"Touch One Touch All" - Trade Unionists for Refugee Rights

To get re-elected, the Howard government whipped up racist fear of refugees. They used misinformation to demonise asylum-seekers, just as they spread lies about trade unions. We can fight racism and scapegoating and build unity across the working class.

Workplaces can become active centres of opposition to racism. Unionists know what it is like to be the target of an ongoing Coalition government campaign of vilification-and we know how to fight it with collective action, like the magnificent MUA picket lines.

Why We Must Free the Refugees

We never stop hearing about "globalisation" -- which really means big capital can go wherever it likes and do what ever it wants. In the Third World, it puts people on starvation wages and props up repressive regimes. But when our fellow workers flee to Australia to escape persecution, torture and death, the Government calls them "illegal" and puts them behind razor wire in concentration camps.

The refugees are not criminals. They have fled situations of war and persecution where many couldn't formally apply for refugee status. Many have escaped from regimes like the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. They have little hope of getting travel documents of any kind in their country of origin.

They're not "queue jumpers''. There is no queue for refugees. Under international agreements signed by Australia, people have the right to flee persecution. The Government uses the talk about "queues" to turn us against them.

No western country treats refugees as harshly as Australia. No other country imposes mandatory detention without any chance of bail. Those that do detain unauthorised arrivals seeking asylum do this in restricted circumstances, with a right to judicial review and temporary release.

The conditions in the camps are terrible. Some of them are in the middle of the desert, and new arrivals are put in solitary confinement with no newspapers, phone or TV. These are people fleeing from terrible repression in their own country. No wonder some of them commit suicide, go on hunger strike or sink into depression.

Close the Camps.

The government puts them in these remote places in order to isolate them from the community, so that they won't get support. The detention centres are really prisons -- and in fact Australasian Correctional Management, a private prison company, runs them. ACM's American parent company has been accused of abusing prisoners.

When refugees protest, Minister Philip Ruddock allows their jailers to use tear gas, or inject them with sedatives against their will.

After a public outcry against the worst abuses, the Government and now ALP leader Simon Crean have talked about letting children women and children live in the community. This is an admission of just bad the conditions are. Why should anyone have to endure them?

 Australia should do what other countries do: let refugees live and work in the community while the government processes their applications.

During the election campaign, the ALP had competed with Ruddock to show how tough it is towards "illegals". And it was the previous Labor government that first brought in mandatory detention.

The solution is to close the detention centres now. Our fellow workers from overseas are not a threat to us. The enemy is the Liberal Government and the bosses it represents.

The Liberals Are the Real Threat

Refugees are not a threat to us. They are victims of globalisation, rather than victors like the multinational companies. The real enemies are John Howard and big business.

Consider:
- No Afghan refugee imposed neo-liberal economics on the world - western corporate interests did
- No Bosnian refugee passed anti-union legislation in the Australian parliament - Peter Reith and John Howard did.
- No Iraqi refugee caused the collapse of an Australian airline company - Ansett (mis) management in concert with idiotic Liberal/Labor competition policy did.
- No Iranian refugee inflicted the GST on us - the Liberals did
- No Kurdish refugee privatised Australian prisons, public transport, electricity and water services - Kennett, Carr, Court, Olsen and Beattie did
- No Somalian refugee let a telecommunications company collapse - absentee 'rich-kid' directors did

Support the Refugee Action Collective demands:
- Close all detention Centres for refugees
- Abolish mandatory detention of asylum seekers in Australia
- Abolish Temporary Protection Visas in favour of permanent visas
- Stop deportation of refugees
- Publicly oppose racist scapegoating of refugees
- Let the boats land
- No to the "Pacific Solution"