All out for June 22-23!

All out for June 22-23!

While the tide of domestic opposition to the Howard government's racist
refugee policies continues to rise, internationally the only person to
speak out in favour of them is the reactionary French anti-immigrant National
Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Treasurer Peter Costello used his May 14 budget speech to again whip
up xenophobia about asylum seekers and demonise people who flee here without
official documentation. He thinks he's on a vote winner.

However, the number of people speaking out against the government's
refugee policy is continuing to increase. New refugees' rights support
groups are continuing to spring up across Australia. Ruddock cannot travel
around the country these days without being met by protesters.

The Howard government, with the support of the ALP “opposition”, is
seeking to deflect public criticism of its mandatory detention policy by
closing down detention centres located in the remotest parts of mainland
Australia, like Woomera. At the same time, and again with the full support
of federal Labor, in its latest budget the government has allocated $3
billion to “border protection”.

Some $219 million has been allocated to building and maintaining a new
1200-bed prison for asylum seekers on Christmas Island (potentially doubling
the population), allowing for the phase-out of the remote disease-ridden
camp on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.

While this is related to the PNG government's reluctance to extend the
lease on the island, it's also the case that public opposition to the Howard
government's bribery and coercion of the Pacific island states to act as
Australia's refugee prison wardens is having an impact.

In the face of the bipartisan Coalition-Labor stance on refugees, supporters
of refugees' right need to continue to voice their opposition to the government's
policy in the most visible manner possible.

The Palm Sunday marches, in which some 50,000 people participated, have
been the biggest expression of this growing opposition.

June 20 is World Refugee Day, a day set down by the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees to prompt governments to renew their commitment
to the principle of granting asylum and to remind them of their legal responsibilities
as set down by the 1951 refugee convention. Australia, along with some
139 governments, is a signatory.

Refugees' rights activists around Australia have earmarked the weekend
after June 20 — June 22-23 — to be the focus for the next round of major
refugees' rights mobilisations. Under the broad banner “Refugees are Welcome!
End Mandatory Detention!”, groups are starting to organise protest rallies,
and with consistent work we've got a chance to double the numbers that
turned out on Palm Sunday.

If we managed to get 100,000 people out, not only would we wipe the
smirks off Costello's, Ruddock's and Howard's faces, we'll send a powerful
signal to Australia and the world that the movement won't stop growing
until their racist policies are dumped.

From Green Left Weekly, May 22, 2002.

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From GLW issue 493