At least 3,700 Tamil refugees have fled from Sri Lanka to India this year (23,000 in last three years). Only a few hundred have braved the dangerous sea voyage to Australian territory but the Rudd Labor government is seeking to have them intercepted and taken to detention camps in Indonesia. The "Indonesian solution" is Rudd's alternative to Howard's failed "Pacific solution". And worse, Rudd Labor government has offered millions of dollars to run the concentration camps in Sri Lanka and promised to assist the Sri Lankan government hunt down Tamil freedom fighters allegedly helping the refugees flee.

But people of conscience, including John Pilger, the ACTU and several trade union leaders have spoken out and the refugee rights movement is organising mass protests (Sydney march for refugees: Sun Nov 29, 2pm, Sydney Town Hall).

Guest speakers include a representative from the Tamil community in Australia, Susan Price, UNSW president NTEU, and a live hookup with Ignatius Mahendra, an Indonesian comrade who recently visited the 255 Tamil refugees who are refusing to leave their boat in Merak, Indonesia.

Read regional left groups' statement on the refugee crisis here. Socialist Alliance initiated this statement and coordinated solidarity action is being organised with Indonesian and Malaysian comrades.

More information: Peter 9690 1977 or 0401 760 577

Rally: Welcome Refugees

Welcome refugees!
No to Rudd’s Indonesian Solution!
Bring the Tamils to Australia!

12.30pm Monday 9 November
Immigration Department, Lee St (Railway Square end of Central Tunnel), City

Speakers include:
Tamil Association
Ian Rintoul (Refugee Action Coalition)
Trade Union speaker

Called by Refugee Action Coalition
Contact Ian on 0417 275 713

The bipartisan demonisation of asylum seekers has provoked feelings of deja vu among many people who thought we'd never again see Tampa-style dramas on the high seas. But as each day passes, it is becoming clear that Kevin Rudd's 'Indonesia Solution' is every bit as inhumane (and expensive) as John Howard's 'Pacific Solution'. Despite the refugee rights movement winning victories such as children out of detention and the end of Temporary Protection Visas, it's clear that we have a long way to go before Australia can claim it has humanitarian immigration and refugee policies.

Regional left groups statement on Tamil refugees

Respect human rights - free the refugees!

A joint statement of: Socialist Alliance, Australia; Socialist Party (Australia); Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM); CWI Malaysia; Network of the Oppressed People (JERIT), Malaysia; Confederation Congress of Indonesian Union Alliance (KASBI); Working Peoples Association (PRP), Indonesia; National Liberation Party of Unity (PAPERNAS); Indonesian National Front for Labor Struggle (FNPBI); Socialist Worker - New Zealand

Reject Australia's 'Indonesian solution'
Australia should welcome the asylum seekers

All respect for elementary human rights and dignity have been thrown overboard as the governments of Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia refuse to accept the latest wave of Tamil asylum seekers fleeing war and oppression in Sri Lanka and instead treat them like criminals.

The Australian government is the only of these three governments to have signed the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees but it is refusing to carry out its obligations to asylum seekers under that convention.

For weeks, more than 250 Tamil-speaking people, including children, remain in dire conditions on a boat in Merak, Indonesia. Another 68 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers, including children, remain on the Australian customs ship Oceanic Viking off Tanjung Pinang, Indonesia. Both groups are refusing to leave their boats for fear that Indonesia will lock them up in detention centres with a reputation for brutality and/or send them back to an uncertain future in Sri Lanka. On November 1, it was reported that a boat of asylum seekers had sunk near the Cocos Islands, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, and 12 are missing feared drowned.

Meanwhile, 207 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers are being held at the Immigration Detention Centre at Kuala Lumpar International Airport, and 108 Sri Lankan refugees are being detained at Pekan Nanas Immigration Detention Centre in Johor, Malaysia. Malaysia is both a transit point and a country of permanent asylum for tens of thousands of refugees from countries such as Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

Australian PM Kevin Rudd claims its policy is "humane" but "tough". It is neither. The Rudd Labor government of Australia is bribing the Indonesian government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to intercept the boats of asylum seekers on their way to Australia. This "Indonesian solution" out-sources Australia's obligation to asylum seekers to Indonesia just as its predecessor did to Nauru and PNG in the name of a "Pacific solution".

