Above photo: Australian Chinese Daily

Spirited Protest Opposes the Incitement of Racist Violence by Governments, the Media and the Far Right

14 July 2025 – Last Saturday, between 100 and 120 people rallied in Sydney’s Chinatown vowing to resist the increasing racist violence on Sydney’s streets, in shopping centres, in school yards and on public transport. The immediate trigger for the action was a horrific spate of racist attacks on ethnic Chinese people and others of East Asian appearance over the last few months. In the most notorious of these racist bashings, a Chinese woman and her husband were beaten by a dozen or so attackers in the common area of the very apartment complex where they live in Sydney’s Eastgardens. After footage of this attack, recorded by another resident in the complex, went viral on Chinese social media, Chinese migrants and international students came forward with accounts of a shockingly high number of assaults that they have suffered in the recent period. In one such attack, a 25-year-old worker at a medical equipment company, Alex Zhang, was bashed on 14 May 2025 by two racists who approached him when he was waiting at a bus stop in the Sydney suburb of Kingsford. One of them shouted at him, “I’m a racist. Go back to China to study!” and then punched him in the face. When a passer-by intervened, the attackers fled but shouted to the person intervening, “But he is Asian!”(ABC News online, 28 May 2025).  

Responding to these attacks, the July 12 action focused on opposing anti-Chinese and broader anti-East Asian violence. However, organisers consciously formulated the rally slogans to oppose all racist attacks – including those targeting Aboriginal people, Muslims, Africans, Arabs, South Asians and other people of colour. As the call out for the July 12 demonstration noted, both major parties’ “support for Israel’s war on the Palestinian people has led to a spike in attacks on people of Arab and Muslim heritage. In one high-profile attack in Melbourne in February a racist, who had earlier racially abused an Asian woman, bashed two Muslim women at a Melbourne shopping centre.”

The two pro-working class groups that initiated Saturday’s action – the Australian Chinese Workers Association (ACWA) and Trotskyist Platform – also understand that opposing race hate is not only essential for defending targeted communities. It is also indispensable for building the multiracial unity that the working class needs in order to unleash the desperately needed struggles for lower rents, secure jobs, decent real wage rises and free childcare, healthcare and dental care. Thus the leaflet building the July 12 action featured a slogan calling to “Unite against White Supremacy and Strengthen Our Workers Movement”. And that is exactly what the action did! It brought ethnic Chinese people, alongside people of Korean, South Asian, African, Arab, Southeast Asian, Aboriginal and Latin American backgrounds together with anti-racist, pro-working class white people. 

The main direction of Saturday’s mobilisation was to oppose the racist ruling class narratives and policies that are inciting race hate in Australia. This includes the lies that falsely blame migrants, refugees, international students and Aboriginal people for high rents, unaffordable house prices, crowded public transport, crime and just about any other social ill that the capitalist exploiting class who is truly to blame can foist onto others. However, governments, media and politicians are additionally stirring up specifically anti-Chinese hostility to motivate their Cold War drive against socialistic China. No one should be fooled by the Albanese government’s moves to stabilise diplomatic ties with China. Those are pragmatic moves to protect the huge exports to China’s still booming economy that are holding up Australia’s faltering economy from collapse. At the same time that the Labor government is making these diplomatic manoeuvres, it is engaged in a massive military build-up targeting China, sending warships to join the U.S. and Britain in provocative incursions into China-claimed waters in the South China Sea, pleading with its U.S. counterparts to maintain the hugely expensive AUKUS project for targeting China with nuclear submarines, bullying South Pacific countries to distance themselves from China and demonising the local Chinese community to promote the lying “China threat”- narrative that they use to “justify” their anti-China agenda. As the call-out for the July 12 action insisted:

All the parties in parliament are responsible for inciting the intensifying attacks on ethnic Chinese people over the last eight or so years. To justify a Cold War against China that is against the interests of the vast majority of Australia’s people, they have spread the lie that China is a threat. And they have used signalling appealing to – and thus amplifying – “Yellow Peril” racist fears to help them do this. Moreover, they have implemented several measures – so-called “foreign interference” laws targeting the Australian-Chinese community, restrictions on the use of Chinese apps, bans on the Chinese-language teaching Confucius Institutes etc, etc – that have demonised ethnic Chinese people and Chinese community organisations.

