En Passant

Let’s build the campaigns against the many rotten aspects of capitalism today. Let’s understand they are all linked and that ultimately it is only in the struggle against the system that its systemic repressions can be challenged and ultimately overcome. Workers have that power. The struggles today if they are strong and militant enough can roll back racism.

However since racism is integral to the rule of capital in Australia we cannot defeat it unless ultimately we defeat capitalism. In the struggle today lies the future.

Martin Ferguson’s legacy, apart from Gina Rinehart’s obscene wealth, is a trade union movement not yet defeated but on its knees and a Labor Party heading for a massive defeat in September.

Collingwood player Harry O’Brien: In my opinion race relations in this country is systematically a national disgrace and we have a long way to go to reach a more harmonious and empathetic society.

As the Australian economy worsens, the turn to more and more vicious forms of racism, including attacks on Muslims, will proceed apace and the cacophony of lies about Islamification will reach a crescendo.

This will distract and weaken the working class and make them more and more at risk from their real enemy – capital and its attacks on living standards and jobs.

It remains the task of the left to build the fight against both overt and covert racism, against the vilification of the other that is the hallmark of both major parties, against the systemic racism that pervades our society and against the system that breeds racism.

The UK government has spectacularly failed in its mission to reduce the deficit. Dave Sewell in Socialist Worker UK shows that even if it achieved its aim it would do nothing for ordinary people.

Only overthrowing the current system can abolish the racism inherent in society, racism that breaks out regularly in football. That doesn’t mean waiting for the revolution. It means fighting racism in all its forms here and now.

It means defending refugees, defending Aborigines, defending 457 visa workers and making demonstrations for freedom and justice bigger and better, dogging Abbott and Gillard wherever they go and challenging the very system that produces the sickness in society that is the racism of capitalism.

It means supporting workers who have come here from across the globe who are in struggle and challenging the rule of capital. And it means building an organisation that links the various oppressions that arise to their underlying cause – capitalism. That is what Socialist Alternative is trying to do. Join with us in the fight for a world free of racism.

The Syrian revolution has few friends. Western powers want to tame it, Russia wants it crushed, and none of them want it to succeed. But despite recent defeats, it remains resilient. There are few illusions left in Syria. The revolution is learning the bitter lesson that it can only rely on itself.

Fighting for Women’s Liberation A public discussion by Socialist Alternative Canberra 6 pm Thursday 30 May Room G 52 Haydon-Allen Building ANU Why are women still oppressed? Who profits from sexism? How do we challenge it? Join our discussion on sexism and how to fight it today. https://www.facebook.com/events/643768505639396/

I look forward to the next installment in this magnificent victory for free speech. Might I suggest burning all BDS material in the Quadrangle at Sydney University as one option for Bishop to consider?

It is this fundamental priority – profit is paramount – that should be challenged to defend the 1200 jobs at Ford, not bowing down before profit and worshiping at its altar. The fight to defend Ford jobs, if it happens, could see the struggle for their workplace set in train a process that changes not just the ideas of workers but their reality, the reality they create and re-create every day on the production line.