BY RAUL BASSI
SYDNEY — On May 18, when activists from the Bankstown branch of the Socialist Alliance went to the office at the top of the arcade, they found the place had been sealed off by the police.
After some enquiring, they learnt what had happened. Early in the morning, a homeless man living in that arcade was burnt to death by unknown people, possibly the same people who burnt his few belongings a couple of months before.
The police believe the man’s name was Aldo.
Who could do something like this? We don’t know, as we don’t know the reasons why. But we do know that things like this could only happen under a system where human life is valued by how much money it represents.
We didn’t know much about this man, friendly but completely self contained. He never told us his name, or why he ended up in that situation.
We really think of his death was a result of the complete abandonment and lack of care that governments show to human beings like him.
Think. There are about 250,000 homeless in a rich country like Australia and, at the same time, hundreds of thousands of unoccupied houses and units in Sydney alone.
Ask yourself: is this system fair or human when it allows these things to happen? You, like us, know the answer.
From Green Left Weekly, May 28, 2003.
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