Thus, the call out for Saturday’s protest made the following main demands upon the “far-right demagogues, media and governments” that “are inciting race hate”:

Stop Using Migrants & International Students as Scapegoats for High Rents and the Lack of Affordable Housing!
Stop Spreading “China Threat” Lies!
Stop Witch-Hunting Chinese Organisations!

The July 12 demonstration was the first action responding to the frightening spate of anti-Chinese and anti-Asian attacks on an agenda of opposing racism and the incitement of it by the ruling elite. However, influenced by right-wing sections of the entire ruling class, conservative sections of the Chinese community, with a very different agenda to the likes of the ACWA, have been pushing a “tough on youth crime” agenda as a means to stop the attacks. They have been able to draw in some in the Chinese community, desperate to see an end to the racist attacks, who have naïve illusions in Australian state institutions and either do not see any alternative to appealing to these institutions or feel too intimidated by the anti-Chinese political climate to speak out against racism. On June 21, they held a “Stop Youth Violence” march in central Sydney … which did not even mention racism! Their earlier petition went further, seizing on the fact that the attack in Eastgardens happened to be perpetrated by teenagers, to push the Liberal Party’s vile agenda to lower the age of criminal responsibility for children. Such an agenda will do no good whatsoever because racism underpins anti-Chinese violence in Australia. To be sure, with the physical energy that comes from youth, teenagers have carried out several attacks. However, their actions are shaped by the bigoted adults around them and a racist society. Moreover, many of the racist attacks have been perpetrated by adults. In one particularly notorious attack on ANZAC Day 2023 in Brisbane, where a racist armed with a weapon and screaming racist insults against Chinese people violently attacked Asian Australians … the racist attacker was a 69 year-old man.

The problem with any strategy that calls to increase the powers of the state is that because all state organs in Australia – from the police to the courts to government commissions – are ultimately under the control of the super-rich capitalist class, these state bodies are themselves enforcers of racist oppression because promoting racist divisions and diversions is what the exploiting class needs to stay in power. As we in Trotskyist Platform explained about the “tough on youth crime” “strategy” advocated by some:

This agenda will do a lot of harm. For any strengthening of laws against “youth crime” will enable the racist state to further persecute the children of victimised groups – especially Aboriginal and African kids but economically deprived Chinese kids too. Any increase in the powers of the racist state will make it better able to persecute Chinese organisations and more able to repress struggles against racist attacks. But some Chinese people turn to such “solutions” because they fear to speak out against racism when their community is being so vilified as a “threat”. Those originating from mainland China are also shaped by their upbringing in a workers state, where state organs really do (albeit imperfectly) serve the people. However, the reality that violent attacks by youth in China are rare, even while China’s much more liberal youth justice system has an age of criminal responsibility of 14 years – higher than in any Australian state – proves that “youth crime” laws are not the issue.
Resist Racist Violence and Strengthen Our Workers Movement! Oppose the Ruling Class’s Actions That Are Inciting Race Hate!, 27 June 2025

The July 12 anti-racist action drew a hard line against the “tough on youth crime” agenda and the united-front call out for the action issued by the Australian Chinese Workers Association and Trotskyist Platform had an explicit statement that, “In the interests of Aboriginal people and the united workers movement: No Australian flags [i.e. the Union Jack official flag] or signs calling to lower the age of criminal responsibility of children will be permitted to be displayed at the rally.” This directive was completely adhered to by all who came to the action – no one brought with them a Union Jack Australian flag or any signs pushing a “tough on youth crime” agenda to the rally. This reflected the high consciousness of rally participants that what is needed to stop the violent attacks on Australia’s streets is a struggle against racism and those who incite it and not a push to strengthen the powers of the Australian regime.

