By Sean Healy
The July 24 and 28 actions by secondary students against Pauline Hanson's One Nation has given a new lease of life to all those angered by the rise of racism in Australia.
But it has also outraged Hanson supporters (open or covert), and all those who were hoping that racism would just fade away. Accusations have been flying that Resistance is using "school children" for its own ends and racism as a "cover" for recruitment.
These charges raise an obvious question: why was it only Resistance, a socialist organisation, that was prepared to organise such action?
The answer to this question lays bare not only Resistance's "agenda", which is no secret, but also the "agenda" of its opponents.
Young people organising
First, it's only Resistance and socialists who recognise young people's right to organise and protest.
For Hanson and her allies, people under 18 are "children", unable to think or act for themselves.
That idea denies both history and young people's own thoughts on the matter. Young people, including those at secondary school, have always been at the leading edge of struggles for justice and are currently amongst the most committed to getting rid of racism. Why shouldn't they act on these beliefs?
Resistance, as a youth organisation, recognises that it's vital that young people do organise, get involved and think about politics, that they act on their beliefs and don't just sit there and take it. We exist to give young people the chance to organise themselves and to fight for justice.
The "establishment" parties and institutions (the schools, media and churches) have no such interest. Quite the contrary: young people getting organised and taking united action is a threat to their system, a challenge to their power. Young people are an unstable element because they can't control us.
Mass protest
Secondly, it's only Resistance and socialists who believe that stopping racism requires mass protest actions and movements.
All the "respectable", figures from Bob Hawke to Malcolm Fraser to Frank Brennan, claim to be anti-racist, but are more opposed to public demonstrations against racism. They argue that demonstrations against One Nation only build support for that party.
But we cannot sit quietly and hope Hanson goes away or leave it up to them to solve. We can't vote against racism. (And who would they get us to vote for, if we could? The Labor Party, are implicated in racism as well.)
Opposing racism is not a spectator sport. Racism can't be fought by platitudes or leaving it up to "respectable" pro-system politicians who aren't actively opposing racism at all. Racism needs to be opposed in public — in the streets and in the largest possible numbers. Then we can really challenge not only racist attitudes, but the racist power structures.
Socialism
Thirdly, it's only Resistance and socialists who not only oppose racism but oppose the system it is based on.
Racism isn't just about ignorant attitudes. It's not just about derogatory insults. Racism is about divide and conquer. It's about dividing the world into the poor and black, and the rich and white, and getting away with it.
In this country, racism justifies the theft of Aboriginal land, the super-exploitation of Asian migrants in sweatshops, and it allows Aboriginal people and migrants to be blamed for unemployment, poverty and welfare cuts — "it's their fault".
It's hardly any wonder then that the "respectable", pro-system politicians don't really challenge racism — they'd be challenging the system which gives them their power.
Socialists, on the other hand, see fighting racism as a central part of a struggle to change that system, to replace the power of a very rich elite with the organised, democratic power of the majority. That's what socialism means.
That's what our "agenda" is — it's not hidden, it's out in the open. Our socialist political perspective is why Resistance is at the front of the fight against racism, and why it will continue to be.
The "agenda" of our critics is another matter entirely. Their agenda, whether they mention it or not, is to defend capitalism, the system which racism is based on.
[Sean Healy is the national coordinator of Resistance.]