AUSTRALIA: NSW: In response to racial violence last weekend in Sydney, state Labor Premier Morris Iemma called an emergency session of the New South Wales (NSW) parliament for today to pass a series of repressive measures that will allow police to declare "lockdown zones" throughout the city. The laws will provide extensive new powers to police who are already engaged in sweeping and unprecedented operations.

Police erected at least six checkpoints on Tuesday at various points in eastern Sydney. Motorists were stopped, and had to issue their driver's licence and explain why they were driving into the area. At one checkpoint, a queue of more than 200 cars formed as police searched vehicles for weapons. People of Middle Eastern appearance were the primary target of the roadblocks. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that in one incident, four men and one woman were ordered by police to turn around and leave the area, despite no weapons being found. "We've done nothing wrong," the woman said. "We've just been to visit a girl at Mortdale and came here for a drive."

Since then an extra 450 police, including 20 dog-squad units and riot police, patrolled the city's eastern suburbs. At least one arrest was made, but the violence seen on Monday night was not repeated. The situation remains extremely tense. Over the past three days, at least 37 people have been injured and 27 arrested, cars and shops have been vandalised, and gunshots fired in several locations. In one incident, shots were fired at a church as a primary school held a Christmas carol service. Four churches in Sydney's southwest have been attacked in the last 24 hours as the city's riots spread from race to religion. Extra police from Queensland and Victoria may soon be brought into Sydney, and summer leave for many NSW officers has been cancelled.

In announcing the emergency recall of parliament Iemma vowed to "take back the streets". "These criminals have declared war on our society and we are not going to let them win," he declared. "I won't allow Sydney's reputation as a tolerant, vibrant international city to be tarnished by these ratbags and criminals who want to engage in the sort of behaviour we've seen in the last 48 hours.. This is a fight that will continue and we will not be found wanting in the use of force to meet this, what is effectively a declaration of war."

The new legislation will give police even more authority to close off streets, erect checkpoints, conduct random searches, and seize vehicles. Alcohol-free areas can be declared and licensed premises shut down. Penalties for riot convictions are to be extended from 5 years to 15, and for affray from 5 years to 10. The presumption of bail will also be removed for anyone charged for riot and violent disorder.

Many of these measures were first trialled during the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. They will now become part of everyday life. The modus operandi of the state Labor government is similar to that used by the federal government to ram through draconian new anti-terror legislation. In that case, Prime Minister John Howard seized on a terrorist scare to push through far reaching attacks on basic democratic rights without any significant debate in parliament or the media.

Likewise, in the wake of the racial violence, there will be no public discussion or even the semblance of a parliamentary debate on Iemma's new legislation today. Having created the social and political climate that has led to the clashes in Sydney, the political establishment is rushing to exploit the situation to further its own right-wing "law and order" agenda.

Howard rang Iemma to back his response and the state opposition Liberal Party gave immediate support to the proposed new laws. Opposition leader Peter Debnam has played a particularly foul role in fomenting racial division in recent days. He has accused police of implementing a "softly-softly" approach, and claimed that Sydney had become a "war-zone with roaming gangs of hundreds of ethnic thugs".

Debnam's perspective, if not openly racist language, is shared by politicians and media commentators of all stripes. The unanimous response to the aftermath of Sunday's racist rally on North Cronulla Beach has been to blame young Muslims and Lebanese immigrants for causing trouble, and to demand greater police powers.

Like Howard, federal Labor leader Kim Beazley refused to describe Sunday's attacks on Muslims as racist. "This is simply criminal behaviour, and that's all there is to it, he declared on Monday. "Two major areas of it--Cronulla and Maroubra--and that is what has to be cracked down on, and that is what I would urge the police forces to do."

In official responses to the violence in Sydney, no one has called for an examination of the economic deprivation and social inequality that has created such alienation among wide layers of working class youth. Nor is there any discussion as to who bears political responsibility for the reactionary and fratricidal manner in which these social tensions have been manifested.

Addressing these issues would inevitably lead to an indictment of the entire political order in Australia. In the interests of maintaining the international competitiveness of Australian capitalism, both Labor and Liberal governments in Canberra and Sydney have presided over a prolonged assault on the social position on the working class--undermining wages and conditions, destroying job security, and degrading public education. At the same time, social inequality has significantly deepened, as a small minority has accumulated enormous wealth.

Racial and religious differences have been deliberately inflamed, and sections of working class youth--particularly those who are Muslim--vilified and scapegoated to divert popular opposition to deepening social inequality.

The new laws proposed by the NSW government have nothing to do with protecting the safety of ordinary citizens. They are ultimately driven by the same impulse behind every measure introduced in recent years to strengthen the power of the capitalist state--namely the need to prepare for the suppression of future social unrest. Unable to provide decent employment and living conditions for working class youth, the response of the ruling elite is consistent and unambiguous--state repression and the cultivation of racism and communalism.

The bipartisan reaction to the racial violence in Sydney is identical to that seen in other recent social eruptions. In its origin and form, the recent violence differs from both the Redfern riots in inner Sydney in February 2004 and the clashes between youths and police in outer suburban Macquarie Fields earlier this year. What is not different, however, is the response of the state government.

In all three cases the pattern has been the same: an enormous police operation is mounted, sections of working class youth are condemned as criminals and thugs, any examination of underlying political and social processes is rejected on principle, and draconian new laws are introduced.

The Australian media is an active accomplice in all of this. The Australian's editorial, "Racism Not Endemic", assailed "academic and sundry other Howard-haters" who have condemned the government for contributing to the violence by demonising Muslim Australians. The newspaper concluded that the best way to prove that Australia was not racist "is for the worst offenders in the recent riots to be prosecuted--and treated exactly the same before the courts".

The Daily Telegraph's editorial, "More power to the rule of law," argued on similar lines. The newspaper also ran as its lead op-ed an extraordinary "open letter" from an anonymous police officer. He pined for a return to the old days, when hoodlums "would cop a flogging, a kick up the bum, a slap over the head" from police. "The young kids were afraid of the police and that's how we controlled and protected the community," he continued. "Fear is the only thing a young male understands. That real power is lost forever."

In a particularly crass form, the open letter summed up the attitude of the political and media establishment as a whole to working class youth.

WSWS.org

 http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005/cops-d14.shtml

Government and media provocations spark racist violence on Sydney beaches

Both the Liberals and the Laborites are committed to implementing deeply unpopular right-wing economic reforms--exacerbating 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 Sunday's events.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9723

Race Riot Nationalists spread to third Sydney suburb

The latest violence comes after a racially motivated pro-government right wing Nationalist media taking John HoWARd's lead, ended up in a riot at Cronulla Beach which saw several people of Middle Eastern appearance attacked. Shame HoWARd....Shame on you!

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/97Malaysia urges

Australia to confront racism

But by inviting john hoWARd along he'll get an opportunity to deal with the number one racist in the country. The root cause of the main problem. Besides the Aussie piss-heads that is!

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9727

The fascist crackdown

Alan Jones needs to be locked up in maximum security.

( Following a fair trial with due process )

If ever there was incitement to racist fascist violence deserving seven years Alan Jones just spent a week doing just that.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9737

Thugs ruled the streets, and the mob sang Waltzing Matilda

Sometimes when a victim was cornered, the mob started singing Waltzing Matilda. Advance Australia Fair was similarly employed against obstructing police, and the usually good-natured "Aussie Aussie Aussie" chant in the mouths of the Cronulla crew assumed a menacing tone.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9719

Cronulla race riot

The lifesavers asked for it!
The Mainscream Media asked for it!
The Police asked for it!
Then the community decided it was ok to be racist!

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9715