“Racism Lives in Our Systems”

Saturday’s rally was co-chaired by Australian Chinese Workers Association (ACWA) chairman, Chen Qingsong, and Trotskyist Platform (TP) chairwoman, Sarah Fitzenmeyer. The ACWA is a mass organisation that links ethnic Chinese workers with the broader Australian workers movement. It also helps Chinese workers defend their legal and social rights against discrimination while supporting broader progressive causes. ACWA chairman, Chen Qingsong, commenced the rally with an introductory statement in Mandarin Chinese. He acknowledged that we were gathering on the stolen lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora First Nations people and thanked the various groups who were supporting the action. He noted that among the endorsers of the rally were the Australian Zhanjiang Hometown Association and the Australian Gaozhou Hometown Association. Chen Qingsong said that the Eastgardens attack was a wake up call for minority communities. It had forced wide sectors of society to confront the reality of racist discrimination in Australia. The unprovoked violent attack was a microcosm of the vulnerable situation that minority communities in Australia face due to prejudiced media and public safety systems and indifference to racist attacks by institutions.

The ACWA chairman then handed over the microphone to TP chairwoman, Sarah Fitzenmeyer, to make a more detailed introduction. Sarah outlined the stark reality of racist violence in Australia and how it is being incited by the ruling class and the governments and media that serve it:

… Whenever we speak of racist attacks, we must make note that Australia’s current political order was formed through the horrific genocidal violence against this country’s First Peoples. And this genocidal violence against the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples disgustingly continues today. Two weeks ago, the murderers of 15-year-old Aboriginal teenager, Cassius Turvey, were sentenced. Screaming racist epithets against black people, the white racists heinously beat Cassius Turvey to death. Aboriginal people also suffer incessant racist state violence. One month ago, NT police killed 24-year-old Aboriginal man, Kumanjayi White, after they brutalised and bashed him to death in a supermarket.

If you look through this country’s history since 1788, next to Aboriginal people, Chinese people have suffered the worst racist violence here. The latest surge in anti-Asian violence comes directly from and is driven by the Australian ruling class’s Cold War drive against socialistic China. This agenda is being justified by the vilification of Chinese community organisations and anything associated with China as a supposed “national security threat”. Meanwhile, our capitalist rulers are also inciting hatred against Muslim and Arab peoples through their support for Israel’s continuing genocidal onslaught on Gaza.

Far-right forces, the Labor government, the Liberal opposition and the mainstream media are also creating racist hatred by falsely blaming migrants, refugees and international students for high rents. We must refute all these lies. We must inform people that high rents are actually caused by successive governments selling off public housing and conducting pro-speculator policies – which are things like negative gearing and capital gains tax government policies that allow for and encourage rich people to buy as many houses as they can so they can make money at the expense of renters and working class first home buyers.

The highest rate of rises to rent happened in 2021 at a time when all borders across and into Australia were closed and there was absolutely no migration. We must explain that China, far from being a threat, is the only world power that has not fought a single shooting war in the 21st century. We must point out that the Palestinian people’s resistance is a just struggle against brutal oppression….

Sarah concluded her introduction by sharing with the audience an action that can inspire the kind of struggle that we need today and which she was very proud to be part of. That anti-racist action occurred on 2 May 2014 in Brisbane. On that day, a violent openly white supremacist group planned a public provocation in the heart of Brisbane. But one hundred construction workers from the CFMEU and other unions formed the core of an anti-racist mobilisation that drove the violent racists off the streets.

Later, our comrade Sarah summarised the resistance we need to build against racist ruling class policies:

We must demand an end to recent restrictions on migrant and international student numbers, and we must oppose the denial of permanent visas for refugees as it is measures like these that underpin the racist narratives. Migrants, refugees and international students are not to blame for any of the ills of our capitalist society. We must oppose the Cold War against China that drives the ruling class’s propaganda dishonestly portraying Chinese people and those sympathetic to China as some sort of threat. We must resist the Australian regime’s witch-hunt against Chinese community organisations. And we must oppose the Labor government and Liberal opposition’s support for Israel’s terror against the Palestinian people that is fuelling hostility to our Arab and Muslim communities.

