Terror, permanent war and hysteria
Posted by John, September 18th, 2014 - under Abbott government, Asylum seekers, Islamophobia, Terrorism, War.
First it was an increased terror alert. Two days later it was the
deployment of troops to help the fight against Islamic State. On
Thursday, just four days later, it was 800 police raiding homes in
Sydney and 70 in Brisbane to stop ‘planned terrorist’ activities.
End result? One person has been charged with conspiracy to commit a
terrorist act. The evidence? A phone call from one of the Islamic State
barbarians urging Australian followers to kidnap people off the streets
in Sydney and Brisbane and behead them, wrapped in an IS flag. A few
others may be charged on Friday. I understand two have been charged with
minor offences and are on bail.
There is not enough evidence to convict a dead dog as yet, but the
raids aren’t about protecting us. They are about creating hysteria. We
are re-entering the period of permanent war. Fear is king. The Abbott
government is terrorising us. Our rulers are importing the terror they
export to Muslim and other countries.
The ‘enemy’, the ‘other’ is supposedly both external and within. It
is a common ploy of our rulers. Over white Australia’s history the
threat has been variously the Chinese, the yellow peril, the Russians,
the Germans, the Japanese, the Reds, immigrants, refugees and of course
the founding ‘enemy’, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. It unites
‘us’ all, boss and worker, against the other and helps the bosses set
their agenda. That agenda includes the West’s terrorism worldwide to
subdue the peoples of rebellious countries and impose the market for the
benefit of Western capitalism.
Muslims in Australia today are, for the capitalist class and its
politicians, the perfect other, the perfect target, the manufactured
representation of both home-grown and overseas terror and terrorism.
They are the decoy for neoliberalism and the West’s permanent global war.
It is no accident that on the same day this happens Drear Admiral
Scott Morrison releases details of the ‘success’ of turning back the
refugee boats. The government is playing to what it perceives are its
strengths – war, national security and asylum seekers.
It is also no accident that as Australia begins to catch up with the
rest of the Western world and enter permanent economic crisis the
government is giving us permanent war.
Some Australians will respond with fear. Some, bless their hearts, will see through this 3 card trick.
This is despite the Labor Party ‘Opposition’ walking lockstep with
the Government on the war and anti-terrorism measures. They are
disenfranchising the majority of Australians who oppose going back into
Iraq.
The hysteria around terror might reduce opposition to the war, at
least in the short term. It might distract from the anger people have
about the rotten Budget, at least in the short term. But the Budget
attacks are so great and everywhere there will be reminders of what the
bastards want to do, when we visit the doctor, go to public hospitals,
attend University, help look after our disabled relatives, that the
anger won’t disappear in a sea of nationalist war and anti-terrorist
fear mongering.
This war may well be like the previous invasions of Iraq and
Afghanistan – disguised defeats for the West. Many people intuitively
know that, which is why they oppose this latest lunacy in Iraq.
As well as stoking fear, the arranged spectacle of ‘terrorist’
arrests is an attempt to provoke Islamophobia. There is an audience for
this and ordinary Muslims are likely to be attacked in the streets for
the crime of being Muslim.
The ALP’s grovelling response to going to war in Iraq and the
‘terrorism’ arrests shows that Labor is bankrupt. We need to build a
movement and ultimately a political party that not only gives voice to
the voiceless but argues for a new society, a democratic one which ends
war, racism and poverty and produces goods and services to satisfy human
need.
Let’s start by building an anti-war and anti-Budget movement to stop the war on Muslims and the war on the poor.
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