On 22 November, Reclaim Australia and associated far-right racist groups will be mobilising around Australia to spread hatred, fear, and division.
Refugee and Immigrant Rights
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."
The results of the recent Australian Labor Party (ALP) conference vote on boat turnbacks shows why building a progressive alternative to the left of the ALP in Australia today is urgently needed.
On the weekend of July 18 and 19 there was another round of right-wing Reclaim Australia (RA) protests. The stated aim of RA and its offshoot, the United Patriots Front (UPF), was to defend what they call “Australian values” from the threat of “Islamicisation”.
The Tony Abbott government’s illegal “Turn Back the Boats” policy is under further scrutiny, following media revelations that in late May, Australian customs officials paid $US30,000 to six crew members on a boat carrying 65 asylum-seekers from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, which was heading to New Zealand, from Indonesia.