The first speaker at the action was Thomas, an anti-imperialist Aboriginal activist. Thomas has been very actively involved in protests over the last 21 months against the Australian regime’s support for Israel’s genocidal terror against the Palestinian people.

Thomas outlined the various manifestations of racist oppression that Aboriginal people suffer in their own land and the crimes of the White Australia ruling class against his own and other peoples:

Thank you Trotskyist Platform and Australian Chinese Workers Association for letting me speak. It’s quite the honour. I’m Thomas. I’m a First Nations anti-racist, anti-imperialist activist….

But first, I’d like to obviously acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation who are the custodians of this land where we meet today. I’d like to pay my respects to any Aboriginal people here today – elders past, present and emerging.  

This is an anti-racist rally. I’d like to give my perspectives. As a First Nations person, I experience racism in multiple different ways. What is racism? It could be a subtle micro-aggression from anyone that might say something, or it might be straight up slurs and abuse. Or it could a violent attack from a person that wants to strike fear into a community; or it might be systematic state violence that is planned to keep a group or a people down and stop them from growing.

Mainly I’ve had micro-aggressions and slurs. Not physical violence but I do notice the systematic state violence that we face and that the bourgeois parties like the ALP and the Liberals enforce – even if it is not open they do enforce these policies. It could be Kumanjayi White being executed in the Coles and Coles not wanting to release the footage of the killing, even though Coles has surveillance tech from Israel. Boycott Coles – stop giving money to Coles by the way! Or it could be mines – coal mines, iron ore mines – where they extract billions and billions of dollars of wealth from my people and they got a shantytown next to it full of drugs and stuff. And they don’t want to help us at all – because they don’t profit off it.

I obviously feel with any minority here that faces racism – it’s very daunting. Even when someone’s not racist to me but they are genuinely racist – it’s quite scary and you face a lot of anxiety. Face to face with Zionists – mainly Israeli Zionists who say the most subtle, most racist, really subtle racist stuff. I’m quite scared, someone’s out there, someone hates a person because of the colour of their skin and just because they exist. Shame on them!

And systematically we’re faced with the majority white ruling class who create the divisions between us people, they cause divisions and they spread hate. Its White Australia that is killing Indigenous people in custody. It is White Australia that is over-policing Indigenous communities. It is White Australia that is stealing billions from my land. It is White Australia who have troops in the Philippines. It is White Australia who is enforcing U.S. imperialism in the Pacific region. It is White Australia who is manufacturing a Cold War with China. It is not minorities. It is not us (well some of us).

And mainly that’s the thing – sharing my perspective as a minority, as an Indigenous person, who is the true, dare I say, the true proletariat of this land. Even though we are here to have a united front as working-class people, we have to make a special exception to my people and listen to them. But you know we all have the same class goals. And that’s me.

Thomas’ heartfelt speech received loud, enthusiastic applause from the rest of the rally whom he then led in chants of “Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land!”

The next major speech at the rally was given by advisor to the ACWA, Henry Luo. The crowd listened intently as Henry Luo outlined the seriousness of what Chinese people in Australia are facing and his conviction that the Chinese community should no longer be content with empty platitudes about “Multicultural” Australia when politicians, media and racist systems are pushing anti-Chinese sentiment:

As Chinese Australians, we have been quiet long enough.

Today isn’t just about responding to an attack in Eastgardens. It’s about finally confronting something deeper. Something we’ve kept buried for too long. The silence many of us were taught to live with.

As Chinese, many of us grew up hearing sayings like: “各家自扫门前雪” — sweep only your own doorstep. Or “枪打出头鸟” — the bird that sticks its neck out gets shot. These weren’t just wise words. They were survival strategies.

