VOTE SOCIALIST ALLIANCE: Get the Liberals out! Welfare not warfare!
5 October 200110 October 2001
Canberra Socialist Alliance Media Release: No to Howard's three wars!
The Socialist Alliance candidates were joined in their call by Green and other progressive candidates in the seats of Page and Newcastle, and by Green Senate candidates for the Northern Territory.
The Socialist Alliance is approaching all anti-war candidates to put out united calls for people to act and vote against the Liberal-Labor pro-war consensus.
This initiative has so far produced joint statements by anti war candidates in the New South Wales seats of Page (Socialist Alliance, Greens, Hemp Party, Independent Labor) and Newcastle (Greens, Socialist Alliance, Progressive Labor Party), as well as by Northern Territory Senate candidates (Socialist Alliance, Greens).
In the Northern Territory, June Mills, the lead Senate candidate for the Socialist Alliance said: "Two wrongs don't make a right. While what happened in America was horrific and we all mourn the loss of life, the blanket bombing of Afghanistan is equally horrific and has already caused the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians, and threatens millions more with starvation."
Northern Territory Senate candidate for the Australian Greens, Melanie Ross, said: "Greens are calling for an immediate moratorium to allow aid to be directed to the Afghani civilians and to allow the UN to enact their response"
Ross and Mills argue that the US-led bombing campaign will only cause more poverty, instability and conflict in the Middle East and throughout the world.
Mills and Ross said - "We call for the immediate withdrawal of Australian forces, and demand that the Australian government support negotiations, increase foreign aid, ratify and implement all international human rights treaties, and support the dropping of the Third World debt and fairer terms of trade for poorer countries".
Socialist Alliance National Co-convener Dick Nichols stated: "The Alliance will keep pushing for these sorts of united declarations: they show that the opposition to the war that is out in society is finding strong political expression. They are an important part of building a mass anti-war movement to end an unjust and immoral military adventure."
For further comment: Pip Hinman 0412 139 968, Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713; Dick Nichols 0413 031 108
"Socialist Alliance condemns the war on the Afghan people. We support the anti-war movement. No US war! No Australian troops or support! No racist scapegoating! No attacks on democratic rights! "
"We also oppose Howard's war on refugees," Mr Vassilopoulos said. Socialist Alliance welcomes asylum seekers fleeing dictatorships around the world.
"And we will fight against the Government's war on Australian workers," Mr Vassilopoulos said. He added that Socialist Alliance will tax the rich until their pips squeak to pay for better public schools and hospitals and fund socially useful jobs.
Contact James Vassilopoulos 6247 2424 or John Passant 6231 3729 (a.h.)
Fellow Senate candidate Sarah Peart added that the Alliance was “more than prepared” to fight the election on Howard’s ground. “The ALP has capitulated cravenly to Howard’s inhumane refugee policy and his all-the-way-with-the-USA war-mongering; the Democrats are split and confused, while the Greens are still to make up their minds. Only the Alliance is stating the truth—that the looming war will turn the tragedy of September 11 in New York and Washington into an unimaginable human disaster.”
Ian Rintoul, Socialist Alliance NSW Senate candidate and also an Alliance co-convener, pointed out that the only certain result of the impending military action would be an increase in terror attacks, as the victims of US policies grasped for ways to retaliate.
He added that there could be no end to terrorism until the miserable conditions of life in most of the Third World were seriously addressed. “Terrorists are made, not born”, Rintoul said. “Their actions are the product of desperation, and we have to ask what is making them so desperate.”
Thorne added that the Howard government is cynically playing the refugee race card to try and divert attention away from the GST, the Liberals’ appalling record on nursing homes, health spending and child care.
“This government has been more than willing to spend over $110 million dollars for the navy to intercept asylum seekers but it is not prepared to spend even $20 million to save 16,000 Ansett jobs”, she said, adding that Ansett should be nationalised immediately.
The Socialist Alliance will be resenting Senate teams in all states and territories except the ACT and in 15 House of Representatives seats.
Contacts: 0411 080 031 (Alison Thorne), 0402 555 591 (Sarah Peart), 0417
275 713 (Ian Rintoul),
02-9690 1230 (Dick Nichols, National Co-convener), 0400 877 819 (National
Co-convener)
Three leading indigenous activists who are heading Socialist Alliance Senate tickets in Queensland, NT and WA for the coming federal elections have slammed the Howard Liberal-National government's attempt to be re-elected on the racist vote.
