On July 19, various far-right groups calling themselves “Reclaim Australia” will be holding a rally in the heart of Sydney. Their slogans will incite yet more attacks on Muslims. However, these groups which have been busy spreading hate against Aboriginal people, Asians and Africans, see this as but a tactic to whip up violence against all people of colour. Anti-racists and trade unionists are mobilising a counter demonstration to this white supremacist rally. The counter-demonstration is scheduled for 10am – half an hour before the start of the fascist provocation. We add our voice to the many others building the counter-action and urge proud working class people and all the intended targets of the racist thugs – Aboriginal people, Middle Eastern people, Asians, Africans, Muslims, Jews, gays and lesbians and other members of the LGBTI community, feminists and leftists – to join us. We say that what is needed is not simply to protest against the fascists but to shut their racist violence- manufacturing demonstration down. Contingents of trade union members must take the lead. Let’s be there at 10am on Sunday, July 19 at Martin Place between Pitt and Castlereagh Streets to sweep the racist filth off our streets. Let’s emulate the victory that was scored in Brisbane on May 2 last year when over a 100 construction workers (members of the CFMEU, ETU and other unions) were the vanguard of an anti-racist action that drove a neo-Nazi rally off the streets of Brisbane.

Every day greedy bosses are threatening workers’ hard won rights. To help them do this, the corporate thugs and their governments are attacking our unions. Meanwhile, Liberal and ALP federal and state regimes alike are slashing public sector jobs and undermining the services that working class people need the most like public housing and public hospitals. To defeat this offensive, we need our side to be absolutely united across different trades, ethnicities and nations. It is only through such unity that any rights have ever been won at all.

The capitalist bosses and their politician mates know this. That is why they have been deliberately whipping up racism to divide working class people. They have been demonising refugees and Muslims and ever more viciously vilifying and locking up Aboriginal people. Serving the exploiting class in this agenda are several extreme right-wing groups. These outfits, including open Neo-Nazis, don’t simply want to spread prejudice. They actually want to incite and unleash violent racist attacks. It was such white supremacist groups in South Carolina who incited the racist terrorist who murdered nine black people when he opened fire on worshippers at the Emanuel African Church in Charleston. Here in Australia, fascist groups – the unofficial attack dogs of official racism and xenophobia – have also been growing, egged on by the bi-partisan fear campaign being whipped up against Muslims, the thinly veiled racism of new “anti-terror” laws and the recent ominous formation of the paramiltary-style Australian Border Force. So have the number of racist assaults. In one of several reported attacks this month – each of which represents hundreds that go unreported – a 21 year-old Middle Eastern refugee was left with serious facial injuries after being first racially abused and then bashed by three youths in the heart of Wollongong.

The rabid racist groups are the most extreme enforcers of the

current capitalist order. That is hardly surprising. Any real unionist knows that the most racist person in the workplace is almost always anti-union and betrays fellow workers. The cowardly racist is often seen attacking and picking on minorities to pit worker against worker and siding with the boss when workers voice concerns in the workplace. In the same way, far right groups fanatically hate not only non-white people but also leftists who they understand are the most avowed supporters of that force which ultimately stands in the way of their fascist agenda: workers’ unity and the trade unions. The extreme right wingers follow in the footsteps of the Old Guard and New Guard organisations that had big numbers in the 1920s and 1930s and would go around attacking strike pickets and trade union activists. Today, although the bulk of the ruling class don’t want to openly identify with such extremists, the capitalist rulers know that the far right outfits are on their side. That is why their police and courts have inevitably sided with the violent racists during stand-offs with anti-racist demonstrators. That is why it is only the organised working class – drawing behind it coloured communities and committed anti-racists – that can crush the fascist menace.

The fascists are, right now, not yet able to contemplate a Hitler-style takeover. However, they are succeeding in whipping up more violent racist attacks on coloured individuals. Working class people cannot allow non-white members of our class to be terrorised in this way.

We cannot afford to allow workers who happen to have dark skin to be so intimidated that they will be unable to undertake the crucial role that non-white workers have so often played in the struggle for all of our collective rights. We cannot and will not allow Hitler-loving lunatics to divide our side with racism.

When the organised workers movement does flex its muscles to shut down the far right threat then it will be building up its strength to take on the all-sided attacks that it faces from the mainstream of the exploiting class. So let’s crush the racist, far right thugs before they start attacking our picket lines. And let’s use the confidence we gain from such victorious struggles to launch a badly needed counter-offensive against all the greedy, exploiting bosses.

☭ Trotskyist Platform ☭

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