22-04-2024: In the space of 48 hours, the New South Wales (NSW) capital of Sydney was struck by two public stabbing incidents, from April 13 to 15. On the afternoon of April 13, six people perished after being stabbed in the multi-storey Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre, and the perpetrator was shot dead by a police officer.[1] The attacker was named as Joel Cauchi, a 40-year-old man who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 17. This assault was related to significant mental health problems, which were likely to be exacerbated by homelessness, as the assailant had recently been living in his car. The following Monday evening Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel of Christ the Good Shepherd Church was stabbed during a service at the church in Wakeley, Western Sydney. The attacker emerged from the assembled congregation dressed in a black hoodie, approached the Bishop and then attacked him while the service was being live streamed on the church’s channel on YouTube which has almost 200 000 subscribers.[2] Shocked parishioners rushed to the Bishop’s aid and detained the assailant until police arrived. An angry crowd soon gathered outside, demanding that the police hand over the attacker rather than protecting him and taking him into custody.

“Riot”

The response by the NSW police was markedly different in the wealthier eastern suburb of Bondi, compared to the western suburb of Wakeley. The stabber in Bondi was of European background, which may have been a factor in the police swiftly announcing that his rampage was not terror related. However, within 7 hours of the slashing of the Bishop in multicultural western Sydney, it was declared a terrorist incident. The 16-year-old slasher had previously been suspended from school for carrying a knife, but there were some signs that the attack was religiously motivated.[3] However, this may have been declared so that the police could target those who “rioted” against the police after the stabbing. While politicians denounced the backlash as the acts of a “vigilante” crowd, it appeared to be a fightback against extreme political repression enacted by police in Western Sydney over the last several years. For example, the police used tear gas and pepper spray on the crowd after they had been surrounded and were temporarily unable to leave.

Independent Federal Member of Parliament Dai Le stated she was shocked to hear that police had labelled the attack as a “terrorist incident”, saying that this would not make local residents feel safer and would have the effect of escalating tensions.[4] These tensions have been simmering since the unjustifiable Covid lockdowns during 2021 and 2022, imposed with the ludicrous excuse of an alleged “pandemic”. Western Sydney, with its large Middle Eastern and Arabic based population, was targeted for the worst repression with lockdowns AND curfews being imposed by the military (!) as well as police in helicopters and on horseback. Other areas in Sydney had lockdowns without curfews. Even the mainstream media at the time reported that the lockdowns in Western Sydney had crippling effects on some of the poorest residents of the state, struggling to pay their bills while dealing with incredibly harsh “Covid” restrictions.[5] While the mainstream media enforced the fraudulent Covid narrative, at the same time it reported on the blatant racism of targeting Western Sydney for the harshest lockdowns, given that the area is both the most multicultural and the most disadvantaged.[6]

“Misinformation”

Bishop Emmanuel was the only religious leader in Australia to denounce the irrational Covid repression meted out against his local community and elsewhere. Not just defending his Assyrian constituents, Bishop Emmanuel correctly sermonised against lockdowns as “mass slavery” and stated that vaccines were “futile” because living normally will boost immunity. He made the quite reasonable statement that the stress caused by lockdowns was the number one killer of the immune system.[7] The stand that the Bishop took at the time was heroic, given that almost every other religious leader capitulated to the wild state propaganda on Covid alongside almost every single politician. Whatever one’s view of religion, Bishop Emmanuel was known as one who cared deeply for his community and was prepared to take a stand to defend his beliefs and to promote peace. This is far more than what can be said for the treacherous role played by virtually all of the so-called left and almost all trade Union officials. These “rebels” turned out to be the complete opposite, as they merged with the capitalist state in its most oppressive phase in history.

The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) state media, which has played an appalling role during the years of nonsensical wall to wall Covid propaganda and by backing NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) armed Nazified forces in Ukraine, immediately tried to blame the Aussie Cossack for spreading “misinformation” on social media after the Western Sydney attack. The ABC claimed that the Aussie Cossack (a.k.a Simeon Boikov) spread the rumour that Benjamin Cohen (who is Jewish) was the perpetrator.[8] The ABC also claimed that Syrian Girl (a.k.a Maram Susli) had also posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Ben Cohen was responsible. In fact, the Aussie Cossack made no such definitive statement on social media, and Syrian Girl later posted that in fact she was tricked by the Channel 7 corporation into believing that Ben Cohen was responsible, for which she later retracted and apologised.[9] David Adler, the president of the Australian Jewish Association and a frequent guest on Sky News, had accused Syrian Girl of posting false information – when in fact it was Channel 7 who first spread the false information – but of course never withdrew or apologised.

