On May 31 in Melbourne, 5000 angry students marched against the increasing number of violent attacks on Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students.
Placards at the rally included "Racism is more dangerous than swine flu" and "I pay fees, I pay taxes, I get stabbed in Oz".
The march started outside Royal Melbourne Hospital, where 25-year-old Sravan Kumar Theerthala was in a serious condition in intensive care after being stabbed in the head with a screwdriver one week earlier.
When the march arrived at Flinders Street Station, the protesters occupied the busy intersection there. During the protest, news came that another Indian student had been bashed at Hoppers Crossing.
The 18-hour protest continued until 5am the next morning, when it was violently broken up by police using pressure-point tactics. Three students were charged over the protest.
Are the attacks racist?
Victoria Police claims the attacks are opportunistic rather than racially motivated. But it acknowledges that Indian students are "over-represented as victims", and had advised them "not to speak loudly in their native language or display signs of wealth such as iPods", according to an article in the February 19 Melbourne Age newspaper.
Protesters told Green Left Weekly that the police were racist and didn't take attacks on them seriously. "As soon as the police hear your accent or see your skin colour, they dismiss your complaint", one student said.
In the weeks following the May 31 student protest, many in the media denied that the attacks were racially motivated. In the June 11 Herald Sun, 3AW shock jock Neil Mitchell said: "Australians are also bashed and die in India, which does not provoke parades of chanting ocker backpackers in the streets of Mumbai."
Despite the initial denials of racism, politicians and police have been forced to act to some extent, because of the outcry in India once news of the student protests was broadcast there.
Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls announced that tougher sentences would apply to crimes deemed to be based on victims' race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. A helpline has also been established to assist Indian students who are victims of crime.
However, the authorities have not welcomed self-organisation by the students. Groups of Indian students have been waiting at St Albans station in suburban Melbourne every night from 9.30pm until the last train, to ensure that students get home safely. After a week, the police threatened to fine each student $200 if they took part in these gatherings.
The Victorian and federal government actions appear to be motivated more by Australia's economic interests than humanitarian concerns. Victorian police are to visit India to advise Indians on safety. This sounds more like an attempt to reassure Indians that they should still pay big money to study in Australia.
The Federation of Indian Students of Australia says there are around 47,000 Indian students in Melbourne. Education is Australia's third-largest export, so the government is desperate to portray Australia as a safe study destination.
Australia's record on racism
Indian students are not the only victims of racist violence.
In 2007, then-immigration minister Kevin Andrews referred to the Sudanese community when he said: "Some groups don't seem to be settling and adjusting into the Australian way of life as quickly as we would hope." A spate of violent attacks were then unleashed against Sudanese migrants, and one was bashed to death by a group of white men.
This has been the general pattern in Australia. People in positions of power — be they politicians, police or journalists — claim that Australia is not racist, but then pick out a particular migrant group as being more prone to criminal activity or less likely to learn English and "fit in".
The result is usually an increase in violence against that group, be they migrants or Indigenous.
Violence against people from Middle Eastern, South Asian and Indonesian backgrounds escalated after the US launched its "war on terror" in 2001. Before this, the Australian government had unleashed its war on refugees.
In 2002, when asylum seekers at Woomera detention centre staged a protest against their inhumane treatment, public opinion started to sway in favour of a more humane refugee policy.
However, when former immigration minister Philip Ruddock said "Australians don't sew children's lips together like other cultures", public opinion swung back against refugees.
Racism has always served an important purpose in Australia. The British colonialists wanted the land. To get it, they had to remove the Indigenous population through a combination of massacres and removal to mission stations. To justify such policies, and to get soldiers and police to carry out these actions, racism was used to dehumanise Indigenous people.
Racism motivates the Northern Territory intervention against Indigenous communities. To make the intervention law, the Howard government had to suspend the Racial Discrimination Act in 2007. There also appears to be an economic motive behind the NT intervention; a land grab for mining companies.
Racism can be beaten back
Only a small section of the population hold hard-core racist attitudes. But there is a significant section of the population whose views are often manipulated by racist politicians and racist media.
The refugee rights movement eventually succeeded in cutting through the government's propaganda about refugees being "dangerous invaders". Once refugees started being released from detention, racist attitudes usually dissipated.
Successive campaigns for Indigenous rights have also won progressively more rights for Indigenous people.
However, victories against racism and racist policies are never permanent. Periodically, capitalist governments decide to implement a racist policy to divide and rule, advantage corporate interests, or to simply win votes. Campaigns against racism have to be continually rebuilt to fight against the new waves of racist attacks.
RMIT student and Resistance member Amy Miller told GLW there was "a need for a big community response against racism and against the racist attacks on international students".
"While we should call on the police to take act against racist violence", Miller said, "the police are riddled with racism themselves so can't be relied on to take action against racism."