and ain't i a woman?: Women next in line
"As to Mrs (not Ms) Hanson ... she is now being harassed by one of our chief custodians of political correctness ... quite rightly, in view of the Star Chamber qualities for which it has long been notorious, she has apparently told it to get nicked." — John Stone writing in the Financial Review.
The target of Stone's comments? The one organisation in Australia responsible for implementing human rights legislation, handling complaints and enquiring into discriminatory practices and infringements of human rights. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission — which only has the power to investigate and recommend resolutions — has recently come under increasing attack for its role in conciliating complaints of discrimination and breaches of human rights on the basis of race, sex and disability, to mention a few.
Hanson has been asked to attend HREOC to discuss six complaints of racial discrimination against her — the first against a federal politician — including one arising from her comment after the March 2 election that she was prepared to fight for the interests of her electors, "anyone apart from the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders".
HREOC, says Stone, is "an unsavoury institution, which remains free to pursue (at taxpayers' expense) ... divisive fantasies". Of course, in a political context desperate to justify major cuts to welfare spending, affirmative action and other programs to assist the disadvantaged, such "brave defiance" of "political correctness" is not just tolerated, but positively encouraged. For the present, Aboriginal people — whose land rights just might stand in the way of major mining or pastoral companies — are in the front line, but non-Anglo migrants and then women aren't far behind.
Backward and crude, racism, like sexism, remains a powerful ideological weapon for the ruling class in wealthy countries today. If you intend to squeeze the majority, hold wages and social spending down, you need to find scapegoats.
"Migrants take our jobs", they say. But how long before it is also "women taking our jobs" — "they should get back home to look after the kids", or "they just work for pocket money", etc? Judging by the ferocity of the attacks being made on organisations like HREOC, not very long.
HREOC is actually relatively powerless, but it does give those who've suffered discrimination some chance at redress. And all the indications are that women need this more than ever — sex discrimination complaints received by HREOC rose by 20% between 1994 and 1995, and 68% the year before.
It's not too late for the scapegoats and scapegoats-to-be to get together to stop these attacks, and together we can be very powerful.
By Jennifer Thompson