PROVOCATION BY VIOLENT RACISTS CRUSHED IN BRISBANE

UNIONS UNITED WITH LEFTISTS & OTHER ANTI-RACISTS GOT THE JOB DONE!

This was a taste of the power of the organised working class. It was the workers movement at its best. On 2 May 2014 in Brisbane, over a hundred construction workers from the BLF, CFMEU and ETU trade unions formed the core of a demonstration of 200 anti-racists that successfully shut down an attempted march by the fascist Australia First Party (AFP).

The violent, white supremacist AFP had planned a march in support of its larger, Greek neo-Nazi counterpart, the Golden Dawn party. However, when they showed up for their provocation they found a multiracial group of construction workers and other anti-fascists facing them down. The Queensland police, of course, came to the defence of the extreme racists. However, the cops were not able to push around this anti-racist rally the way they often do. The contingents of trade unionists embodied strength in numbers, the inherent collective ability to act in tight unison and the threat of retaliatory industrial action if the police attacked them. As a result, despite a police line protecting the fascists, the anti-racist mobilisation was able to surround the neo-Nazis at various times.

Most construction workers appeared to be self organising, although there was at least one CFMEU organiser there. They were very well aware of what danger open Nazi organising in their own town meant for them as well as for everyone else. The construction workers, supported by other anti-fascists, made sure the Golden Dawn supporters could not march anywhere. When they managed to reach the city by car, to set up in front of the Greek consulate, the mass anti-Nazi action prevented them from doing this also. At this point, the Nazis were compelled to jump in taxis and hot-foot it out of there. Some of the fascists also ended up being taught a literally painful lesson by the construction workers. Brilliant – the workers united will never be defeated!

We congratulate all those that took part in this anti-fascist victory. Trotskyist Platform is proud to have joined the unionised construction workers anarchists, anti-racist students and other anti-fascists in participating in this action and to have actively built the mobilisation. In the days leading up to May 2, we mass distributed a leaflet in working class suburbs in Brisbane calling for trade unionists and other anti-racists to join the action.

What the union participation in the May 2 anti-fascist mobilisation was based on is the understanding that the violent racism of the likes of the AFP – incited by the “civilized” racism of the Abbott conservative government – is a threat to the unity of the working class, unity without which the workers movement cannot win strike struggles to defend their rights. In joining the May 2 anti-racist mobilisation, these trade unionists proved that they are at the forefront of the workers movement and are workers who really understand the often chanted slogan at union rallies: The Workers United Will Never Be Defeated! Unfortunately, there is also another, quite opposite, consciousness that is deeply prevalent in the workers movement – a nationalist consciousness promoted by the pro-ALP union tops that portrays overseas workers as rivals for jobs with Australian workers. This Laborite ideology see the union movement using divisive slogans such as “Stop exporting Aussie jobs overseas” and “Keep out overseas guest workers.” Such slogans go against the principles of unionism and workers unity as they pit local workers against their overseas sisters and brothers. It sees one group of workers – local workers – looking to cut a separate deal with the bosses at the expense of another group of workers – overseas workers. Not only is this divisive but it harms the struggle for workers’ rights. Politically savvy trade unionists know that even if the boss at a particular workplace is using the employment of one group of especially exploited workers (like young workers) to try and undercut working conditions, it is always destructive to workers’ rights for the remaining workers to demand that the business owner favour them at the expense of the others. This only allows the boss to divide workers and distract them from the boss’ sole responsibility for the workers’ grievances.

Instead, politically advanced trade unionists know that what is needed is for all workers to unite against the capitalist boss and to demand that the conditions of the most exploited workers be brought up to that of other workers. Only this will, ultimately, stop the corporate bigwigs from undercutting workers’ rights. This applies both at a national and international level. The union movement must unite local, 457 visa and international workers to stand up together against the capitalist exploiter both here and abroad while simultaneously demanding that the conditions of 457 Visa workers and the employees of Australian- owned corporations operating overseas be brought up to that of local workers.

