While we never agreed with the right conservative Liberal party, but we have no choice but to agree with Tony Abbot’s demands. Tony Abbot demanded yesterday that the Greens stop talking about opposing Malaysian solution and instead take actions to enforce the government to abandon Malaysian solution and all steps to undermine the refugees and asylum seekers rights.
This year’s celebration of World Refugees Day is coming where the government of Australia supposed to be Left-Centre collation of Labor-Greens-Independents. But instead of celebrating any progress on ending scapegoating of asylum seekers and attacks on Multiculturalism, the attacks indeed intensified. Such intensification of attacks was met with no meaningful opposition from the Greens, which promoted itself as “progressive”, “Left” and “pro-refugees”.
“The Social Justice Network (SJN) will boycott the rally tomorrow as we view the rally to be no more than a cheap media stunt to promote the Greens and its political opportunism” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson for SJN. “We note here that the Greens senator is the only politician invited to speak at the rally. We also note that the list of organisations endorsing the rally have every Greens local group on it, with no other political endorsement of other political parties or organisations supporting refugees rights”
“We will have no problem to give the Greens space to outline to Australians and protestors the practical steps taken by the Greens to end the attack on the refugees and asylum seekers. But instead, the rally will give a platform for the Greens senator to vend more lies about the Greens declared policies on these issues”
We note that there is big difference between policies and politics. The Greens currently have huge influence on the Labor’s decision, if they were genuine to enforce change of current Labor politics. The Greens in fact a partner in this minority government and with one call from Bob Brown or Sarah Hanson-Young to Julia Gillard, they can in fact enforce total change of current politics. The Greens can demand abandoning of Malaysian solution and all harsh Labor policies, if Julia wants to continue governing the country.
Without Adam Bandit, the minority government will collapse and fresh election will be called. The Labor definitely is not ready for such election and will definitely budge to such demands. The government could refuse or resist demands of sole independent MP, Andrew Willkie, when he demanded dramatic changes to big and influential pokies industry. The Greens should follow the footsteps of Andrew Willkie.
The SJN calls on all community members to ignore the rally tomorrow, such rally that wants to give the Greens progressive blanket they do not deserve. We believe that progressiveness should be practical steps to achieve solutions and results, and not only a set of code words.
We, as a group that fights on the frontline for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, cannot endorse a rally that aims to deceive masses and give them misleading sense of comfort that there are politicians inside the parliament defending these rights. The Greens, as part of minority government that persecute asylum seekers and refugees, became part of the problem and not part of any solution.
When the Greens take any practical step to stop the asylum seekers persecution, we will be the first to promote these steps to be progressive and things to be praised and promoted. But for now, the Greens should be condemned for making this highly humanitarian issue an issue for electoral gains.
We should also note that we, in the SJN, were ahead of Tony Abbot to demand practical steps from the Greens to stop the Labor’s attack on refugees and asylum seekers rights.
Instead of participating in the media circus and stunt tomorrow, the SJN will continue to take practical steps to highlight the suffering of refugees and asylum seekers.
For media contact, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272
Friday, June 17, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
Malaysian solution could and should be killed by the Greens
While the devastating impacts of the Malaysian deal to ship asylum seekers between Malaysia and Australia are well known, we are disappointing of comments and actions by many so-called pro-refugees activists. The activists are calling on wide range of sides to the debate to stop the deal from going ahead, but ignoring to demand the Greens to take decisive and practical action to stop this horrific deal.
“Some pro-refugees activists, who are mainly either open or subtle Greens members, are cowardly demanding actions from Malaysian parliament, UNHCR, Labor party or even the Liberals to kill the deal, but stop short of demand the same from the Greens” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson for Social Justice Network. “These activists know very well that the Greens is in the position to kill this deal almost immediately”.
The Greens politicians need to stop their campaign of lies and deceptions by calling on the Labor government to abandon the deal, while they are part of this minority government, one way or other. The Greens is equally responsible of all gross human rights abuses the asylum seekers could suffer if the deal goes ahead.
