By Raul Bassi, Bankstown branch
Bankstown branch has been involved in a campaign initiated by the Canterbury Bankstown Peace Group in response to the racist attacks on the population of south-west Sydney.
Based in some unrelated events in this area, the federal and state governments, the state opposition, ASIO, the federal and NSW police, and especially the media (the Murdoch Daily Telegraph and Alan Jones in particular) have been portraying our community as the criminal centre of Sydney and the terrorist capital of Australia.
This picture of a lawless "Wild West", with people of "Middle Eastern appearance" running riot, has been fabricated to score political points and cover up the real problems of our community.
The facts are:
1. Some criminal shootings, most related to a family feud as the NSW police called it, have left four people dead.
2. The sudden detention and deportation, for a visa violation, of a French citizen was given terrorist connotations. He was arrested after months of leading a normal life here - working, getting married, etc.
3. Raids on innocent Arab-Australian homes are continuing.
4. The spreading of rumors, suspicions, fears and lies, all used to justify/excuse/tolerate racism, and with the result that there are more attacks on our people.
The Labor and Liberal state and federal politicians don’t want to talk about the real problems of the people in this area - cuts to Medicare and education, TAFE fees, unjust war, refugees, etc.
On November 26, local people responded. SA helped to organise and participated in a public forum initiated by the Canterbury Bankstown Peace Group. About 70 people attended and different propositions were heard about how to fight the racist attacks.
Speakers included Hannan Dover from Mission of Hope and the Muslim Students Association, Nicola Haidar from Sawiyan Palestinian Solidarity Organisation, Aaron Benedek from Books Not Bombs and Resistance, Karoandas Sekritt from Fair Islamic Press, and myself for Socialist Alliance. We also received a letter of solidarity from the Muslim Women’s Association.
After discussion, forum participants agreed that we must continue campaigning to stop the attacks, and decided to ask the NSW premier and NSW police to leave us alone and stop harassing our people, and to insist that if criminal shootings occur, the police use existing laws to charge those responsible rather than politicising the incidents.
The forum decided to suggest to the NSW opposition leader John Brogden that if he thinks this is Baghdad (a reference to a recent comment by Brogden) he should at least read the papers to learn that Iraq is an occupied country whose people are reacting against that occupation. Bankstown is a community under siege, not from outside but from inside of our own country.
The forum decided to demand of Howard, Ruddock and ASIO that if they think our area contains a "terrorist nest", they should charge the people involved - or shut up and stop peddling fear and division. The alternative is to create another Guantanamo Bay in south-west Sydney and detain all residents under suspicion of something, in the same way that Bush has imprisoned without charge for more than two years Australian citizen from Bankstown, Mandou Habib.
Socialist Alliance proposed to the meeting that:
· A petition be circulated and presented to the NSW parliament asking Bob Carr and John Brogden to apologize to the Sydney south-west community
· We support future actions organised by the Peace Group and invite everybody to participate in it
· We ask all the candidates in the next local elections to sign a declaration in defense of our community and rejecting any racist attacks
· We ask the Bankstown mayor to organise the next meeting and ensure the participation of more political and community organisations.
The fight against racism, together with opposition to the occupation of Iraq, will continue to be the main campaign priorities of the Bankstown SA branch.