Two years ago, doyen of US working people, Steve Bannon declared to a right wing group in France that they should wear the “racism” label with pride:
Steve Bannon’s history with Breitbart is far beyond any kind of value system that I would endorse. But his political savvy is beyond peer, having helped the Trump Administration win over and get elected by its natural enemies, US working classes.
Therein lies the rub for contemporary labour parties worldwide. The “racist” label is rolled out most vociferously not by the traditional representatives of capital. Rather, is used most aggressively by the contemporary champions of centre-left globalism. What MB sometimes refers to as the Fake Left, or the globalist useful idiots that pretend to be progressive on social policy.
As Australian Labor embarks on its vital shift around the immigration debate there is a clear lesson in this. Beijing Bob Carr delivers it today, at The Australian:
Former NSW premier Bob Carr has urged Kristina Keneally to drop her “jobs for Australians first” rhetoric as Labor pushes for changes to the migration intake, declaring the “very loose” language showed signs of dog whistling.
Mr Carr, who declared Sydney was “full” when he was premier in 2005, said the debate on immigration should be “kept to an argument about numbers”.
“I would drop all references to jobs for Australians first,” Mr Carr told The Australian.
“That is very loose rhetoric and it could have been invoked at any time in our history against migration. That is not what the argument is about. The argument is about numbers.”
Baloney, of course. The moniker “Australian” does not connote white supremacism. A quarter of Australians were born overseas. Many more are of migrant stock, including me.
Australia is multicultural. That is who we are. It is irreversible. It is true. Making reference to jobs for Australians first is making reference to the most successful melting pot of peoples in history.
There is the shameful history of the “White Australia” policy to worry about. But so what? That is not us today.
The point is, owing to the ideology of the Fake Left, which sees racism in vacuum cleaners, it has become impossible to debate issues of working class marginalisation at all. The moment the issue is raised we see what we do today, a stupidly reductive cavalcade of name-calling.
And, ironically, the Fake Left finds itself aligned with the most blood-sucking oligarchs in the Murdoch press propaganda machine, those we call the Fake Right. To wit, there’s more at Murdoch:
Labor MP Anne Aly has called for a change of language in the immigration debate as Kristina Keneally comes under criticism for using “Australians first” rhetoric when pushing for an overhaul of the migration system.
Dr Aly, a migrant from Egypt, said Senator Keneally had some “extremely valid points” in calling for a review of the migration program but conceded that the opposition home affairs spokeswoman’s argument “could have been expressed better”.
“We have got a history in Australia of talking about immigration in relation to ‘the wogs have got all the houses, they are going to take our jobs, we are going to be invaded, there is overcrowding’. And to blame all of that on immigration.
“We need to have a separate discussion around population growth and a separate discussion about immigration. I don’t like the conflation of those issues.”
And more still:
It takes a certain level of chutzpah for an immigrant like Kristina Keneally to lecture Australians about the need to restrict immigration.
One of the great things about Australia is our immigrant story: the contribution made to upskilling our economy, enlivening our communities and enriching our culture. But Keneally has gone Donald Trump-lite by propagating nativism and xenophobia with her “Australians First” rhetoric. US-born Keneally wants Australia’s immigration program, post-pandemic, to be reduced overall and the composition changed. She has skilled workers on temporary visas in her sights. “We must make sure Australians get a fair go and a first go at jobs,” she told Sydney’s The Sun-Herald. This language is loaded with ignorance and prejudice.
The irony reaches its apogee at the ABC, which aligns with Murdoch to declare that we’re all now shamefully “racist”, despite the evidence being quite the opposite:
The Federal Government has urged Australians to report and call out racist attacks when they see them and to not retaliate against Chinese Australians for any feelings they may have towards Beijing.
…”What you see is not something that sometimes is spoken, but the glance, the rolling of eyes, and the whispers here or there,” she said.
“That certainly is noticeable, there is no doubt about that.”
Ms Nguyen said it was widely known racist incidents were well under-reported, either because people didn’t know about legal avenues, or the “onus of proof is way too high above for anyone to be charged”.
Poor petals. Rolling eyes and under-reporting!
This is not to argue that there is no racism in Australia. That’s absurd. Of course there is. Intense pockets of it. And the real stuff should be called out vociferously. But a story that reports a near-total lack of racist outbursts as evidence of widespread racism has some serious questions to answer.
The point is, the contemporary habit of racism finger-pointing in the national discussion is a value system not a reality. It is embedded in the Fake Left and Fake Right. The first for the purposes of protecting every living human from any kind of offense. The second to defend its globalisation based profits.
There is no getting rid of it in a hurry, if at all.
So, as the ALP begins its transition back to a party representing working people by looking to ratchet back Australia’s mass immigration period, it must learn to love the “racist” label. Working people have had their standards of living systematically crush-loaded and their wages systematically flattened by the policy of endless population growth. There is no representing these workers without taking on the tsunami-like flow of cheap foreign labour, and being labeled racist for it.
But, remember, it is just a label not a reality. It is a bullying tactic used by a pack self-serving thought police.
From a political standpoint, no doubt the labeling idiocy will cost Labor votes with Greens pansies. But they’ll come back as preferences anyway. Meanwhile, robust discussion of why immigration must be cut post COVID-19 to protect standards of living will win the hearts of working people, ironically the most multicultural segment of Australian society.
As Steve Bannon says and has demonstrated with electoral victory in working heartlands, wear the “racist” label with pride.
Doing so, turns the wedge on its user.