Many of those seeking asylum in Australia come from Sri Lanka where the Tamils have suffered from decades of brutal oppression at the hands of various Sinhala national chauvinist governments. The government of Mahinda Rajapaksa unleashed an all-out terror campaign this year, killing some 20,000 Tamil people in the month of May. Since the end of the military offensive, more than 300,000 Tamil people have been imprisoned in concentration-style camps and denied the right to return to their homes. It is estimated that 31,000 children are among those incarcerated, without proper access to shelter, food and medicine.

The Australian government, like many governments in the West and across Asia, supported the Rajapaksa regime throughout its final onslaught preferring to maintain trade links, including selling arms, rather than stop the Tamil minority from being massacred.

We condemn the Australia, Indonesian and Malaysian governments for their lack of commitment to the humanitarian problems faced by the refugees and we demand:

• That the governments of our countries withdraw financial and diplomatic support from the Sri Lankan government until it closes the concentration camps, and allows the Tamils trapped in camps to go back to their homes without fear of persecution.
• That no refugee fleeing war and persecution should be forced to return to the country they fled.
• That Australia, as a wealthy and developed country which has exploited its poorer neighbours, should immediately develop a program to settle tens of thousands of asylum seekers and take a leading role in helping reduce the misery of the world's millions of refugees, most of whom are trying to survive in desperate conditions in refugee camps in some of the world's poorest countries.
• That Australia allow the asylum seekers trapped in Indonesia to come to Australia to have their claims heard here and we condemn the Indonesian government for being a puppet for the Australian government in preventing refugees from going to Australia. This cooperation between these two governments is a threat not only to the Tamil refugees but to human rights in the region.
• That Australia must immediately close the Christmas Island refugee prison, close it down and allow those asylum seekers to live in freedom in Australia while their claims are processed.
• That the Indonesian, Malaysian and Australian governments respect the human rights of the refugees, give protection, humanitarian aid and accomodation to the refugees as long as they are in Indonesian territory and place no limitation for their rights to seek an asylum.
• That the Malaysian and Indonesian governments sign the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, release the asylum seekers they have in detention and allow them full access to UNHCR and human rights groups.

We appeal to all democratic and progressive people in Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia, trade unions, human rights organisations and women's rights organisations to understand the plight of the asylum seekers and to support our demands.

November 5, 2009

[If your organisation would like to add its name to this statement, please write to the Socialist Alliance .]

The bloody price of playing with prejudice

By Peter Boyle, October 28, 2009

Every time the capitalist politicians play with racist prejudice against asylum seekers there are violent consequences. I'm not just referring to the threatened forceful disembarkation of the Tamil refugees from the Oceanic Viking, which is outrageous; the bi-partisan anti-asylum seeker rhetoric in Canberra is very likely provoking more racist violence across Australia.

“Next time an Indian student is bashed up, Rudd and Turnbull, should be charged as accessories to the crime”, Sue Bolton, a respected Melbourne grassroots political activist told Green Left Weekly.

PM Kevin Rudd's I-make-no-apology stance was pinched from the hated former Liberal PM John Howard, who used it to advance a raft of reactionary positions. Howard used this rhetorical technique to steal Pauline Hanson's appeal to established reactionary prejudices.

Now Rudd is doing the same and it is having a very nasty and widespread effect. Rudd has repeated over and over again that he makes “no apology” for being “tough” on refugees, raising racist anti-refugee prejudice to a new high. But that is not all Rudd is unapologetic about, as Sydney Morning Herald columnist Annabel Crabb noted on October 27:

“In May this year, he declared himself an 'unapologetic optimist about this region's future'.

“By July, he was also an 'unapologetic supporter of the United States'.”

When politicians play with prejudice there are always violent real-life consequences. But even Crabb, a young and general socially progressive columnist, has so far ignored the real-life price of this latest bi-partisan exploitation of racist prejudice. If you can still bear to watch the ABC TV's Q & A, there is the same inescapable message that it is “civilised” politics-as-usual in Parliament House, Canberra. The nasty bipartisan campaign to fan racist hysteria is being treated as just some political game of pass-the wedge.

A similar thing is happening with the public debate on climate change. Political wordplay has displaced serious discussion about how to deal with this global emergency. Truth has become a casualty, as politicians and right-wing commentators fulminate against “climate alarmists” and rally behind the denialist' ideological leader (and mining company mouthpiece) Ian Plimer’s declaration that environmentalism is just another belief system.

