http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005/riot-d12.shtml
Government and media provocations spark racist violence on Sydney
beaches
By Rick Kelly
12 December 2005
Violence erupted on Sydney=3Fs beaches yesterday, following days of
media provocation. Some 5,000 people rallied against so-called
=3FLebanese gangs=3F, then attacked immigrants and Muslims, who had been
accused over the past week of harassing beach-goers. More than 20
people were injured, and two were stabbed, in confrontations across a
number of Sydney=3Fs eastern suburbs. About 100 cars were also
vandalised.
Responsibility for the terrible clashes rests squarely with the
federal Howard government and the state Labor government. Both
administrations have cultivated a climate of nationalism, racism, and
backwardness, without which yesterday=3Fs riot could not have occurred.
The level of tension that has developed between young =3FAnglo=3F and
=3Fethnic=3F Australians on Sydney=3Fs beaches is another malignant
expression of the political establishment=3Fs attacks on =3FMiddle Eastern
gangs=3F, refugees, and alleged =3Fterrorists=3F.
Tensions on the popular North Cronulla Beach escalated on December 4,
when a lifesaver was allegedly assaulted by an 18-year-old man of
Lebanese descent from the western working-class suburb of Bankstown.
On December 7, a racist text message was sent to local residents,
calling on every =3FAussie=3F to get to the beach on Sunday, =3Fto support
Leb and wog bashing day. Bring your mates and let=3Fs show them that
this is our beach and they are never welcome ... let=3Fs kill these
boys.=3F
Yesterday morning, 5,000 predominantly young people gathered on the
beach, waving Australian flags, and singing =3FWaltzing Matilda=3F and the
national anthem. Extreme right-wing and neo-Nazi groups distributed
literature among the crowd, many of whom were drunk and had been
smoking marijuana. The mob chanted nationalist and racist slogans
directed against Lebanese people.
People in the crowd then attacked anyone they found who appeared to be
of Middle Eastern descent or a Muslim. Numbers of young people
visiting the beach were assaulted with fists, feet, and bottles. One
woman had her head scarf torn off, and was forced to flee to the surf
lifesaving club for protection. Two girls were also attacked, to
shouts of =3FKill the Leb b=3F=3F-s=3F from the crowd.
Dozens of thugs stormed the local train station and viciously attacked
two men. Ambulance officers trying to help the injured were also
attacked, and beer bottles thrown at their vehicles. Police vehicles
were targeted as well. Drunken teenagers reportedly roamed the streets
surrounding North Cronulla Beach, coordinating their attacks with
walkie talkies.
=3FThey threw bottles, broken bottles, food, anything they could get
their hands on,=3F 19-year old Mustafa, one of the victims, told the
Sydney Morning Herald. =3FAnd what were we doing? We were there for a
swim.=3F Local resident Sarah Id, 17, is the child of Lebanese
immigrants. =3FWe had to get out because everyone was telling us to go
home,=3F she told the Herald. =3FThey were saying, =3FYou don=3Ft belong
here.=3F We were born here and went to Jannali High [a local school].=3F
In retaliatory attacks, about 50 young men of Middle Eastern descent
later drove through the eastern suburbs, slashing car tyres and
breaking windscreens with baseball bats. The youths also clashed with
members of the =3FBra Boys=3F, a local surf-based gang, in Maroubra.
Riot police were mobilised across Sydney=3Fs eastern suburbs in response
to rumours of further violent incidents, and police helicopters roamed
the skies above the beaches.
A number of residents in the eastern suburbs told reporters of their
revulsion about the day=3Fs events, and expressed their opposition to
the racist attacks. One local, Dane Wheeler, told the Sydney Morning
Herald that he believed that most of the mob had come from outside the
area. Another resident courageously walked through the crowd wearing a
t-shirt which read: =3FI=3Fm ashamed to be an Australian in Cronulla.
December 11, a day of racism.=3F
Media incitement
While every media outlet has feigned outrage over yesterday=3Fs events,
the violence was the culmination of a week-long campaign of
provocation and incitement by the media, particularly by the Murdoch
press and =3Fshock-jock=3F talkback radio. Immediately following last
week=3Fs alleged assault on the lifeguard, right-wing media outlets
launched a blatantly racist campaign against immigrant Muslim youth.
A sample of the headlines in the Sydney tabloid the Daily Telegraph,
gives a flavour of the campaign. On December 6: =3FFight for Cronulla:
we want our beach back=3F. On December 7: =3FGangs turn Cronulla beach
into war zone=3F. The gangs referred to were not, of course, local surf
gangs and racist groups, but rather =3Fthugs of Middle Eastern descent=3F.
Last Friday the Telegraph=3Fs front page screamed, =3FNOT ON OUR BEACH:
Cronulla police vow to defend Australian way=3F. Throughout the week,
letters to the editor on the issue=3Fa number of which were critical of
the newspaper=3Fs coverage=3Fwere published under the subheadings, =3FLet=3Fs
make it safe to go back to the water=3F and =3FLet=3Fs unite to fight this
shame on the beaches=3F.
