By Chris Sitka
People in the progressive left usually claim to be anti-racist. Therefore, I was appalled by the blatant racism of a large group of socialist women at the recent National Organisation of Women Students Australia (NOWSA) held in Melbourne.
The 1999 NOWSA collective was trying to pass an affirmative action resolution which would be binding on further conference collectives. The establishment of a quota system was proposed to ensure that neither indigenous women nor non-English speaking background (NESB) women would be under-represented or marginalised in the future. The proposal presented was drawn up by indigenous and NESB women.
The socialist caucus used every trick known in manipulative politics to block the passage of this resolution. Their main claim seemed to be that quotas would be tokenistic. When several indigenous women and NESB women got up and said they did not find it tokenistic and, besides, had actually written the policy, they were not listened to. An elder said that from her own long experience she knew for a fact that, unless there was an affirmative action policy, Aboriginal women were never seen, heard nor given genuine representation.
The socialists kept on with their campaign making ridiculous and insulting statements claiming that having a quota would mean that second rate speakers would be recruited for plenary sessions to fill the quota, just because they were black. It reminded me so much of the common sexist claim that quotas will mean unqualified women will take jobs from the real experts — men.
What sort of a so-called progressive left do we have in this country? I was really astounded by their inability to see their own racism and conservatism. They were very busily at work trying to preserve white privilege and superiority.
I am happy to report that the proposed resolution was eventually passed by the conference participants who were prepared to actually listen to and respect the indigenous women who were unfortunately forced to expend so much time and energy in this particular struggle.
To those in the progressive left who think anti-racist action is as simple as a trot down the street and a quick leaflet — think again. Look a bit deeper. Public actions are one thing. Personal actions need to be addressed too. A socialist revolution is worth fuck-all if white people do not learn to divest themselves of power.
Chris Sitka
Northcote
[Abridged].