BY PIP HINMAN
The Socialist Alliance has made stopping the war on Iraq and bringing back the troops the centrepiece of our NSW election campaign. The fact that this is a state election doesn't make our focus any less relevant.
Both major parties support this war: their differences are just over the process. Federal opposition leader Simon Crean and NSW Premier Bob Carr want the UN to give "clearance" for a war — Prime Minister John Howard says "clearance" isn't necessary.
Not only will the war devastate Iraq, it will affect our lives as well. It already is. Since September 11, 2001, and the beginning of the US-led "war on terrorism", racism has become endemic in Australia. Racist propaganda from the corporate media, fed by various parliamentarians, is having a huge impact on people of the Muslim faith or Arab descent.
Racism and xenophobia are being used to used to sow fear and divide the community. They were used to promote the war on Afghanistan, and now are being used to promote the war on Iraq.
Carr has been an expert at using these tricks for some time: his vehement support of the NSW police's use of "racial profiling" has defended a system that makes the lives of young Lebanese and Vietnamese men a misery in Sydney's west.
Now, Carr, like rulers around the world, is using racism to shore up support for repressive "anti-terror" laws and to get himself re-elected.
Carr's been quick talk up "law and order" — a euphemism for taking away even more civil liberties and democratic rights. In the context of a war on Iraq, Arab-Australians — particularly those of the Muslim faith — are likely to come under sustained harassment as a result of Carr's new laws, and all with "clearance" from the ALP.
It shouldn't be forgotten, too, that it was Carr who called on Howard to introduce a version of the US Homeland Security Act. This draconian legislation, supposedly aimed at curbing "terrorism", has been used instead to attack civil liberties and union rights.
The Socialist Alliance doesn't agree with the hype from Macquarie Street, arguing that March 22 is "the day to have your say". March 22 is a foregone conclusion: those with money and privilege will remain in power. In a real democracy, this wouldn't happen. We would be having a say in the fundamental decisions affecting our lives.
This is why strengthening the anti-war movement is so important. Movements such as this are the most democratic way people have to express their views. They are the voice of the people and the parliament of the streets: governments ignore them at their peril.
Not just in Australia's main cities, but across the country, from Coffs Harbour to Coogee to Colac and Clare, people are taking a stand. The size and breadth of this movement is bigger than at the beginning of the Vietnam War, let alone the last Gulf War.
Hundreds of people are attending organising meetings — 300 people in Forster, 200 on the Sunshine Coast. Campus anti-war groups are organising even before the semester begins and unions are beginning to take a stand. The huge sentiment against the war is even forcing splits in the conservative camp — such as the NSW Liberals opposed to the war.
The level of self-organisation and mass sentiment against the war is shifting politics to the left, and the ALP and many trade union leaderships are rushing to catch up.
The Socialist Alliance is committed to building this anti-war movement in alliance with all other anti-war forces and individuals, especially those Labor dissidents who are taking a strong stand against the war. We're also keen to encourage union leaderships to reflect the majority sentiment in their ranks, as is happening in WA and Victoria.
Like many of the Greens, we have a vision of a society which is geared to meeting social needs and also protects the environment. But we differ on how to get there. The Greens place a heavy emphasis on parliamentary representation. Even the most progressive parliamentarian, however, is powerless without a mass movement powering change. We do not believe that representative democracy works in a society which puts profits before people.
The Socialist Alliance believes that capitalism can never be made kinder, or more humane. Since 9/11 and the "war on terrorism", capitalism has become even more brutal.
Social change can only come about when millions of ordinary people become political actors themselves — a glimpse of this is visible in the movement against this unjust war.
We believe in strengthening those institutions that are committed to defending our needs — including fighting unions and really progressive political parties.
It would be invaluable for the anti-war movement if the alliance won a seat in the NSW election. We'd use parliament as a platform for the anti-war movement, as well as other social issues. We'd devote the considerable parliamentary resources not only to resisting the war, but also campaigns to fight government-imposed austerity and attacks on union and democratic rights.
[Pip Hinman is a Socialist Alliance upper house candidate in the NSW election and an activist in the Sydney Walk Against the War Coalition. She is also the national coordinator of Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific.]
From Green Left Weekly, February 19, 2003.
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