Fwd (GLW): Western Sydney march for refugee rights

["Alan Bradley" <alanb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The following article appears in the current issue of Green Left Weekly
(http://www.greenleft.org.au):

Western Sydney march for refugee rights
BY SHANE BENTLEY

SYDNEY ? The next step here in the campaign for refugee rights is the
September 23 rally to be held through the streets of Parramatta. The march,
organised by the Refugee Action Collective (RAC), is using the Olympic
period to highlight the inhumane treatment of refugees by a government that
won the Olympic bid with its claims of a superior human rights record.

The September 23 rally 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, then returning to the
mall for speakers.

RAC activist Kate Carr believes the large S11 protest against the World
Economic Forum meeting in Melbourne showed a willingness of tens of
thousands of people to stand side by side with the world's oppressed and
against the machinations of the corporate elite.

?One of the results of global corporate tyranny is the displacement of tens
of millions of people who have no choice but to seek refuge. Yet the same
governments that promote globalisation deny basic human rights to
refugees?, Carr said.

?Globalisation is all about the freedom of capital to move from country to
country in order to seek out the cheapest labour costs?, explained Carr,
who is also a member of the socialist youth organisation Resistance. ?Yet
the freedom of people to move from country to country is denied. The rights
of corporations are valued more highly than the rights of human beings.?

Actions on September 15 for indigenous rights also lent weight to the
campaign for refugee rights. The rally for indigenous rights at the
Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Victoria Park, Sydney, heard activist Isobel Coe
express solidarity with the plight of refugees.

?We have got nothing against boat people. Aboriginal people are still
dealing with the first load of boat people that arrived over 200 years
ago?, Coe said.

RAC believes that this kind of solidarity is crucial to winning refugee
rights. RAC activist and Democratic Socialist Party member Paul Benedek
also highlighted the need to involve workers and trade unions in the
campaign.

?Government racism attempts to divide `Australian' and `foreign' workers
and thus place barriers in the way of union solidarity for refugee rights.
Some in the union movement have fallen for the lie that refugees are the
enemy and have taken `Australian' jobs?, Benedek said.

?Unions have even gone so far as to help government officials to `flush
out' alleged illegal immigrants from workplaces. This alliance with the
same forces that are hell-bent on winding back conditions and union rights
weakens the ability of trade unions to oppose employer and government
attacks.

?Instead of allowing racism to divide worker against worker, unions should
be fighting to defend conditions for all ? including migrants and refugees.
It's the old slogan: an injury to one is an injury to all.?

The RAC rally will hear speakers from Amnesty International, the Muslim
Refugee Support Group, the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees plus
RAC activists, asylum seekers and others. To join the protest on September
23, assemble in Church Street Mall, Parramatta, at 1pm. To contact RAC call
Paul on 9687 5134.