David Spratt, the co-author of Climate Code Red notes in a message of support for Green Left Weekly's Spring Offensive fund appeal.

“In a world where politics and the media are the triumph of form over content, Green Left Weekly stands in contrast as a paper dedicated to publishing the news, analysis and ideas at the core of today's community, labour and social movement concerns. Whether it be the banking crisis, what is really happening in Afghanistan or environment and climate issues, GLW plays a unique role in digging and prodding and cajoling and stirring and pushing debates and actions.”

A final burst to finish off Green Left Weekly's Spring Offensive is needed. Our supporters have raised $192,042 so far this year. That's 77% of our $250,000 target for the year. Please reach for your wallet, credit card or cheque book now and help us get there!

Shame, Labor, Shame!

By Peter Boyle

A wave of deep moral revulsion swept through anyone in this country with social conscience when Labor PM Kevin Rudd uttered that ugly sentence: “This government makes no apology for a hard-line approach to people smuggling and border security.”

We are back to Tampa. An “Indonesian solution” is being prepared to replace the “Pacific solution”, as a Labor government leads both major parties in competitive mining of still deep-seated racism and xenophobia. Shame, Labor Shame.

These politician are total hypocrites. They parade as champions of human rights as the guardians of civilised values but when a small boatload of poor and persecuted refugees approach Australian waters that posture thrown out of the window.

These people are fleeing war and devastation that Western governments and corporations have supported or even caused. And they are driven, by the hundreds of millions, across many borders. In a single day more refugees cross into the territory of some of the world's poorest countries than all those desperate people who have ever hazarded a small boat journey into Australia. Imagine the outrage of these “civilised” Australian politicians if the nations bordering the world's war zones were to turn refugees away at gunpoint. But that's what the Australian navy is being forced to do by a Labor government.

So much hope, by so many people, was placed in the Rudd Labor government that it would turn its back on the ugly politics of the Howard era. Any moral credit earned by the much-celebrated apology to the Stolen Generation of Aborigines has well and truly been canceled with Rudd's recent “no apology”.

Green Left Weekly voices the outrage of those who really stand for justice and truth. This voice sorely needs to be as loud and clear as possible at times like this. Green Left Weekly is building the movements that will one day allow us to break the two parties of the right monopoly in this country. But we can only do this with your help, including your financial help.

$8678 came in to the Green Left Weekly Fighting fund since the last issue, bringing the total raised so far this year to $187,490 which is 75% of our $250,000 target for this year. We need to raise just over $60,000 over the remaining months to get there. If you can help us get there please do.

A big thank you to all the supporters who have sent in donations (regular or occasional). You are responsible for 54% of the total raised so far this year. The rest was raised through fund-raising events organised by our supporters. Please keep supporting those events. Chances are there is one taking place near you in the next two weeks

Geelong Trades Hall Council backs AWU secretary Howes on refugees

"Geelong Trades Hall Council backs Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes 100% in his call for Australia to roll out the red carpet for refugees", Tim Gooden, the GTHC secretary said today. (Pictured right).

"It's a relief that a union movement figure of Howes' importance stands up and rejects the miserable competition between the Rudd government and the Coalition on who can be 'toughest' on people smugglers", Gooden added. "Howes is completely right when he says that the issue 'brings out the worst in our politicians'."

"How ironic that the Rudd government's refusal to let a few boatfuls of people fleeing death and persecution in Sri Lanka enter Australia coincides with the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Snowy River Scheme," Gooden said. "The Chifley Labor government helped build this country by welcoming people fleeing war and persecution, but Rudd Labor increasingly resembles Howard's, one of the most racist in Australian history."

"It's even reached the point where it is sending demountables from the Baxter detention centre--suspected of dangerously high formaldehyde content--to Christmas Island to house asylum-seekers there."

"The Geelong Trades Hall Council calls on the entire trade union movement to follow the lead given by the AWU national secretary, and for it to mobilise public opinion against Canberra's bi-partisan bullies of refugees."