“It is shameful to see the Greens lagging behind the Liberals in demanding to kill this deal, on human rights basis. While we know that the Liberals are trying to squeeze the government in the corner mainly for political scoring reasons, we understand that the Greens has the ultimate power to kill this deal and preserve Australian reputation as country that respects basic human rights”
“It is deeply alarming that the Greens is resorting to the cheap “numbers’ game” when dealing with this highly humanitarian issue. The Greens allegation that they do not have enough politicians in the parliament to kill the deal is not more than a cheap lie. The Greens sole MP, Adam Bandit, could kill the government altogether if the Labor insists to go ahead with its highly regressive and highly inhumane policies. On the other hands, if the record numbers of Greens politicians in Federal parliament is not enough to kill this issue that was opposed by all opposition politicians, would not this send clear signal to voters that voting for the Greens is not more than a waste of vote?!”
The SJN condemns the cowardnece of the so-called pro-refugees activists who stop short of naming and targeting the Greens to enforce them to act to end highly inhumane practices. These activists are in fact serving Greens interests to grab more power but not serving the interests of asylum seekers or to strengthen the real Multiculturalism.
If these activists are seriously concerned about the devastating impact of this deal, they should target the Greens to honor their pre-election commitments. These activists should start target Greens politicians by all means to enforce them to kill this deal, even if it would mean killing the government. We may start organizing such campaigns and possibly rallies outside Greens offices.
On the other hand, we will make sure that voters know about these coward action of the Greens in the next election.
For media contact, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272.
“Some pro-refugees activists, who are mainly either open or subtle Greens members, are cowardly demanding actions from Malaysian parliament, UNHCR, Labor party or even the Liberals to kill the deal, but stop short of demand the same from the Greens” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson for Social Justice Network. “These activists know very well that the Greens is in the position to kill this deal almost immediately”.
The Greens politicians need to stop their campaign of lies and deceptions by calling on the Labor government to abandon the deal, while they are part of this minority government, one way or other. The Greens is equally responsible of all gross human rights abuses the asylum seekers could suffer if the deal goes ahead.
“It is shameful to see the Greens lagging behind the Liberals in demanding to kill this deal, on human rights basis. While we know that the Liberals are trying to squeeze the government in the corner mainly for political scoring reasons, we understand that the Greens has the ultimate power to kill this deal and preserve Australian reputation as country that respects basic human rights”
“It is deeply alarming that the Greens is resorting to the cheap “numbers’ game” when dealing with this highly humanitarian issue. The Greens allegation that they do not have enough politicians in the parliament to kill the deal is not more than a cheap lie. The Greens sole MP, Adam Bandit, could kill the government altogether if the Labor insists to go ahead with its highly regressive and highly inhumane policies. On the other hands, if the record numbers of Greens politicians in Federal parliament is not enough to kill this issue that was opposed by all opposition politicians, would not this send clear signal to voters that voting for the Greens is not more than a waste of vote?!”
The SJN condemns the cowardnece of the so-called pro-refugees activists who stop short of naming and targeting the Greens to enforce them to act to end highly inhumane practices. These activists are in fact serving Greens interests to grab more power but not serving the interests of asylum seekers or to strengthen the real Multiculturalism.
If these activists are seriously concerned about the devastating impact of this deal, they should target the Greens to honor their pre-election commitments. These activists should start target Greens politicians by all means to enforce them to kill this deal, even if it would mean killing the government. We may start organizing such campaigns and possibly rallies outside Greens offices.
On the other hand, we will make sure that voters know about these coward action of the Greens in the next election.
For media contact, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Social Justice Network condemns the Israeli killing of Palestinian peaceful protestors
The Social Justice Network condemns in the strongest words the Israeli killings of dozens of Palestinian demonstrators while demonstrating to mark the 63 rd anniversary of Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe) day. The demonstrators who were peaceful and unarmed were killed in cold blood by Israeli army when they tried to march to the border of historical Palestine demanding their right of return to their homeland, as per international conventions and resolutions.
“The world has watched yesterday how Israeli army killed in cold blood dozens of peaceful protestors demanding basic rights of return to homeland. The rights is guaranteed under UN resolution 194 and many articles in the Universal Human Rights Declaration, 1948” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of SJN. “Yet, the “Free World” of “Western Democracies” failed to rise up and demand Israel to honour international law and resolutions”.
“We see the Western democracies’ double standard here. These democracies were quick to condemn Libyan regime for oppressing its own people and were quick to impose sanctions and no-fly zone, including NATO bombing of Libyan cities. But when Israel is killing dozens of unarmed protestors and deny refugees from returning to their homeland, these democracies are silent, if not supporting Israeli illegal and criminal actions”
Israel is blocking the return of more than 7 millions Palestinian refugees from returning to their villages, towns and cities. The western democracies, including Australian government and all opposition parties in Federal parliament, are keeping blind eye on these gross violations to human rights.