Don’t stand out. Don’t cause trouble. And above all… don’t speak up. That mindset may have helped earlier generations get by. But it came at a cost.

In this country we helped build, we’re still too often seen as outsiders. And when we’re attacked — on the street, in politics, in the media — we often say nothing. Why? Because deep down, many of us still believe it’s better to swallow the pain than to make noise.

But what if that silence is exactly what lets racism grow? Anti-Chinese sentiment didn’t start with COVID. But it spiked during it. And it didn’t happen by accident. It was pushed — sometimes carelessly, sometimes deliberately by the media. By politicians. By those who found it useful to make us the problem.

Let’s be honest. Most public speeches about racism only mention the extremes. They point to far-right groups. They call them “fringe”. That’s easy. What’s harder… is admitting that racism lives in our systems too. In the way the media frames a story. In the way politicians talk about “foreign threats”. In the way some people look at you on the train, just for speaking Mandarin.  

And when we are mentioned? We’re often reduced to a single word: “Multicultural.” Sounds nice. But it smooths over real problems. It puts all Asian Australians in one box. And ignores the specific way Chinese Australians are treated — especially when China is in the headlines.

The suspicion is always there. If you’re a member of your hometown association, maybe you’re a spy. If you’re a student — you’re being watched. If you run a business — people start guessing where your money comes from. This isn’t foreign policy. It’s fear pretending to be logic.

So to the media: do your homework. Chinese Australians are not your political tool. We are not agents of a foreign power.

Most of us just want to live normal lives, raise our kids, and not be questioned about where our loyalties lie.

“And to the political parties — both Labor and Liberal — yes, we’ve seen your efforts. In key electorates — Banks, Bennelong, Reid, Bradfield – you’ve translated your materials. You’ve courted our vote. You’ve said: We understand you. You’ve posed for Lunar New Year photos. But here’s the truth: representation isn’t just about who runs for office. It’s about who speaks up after they’re elected.

If you serve a community with a large Chinese population and you stay silent when that community is attacked, misrepresented or scapegoated, then you are not doing your job….

And to the Chinese Australian community: we are not powerless, we have numbers, we have a voice. Let’s stop being quiet. Just because things are uncomfortable….

So I’ll leave you with this: silence is not safety. Speaking up is how things change. Being visible is how we claim our place in this country — fully and unapologetically….

“Every Major Party – Liberal, Labor, Greens –
Is Promoting the Anti-China Lies”

Henry Luo’s speech was followed by that of Trotskyist Platform Central Committee member, Samuel Kim, who is a man of Korean heritage. Like other people of East Asian background, people of Korean heritage in Australia face attack not only because of broader anti-immigrant and specifically anti-Asian racist hostility but because they are often mistaken for Chinese by racist rednecks driven by extreme hatred of Chinese people.

Comrade Samuel rightly blamed the capitalist billionaires for the growing racist violence in Australia. He said that they and the politicians and media serving them seek to divide us by race. The TP spokesman then outlined the inter-related strategies needed to oppose these racist attacks:

First we have to take to the streets. When white supremacist groups show up … workers, leftists, Aboriginal people, Asians, Africans, Muslims, we stand as one and get them off the streets. But, however, racism cannot be stopped everywhere, it will happen in the school or on the streets. So what do we do? When the racists rear their ugly head on the streets, we have to smash them as hard as we can. We find the most loudest racists and we smash them. And that will send a message to the everyday racists that attack students, that attack women and attack people on the streets….

The recent propaganda of the Labor Party – they’ve been attacking international students, they’ve blamed migrants, they’ve joined in blaming migrants during this current rent crisis. So they’ve cut international student places. We oppose that – we want that to be reversed. Bring back the international students. International students are not to blame for high rents.

They [the ALP government] fuel hate against Arabs and Muslims by demonising Hamas and Hezbollah who bravely resist Israeli aggression. We say no to the terror labels on Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis! They have to be scrapped. Stop demonising the allies of the Palestinian resistance. For the biggest terrorists are the Israeli Defence Force and those who back them like Albanese and Richard Marles, with weapons contracts with Israel.