The ABC, acting for the Australian ruling class, targeted the Aussie Cossack due to his outstanding role in leading both the freedom movement against Covid state terror and the campaign to defend Russia against the NATO led proxy war through Ukraine, which the Australian government has helped fund. Regardless of Mr Boikov’s views in favour of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he has put himself on the line to bravely defend people from Covid repression and against an ever-threatening US led imperialist war on Russia. The NSW police have threatened to arrest Mr Boikov if he steps outside the Russian consulate in Sydney, on a trumped-up charge of assault against a pro-Ukraine provocateur. The footage of that incident clearly shows that it was the provocateur who approached Mr Boikov as he was filming the pro-Ukraine “protestors” who were in practice spruiking in favour of war. Workers must demand that the police drop all charges and threats of arrest, and that the Aussie Cossack must be free to resume a normal life in the community. Socialists have differing political views to those of Mr Boikov, but we must be prepared to work with all those who resist Covid repression and are prepared to take action to prevent Washington igniting a nuclear war against the Russian Federation.

For peace not violence

Working people must also demand that no charges or prosecution be pursued against Western Sydney community members who reacted to police baton charges, tear gas and pepper spray attacks in the immediate aftermath of the stabbing at the Wakeley church. Communities are entitled to defend themselves against what they see as unfair targeting by the state, especially given the gross mistreatment of the people of Western Sydney by the police over the last several years. All in society, especially those from multicultural backgrounds and those in lower socio-economic areas, are also entitled to feel free from police harassment and targeting, and to feel safe and secure in their homes and in their local area. Local communities cannot function without a peaceful environment.

While the Bondi Junction knife attack appears to have been a case of mental illness exacerbated by homelessness, all state and federal governments for the past several decades have slashed public funding for mental and general health services and have privatised whole swathes of public housing. All governments enforced Covid repression, then sent weapons to Nazis in Ukraine to assist NATO, then gave aid to Israel for its war on Palestine – while facilitating the blatant price gouging of private corporations (such as supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths), worsening the cost-of-living crisis. The violence at home is thus linked to the violence abroad, deliberately stoked by the administrators of the Western capitalist system which cannot compete against the gargantuan industrial and technological power of the socialistic People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its Eurasian allies. The Western governments must foster hatred and division alongside this broadside, in an effort to prevent the masses from rising up against them.

While the opportunist left parties are themselves not responsible for government cutbacks for health services, they did merge with the capitalist state when it targeted Western Sydney during irrational “Covid” lockdowns – despite swearing themselves to be “anti-racist”. Moreover, for the last six months they have led and organised pro-Palestine demonstrations with divisive politics that inflames hatred. Apologising for the appalling terrorism of Hamas, they have marched in the streets effectively baying for the destruction of the entirety of Israel through more violence and war.[10] While it is certainly necessary to protest against Israel’s bombing of Palestine, this must be taken up by a genuine anti-war movement which seeks to unite the working class against imperialism (which funds the Israeli state and its creation Hamas) and its three front offensive (the Middle East, Ukraine, Taiwan), which daily portends an unthinkable World War III. Imperialism has set up the Israeli state as a hate deflection, and the Covid left takes the bait. A genuine left would seek to unite working people against the threat of war by linking it to the dire cost-of-living crisis at home, rather than taking a pious moral stand for Palestine only. A real left would march for peace rather than violence, for harmony rather than hatred, for freedom rather than lockdowns. Peace is possible with workers in power.

Workers League 

www.redfireonline.com   

E: workersleague@protonmail.com

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[1] www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-13/nsw-westfield-bondi-junction-evacuated-after-stabbing/103704952 (17-04-2024)

[2] www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13309617/bishop-stabbed-Sydney-church.html (17-04-2024)

[3] www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/church-stabbing-a-terrorist-incident-police-say-rioters-will-be-prosecuted-20240416-p5fk3r.html (17-04-2024)

[4] www.9now.nine.com.au/today/western-sydney-church-stabbing-terrorism-act-label-concerning-for-local-mp-dai-le/c0ccc0c1-8286-4da6-b18e-3252c5e102c2 (17-04-2024)

[5] www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/aug/20/tougher-covid-restrictions-for-western-sydney-criticised-for-threatening-wellbeing-of-states-poorest (17-04-2024)

[6] www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/covid-crackdown-in-sydneys-southwest-labelled-racist-amid-major-police-operation/news-story/89abbb2a64b13d43f4d838e16d632bd4 (17-04-2024)

[7] www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9832835/South-west-Sydney-Orthodox-Christian-leader-slam-vaccines-Covid-lockdowns-service-Video.html (17-04-2024)

[8] www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-15/how-misinformation-spread-after-bondi-junction-stabbing/103708210 (17-04-2024)

[9] www.twitter.com/Partisangirl/status/1779534627461603589 (17-04-2024)

[10]  www.redfireonline.com/2023/12/11/stand-with-palestine-anti-war-or-pro-war/ (20-04-2024)

Image: Police and community members face off after the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Wakeley, Western Sydney. http://www.smh.com.au