1-31-07, 8:39 am

There are two faces in Australian society. Those who commented on the Australia Day celebrations and how pleased they were to see so many different and diverse people in the crowds – friendly faces that want to live in peace with their neighbours irrespective of race or religion. That is the face of multiculturalism which recognises and enjoys the culture of other nationalities who have now made Australia home but continue to practice the culture of their former homelands. They freely offer their rich culture, often many centuries old, to all Australians. Who fails to enjoy the Chinese dragon dance, the music of Theodorakis, an Italian pasta, the Arab dances of Lebanon and Iraq, the music of the Andes and the singing of the people of Africa?

The other face is that of Howard and his followers. Theirs is a distorted, mean, weasel-minded, angry, fearful, militarist, racist face that wants to build a wall around Australia with a notice saying – learn the language, become an Anglo-Saxon like us, forget multiculturalism or KEEP OUT!

These latter “values” are behind Howard’s decision to drop the word “multiculturalism” from the former name of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and to put Kevin Andrews, the hatchet man of the WorkChoices legislation, in charge of the renamed Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

Howard and many other Coalition cabinet members have never supported multiculturalism and in yet another attempt to whip up bigotry prior to the forthcoming federal election, have seized the opportunity to finally force their extreme right-wing views on the community.

They wrap their ideas in an Australian flag and depict them as “patriotic” and as having “pride” in Australia. But real patriotism can never be associated with racist and intolerant attitudes towards other ethnic groups in the community and hostility to other countries – even to the point of invading them and attempting to impose the Australian government’s economic, political and social policies. This is what is being attempted in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, Fiji and, of course, in Iraq and Afghanistan.

War and the use of force against other countries is part of the same policy approach. If the governments of countries do not behave as the capitalist ruling class demands they may be invaded, bombed and tens of thousands killed as Howard and his favourite “mate” George W Bush are preparing to do in Iran.

Within Australia they constantly attempt to divide the working class and the community by promoting division using differential wages, different ethnic origins and religions.

These policies are not in the interests of the people of Australia – neither of the working class nor of the wider community. They only serve the interests of big capital and the corporations, this tiny minority who want to control and dominate the working people and to make money in whatever way they can. The corporations do not hesitate to ship the industries they own or the stacks of money they possess overseas if they make higher profits out of the labour of the workers of India, the Philippines, Indonesia, China and other third world countries.

All these issues are tied up in the decision to axe multiculturalism and fence Australia off from many other countries.

Unfortunately too many are capitulating before the narrow-mindedness, political backwardness and hateful ideas of Howard and his blind followers.

On the other hand, the reality is that Australian society is now made up of many nationalities coming from the four corners of the earth and they all have former homelands, cultures, languages and philosophies. And the posturing of Howard and co is not going to change that reality even though for a time they may manipulate a certain number into racist, militarist and intolerant attitudes.

It is vital now to defend multiculturalism. It means friendship, respect for the differences of others and the emergence of a new Australian culture based on the interaction and merging of all that is good and progressive in the cultures now to be found in Australian society. That remains the future of an Australian society convinced that friendship is better than intolerance.

From The Guardian