Yesterday, the SJN with many community members sent strong message of support for the Palestinian refugees’ demands to be allowed back to their homeland when they held vigil outside the American consulate in Sydney. The network is discussing with other community organizations and organizations concerned about human rights to take further actions to condemn the latest Israeli killing of peaceful demonstrators.
The network hold Israel and its allies of Western democracies the full responsibility of the latest violence and bloodshed. This violence and bloodshed that could intensify the cycle of violence in the Middle East and neighbouring regions.
To stop this vicious cycle of violence, Israel should stop being treated as above-the-law state. For the last 63 years, Israel was never held accountable for the crimes it committed. Despite many international reports of Israeli crimes, no actions were taken to discipline Israel and hold its leaders accountable for these crimes. Australians politicians, especially the ones claim to be progressive, should start demanding actions against Israeli crimes. These actions should include sanctions against Israel and suspending diplomatic and economic ties.
For media contact, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272
“The world has watched yesterday how Israeli army killed in cold blood dozens of peaceful protestors demanding basic rights of return to homeland. The rights is guaranteed under UN resolution 194 and many articles in the Universal Human Rights Declaration, 1948” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of SJN. “Yet, the “Free World” of “Western Democracies” failed to rise up and demand Israel to honour international law and resolutions”.
“We see the Western democracies’ double standard here. These democracies were quick to condemn Libyan regime for oppressing its own people and were quick to impose sanctions and no-fly zone, including NATO bombing of Libyan cities. But when Israel is killing dozens of unarmed protestors and deny refugees from returning to their homeland, these democracies are silent, if not supporting Israeli illegal and criminal actions”
Israel is blocking the return of more than 7 millions Palestinian refugees from returning to their villages, towns and cities. The western democracies, including Australian government and all opposition parties in Federal parliament, are keeping blind eye on these gross violations to human rights.
Yesterday, the SJN with many community members sent strong message of support for the Palestinian refugees’ demands to be allowed back to their homeland when they held vigil outside the American consulate in Sydney. The network is discussing with other community organizations and organizations concerned about human rights to take further actions to condemn the latest Israeli killing of peaceful demonstrators.
The network hold Israel and its allies of Western democracies the full responsibility of the latest violence and bloodshed. This violence and bloodshed that could intensify the cycle of violence in the Middle East and neighbouring regions.
To stop this vicious cycle of violence, Israel should stop being treated as above-the-law state. For the last 63 years, Israel was never held accountable for the crimes it committed. Despite many international reports of Israeli crimes, no actions were taken to discipline Israel and hold its leaders accountable for these crimes. Australians politicians, especially the ones claim to be progressive, should start demanding actions against Israeli crimes. These actions should include sanctions against Israel and suspending diplomatic and economic ties.
For media contact, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272
13 May 2011
Vigil to commemorate 63rd anniversary of Palestinian Nakba: SJN supports the Palestinian refugees’ rights to return to their homeland
The Social Justice Network has called for a vigil to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, 15 May 1948. The Israeli occupation resulted in destroying hundreds of villages, towns and neighborhoods and created more than 750,000 refugees. To date, the Israeli authorities are refusing to accept implementing UN resolutions to allow millions of Palestinian refugees returning to their homeland.
“The SJN called the vigil as response to the many calls from Palestinian organisations to organise mass walk of Palestinian refugees to the borders of Palestine with its neighbouring countries” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of SJN. “It is expected that millions of Palestinian refugees and thousands of international supporters will arrive to the borders of historical Palestine with neighboring countries on Sunday 15 May 2011”
The masses will demand that Israel should allow their return to their homeland immediately. UN resolution 194 calls on Israeli authorities to facilitate the immediate return of Palestinian refugees to their villages, towns and cities.
The Palestinian refugees are inspired by the successful revolutions by Arab nations against the dictatorships. They are hoping that the walk of millions of refugees to the borders and their protest of the millions for days there will enforce Israeli occupation authorities to allow them to return to their homeland. It will at least highlight the plight of the Palestinian refugees, which lasts for 63 years now.
The SJN hopes to send strong message of support for the Palestinian refugees’ demands to allow them back to their homeland, as per UN resolutions. The SJN also hopes to send strong message to the Australian politicians that their blind support of Israel is not acceptable anymore.