Last Friday the Telegraph also dedicated a large part of its lead op-
ed piece to a sympathetic interview with Koby Abberton, one of the
leaders of the Bra Boys gang. Abberton, the newspaper explained, spoke
with reporters, =3Fto offer a view on why his home beach=3FMaroubra=3Fis one
of the few in Sydney not to have been swamped by Middle Eastern gangs
in recent years=3F.
Explicitly racist commentary was by no means the sole reserve of the
tabloid press. The major op-ed column by Paul Sheehan published in
today=3Fs =3Fliberal=3F Sydney Morning Herald attacked Middle Eastern
immigrant youth. After first downplaying yesterday=3Fs violence as
merely =3Fthe actions of a minority of idiots=3F, Sheehan attacked the
=3Falien subculture=3F of Lebanese gangs.
=3FThe cops hate and fear the swarming packs of Lebanese who respond
when some of their numbers are confronted, mobilising quickly via
mobile phones and showing open contempt for Australian law,=3F he
writes. =3FAll this is the real world, as distinct from the world
preferred by ideological academics who talk about =3Fmoral panic=3F and
the oppression of Muslims. They will see only Australian racism as the
problem.=3F
Labour, Coalition responsibility
Media provocation, however, can only be understood as an expression of
the broader political climate of racism and backwardness that has been
consciously promoted by both federal and state governments in recent
years.
Prime Minister John Howard has based much of his political career on
anti-immigrant attacks. Immediately after his election in 1996, he
gave tacit support to the racist ideas promoted by the extreme-right
politician Pauline Hanson. The Liberal-National Coalition won re-
election in 2001 on the basis of a filthy anti-refugee campaign,
engineered around the lie that asylum seekers had thrown their
children into the sea as part of an attempt to reach Australia.
The government has scapegoated Muslims and Middle Eastern immigrants
ever since the September 11 terrorist attack and the so-called war on
terror. Immigrants and refugees have been repeatedly labelled
=3Fpotential terrorists=3F by government ministers, and significant
numbers have been the targets of intimidatory police raids. Howard has
advanced all of this in the nationalistic framework of =3Fprotecting our
way of life=3F.
In response to yesterday=3Fs events, the prime minister pointedly
refused to condemn the 5,000-strong mob as racist. =3FI believe
yesterday=3Fs behaviour was completely unacceptable but I=3Fm not going to
put a general tag [of] racism on the Australian community,=3F he
declared. =3FI think it=3Fs a term that is flung around sometimes
carelessly and I=3Fm simply not going to do so.=3F
The Labor Party, at both the federal and state levels, has been
complicit in all of Howard=3Fs manoeuvres. In New South Wales, the state
Labour government has constantly incited racial and religious
divisions, and has cultivated an atmosphere of anti-Muslim racism.
Bob Carr, Labor premier of the state between 1995 and July this year,
made repeated attacks on immigrant youth during his term in office. In
2001, Carr called for police racial profiling, after a group of men of
Middle Eastern background were convicted of rape. He also demanded
that the Howard government restrict immigration=3Fclaiming that
criminals and potential terrorists were able to enter the country too
easily. Carr also orchestrated a series of police raids on Indonesian
and Middle Eastern immigrant families accused of involvement in
terrorism. The current premier of New South Wales, Morris Iemma, was
complicit in all of his predecessor=3Fs actions.
Yesterday=3Fs violence was another indicator of the extreme social
tensions that exist within Australian society. Sydney=3Fs western
suburbs, where most of the young Muslims accused of gang activity
live, feature high levels of poverty and youth unemployment, and a
lack of recreational facilities. The city=3Fs eastern suburbs, such as
Cronulla and Maroubra, while appearing relatively prosperous, also
have high levels of youth unemployment.
The New South Wales Labor government=3Fs reliance on vicious =3Flaw and
order=3F campaigns and the Howard government=3Fs promotion of the most
backward forms of Australian nationalism are driven by the same
political imperative.
Both the Liberals and the Laborites are committed to implementing
deeply unpopular right-wing economic reforms=3Fexacerbating social
inequality, eliminating job security, and driving down wages and
living conditions. The two parties seek to deflect opposition to their
agenda by fomenting racial divisions in order to channel the
insecurity and disaffection felt by millions of ordinary people into
deeply reactionary channels. At the most fundamental level, that is
what caused yesterday=3Fs events.
--
Remove YOUR_SHOES before replying
apatriot #1, atheist #1417,
Chief EAC prophet
Jason Gastrich is praying for me on 8 January 2009
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~pk1956/
Apatriotism Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apatriotism
ASIO/DSD bait - terrorist, suicide bomber, al Qaida
:-P
.
|