The construction workers’ role in the May 2 victory pushes against the stream of divisive nationalism that the pro-ALP, current leaders of the working class pump into the workers movement. By enhancing workers’ unity across racial lines and by also giving workers greater confidence in their own power as a class, the May 2 anti-fascist action increases the workers movement’s ability to stand up to the myriad attacks it is facing today – from the anti-working class, anti-poor Abbott/Hockey budget to the developing ruling class offensive against the union movement. The fact that the capitalist rulers’ anti-union campaign is targeted in the first place against construction workers’ unions makes the May 2 anti-racist mobilisation all the more important.

The working class needs to build a new leadership that can clarify and spread the lessons of struggles such as the 2 May 2014 Brisbane mobilisation to the entire union movement. Such a workers’ party would   use   powerful   internationalist- minded struggles such as the May 2 action to help drive out the influence of divisive Laborite nationalism from the workers movement. This would, in turn, make the working class more politically prepared to mobilise against the fascist threat. As the 2 May 2014 events in Brisbane showed, it is the organised working class that must spearhead the fight against fascism and racism. The workers movement will be at the forefront of this fight because the interests of their class demands that it be so, because their power to shut down production gives them the ability to deter police attacks against anti-racist mobilisations and because their collective toil at common workplaces gives workers a unique ability to organise and to act in disciplined unanimity. Most crucially, it will be when the working class lead all of the poor and oppressed in sweeping away the rotting capitalist system that fascism and racism can be swept away from this planet for good.

Below is reprinted the leaflet that Trotskyist Platform distributed to help build the May 2 anti-fascist mobilisation in Brisbane. The leaflet was titled, “Crush the Violent Racists’ May 2 Mobilisation! Unions United with Aboriginal People, “Ethnic” Minorities & Leftists Can Do the Job! Drive Out the Fascists from Brisbane to Athens!”
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Some people may have believed that the Second World War definitively put an end to the evil of fascism. Yet on 2nd May in the heart of Brisbane, a neo-Nazi group, the Australia First Party, will hold a march in support of its larger Greek fascist counterpart, the Golden Dawn. The Australia First Party was among the extremist forces that incited the December 2005 white supremacist rampage at Cronulla Beach against Arab, Asian and other non-white people. Just three months ago, the Brisbane Australia First Party attacked the January 26 Invasion Day Aboriginal rights march. Members of their Golden Dawn fascist colleagues in Greece are notorious for murderous attacks on dark-skinned people, leftists and anti-racists including the January 2013 stabbing murder of Pakistani migrant Shehzad Luqman and the September 2013 murder of anti-racist rapper Pavlos Pyssas. That the fascists plan to openly parade on 2nd May is an immediate physical threat to Aboriginal people and to the Asian, African, Middle Eastern and Islander communities of Brisbane. It will embolden every violent racist out there to commit yet more attacks – like the Neo-Nazi skinheads who in June 2012 savagely bashed Vietnamese student Minh Duong on the streets of Melbourne and left him for dead. The 2nd May fascist mobilisation is also a direct threat to the multiracial working class of Brisbane. Like Hitler and Mussolini, if fascists took power again they would exterminate real trade unions and all independent working class and leftist organisations. Yet long before they get anywhere near government, the fascists’ racist violence is already threatening the workers’ movement. For their actions sow the division, distrust and fear that is so harmful to efforts to build workers’ unity – the unity that is so crucial for workers’ rights struggles to succeed. The union movement must draw around itself all the intended victims of the fascists in a mass action to stop the 2nd May neo-Nazi threat. Indeed, a counter-mobilisation to the fascist march has been called and already hundreds have committed to this urgent action. Anti-fascists will gather at 11am, outside the Greek Club at 29 Edmondstone Street, South Brisbane. We call on trade unionists, Aboriginal people, Asian, African, Middle Eastern and Islander communities, Muslims, Jews, gays and lesbians and all anti-racists to be there on 2nd May to stop the fascist parade and drive the violent racists off the streets.

