BY SHANE BENTLEY
SYDNEY — In the wake of protests by desperate asylum seekers, and the racist hysteria of the Australian government and commercial media, the Refugee Action Collective (RAC) here is stepping up the campaign for refugee rights.
RAC is organising a protest for September 23, which will assemble at Parramatta's Church Street mall and march on Liberal MP Ross Cameron's office, before heading for the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs offices, and finally returning to the mall for speakers.
RAC activist and Resistance member Kate Carr said, "The federal government thinks it can get away with treating refugees as animals, and then pulling out of human rights conventions. People will not stand for the trampling of fundamental human rights — the government must free the refugees. We have a great opportunity to show the world, during the Olympics, that the Australian government's record on refugee rights is unacceptable and must be changed."
The protest in Parramatta will follow large protests at the World Economic Forum in Melbourne, and protests for indigenous rights in Sydney on September 15.
"It is crucial that we draw activists from these protests into the campaign for refugee rights", says RAC activist and Democratic Socialist Party member Paul Benedek.
"If you oppose global corporate tyranny that condemns a majority of the world's population to misery, you should support those fleeing that misery — you should support the refugees. And if you stand for real rights and justice for indigenous people, then you should support those rights for refugees as well."
Benedek called for the strongest movement possible. "We need to involve human rights organisations and supporters, church groups, students and working people. The trade unions need to see that their enemy is not refugees, migrants or Aboriginal people, but the bosses and their government. Racist division is poison for working people — if we unite for refugee rights, we will all win."
To join the protest on September 23, assemble in Church Street mall, Parramatta, at 1pm. To contact RAC, call Paul on 9687 5134.