En Passant

It is not just Afghanistan. It is Iraq. It is refugees drowning at sea or suiciding in detention centres. It is building workers dying on unsafe sites. It is young gay people killing themselves because of systemic homophobia. It is our Aboriginal brothers and sisters dying 17 years earlier than us. It is them being beaten to death in lock ups. It is the ongoing genocide against indigenous people, for example the Intervention and the theft of their land for the mining companies.

As Marx wrote ‘…the history of this, their expropriation, is written in the annals of mankind in letters of blood and fire.’

Capitalism itself is a bloody system and as the managers of capitalism the ALP manages the massacres.

Thus it supports the war in Afghanistan to protect the US alliance. Its payment for this is the death of Australian troops, 5 of them on Thursday and 38 over the last 11 years.

But the bigger price is paid by the Afghan people themselves. Estimates are that since figures began to be kept in 2007, up to 2011, almost 12000 civilians have died as a result of the war. Taking 2000 a year as the average this could mean in the 11 years since the invasion about 22000 Afghan civilians have been killed.

Their blood is on the hands of our rulers just as much as the deaths of Australian troops in this useless war is.

The Greens call for the troops to come home. Independent MP Andrew Wilkie and Liberal backbencher Mal Washer have both said the blood of the Australian troops is on Gillard’s hands.

No one in the Parliamentary Labor ‘left’ has condemned the war. A Liberal backbencher tells the truth – that it is a a complete waste, and that our leaders have blood on their hands – and Labor’s lapdogs of the left remain quiet. Blood is on their hands and silent mouths too.

The Western invasion of Iraq – remember the lies about weapons of mass destruction? – has resulted in the death of more than one million civilians. More blood on our leaders’ hands.

Since 1998, according to the SIEV X Committee, it looks as if well over 1000 asylum seekers have drowned trying to reach Australia. Their blood is on the hands of those Australian political leaders who have demonised, vilified, incarcerated, offshored and re-fouled refugees rather than massively increasing the intake and processing asylum seekers quickly in Indonesia and Malaysia to bring them here safely.

In the last few weeks hundreds of asylum seekers have drowned – a consequence of the vile Pacific Solution and other racist refugee policies of Labor and their acolytes on this issue, the Liberals.

Homophobia is endemic, indeed systemic, in Australia. One risk indicator for suicide among young people is homosexuality. Recognising equal love in the form of marriage equality would be one small step in the fight against homophobia and the consequent increased suicide rate among young gays and lesbians. Federal Labor will not do that.

On building sites Leighton Holdings estimates about 50 workers die each year, and the figure is they say trending up. The rate of deaths on site is twice that of the UK. In Great Britain there is a safety code and it is enforced.

There should be no deaths on building sites. Each one is on the hands of the bosses, politicians and media who bleat about union thuggery and at the same time allow the real violence and deaths in the name of profit to continue.

Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders die on average 17 years earlier than non-indigenous Australians. To put that in perspective they die on average before reaching pension age. The rates have changed little under Labor or Liberal governments.

Capitalism is a system built on the blood of its soldiers, indigenous people, refugees and workers. Only overthrowing this system of death can bring peace and safety to the world.

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