BY TONY ILTIS
MELBOURNE — "The borders are open for the capitalists to exploit workers all over the world but they are shut in the faces of refugees and poor people", Surma Hamid of the Committee in Defence of Iraqi Women's Rights told a forum held in Footscray on March 14. The forum was organised by the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance and was the first public meeting held in the new Melbourne western suburbs Resistance Centre.
The DSP's Arun Pradhan quoted Fidel Castro to show how the policies of the Western powers were the inevitable outcome of the socioeconomic division between the First and Third worlds. He described how companies, such as Australasian Correctional Management, which runs the brutal immigration detention camps and many of Australia's private prisons, benefit from the situation.
While the private management of the detention camps made conditions worse, returning them to state management was not the solution, Pradhan explained. It was necessary to campaign for their abolition. While liberal reforms could improve the treatment of refugees, socialist solutions were needed to eliminate the exploitation of the Third World and the wealth gap between the First and Third worlds.
These themes were taken up by Surma Hamid: "This capitalist system is based on ruthless competition among the rich class and the extreme exploitation of the mass of people all over the world. It causes a lot of misery for humanity, forcing people to flee their homes because of wars, oppression, poverty, hunger, unemployment and discrimination. The number of the refugees worldwide has grossly increased during last 10-20 years, especially after the rise of the 'New World Order' dominated by the United States."
"Oppressive and reactionary regimes" were major reasons why people are fleeing their homelands, Hamid said. "With the emergence of the US as the dominant power in the world, regimes like Saddam Hussein's in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan are today more secure and able to oppress the masses than at any other time", she explained. "While the leaders of the 'New World Order' promised us peace, wars have increased."
Hamid used the example of Iraq to illustrate why Third World people are being forced from their homes and to make the perilous journey to countries like Australia. "Saddam's regime, which has caused unnumerable tragedies for the Iraqi people, came to power with the help of the Western powers. The sanctions imposed by the US through the UN kill thousands of Iraqis every month and have completely destroyed Iraqi society. Washington has handed the people in Iraqi Kurdistan to the militias of the pro-imperialist Kurdish parties. Islamic groups practice terror. The Iraqi family law condones honour killing and discrimination against women and children. Repeated military interventions by Turkey and Iran also take place with the approval of Washington and its pro-imperialist Kurdish allies."
Hamid pointed out that the Australia government "fully supports the murderous policy of the US but treats the victims of this policy as criminals. While hundreds of thousands of people flee the oppression that results from Western governments' policies, the United Nations provides help to a very small proportion of them. While refugees suffer terrible misery, the UN process of resettlement can take several years. So, many are forced to follow dangerous, illegal paths to reach the Europe and Australia. Hundreds have killed, often drowned, while others, after being arrested, tortured and humiliated, are deported to where they come from."
Hamid told the meeting that the Australian government "has tried to catch up with other Western countries' anti-refugee policies, in terms of detaining, torturing, rejecting refugees' applications and deporting them. It has used the media to mobilise public opinion in Australia against refugees and to direct anger against them".
Hamid noted that these attacks against refugees is the policy of all Western countries. Thousands of Iraqi refugees in Netherlands and Switzerland face deportation.
The Footscray Resistance Centre is at suite 6, 48 Leeds Street. Phone (03) 9689 9867 or email <melbourne@dsp.org.au>.