En Passant

The toe hold fascism in Australian society is getting is not just a result of the long drawn out economic problems and the uncertainty the middle classes feel. It feeds on the demonisation, the nudge nudge wink wink racism and Islamophobia of successive Liberal and Labor governments. Every government lie about asylum seekers, every Northern Territory intervention, every death in custody, every smug self satisfied panegyric to Australian ‘values’ from on high drives the racism and Islamophobia of the fascists and their useful idiots in Reclaim White Australia.

Today there is a growing separation of the professional player from their usual working class roots writes Jorge Jorquera in Red Flag. We need new football heroes like Caszely – players who defy FIFA’s policing, refuse to become adornments for bourgeois society and side with the working class communities who gave them their start.

If only one of Brazil’s players could stand up now and utter the words Socrates once did: “Give my goals to a better country.”

The corporate media and football (soccer) officials this summer have launched a hysterical campaign against football fans write Benjamin Solah and Steven Chang in Red Flag. The spectre hanging over all of this is the imposition of law and order politics in the cultural sphere of professional sports.

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.

Would you pay to watch the members of Football Federation Australia play football? I didn’t think so. Pay the Socceroos and all the other football workers a real wage increase.

St George Illawarra have saved me from September angst by giving it to me now.

Bill Shankly was the greatest Liverpool Football Club coach ever. Here is his view on life. ‘The socialism I believe in is everybody working for the same goal and everybody having a share in the rewards. That’s how I see football, that’s how I see life.’