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Resisting the tide of Australian extremism. If we don’t, who will?

By Keith Davis

Already we have the Nazi slogan of ‘Work Will Make You Free’ splattered heavily across our social welfare landscape. ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ … work will make you free. The punishing war on the poor and the disadvantaged includes such draconian tactics as slave labour under Work for the Dole and the implementation of the de-humanising corrals of the JobActive Jobnetwork System.

Arbeit Macht Frei was pinned above the gates of Auschwitz Concentration Camp. It was a Nazi three word slogan.

Already we have the goons and thugs of the far right spreading filth at peaceful demonstrations that seek to support the rights of Asylum Seekers. The demonisation of genuine refugees as sub-human animals, as ‘others’ who are dangerous subverters of the Australian way of life, is a technique straight out of the manual of National Socialism. It is an extremist tactic.

Already we have the First Peoples of this nation treated like absolute dirt. The forced closure of Indigenous communities, the unsubtle withdrawal of Indigenous welfare funding, and the right wing attacks on an Aboriginal footballer who proudly stood up for his culture are indicators of a sickening far right view of the primacy of one race over another. Such a view is extremist.

Already we have seen the public vilification of a Human Rights Commissioner who had the courage to speak out, who had the courage to say that enough is enough. The vile orchestrated attack upon this woman by the mouthpieces of the far right is a harbinger of the suppression of free speech. That is an extremist tactic.

Already we have the protection of the supporters of the far right taking precedence over the needs of the people. The wealthy are assisted in their tax avoidance. Multi-National Corporations (the modern day Krupps) are freed from any form of forensic scrutiny of their predations upon the natural wealth of our nation. This support of the elite and the wealthy, to the detriment of the mass of the people, and to the detriment of the disadvantaged, is an extremist far-right tactic.

Already we have the spectre of the Australian Armed Forces being used as a tool to foster yet another surge of international imperialism. We are now willing bit players in a new sequel to that damning old Nazi film ‘The Triumph of the Will’. We seek to impose our will upon others. That is an extremist tactic.

The political far right in Australia is seeking to ingrain an ugly form of Australian nationalism and the term ‘unAustralian’ is starting to be applied to anybody who dares to question, who dares to speak out, who dares to demand social justice for all. That, decidedly, is a Nazi tactic.

Do we, as a nation, wish to continue to go down this path?

Do we, as a people, have the strength to stand up and say NO?

Do we, as individuals, have the courage to publicly reject Arbeit Macht Frei?

 

22 comments

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  1. David

    One voice that doesn’t, the Federal Opposition, the voice of bi – partisanship, the ‘let us all be equal’ Opposition, the politically naive led by the baggage carrier Bill. Now being out maneuvered by the Party of wishful thinkers, the Greens. I don’t hear that mob using the word bi- partisanship. Under their new leader they are right into ‘politicising’ come what may.

  2. mars08

    “If you are doing nothing wrong, then you have nothing to fear…”

    THAT is the biggest lie we have to combat. THAT is how they convince the public to comply….

  3. kizhmet

    2+2=5

  4. Matthew

    That statement if you have nothing to hide appeals only to the ignorant and the foolish Mars, you are right. In a society where you cant hide you are no longer free. Freedom is also keeping things to yourself. Radio National had a frightening program on the introduction of lie detectors inside americas borders and their potential misuse, where there is the potential for misuse of power abuse will happen. We see it with tasers, a non lethal alternative which our police played with until they managed to kill a few people. It was designed not to kill yet in the hands of unaccountable powers it kills, so too every measure can have similar potential.

    We need an open and transparent system where power cant hide instead Power hides as the iron curtain was brought down over Government but we are now subject to a never before seen ability to peer into our private lives.

  5. keerti

    In any other country where such a campaign of fear and removal of freedom exisited there would be mass protests (numbering in the hundreds of thousands, at least), armed resistance and possibly civil war. In australia, just like when Whitlam was deposed by an antiquated royal “office”, australians say little and do less. How bad does it need to get? australians are still the slaves they were as prisoners in convict camps, still blindly and fearfully following the dictates of their masters.

  6. Harquebus

    “Do we, as a nation, wish to continue to go down this path?”

    Do we have a choice?

    On that quote:
    “If you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide.” — Joseph Goebbels

  7. David

    I honestly believe the silent majority are looking for a leader they can trust, they can believe in and support to bring decency back into politics.
    After 8 yrs of upheavals in Party Leaders, a minority Govt, the lies and broken promises of Abbott unless I am missing someone, there isn’t one on offer.

  8. Loz

    But we need to do something but what?

  9. Pudd'nhead

    keerti, I believe you underestimate your fellow Australians. Maybe the provocations have not yet imprinted themselves deeply enough into the Australian psyche to a point where they will react with determination. I was in Darwin during cyclone Tracy and its aftermath. I was surprised at the equanimity that prevailed and the innate capacity to make do in extreme circumstance. I saw a phlegmatic mass of people go about recovery without panic and I do believe that same quietness and confidence is now in play throughout the Australian populace in the face of the civil dangers being posed by a lying bunch of thugs who managed to ascend to government with the help of a deceitful press baron and a Labor mob that took their eye off the ball and lost their way through internal dispute. The thugs are resorting to tactics pioneered by Germany’s National Socialists in the 1930’s and though they have no doubt in their belief that they can implement their Nazi/Thatcher/Regan approach to control of the population that same population is knowing of the German and Thatcher/Regan failures and their cicatrices. They are watching our thugs with tolerance, confident that they will be rid of them at a coming election. The time to criticise will come should the thugs be re-elected – the metal of your Australian “slave” will then be in question.

  10. Lee

    The alleged need for deregulation and it’s supposed efficiencies is also a major lie. Time and time again examples of deregulation have led to abuse of vulnerable people, unethical or illegal behaviour by the unregulated and greater inefficiency and cost.