Today the Chinese community they live in fear and worry today. Chinese people are slandered as a “national security threat”. And every major party – Liberal, Labor, Greens – is promoting the anti-China lies….  We say: un-ban the Chinese language programs in our schools and end the bans on the Confucius Institute! …The politicians are now forcing a Chinese company to sell its stake in the Darwin Port – we oppose that! This is not about security – this is about a new racist Cold War. We oppose Australia’s attempts to persecute Chinese corporations ….

The ruling class is vilifying the Chinese community in order to justify its Cold war drive against socialistic China. But you see China once had a heroic, heroic revolution that equalised their society …. It is for that very reason of that political difference that the Australian politicians and the Australian capitalists fear China…. We say: Down to the AUKUS submarine pact with the U.S.! And down with the new missiles that Australia wants to target China!”

Comrades, our third strategy is the fight for economic justice…. The rich, the far right, politicians and media keep blaming migrants, refugees, international students and the Palestinian resistance and they blame Aboriginal people. We can’t let them. The workers must rise up – for economic justice. Fight for jobs that are secure – permanent and not casual bread crumbs. We demand the nationalisation of the homes of the ultra-rich and to turn them into low-rent homes for everyone. How about we wage struggles of strikes, occupations and mass actions!

Sisters, brothers, comrades. This is our strategy, three strategies comrades. One, we take to the streets – drive out the fascist, extremist racist groups and build our own powerful unity. Second, we fight the lies and the policies of the government that promote racism. And third, we have to fight for a strong economic justice for our working class. Fight for equality, true equality ….

“It’s time to rise. Rebuild a fighting union movement comrades – unite workers with Aboriginal people, Chinese, Asian, Muslim, African and Arab communities. Together we can tear down the ruling class’s policies, stop the lies and stop the massive exploitation of the working class….

Stressing that the only true power we can rely on is “the power of working class and anti-racist organising”, comrade Samuel stressed that we cannot trust the organs of the capitalist ruling class – the federal government, the NSW government, the courts, the police or the local councils. In one small but telling incident at the event, the police proved our point true by their own actions. When one of our anti-fascist friends participating in the July 12 action covered up a racist sticker that right-wing extremists had threateningly pasted on the walls of an adjacent Chinatown shop with his own anti-racist/anti-fascist sticker, the police apprehended him, searched him and then disgustingly gave him a move on order; thus confirming whose side the police are ultimately on.

In addition to our comrades’ speeches, TP brought our working class-based strategy to oppose racist attacks to other rally participants through our party’s leaflet which we distributed at the action and through the placards we carried during the demonstration. Among the many placards we carried were ones bearing the following slogans:

• Resist Anti-Asian Hate Attacks! Resist Racist Attacks on Aboriginal People, Muslims and Africans!
• Resist Anti-Asian Hate Attacks! Resist the Cold War Drive Against Socialistic China that is Fueling Anti-Asian Violence!
• Cold War against Socialistic China is Bad for Workers and Incites Racist Hate of Chinese People. Down with Labor and Liberal’s AUKUS! Down with the Greens Plan for More Missiles!
• Slandering Chinese Social Groups as “National Security Threats” Incites Racist Attacks on Chinese Australians. Down with the Witch-hunting “Foreign Interference” Laws!
• Slandering Entities Connected With China as “National Security Threats” Incites Racist Attacks on Chinese Community. No to the “China Threat”-Hyped Moves to Force a Chinese Firm to Sell its Lease of Darwin’s Port!
• ALP Government and Liberal Opposition’s Support for Israeli Terror Encourages Racist Violence against Arab and Muslim Communities!
• Justice for Kumanjayi White, Kumanjayi Walker, David Dungay, TJ Hickey and the many other victims of Australia’s racist, rich people’s regime.