The No.1 Queensland Senate candidate for the Socialist Alliance, Sam Watson, is a key organiser of the Peoples March on CHOGM, which is highlighting the "Treaty Now!" demand. He says PM John Howard has taken on the racist campaign of Pauline Hanson.
Sam Watson is a veteran campaigner for Indigenous rights and an outspoken critic of the Howard government. Sam Watson believes the federal government is deliberately using the refugee issue to divert anger from itself. "The Northern Territory elections show how much the government is on the nose. Taking a hard line on asylum seekers is part of their re-election strategy. They're trying to divert people's anger about the decline in social services and the lack of decent employment opportunities. The government is scapegoating refugees in the same way as they scapegoat Indigenous people."
Watson, too, is particularly disappointed with the Labor Party's support for the government. "It's Labor's spinelessness on these sorts of issues that made me decide to run with Socialist Alliance which takes a principled stand against racism and is not swayed by opinion polls".
Mills sees refugees and asylum seekers as fellow oppressed people. "People love their land and don't usually want to leave, but when things become intolerable they are forced to flee.
"People fleeing terror, hardship and seeking a better future for their children should be welcome here" says Mills.
The Socialist Alliance's WA Senate ticket is headed by Yarulitja Isaacs, an outspoken indigenous activist and former union organiser who recently addressed the United Nations Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa.
"The Australian government has failed to implement the Genocide Convention in its domestic laws for the last 50 years", he told the conference.
"If all Australians had the same living experiences as Aborigines, a third of them would not be alive today."
Sam Watson 07-3372
7271
June Mills 0402 526 531
Yaluritja Isaacs 08 9342 5394
Socialist Alliance
national conveners
Dick Nichols 0413 031 108
Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713
Riki Lane 0400 877 819
The government has
used the horror of the attack on the World Trade Centre to whip up more
opposition to refugees. Government ministers have suggested that there
is a direct connection between the threat of terrorism in Australia and
asylum seekers arriving by boat. But like the other myths the government
spreads about refugees, there is no evidence at all for such a suggestion.
The government has been more than willing to spend over $110 million dollars for the navy to intercept asylum seekers but it is not prepared to spend even $20 million to save 16,000 Ansett jobs.
Workers are still waiting for a national scheme that will protect all their entitlements when companies go bust. While company directors walk away with millions of dollars in bonuses and payouts, Ansett workers stand to lose millions of dollars in entitlements.
Labor's electoral strategy has opened the door to the Liberals. Over recent months they supported the Liberals handing billions to private health companies and rich private schools. Nonetheless only a few weeks ago, Howard looked dead in the water. Now, with Labor totally supporting Howard on refugees and Bush's "war on terrorism", there are real fears that the Liberals could get elected for a third term.
That prospect is frightening.
The racism Howard has unleashed over refugees will get a renewed lease
of life. The war mongering will escalate. Our democratic rights will be
cut back on the grounds of "national security". Howard has also
flagged compulsory work for anyone unemployed longer than six months.
On top of all this loom the full privatisation of Telstra and the airports,
and more attacks on the union and working conditions.
Wanted-a fighting alternative
We need a fighting alternative like never before. The basis for a fight
back is there. Thirty-nine per cent oppose any involvement in the war.
Over 60 per cent of people say that any retaliation should not be against
civilian targets. What's needed is organisation to turn this opposition
into action. Rallies and demonstrations can turn the tables on the Liberals
and the war-mongers in the Labor Party.
Socialist Alliance members are throwing themselves into the campaign to stop Howard and Bush's war. We've consistently fought to free the refugees. Socialist Alliance organised national protests on the anniversary of the introduction of the GST.
A vote for Socialist
Alliance is a vote for welfare NOT warfare. It's a vote against racism.
It's a vote to tax the rich to fund services. It's a vote to put people
before profits.
VOTE SOCIALIST ALLIANCE!
Authorised by Richard Lane, Ian Rintoul and Dick Nichols, 23 Abercrombie
Street, Chippendale NSW 2008.