Socialist Party Australia - WA's neo-nazis: A socialist analysis

On July 19th 2004 there were a series of racist attacks in Perth. Perth’s biggest synagogue and a Chinese restaurant were sprayed with swastikas and racist slogans. One of the Chinese restaurants was firebombed and totally gutted. A police station and a pharmacy were also sprayed with swastikas and graffiti.

The attacks are reminiscent of a series of fire bombings in the late 1980s, blamed on the neo-Nazi group, the Australian Nationalist Movement led by Jack Van Tongeren.

Since his release just over a year ago, Jack Van Tongeren has been active building his racists party after 12 years imprisonment.

Acting Premier Eric Ripper moved to allay fears in the ethnic community yesterday when he invited representatives, including West Australian Chinese Chamber of Commerce president Wilson Wu, to discuss the attacks with him and senior police.

Mr Wu said there could be dire consequences for business and tourism if the culprits were not caught quickly.

It is clear that the businesses community in Perth, supported by the ALP and the Police do not want these kids of attacks. They will come down heavy on racist groups because they it is not in the interests of capitalists, yet, to support them.

Racist and fascist parties are used by the bosses’ media and political parties when their own power is being threatened. But when these vile movements are of no use to them they come down heavy on them. An excellent example of this is Pauline Hanson. The media used her racism to divide workers but when she started to cut into the bosses parties vote they imprisoned her with trumped up charges.

As it is with Jack Van Tongeren. When police searched the house of an ANM member they found vague unspecified threats to West Australian Attorney-General Jim McGinty. MiGinty has exaggerated this threat and colluded with the police to arrest the racist. Van Tongeren went into hiding for a week making a statement that he had no intention of harming any government member. Van Tongeren is in police custody. He will no doubt serve a further sentence evidence or no evidence.

The ANM represent the thinnest of support in Perth, they number a handful of members two of which have been given 6 and 10 month prison sentences for the recent racist defacing. They represent little threat to anyone for the moment.
If the ANM were ever to show their face publicly they would be smashed by workers very quickly. WA’s most militant union the building union the CMFEU has made its views known. "We know that singling out migrants or refugees in our community for special treatment in the way we've seen is an extreme manifestation of the wedge politics being championed by even the mainstream conservative forces in this country. For this reason racism and discrimination in all its forms, has to be opposed," said CFMEU State Secretary Kevin Reynolds.
The Australian Labor Party is in power in every state in Australia and could win the coming Federal election. In WA the State Labor government smashed up the only Aboriginal settlement in Perth. They imposed night curfews in the city center against Aboriginal youth. The ALP is far more of a threat to working people in terms of their effects on living standards than these tiny insignificant racist groups. In every State the ALP have attacked education, health and supported the bosses against workers. When the ALP comes to power federally workers will need to defend themselves against far more visious attacks on wages, conditions and trade union rights.
The labour movement will deal with racist groups very quickly if they poke their heads up when they dare. But the Australian workers will come to see the ALP as the new bosses’ party very soon. The political leadership in the guise of the ALP have shown signs far more sinister and anti-worker than miniscule racist parties.