The next to speak was determined refugee rights activist, Dr Iyngaranathan Selvaratnam. Iyngaranathan was born in northern Sri Lanka and is of Tamil background. The Tamil people continue to face brutal national oppression there.  Iyngaranathan’s speech gave a comprehensive account of the history and present reality of racist oppression in Australia:

The process of othering is what is used by racists at all levels to categorise First Nations People, refugees and migrants as inferior. Dividing us using an us versus them mentality based on ill-informed simplistic win/loss equations regarding housing, employment and infrastructure. Othering hones in on our differences, breaks down our connectedness and ultimately dehumanises us which then sets the stage for discrimination, persecution and violence….

Migrants and refugees may be citizens in name, but many do not see us as Australians because of the entrenched cultural programming, based on the echoes of our colonial history that champions white superiority as the norm and perpetuates toxic ideas of racial hierarchy….

In addition to the psychological violence inflicted on refugees by our governments policies, they in turn would be subject to the same systemic racism and violence that have impacted so many of our migrant communities. Whether it was the attack on people of Middle Eastern background in the Cronulla riots of 2005, attacks on all people of colour in the Invasion Day riots of 2009 at Manly beach, the attacks on Indian international students in the noughties and attacks on Chinese students in the early 2010s and our Asian community in general during and in this post pandemic era, the cycles of violence continue ultimately affecting all people of colour….

The rally was also addressed by Mark Bonanno, national secretary of Australian Fabians. Bonnano spoke of the realities of racism in Australia as this clip below shows:

“Smash Racist Attacks
On Asians, Muslims and Blacks!“

After the initial set of speeches, the rally marched through Chinatown, George Street, Haymarket and onto the ABC Headquarters in Ultimo:

The reason that the July 12 action targeted the Australian regime’s media outlet is that as much as the hard right Murdoch media and the right-wing Nine Entertainment group and its various outlets (including Channel Nine, Sydney Morning Herald and 2GB radio), the ABC has zealously promoted the lying “China Threat” narrative and the sinister “Foreign Interference from some in the Chinese Community”-narrative that have both done so much to incite anti-Chinese hostility in Australia.

Along the march we chanted: “Smash Racist Attacks on Asians, Muslims and Blacks!” as shown in the video below:

We also chanted “Black, Yellow, Brown, White, Workers of the World Unite!” Refuting the “China Threat” lie, demonstrators chanted: “Stop Your Lies and Trickery, China’s Not the Enemy!”

Rally organisers pointed out that while the imperialist Western powers and their proxies have been killing millions of people by invading and attacking Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Serbia, Somalia, Yemen, Palestine, Iran and Lebanon, the only war that the PRC, the Peoples Republic of China, has been fighting is a very successful war against poverty. Understanding this, marchers enthusiastically chanted, “P-R-C is fighting poverty!”:

As the march approached closer to the ABC, demonstrators chanted: “A-B-C, China is not the enemy!” They also mocked the ABC’s hostility to China and its demonisation of pro-Palestinian, Arab resistance groups, suggesting that ABC is an abbreviation for something other than the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Thus marchers chanted, “A-B-C, Always Bashing China” and “A-B-C, Arab Bashing Channel”.

When we arrived outside the ABC headquarters, long-time Palestinian activist Khaled Ghannam delivered a speech on behalf of the Palestinian Cultural Centre of Australia, one of the endorsers of the July 12 action:

Hi everyone, really it is great, great to be with you here. It is great to be against racism. And racism is growing up in our community and we need to fight it hard. Because we need fairness and we need justice between our community – especially Asian, Muslim and black. We need to stop this racism.

Racism is on the increase. The corporate government says it’s just anti-Semitism on the rise but it’s not. It’s racism on Chinese people, migrants from Asia and it’s racism and Islamophobia. Women with hijabs are getting beaten.

The government just locked up a 61 years-old Palestinian woman who fled the Gaza war – [she] is no threat to anyone. Like ICE in the US, refugees and migrants are being targeted. The government encourages racism. They ferment it, they want us to fight each other – the 99% to stop us fighting them – the billionaires and their political friends in the Labor Party and Liberal Party. They want us to fight each other but we are united against them as a people against those politicians.  