  11. Rosemary (@RosemaryJ36)

    There are people like Tony Windsor who have integrity. If we had enough of them to form a minor party which could force a hung parliament we would have the toe in the door of returning to a valid form of democracy.

  12. keerti

    Puddin’head,I do hope that you are correct! However I have been watching people and particularly australians for over 60 years and unfortunately I see an australain psyche which is trapped in doing what it is told by it’s masters. A convict mentality that can be so easily manipulated by the abutts of this world, because it is essentially too lazy to be informed and too lazy to stand up on it’s hind legs. How else can a people suffer under liberals workchoices etc and within 3 years vote the same (but worse) back into power.

  13. darrel nay

    The globalists that are pushing the race card belong to the left and right. Granted Abbott is a right-wing fascist but Obama is on the left and he is jailing journalists and whistleblowers in record numbers – cracking down on free speech. Obama is always quick to play the race card but not so quick to acknowledge the doubling of unemployment in black communities during his presidency.

    I, for one, am not enjoying Fascism.

    Cheers

  14. Pudd'nhead

    keerti- I have difficulty with the thought of a convict mentality involving a quiet acceptance of a governing power having complete and unquestioned discretion on all matters. Many of our Irish forbears would question assertions that they raised no objections to the punishments inflicted on them in a social system that saw them as low level animals available for exploitation by a section of the human race that deemed itself superior to a people who fought to preserve the integrity of their homeland. The Irish rebellions of 1798, the New South Wales,Castle Hill riots of 1804, Ralph Entwhistle’s brawl with the authorities at Bathurst in 1824, the many bushrangers unwilling to live in subjugation,the Red Ribbon Rebellion 1853, Eureka Stockade 1854, the shearer’s strikes 1891,1894, the WW2 rebuttal of proposals to introduce compulsory military service. I could go on but I don’t need to as there is sufficient evidence that your everyday Oz is up for the fight if the matter can’t be settled with common sense. From the indignity of a convict beginning we built together a fair and just society where all were equal. If Murdoch (hero of the UK press), the IPA(our would be masters), Abbott (the IPA’s tool) and his National Socialist acolytes want to bring that asunder will they push us too far? The final resolution will be for them to consider when things go wrong. In the meantime they still have to get a deciding and dominant position in both houses of government.

  15. keerti

    Pudd’nhead, you point to evbiudenmce of “rebellion” in the past5. Where does it exist in the present? Have you read the info at the link I posted? It seems that very few australians are incensed at the treatment being handed out to the vulnerable, but then hasn’t that aleays been the case? Consider the treatment handed out to the Chinese on the goldfileds and later. making apologies for unwillingness to stand up and be counted by referring to days gone by…..

  16. Pudd'nhead

    keerti-thanks for the link. Must admit I missed it before putting my 2.52pm diatribe together. I agree that we are not responding effectively to oppose the undesired path down which Abbott is leading us. My response to your contribution was not intended to discredit your throw on our weaknesses, rather I had hope to give us pride in ourselves and the confidence to stand up to defend what used to be the just and fair society we had known since WW2. Perhaps the public may be awakened from its torpor by our exchange. I hope so.

  17. keerti

    Before change can happen it is necessary to see clearly. People cannot be lead unless they are willing to be. Puddin’head, “a just and fair society”? That would be the one that took Aboriginal children from their parents (and in which half of us resisted apologising for that!) the one where children were exported from britain and held in terrible conditions while they were abused,mentally, sexually and emotionally. , the one where political witch hunts were carried out against people who had a different viewpoint (communists), the one where democraticly elected government was deposed, the one where young men were forced to go to Vietnam and participate in murder………

  18. Pudd'nhead

    Thanks keerti. The shortcomings in our awareness and sense of justice with respect to the stolen children, the British child emigres, the Communists, the Whitlam government and the Vietnam conflict with conscripts is acknowledged. You didn’t mention the depredations conjured up in religious care institutions. The authorities in charge of these institutions and the perpetrators of offences within their purview are facing the consequences because of the bravery and persistence of an Australian policeman and a journalist who fought the good fight against some fairly confusing administrative confusion, as did the Australian community in the matter of the country’s involvement in Vietnam (You know, when Askin suggested that his chauffeur “drive over the bastards) .
    This will be my last thought on this subject. Like you I yearn for an enlightened leader to bring us through and out of the morass that Abbott is doing his best to create. Many of us have doubts about Mr.Shorten and the Labor Party. Somewhere in the party’s midst there is a fighter capable of being as determined as Abbott but with better intent.

  19. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    I say find those Labor MP’s with position within Labor’s hierarchy so they can be persuaded to build alliances with other political bodies. If they can’t get Labor back from the Dark on its own, then smart negotiations with other progressive parties and community voices could save Labor from itself.

  20. Bilal

    As never before we need a united opposition, not the cowardly ALP under the best mate of John Roskam, but an opposition which unites all the democratic supporters, from across the spectrum. There must be erstwhile Liberals dismayed at this radical right putsch going on, with jail for reporting sexual abuse in the concentration camps, attacks on the Human Rights Commission President, extending the use of lethal force in the camps, protecting ASIO from prosecution, the removal of citizenship by public servants (remember Dr Haneef), trying to make the ABC into a Tea Party mouthpiece like the Murdoch propaganda stable. It is well beyond the Pale. Everyone who believes in democracy and the separation of powers has to come together to resist this onslaught. It did develop over the Vietnam War but it took time and effort. The Greens seem to be the only political party hope at present, but they have to unite others against this danger to our way of life.

  21. keerti

    And if the Greens can’t do it (labour clearly won’t even try!) then we are heading down the path to being a pariah state under a dictatorship!

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