En Passant

Racists and right wingers are trying to use yesterday’s horrific killing in south London to divide working people and whip up hatred of Muslims. It is crucial that we stop them. We must not allow this to be exploited to generate racism or to give a boost to the far right. We need unity against racism, and unity against the Tories. The US and Britain have murdered hundreds of thousands of people in the “war on terror” over the past 12 years. The killing in Woolwich is not the way to fight it. The millions strong movements against the war in Iraq and broad mass mobilisations against racism and fascism show this is possible.

Last week the mining companies sent a shot across the bows of the Labor Party government with advertisements purporting to show how they really do pay a lot of tax. According to the ATO statistics for 2009/10 73% of mining companies were non-taxable. The mining industry has the highest percentage of non-taxpayers of any industry – about 12% higher than the average.

Tell me again Labor why we can’t tax these corporate bludgers as they plunder our resources?

We have a responsibility to see that Wilders’ racist and extreme right wing views do not pass unchallenged. Public protests make it clear that anti-racists will have our views heard. We ask all anti-racists to support and attend protests wherever he is organised to appear. He is speaking at the Roma Function Centre, 167 Northumberland St, Liverpool at 7 pm tonight (Friday 22 February). The protest against this racist is there from 6 pm to 8 pm.

So have you noticed any letters in the Australian critical of the racist Wilders? Any articles attacking him for what he is – a member of the extreme right? No. I tried. I sent 3 letters to the editor, not in any expectation of publication because when it comes to free speech Rupert holds all the cards, not me. Free speech in Australia is for the billionaires and those who agree with them or fit into their agenda.

Visiting far right politician Geert Wilders has been met with lively protests at his first speaking engagement in Australia writes Louise O’Shea in Socialist Alternative. Over 100 people gathered in a far outer suburb of Melbourne to picket his meeting and protest his message of hate. Protesting has helped relegate Wilders to the speaking tour wilderness, so let there be more of it. It is a victory for Muslims and anti-racists everywhere.

A treaty, recognising prior ownership and sovereignty, paying the rent to the indigenous owners of the land and allowing Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders to run their own affairs is a set of systemic solutions to the systemic problems of dispossession and disempowerment, systemic solutions to the past and ongoing genocide against the indigenous peoples of this country.

That would require an attack on capital in Australia and its interests. Labor won’t do that. Far better from the point of view of Gillard as the captain of the second level of capital to pick Nova Peris to open the batting in the battle for the Senate than actually take on capital to address the real issues. Nova Peris will be a willing accomplice to Gillard’s anti-Aboriginal agenda.

The Invasion Day protests, the burgeoning Idle No More indigenous peoples’ movement in Canada which is spreading across the globe, the campaigns against the Intervention and deaths in custody, all offer an alternative approach to winning better lives for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. They are movements from below, not machinations from above. That way lies the future, not one bum on one seat for a Gillard puppet in the Senate.

Australia Day perpetuates the country’s ‘founding’ racist myths and is part of the system that enslaves our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters and as a consequence, all of us here. In the spirit of true reconciliation let’s abolish this celebration of genocide. Let’s instead celebrate the 65000 years of indigenous history and stewardship of this land. Recognise aboriginal sovereignty, negotiate a treaty and pay the rent. It is time to fight for justice.

It is important to fight every manifestation of Labor’s neoliberalism now, its attacks on workers, its racism, sexism and homophobia, its kowtowing to religious bigotry.

But that will not be enough because any gains, even if won through mass action, itself problematic in today’s environment of class peace, will be under attack as the needs of capital for more and more profit reinforce the attacks on women, Aborigines and the discrimination against gays and lesbians and the acquiescence to religious bigotry of all parties in government, Labor or Liberal.

A revolutionary workers party, big enough to offer an alternative vision of real democracy and production to satisfy human need, is needed now. That is what Socialist Alternative and its unity project is about.

Campaigns like Kick It Out have been important in making racism less acceptable in football. But they shouldn’t be used as a cover for the FA’s lack of action. And black players have every right to be angry about that lack of action.

When racism is openly tolerated at matches watched by millions, it has a far-reaching effect. We should strive for unity against racism. But that shouldn’t come at the cost of keeping silent in the face of injustice.

In the first of a series of articles to mark Black History Month, Ken Olende in Socialist Worker UK explains how capitalism and slavery created racism.