They blame migrants for rent increases but it’s landlords and property investors increasing the rents.

They blame China for beating war drums against us but it’s the US and Israel with Australian military help that have bombed Iran and Yemen and Syria and Lebanon and are genociding Palestinians in Gaza….

It’s capitalism and the billionaires to blame; not the Chinese people not the migrants not the refugees. Capitalism is permanent war and exploitation of the natural world. Socialism is peace and unity and environmental stability.

Let’s resist together. Let’s resist together and fight up, not down. Let’s unite the movements. Congratulations for everyone here. And we say to the ABC: Stop attacking Palestinian people, stop attacking the Palestinian resistance, stop attacking the Chinese! …

The final speaker at the action was Wayne Sonter, representing Anti-War West Sydney, another of the endorsers of the action. Wayne’s speech skewered the role of pro-imperialist think tanks, defence departments, intelligence agencies and mainstream media in driving anti-Chinese hostility:

… Groups like the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the Lowy Institute, these think tanks – one’s owned by a billionaire, the other’s funded by the U.S. State Department, the Australian Defence Department and every major global arms corporation to peddle, what? China hatred. One, war is good business. Two, China is the “big challenge”. So these people have exerted a very dangerous and destructive influence ….

The Department of Defence and the ABC have a very friendly arrangement with each other ….

Our media still clings to its own version of White Australia. It keeps Asian news out of the news unless it can be used to stir up a fear of Asia….

We on the other hand are not only against anti-Chinese hate crimes, we openly call for the defence of the Peoples Republic of China against imperial depredation. We support and promote the economic miracle China has wrought since it became the Peoples Republic of China….

The action ended with participants energised and determined to escalate the struggle against anti-Chinese, anti-Asian and broader white supremacist violence in Australia and the government and media narratives and policies that incite it. Many took home the important message that it is impossible to stop anti-Chinese racist attacks in Australia without resisting the U.S. and Australian rulers’ Cold War drive against socialistic China that is fuelling such attacks. This fact has great additional importance. For this Cold War drive itself is completely and hugely against the interests of the working class and most middle-class people in Australia (and other imperialist Western countries as well as, of course, the masses of the Global South). As a Trotskyist Platform leaflet that we distributed to rally participants emphasised in motivating our strategy to resist racist violence:

We must explain that far from being a “threat”, China is the only world power that has not fought a war in the 21st century. We must point out that it is in the working class’s interests to strongly defend socialistic China because the existence of China’s socialistic pro-masses policies – like widespread public housing and public ownership of her power sector and major banks – helps us fight for these, so desperately needed, measures here.

The July 12 rally and march has historic significance. Not only was it the first response to the terrifying spate of anti-Chinese attacks that has been mobilised on an explicitly, anti-racist agenda, it was, by far, the most powerful Sydney action against anti-Chinese and broader anti-East Asian hate attacks (and including opposition to redneck attacks on Muslims, Africans, South Asians, Arabs and Aboriginal people) since the Cold War-driven escalation in anti-Chinese violence over the last eight or so years. However, while being an important and major step forward, in terms of the overall journey required, it takes us just a tiny part of the way. For the reality is that with their decaying system increasingly unable to meet the needs of their own working class masses and the example of socialistic China’s successes becoming gradually more attractive to their own population here in Australia, Australia’s imperialist rulers will be increasingly driven to, both, deflect the masses’ anger onto minorities and to escalate Cold War demonisation and war-mongering against socialistic China. That means that white supremacist – and especially anti-Chinese – hate attacks will intensify … unless we escalate our resistance. As rally co-chair – and TP chairwoman – Sarah Fitzenmeyer stated in concluding the July 12 action:

“Let’s make today just the beginning of what is a desperately needed resistance against this racism. Let us unite against the growing white supremacy in this country and strengthen our workers movement by crushing all racist attacks….”