Gooden concluded: "The Australian Council of Trade Unions must stand up against the inhumanity of the politicians. Geelong Trades Hall Council will be doing all

Comment: Tim Gooden (0438 088 112)

RAC: Gillard's actions on refugees reminiscent of Tampa

MEDIA RELEASE

GOVERNMENT STANCE ON ASYLUM SEEKERS IS UNSUSTAINABLE
JULIA GILLARD BRINGS SHAMEFUL REMINDER OF TAMPA

“Julia Gillard’s claim that the Sri Lankan Tamils taken to Indonesia are Indonesia’s responsibility is a shameful reprise of the Tampa incident in 2001,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.

“The longer this episode goes on the more the Rudd’s policies mirror those of the Howard government. The Rudd government is letting the Liberals set the political agenda. It does no credit to a government that promised to establish a humane refugee policy in place of the divisive policies of the Howard era.

“It is an unseemly and unnecessary political fiasco. What’s more, it is a stance that is unsustainable,” said Rintoul

“Indonesia does not have the resources to deal with asylum seekers. The Rudd government has spent hundreds of millions of dollar to buy Indonesia’s silence, but that can’t last. In the end, just like those detained on Nauru, the world community will judge that the Sri Lankans and other asylum seekers in Indonesia are Australia’s responsibility.

“It is a dilemma and political crisis of the Rudd government’s own making. Rather than bluster about people smugglers and border protection, Kevin Rudd should face up to the fact that asylum seekers are a fact of life. They are not illegal immigrants. There is no flood. Just as the Fraser government took responsibility for Vietnamese refugees, surely it is not beyond the Rudd government to provide similar leadership.

In 2001, the Australian government called for international assistance for an asylum seeker boat in distress. After the Norwegian flagged vessel MV Tampa answered the distress call the then Howard government promptly tried to coerced the Captain, Arne Rinnan, to transport his cargo of asylum seekers to Indonesia. The Indonesian government, understandably, refused. The asylum seekers were eventually dumped on Nauru - so began the so-called Pacific Solution.

“What is not admitted by the Howard government, or stated clearly by the Rudd government, is that the Pacific solution collapsed because of opposition from the Nauru government in spite of million dollar bribes. More particularly it collapsed because no third countries, like Canada or New Zealand, were about to take asylum seekers who were clearly Australia’s responsibility.

“Kevin Rudd’s ‘Indonesian/Indian Ocean solution’ will also collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. But further damage will be inflicted on asylum seekers and the social fabric of Australia if the government does nothing to take a lead to stem the anti-refugee histrionics. Indonesia should let itself be blackmailed,” said Ian Rintoul.

“The Refugee Action Coalition is calling on the government to recognize its responsibilities and bring the Tamil asylum seekers to Australia.”

For further information contact Refugee Action Coalition, Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713

UWS Open Forum: 'Is Australia giving refugees a fair go'

We extend a warm invitation for you to attend the 2009 Open Forum “Is Australia Giving Refugees a Fair Go?” The forum guest speakers, Denis O’Brien, Principal Member, Migration & Refugee Review Tribunals and Jacqueline Everitt, author of the book “The Bitter Shore”, will address the issue of the effects of the government’s policy of mandatory detention on children.

The Forum will be held on Wednesday 12 August at Building EZ, Female Orphan School , Parramatta campus, arriving at 5.30pm for a 6.00pm start. Full details of the venue are attached.

This forum is a continuation of the series which started in 2008 and will continue to deal with topical and contemporary social issues and aim to bring academia and the Greater Western Sydney Community together.

We would greatly appreciate it if you could distribute this invitation through your networks.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Best Regards

Sev

Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM FAICD
Director, Equity and Diversity
University of Western Sydney
Locked Bag 1797,
Penrith South DC, NSW 1797, Australia
Website: www.uws.edu.au
E-mail: s.ozdowski@uws.edu.au
Phone: +61 2 9678 7378
Fax: +61 2 9678 7373
Mobile: +61 413 474744
Werrington Campus, Building AK.G.07

...Surely That's Not Racist?

Jon Stratton and Suvendrini Perera write over at New Matilda:

There is a direct link between the 'harmless' little gag which we often let slide and the appalling racist violence which we quickly condemn, write Suvendrini Perera and Jon Stratton

It was probably a year or two ago that one of us — the one who looks Indian but isn't — heard her first call-centre joke from a fellow academic. Registering that she was somewhat taken aback, the joker protested, "Oh, come on, you know that's not racist. People just get annoyed about all the jobs going to India. Nothing personal." Right. Nothing personal.

