BY PETER ROBSON
& TROY SAXBY
"I really feel that it's not our problem. They call it an act of terrorism, but if you understand the religion and our life, it's not about terrorism — it's about fighting for God's laws, and America's brought it upon themselves for what they've done in the history of time."
This was Anthony "The Man" Mundine's now-infamous response when asked in an interview on Channel Nine's Today show on October 22 about his feelings regarding the war in Afghanistan. When questioned about the statement later that night by Nine's Ray Martin, Mundine said he "opposed violence on both sides".
In the days after Mundine made his comment about the war, there was a barrage of criticism from the corporate media. The Mexico-based World Boxing Council issued a statement which denounced Mundine's comments as "absurd and denigrating". It claimed his comments were "unbelievable and intolerable and seriously hurt world society and boxing". And it stripped Mundine of his WBC ranking.
The other main boxing organisation, the International Boxing Federation, did not suspend Mundine but its ratings chairperson, Joe Dwyer, stated that "Anthony Mundine is certainly entitled to his political beliefs, but I would say he wouldn't be welcome in the United States".
Because the US is the heartland of boxing, if he is refused fights there Mundine's chances of advancing his career will be severely curtailed.
The corporate media likes to tell us that if you can jump, run, punch or do any sport well, then you can become rich and famous, and even be promoted as a national hero. But when athletes publicly support struggles which challenge the status quo, the corporate media vilifies them.
US black sprinter Jesse Owens is said to have struck a blow against racism at the 1936 Berlin Olympics when he ran faster than the white "Aryan" runners of Nazi Germany. Decades later, however, when two black athletes at the 1968 Mexico Olympics raised their fists in a black power salute during an award ceremony they were stripped of their medals.
Cathy Freeman also lost favour with the media and the government for daring to run a victory lap with the red, yellow and black flag of indigenous Australia rather than the traditional blue, red and white symbol of her people's colonisers. She now compromises, carrying both, and is extremely careful not to mention her political views during interviews.
Mundine cites Muhammad Ali as his inspiration. Ali was a charismatic and skilled boxer who regularly used his fame to promote the ending of the inequality between black and white Americans. When he joined the Nation of Islam, a black religious organisation that Malcolm X was once a member of, Ali was threatened with being stripped of his world boxing title. In the 1960s when he declared "no Vietcong ever called me a nigger" and refused to go to war against the Vietnamese communists despite being conscripted, he was suspended from boxing for years.
Whether Mundine chooses to maintain his public stand against the war, given the pressure he's under, is irrelevant. That he should be asked to make a choice between voicing his beliefs and continuing in the sport he excels in demonstrates just how limited freedom is in the corporate-dominated "free world".
From Green Left Weekly, November 14, 2001.
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