"We need to replace the whole punitive detention system with a humane, community-based refugee processing system. The opportunity to build the movement is now, and we cannot waste a moment."
Refugee and Immigrant Rights
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the introduction of the Racial Discrimination Act in Australia, yet we still live in a country where racism runs deep. We need to build the campaign against racism and tackle the system that gives rise to it.
The impacts of neo-liberalism, including rising unemployment (up to 25% in areas like Broadmeadows), the crisis in housing; cuts to social services and attacks on workers' rights, provide fertile ground for the far right to organise, if left unchallenged by the progressive movement.
On 22 November, Reclaim Australia and associated far-right racist groups will be mobilising around Australia to spread hatred, fear, and division.
On November 22 in cities around Australia, anti racists will be mobilising to defend the rights of refugees, Muslim communities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. These demonstrations have been organised as counter protests to nationally coordinated actions by Reclaim Australia, a racist group targeting Muslim communities.
The Socialist Alliance and its youth wing, Resistance, expresses our solidarity with the people of Paris and Beirut who were targeted in back-to-back acts of terror by ISIS forces in the past few days.
Around the world, political discussion has become increasingly concerned with immigration. The Australian establishment has been a world leader in immigration scaremongering for the past decade.
The global refugee crisis has its roots in the wars waged by global powers for resources and territory. These conflicts have left millions of people displaced and driven hundreds of thousands to seek safety and protection in countries like Australia.
Resistance: Young Socialist Alliance condemns the killing of three Palestinian youth by Israeli security forces and settlers in the past 24 hours. They have joined the nearly 500 Palestinians who have been injured by the Israeli occupation forces since clashes began several days ago.
The announcement on September 9 that Australia will accept only 12,000 refugees from Syria and that the government will seek to discriminate on the basis of ethnicity and religion is further proof that the government is lying about leading the world in welcoming refugees.
Within hours of the Australian Border Force — Prime Minister Tony Abbott's paramilitary amalgamation of the Customs Service and immigration department — announcing on August 28 that they would be joining the Victorian police and privatised public transport operators in Operation Fortitude.
Socialist Councillor: "Reject Abbott's lies: Australia can do more to respond to the refugee crisis"
"Rather than wasting billions locking up defenceless, innocent people in offshore prisons, we should close the camps on Nauru, Manus and all other refugee detention centres, lift the cap on our refugee intake immediately and organise mass airlifts of Syrian, Kurdish and other refugees to bring them to safety in Australia."