On August 22, fellow SA branch member Ray Fulcher and myself visited Werribee Islamic College to discuss socialism with year 9 and 10 students. Their teacher, Hakan, had got the Alliance’s phone number from Telstra in a search for “actual socialists” who could discuss socialism with students doing a course on utopian societies.
The course curriculum included some Marxist ideas but also George Orwell’s Animal Farm, and Hakan warned us that the students had developed some anti-socialist prejudices after learning about Stalin and reading Orwell.
By making the visit, we hoped to provide the students with the beginnings of a socialist analysis of the world which built on their anti-imperialist, pro-Palestinian sentiments, and also make stronger links with progressives in the Muslim community.
Our presentation was visual and interactive. I had made colour overheads from photos of Muslim socialists I had met in Pakistan and from historical books. We also showed some snippets from film footage of young people in the Sydney Arabic community discussing the Iraq War during the high school walkouts, the attempted coup against Chavez in Venezuela and European socialists talking about a socialist Europe during the anti-globalisation protest in Florence last year.
We asked the students to explain the slogan “No Blood For Oil”, which was on a poster I had placed on the wall. They understood its humanitarian message saying it referred to “not bombing innocent civilians”. We worked through this idea to explain that the message also applied to US GIs, and introduced the idea of the Vietnam Syndrome and the need for working people in the First World to act in solidarity with the peoples of the Third World to stop imperialism’s attacks.
The students asked some insightful questions, including: Do you think David Hicks should be locked up? Do you think Third World countries will ever catch up to First World countries? Do you agree with Osama Bin Laden? Would what happened in the Soviet Union have been different if Trotsky instead of Stalin had been in power?
At the end, a student presented us with a copy of the Qu’uran, the school prospectus and the latest school magazine. In return, we gave the class socialist literature and several posters about current campaigns. Their teacher was particularly interested in the poster about the anti-WTO/Cancun protest.
Hakan plans to work with the students on a dramatic presentation around some of the issues we discussed and wants us to come back and watch the show.
The response to our presence from some of the staff was initially nervous and the school Sheikh and senior teachers also came along to the talk. However, they seemed impressed by our knowledge and our descriptions of what a socialist society could be like. Over coffee afterwards with staff, the Sheikh and the principal, the principal showed us photographs from an Arabic newspaper about recent atrocities in Gaza. The Sheikh, who promised to send us some anti-globalisation CDs, turned out to be the son Sheikh Issa Moussa, a leader of the Horn of Africa community in Melbourne who has spoken at various anti-war rallies.