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Asylum seekers and refugees hoping to settle in Australia are mainly escaping wars, poverty and oppression created by the brutality of imperialism. They should be treated humanely and decently. No asylum seeker should be locked up in prison camp conditions, but instead be provided with proper housing and support while their position is being considered. That’s what most of the Australian people want.
Mass migrations of refugees fleeing wars, poverty, oppression and dispossession have been a constant feature across the world since the emergence of private ownership of property in primitive society, when humanity split into the dominant exploiting ruling class and the exploited and oppressed class of the majority.
Today, more than one billion people worldwide live in abject poverty while the majority of the world’s wealth is in the hands of just a few people. There are local pockets of turbulence and instability and a general cyclical crisis of the capitalist economic system.
The exploitative economic and social class systems of slavery, feudalism, capitalism and now imperialism, the most developed form of capitalism, have inflicted great suffering on the people of the world, forcing many to cross borders fleeing colonial and imperialist wars of aggression, dire poverty, hunger and repression. In today’s world, the number of refugees is rising as a direct result of the imperialist powers’ intensified grab of world resources and the exploitation of labour power for super profits for the ruling class of monopoly capitalists. You don’t have to look far to find the vestiges of old colonialism and the newer hand of imperialism, directly or by proxy through its local puppet regimes, where there’s poverty, deprivation, displacement and unending wars of aggression.
And now, the people of the poorest developing countries are not only subjected to homelessness, hunger and wars, as a result of the imperialist plunder of their countries. They now also face the devastation of climate warming that’s wreaking havoc on their lives and their countries’ survival. The catastrophe of climate warming is created by capitalist and imperialist exploitation of the natural environment and great masses of people for private profit. Crises in global food security and biological diversity, in the availability and quality of fresh water (being grabbed everywhere by multinational corporations as a private tradeable commodity), and accompanied now by the threat of rising sea water levels, will add to pressure on the world’s poor to relocate or to perish.
Migrants and refugees are part of Australia’s working class history and culture
In Australia, from the time of the British colonial invasion and violent occupation of Aboriginal lands in 1788, the uninterrupted flow of capital into Australia brought with it waves of immigrants and refugees as a primary source of labour power. At the same time, the dominant interests of foreign capital in Australia continue to brutally dispossess and oppress Australia’s Indigenous people. The Australian government’s immigration policies have always been primarily driven by the economic needs of capital’s labour markets.
The material wealth and rich cultural traditions of this country were created by migrants and refugees from every corner of the globe settling in Australia. Migrants and refugees have always been an important part of Australia’s working class. To this day they toil in factories, mines, on building sites, abattoirs and in the agricultural industry. Today, as jobs in Australia’s manufacturing industry disappear, many immigrants and refugees work in the largely unskilled jobs in the services industries as cleaners, taxi drivers, in hospitality and call centres. Intense exploitation of immigrant workers and refugees is on the increase, particularly of workers on temporary migration visas and guest workers. Full credit is due to unions in areas such as manufacturing, meat processing and construction, who have fought employer abuse of workers on temporary work visas and built unity between Australian and overseas workers at the point of production.
Migrants and refugees have always stood at the centre of Australia’s working class struggles and union activism, leading many struggles in the mines, sugarcane fields, on the waterfront, on building sites, in many factories of the multinationals and others. Struggles against fascism and imperialist wars have been led by migrant workers and refugees who fled political repression in their own countries. Twenty one nationalities took part in the Eureka Stockade rebellion of 1854, Australia’s popular uprising against British colonial oppression. Many Eureka rebels were political and union activists in their own countries. Raffaello Carboni, an Italian political revolutionary who fled repression, was one of the main leaders of the Eureka rebellion.
A smokescreen of racism
Australia’s ruling capitalist class has always sought to foment and incite racism, sow divisions amongst the people and spread the backward ideology of capitalism, when it suited its economic and political purpose. The ruling class scapegoats refugees to divert attention from capitalism and imperialism as the root cause of many problems. Every new wave of refugees and immigrants is subjected to unfair treatment as capitalism tries to undermine hard won workers’ wages and conditions.
It is imperialist globalisation that is decimating Australia’s manufacturing industry and jobs and wrecking the environment, not the refugees. Monopoly corporations, hell bent on extracting maximum profits at minimum cost, are the reason that no action is taken to quickly reduce carbon emissions and stop climate warming. The real problems for Australia’s people and the environment are not the refugees, but the imperialist multinational corporations who are in the leadership of all attacks on Australian working people’s rights and conditions, and who are syphoning out of the country mega-profits made from the labour power of workers.
Unite the people; Target imperialist domination of Australia
Just imagine what can be done with these profits in Australia. Developing renewable energy industries will create many new jobs and help reduce global climate warming. Funds will be put into welfare and services for the people. The blame for climate warming lies solely with the profiteering multinational corporations who tear up the environment, refuse to cut back on emissions of greenhouse gases and pollute the world’s waters.
There is no real solution to the global plight of refugees whilst the world and its people continue to be plundered and exploited by capitalism and imperialism. The only solution is to work towards getting rid of this barbaric system. For us in Australia today, it means working to unite the great majority of Australian people from all cultural and racial backgrounds in the struggle against multinational corporations’ domination of Australia and for anti-imperialist independence and socialism. |
