20-03-15 – Working people and the oppressed should take note – fascism arises due to two conditions being present. The first is an economic collapse of the capitalist system. The second is the absence of a genuine class struggle left wing party and mass movement prepared to lead workers in a struggle for socialism. Here we see the beginnings of such a collapse, and the organised left is largely dispersed. Hence we see shoots of fascism arising – this time under the guise of “Reclaim Australia”. National rallies are being held in capital cities and some regional areas, organised by various ultra-nationalist groups, on April 4, which has triggered anti-fascist counter demonstrations. The WL urges all workers and their supporters to mobilise for the counter rallies. In Brisbane, the planned action is at King George Square at 11am.
Make no mistake, the flag waving “patriotism” and nationalism of “Reclaim Australia” hides the psychotic and fascist tendencies of neo-Nazism. One of the targets of their vicious bile is anyone who practices the Islamic faith, with their wildly false claims about Sharia Law and Halal food. But anyone who is a migrant, Aboriginal, ethnic or any minority, person of colour, gay or lesbian, or a worker who is a member of, or supports Unions, are also targets of fascists, potentially for deadly extermination. This is why fascists cannot be treated as just others who have a differing political opinion. Their actions present a clear and present physical danger to anyone who appears “foreign”, indigenous, or to workers and their organisations – especially Trade Unions. Fascists must be prevented, by any means necessary, from publicly marching or organising in public. This is a simple matter of self-defence.
Fascism sprouts, and can very easily thrive, in the absence of an organised and politically aware labour movement. In Australia today, the Union movement is almost totally hamstrung by treacherous pro-capitalist, and often pro-ALP, leaders and officials. These misleaders have colluded, and often helped implement, at least 30 years of austerity measures against workers, even before they were known as such. When workers and their supporters are continually sold out and betrayed by their own Union leaders, the demoralisation can easily turn in other directions. Anyone providing answers – even fascists, are then considered. If sufficiently organised, the intervention of a revolutionary workers’ party linked to the Unions has the power to prevent the drift to the far- right. If such a workers’ party does not exist, it must be built.
The other condition which has enabled fascism to rear its ugly head now, is the near total absence of an anti-war movement. Capitalism remains in a dire economic crisis, and this drives ever more reckless war provocations, principally by Western imperialism. In recent years, NATO, fully backed by Canberra, destroyed Libya and lynched former leader Colonel Gaddafi in the streets. This was after funding and arming Al-Qaeda and other jihadists against the former Libyan government. At the same time, the US empire was funding, arming and training similar jihadists against the Syrian Arab Republic, and is still doing so five years later. Unfortunately, not only has the majority of leftist parties not opposed the US led wars for “regime change” on Libya and Syria, they have given backhanded support to them, albeit under the guise of backing an imaginary Libyan or Syrian “revolution”. The fact that the only people participating in these alleged “revolutions” were US/Saudi/Israeli/Turkish/Qatari armed jihadists, was, for them, a minor matter.
The whipping up of anti-Islamic bigotry to justify war abroad and the shredding of any semblance of democratic rights for workers at home, is no minor matter, however. Deluded individuals who blame “Islam” for the problems stemming from the economic and social disintegration of capitalist society are conveniently being used by the very Labor and Liberal governments they no doubt scorn. They are also perhaps unaware that the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and now ISIS are almost entirely creations of US led imperialism, dating back to the arming of the Mujahideen against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The US led war in Afghanistan against the USSR, backed by Canberra, eventually succeeded in contributing to the counterrevolution which destroyed the Soviet bloc – which was indeed the long standing aim of the US empire.
In a similar way, the aim of the US empire, along with its Saudi/Israeli/Qatari/Turkish allies, is the overthrow of the sovereign Syrian Arab Republic. The arming, funding and training of all manner of Salafist, Wahabist, Al-Qaeda and the manufactured “ISIS” groups are all efforts to prosecute this aim. Politically backing this project are the US lackey imperialist states of the UK and France, and the junior imperialist Australian state. Once Syria is taken out, Iran will be deprived of a major ally, which will be an easier target. Once Iran has gone, the larger US targets of Russia and China beckon. 100 years after the original Anzac landing, the Abbott government, fully supported by Shorten, are using flag waving ultra-nationalism to create another war myth of diggers going to fight a good fight. That they are scapegoating Muslims here and abroad to serve their aim of endless war, as well as exterminating even basic democratic rights for workers here, should indicate to us the depths to which they are prepared to sink.
The severe Islamophobia, whipped up by the Federal Government, is inseparable from the wars it is either waging or preparing for. “ISIS” – which is armed by the very states claiming to wage war against it – is a convenient cover. It is thus impossible to oppose the Islamophobia and fascism of “Reclaim Australia” without also opposing the drive to imperialist war. Ultimately imperialist war can only be halted through the overthrow of the capitalist state and the establishment of a worker’s government. While we work towards this goal, we must now sweep the incipient fascist movement off the streets, so that workers and all minorities can walk the streets of their own town in safety. Fascism must not be allowed to flourish, for by then it will be too late. In order to defeat the threat of fascism and potential world war, workers here must at a minimum demand:
Australian troops out of the Middle East!
Victory to Syria!
Defeat Islamophobia by defeating the “war on terror”!
Mobilise workers to sweep fascism off the streets!
Workers League
PO Box 66 NUNDAH QLD 4012
E: workersleague@redfireonline.com
http://www.redfireonline.com
