ASIO's new 'threats'

By Joan Coxsedge ASIO recently tabled its annual report — more accurately, its annual fundraiser — in the federal parliament. This yearly caper is a ploy by senior ALP figures to claim that ASIO is now "open and accountable" and thereby block efforts from within the party to disband the organisation. To comply, each year ASIO snoops have had to dream up a new set of "threats". The latest include militia groups, neo-Nazis, "doomsday-style" religious cults and other right-wing outfits. With the Sydney Olympics looming it seems ASIO is guaranteed of funding into the next century. There are some, of course, who are hoping for acts of terrorism to justify taking away even more of our hard-won rights. Scarcely a day goes by without an inflated story about official demands for new anti-democratic powers to defend us against "terrorism" (communism being out of date). An entire industry has grown up around this non-threat, with a large array of specialist organisations and para-military police squads armed to the teeth with the latest, most expensive, and most lethal weaponry. In today's alienated society there is an enormous build-up of anger and frustration. It is possible that a disturbed individual could take a pot-shot at some symbol of their pet hatred. However ASIO cannot prevent this, nor was it set up to. Its real targets — which don't get mentioned in its annual reports — are socialists, unionists, feminists, environmentalists and activists fighting for a just society, who take part in rallies and demonstrations, or simply distribute leaflets. ASIO counters this with threats and by co-operating and maintaining selected media people, and feeding a load of bullshit to the government. Its job isn't even carried out on behalf of the Australian establishment but quite openly on behalf of a foreign power — the United States. Ex-chieftain, Harvey Barnett, openly boasted about this. Secret agencies are a sign of political weakness and make a mockery of the claim that we live in a democracy. The reason why these agencies are running riot is that the system is in deep crisis and the power-brokers are in need of protection. There is much to protest about: the sell-off of our valuable public assets accompanied by a huge loss of jobs; cut-backs to public education, hospitals and public transport; and environmental vandalism. When you get out on the streets and demonstrate, you can bet your life that ASIO will be there, watching and recording. Where else could people like Kennett and Co. get the names of "dissenters" without the help of their friendly secret political police?
[Joan Coxsedge is the author of Thank God for the Revolution, co-author of Rooted in Secrecy and publishes the newsletter Hard Facts for Hard Times.]