This colleague's bad joke has come to mind as we have watched the burgeoning catalogue of acts of violence against Indian students on the news: stabbings, bashings, beatings, muggings, burnings.

It's not racist. It's just that they work late at night. It's just that they travel by train. It's just that they have iPods. It's just that they look vulnerable. It's just that they act different — not like the good Indians who are such marvellous contributors to our multicultural society. It's just that they stand out. Right.

The violent attacks on international students in Australia have apparently been happening for a number of years. Commonwealth and state politicians, as well as the media, have sprung to attention recently thanks to a series of increasingly public interventions by the Indian Government. Students from India, however, are by no means the sole targets of the violence nor have the attacks been limited to men. International students from China have been raped. Young Chinese women students in Sydney and Perth were murdered, including the awful case of Jiao Dan who was raped and murdered in Perth in 2007.

A couple of years ago one of us visited the library of another university. In the men's toilet he was astounded to find a large scrawled graffito that read: "I raped an Asian and she loved it." Even more shocking, it was still there when he returned a few days later. He complained to the librarian that, while toilet walls are frequently the site for graffiti of questionable taste, this was completely beyond the bounds of acceptability. The next time he went there, the graffito had been painted over.

How long had it been there? Why had no other man complained about it?

Part of the answer is that racist jokes and comments have become normalised as unremarkable aspects of daily life in Australia. It's "everyday racism", the kind of unthinking racism that is so accepted that we don't consider it racism. It prevents us from seeing the racialised discriminations that happen all the time in Australia. The question is, can it inure us even to the extreme forms of violence that are enacted before our eyes?

This outbreak of violence against international — read Asian — students needs to be placed in a wider landscape that takes in a whole raft of changes to immigration policy that have accompanied the increasing neoliberalisation of Australia. These changes have everything to do with race.

Read the full article here.

Cowardly Labor caves in to racist Coalition fear-mongering on refugees

Socialist Alliance

April 21, 2009

“The Rudd government has completely blown its chance to show that its refugee policy is more humane than the Coalition’s”, Socialist Alliance spokesperson on refugee and asylum-seeker rights Jay Fletcher said today.

Fletcher was commenting on the anti-refugee hysteria manufactured by the Coalition after an explosion on board a small fishing boat packed with 47 Afghan asylum seekers and two crew killed five people and injured many more, some critically. The incident occurred on April 16 as the Australian navy was taking the vessel to the Christmas Island detention centre.

“Home affairs minister Bob Debus admits that the recent rise in the number of asylum seekers making the dangerous journey from Indonesia is due to people fleeing war-ravaged countries”, Fletcher said. “So why doesn’t the Rudd government increase the number of places available to these desperate people? Ninety percent of refugees coming to Australia have lost family members, and they genuinely need protection.”

“The racist Liberal Party immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone has got Rudd and company spooked. That’s why the prime minister sounds like a rerun of John Howard when he calls people-smugglers ‘the scum of the earth’. By blasting their lucrative trade he hopes to neutralise the Coalition and stop Australians from asking why the trade exists in the first place.”

“Yet with 16 million refugees and 51 million displaced persons in the world and a country like Australia offering a miserable 13,500 places in 2008-09, some of those fleeing death and persecution have no choice but to place themselves in the hands of people smugglers.

“Even more, many of these refugees are fleeing from wars that Australia supports—in Afghanistan the presence of Australian troops is helping create more refugees every day, so Canberra has a humanitarian responsibility to help them.

“If the Rudd government had any sense of justice or spine on this issue it would immediately announce a big increase in refugee intake and confront the racists and xenophobes and their parliamentary wing in the Coalition head-on.”

“For example, why doesn’t Bob Debus go beyond pointing out that a microscopic 379 asylum seekers have reached Australian shores over the last year and tell the nation that each year Australia admits less than one refugee for every 1000 inhabitants, whereas a comparable country like Sweden allows in 17.7 per 1000?”

Fletcher concluded: “A ‘Swedish policy’ here would see an Australian refugee and asylum-seeker intake of around 250,000 a year—the beginnings of a humane and decent approach to their suffering that this country sorely needs.”

For further comment: Jay Fletcher 0438 819 131