What is needed on 2nd May is not simply a protest against the Australia First Party and Golden Dawn but an action so overwhelming and determined that it will physically stop the fascist parade in its tracks and decisively disperse the violent racists. Fascism must be stopped! Fascism cannot be defeated by arguments or by debates or by ideological struggle alone. Because fascism uses physical force to “win” its battles, it must be confronted and overcome by a physical force that is far greater than itself. This force is the organised working class. In fact, it is the working class that has the most to lose if ultra-racist ideas take hold. In the long run, the working class is unable to win any gains for itself while elements of racism persist. Yet racism and fascism can be quashed if workers are mobilised in a disciplined and united manner.

Racism in Australia is undoubtedly being fed by the major parties in government, especially via their inhumane actions towards refugees and asylum seekers. Capitalist governments are acutely aware of their need to divide workers during a protracted recession. Such extreme racism from capitalist governments, however, can only proceed in the absence of class struggle and, particularly, in the absence of struggle led by the Trade Unions. If the working class does not mobilise to challenge mass unemployment and social decay – and the faltering capitalist system that causes it – then masses of disillusioned unemployed and semi-employed people and struggling sections of the middle class can fall prey to fascist movements of the ilk of Golden Dawn in Greece today.

The grotesque anti-human actions taken by fascist groups such as Golden Dawn inevitably lead to some with genuine intentions to call for Golden Dawn and/or Australia First to be banned, to have them made illegal. We are certainly not going to get in the way of the mainstream capitalists reining in their fascists guard dogs for a while. However, we absolutely should not be making any appeals to mainstream capitalists to act against their fascist counterparts. For the masses mustn’t be lulled into a false sense of security and fall into the fatal illusion that the capitalists can be trusted to keep their vicious fascist killers caged.

In reality, they are just throwing them pieces of meat, making sure that they are ready to be truly unleashed when the need arises. If we in the workers and left movement are not ready for this and have failed to put down the fascist animals ourselves – instead, leaving these dogs’ leashes in the hands of the capitalists – then, ultimately, we may well get devoured! The Australian capitalist state is itself founded on racism. It is based on the continued dispossession of the Aboriginal people of this land and racist oppression of other communities as well, most specifically seen in the barbaric treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. The capitalist state in Greece certainly has jailed some Golden Dawn leaders – but Golden Dawn continues to flourish there virtually unchecked. In fact, there are many cases where Greek police have literally stood by while Golden Dawn have beaten and assaulted immigrants and anti-fascist activists. Indeed, it is claimed that up to 60% of the police in Greece politically support Golden Dawn!

Make no mistake about it, the Australian capitalist state is no less racist and no less anti-worker than the Greek capitalist state. Here, the Australian government is leading an unremitting drive against the Union movement, in the form of Royal Commissions and page after page of anti-Union legislation stripping away workers’ rights won through over a century of struggle. In Queensland workers and community groups have lost the right to association with any group being able to be declared “illegal” at the stroke of a pen. The capitalist state is not neutral, it will not stop the fascists and does, in fact, often enough aid them. For example, in January 2011, when anti-racists mobilised to protest against a racist mural in the Sydney suburb of Newtown, the police attacked and arrested eight anti-fascist activists. Moreover, it is the capitalist state itself which creates fascism via the corporate media and corporate politicians whipping up racist hysteria in order to distract workers from their real enemies such as the banks and mining magnates who cream obscene wealth from the labour of toiling people.

What we need to defeat the fascists is united front action. That means the broadest unity in action of the different tendencies in the workers movement and in the Left – all of whom are targets of the fascists – while at the same time each group completely maintains its own banner and program. Though we in Trotskyist   Platform have sharply differing political views to the anarchist who runs the Slackbastard blog and who has initiated the 2nd May counter- mobilisation to the fascist threat, we applaud the initiative he has taken and are thus actively building this action. Strong united front action can indeed stop the 2nd May fascist provocation.

If such a victory is the result of a union-centred action it will strengthen the unity of the working class, increase its confidence in its own power and encourage it to rely only on the methods of mass struggle rather than the dead end of parliament and the courts. In short, a victorious workers-centred mobilisation to crush the fascist parade on 2nd May will give a badly needed shot in the arm to the struggle to smash the capitalists’ escalating attacks on workers’ rights and their assault upon basic social services and the poor. Unite all the working class, poor, Aboriginal and “ethnic” forces in the struggle against fascism! Crush the fascists’ May 2 mobilisation!