Fighting for global justice after M1

Fighting for global justice after M1

This year, M1 protests are drawing together those opposed to every aspect of imperialism's war on the Third World — economic war, carried out through debt and unequal trade; military war, most evident in Afghanistan and Palestine, perhaps soon in Iraq; and ideological war, reflected in the resurgence of First World patriotism and racism.

The anti-globalisation movement has faced a new political challenge since the US declaration of open-ended war on the Third World. Global justice activists must oppose this so-called war on terrorism: the corporate elite aim to use it to intensify its economic war against the Third World, and tighten it grasp on the globe.

In the rich countries, the war against refugees and poor immigrants helps the corporate elite’s campaign. The verbal abuse and denigration of refugees is designed to completely break down the sense of international solidarity among Australians that was a product of the anti-imperialist mass movements of the 1960s and ‘70s.

As the US-led war is hottest in Central Asia and the Middle East, it is no coincidence that racist hysteria in First World countries is directed against Muslims, Arabs or those described as of “Middle Eastern appearance”.

The global justice movement draws on a deep moral outrage, caused by the horrific suffering of most of the world's people — imposed by a global system which allocates immense wealth to a few.

The victims of corporate globalisation need to be supported — whether they remain struggling in poverty-stricken countries, or manage to escape to a rich country. We should feel outrage against the hypocrisy of the Australian government turning away the very people it is responsible for generating.

Australia is part of the club of oppressor countries which destroy the lives of millions in the Third World. Australia is particularly culpable because of its polluting through greenhouse gases and Australian-owned mines in the Pacific and its support for economic sanctions which kill 6000 Iraqi children a month.

The effects of corporate globalisation reach Australia's shores in boats — men, women and children fleeing Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Palestine, escaping war, starvation caused by sanctions, repressive governments and dispossession of their land.

To be in solidarity with the Third World means furiously combatting the Coalition government’s attempts to destroy sympathy with refugees and abolish their most basic human rights.

The largest refugee population in the world is the Palestinian people. Dispossessed of their land since 1948, four million Palestinian refugees are scattered throughout the Middle East and around the world. Their demand, however, is not to be resettled in rich countries, but to be able to return to their own land.

Israel, supported by the US, intends to destroy the Palestinian political leadership and re-colonise the Occupied Territories. This makes solidarity with Palestine a high priority for activists across the world in the coming months.

Beyond M1, GLW urges global justice activists to devote their energies to solidarity with the Palestinian people and campaigning in defence of refugees’ rights. The details of upcoming Palestine solidarity protests can be found in the activist calendar on page 23, as can the details of protests that are part of a national day of refugees’ rights actions on June 23.

The refugee issue has mobilised unprecedented numbers of people in recent months — 50,000 people turned out to Palm Sunday rallies across the country. On June 23, we need to extend this with large and politically focused demonstrations in every city, nation-wide.

From Green Left Weekly, May 1, 2002.
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