The vigil will be the first activity the network is intending to organise or participate in. In the next few weeks we will announce the further steps we will take to increase the Australian awareness of this highly humanitarian issue. We will announce about them in due time.
The vigil will be next Sunday 15 May 2011, from 2 – 4 pm outside the American Consulate in Sydney – Martin Place. The SJN decided to hold the vigil outside the American Consulate in protest of continued American blind support of Israeli aggressions and wars.
For media contact, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272
The Social Justice Network has called for a vigil to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, 15 May 1948. The Israeli occupation resulted in destroying hundreds of villages, towns and neighborhoods and created more than 750,000 refugees. To date, the Israeli authorities are refusing to accept implementing UN resolutions to allow millions of Palestinian refugees returning to their homeland.
“The SJN called the vigil as response to the many calls from Palestinian organisations to organise mass walk of Palestinian refugees to the borders of Palestine with its neighbouring countries” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of SJN. “It is expected that millions of Palestinian refugees and thousands of international supporters will arrive to the borders of historical Palestine with neighboring countries on Sunday 15 May 2011”
The masses will demand that Israel should allow their return to their homeland immediately. UN resolution 194 calls on Israeli authorities to facilitate the immediate return of Palestinian refugees to their villages, towns and cities.
The Palestinian refugees are inspired by the successful revolutions by Arab nations against the dictatorships. They are hoping that the walk of millions of refugees to the borders and their protest of the millions for days there will enforce Israeli occupation authorities to allow them to return to their homeland. It will at least highlight the plight of the Palestinian refugees, which lasts for 63 years now.
The SJN hopes to send strong message of support for the Palestinian refugees’ demands to allow them back to their homeland, as per UN resolutions. The SJN also hopes to send strong message to the Australian politicians that their blind support of Israel is not acceptable anymore.
The vigil will be the first activity the network is intending to organise or participate in. In the next few weeks we will announce the further steps we will take to increase the Australian awareness of this highly humanitarian issue. We will announce about them in due time.
The vigil will be next Sunday 15 May 2011, from 2 – 4 pm outside the American Consulate in Sydney – Martin Place. The SJN decided to hold the vigil outside the American Consulate in protest of continued American blind support of Israeli aggressions and wars.
For media contact, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272
Thursday, April 21, 2011
The Labor-Greens government is responsible for riots in Villawood
The Social Justice Network has warned for long time of expected wide spread riots in detention centres if the current Labor-Greens coalition government continues with its regressive politics. The coalition government was sending conflicting signals in different directions. The Labor was selling itself as tough government on boat arrivals to stop “people smuggling activities”. While the smaller partner, the Greens, was selling empty rhetoric about the need for more humane approach. The Greens did not give one principled vision on how to deal with this highly humanitarian issue.
At last night’s ABC Lateline, the Greens joined both the Labor and the Liberals to condemn and blame the detainees for their “violent” actions that will “cost tax-payers a lot of money”. The Greens also retreated from their election promises to work on totally abolishing of the mandatory detention system to replace it with demands to cosmetically make the system looks like prettier and less inhumane.
“The Greens senator and spokesperson on the issue rightly pointed to the fact that the continued detention of thousands of asylum seekers for indefinite periods and the vague process of the rejected applications had caused desperate asylum seekers to riot inside detention centers” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson for the SJN. “But she did not give any practical steps taken by her Greens party to enforce the Labor to change these inhumane practices that causes huge losses of tax-payers money”
“Ms Hanson - Young failed to answer question about her party’s practical commitment to honour its policy on working towards abolishing mandatory detention system. From Ms Hanson - Young indications, we understood that the Greens supports convicting desperate asylum seekers for their desperate actions”
“We understand that abolishing mandatory detention system should include dismantling detention centres, including Villawood detention centre”
“It is alarming that the former Liberal PM, Malcolm Fraser, supports dismantling the “hell-holes”, when the Labor-Greens coalition government is moving to prosecute the people who work to dismantle them”.
“The citizens who voted to the Greens in the last elections on perception that they will work to dismantle this inhumane system need some explanations form the Greens officials. These voters need to hear from the Greens why they were very effective to enforce Labor to change its position on many important issues, like introducing Carbon Tax and considering changing the constitution on marriage definition to introduce same-sex marriage, but they are unable to change Labor’s position on mandatory detention issues”
“We deeply believe that the Greens is enjoying the crisis in detention system. Such crisis that depletes the Labor from progressive votes for the Greens benefits”.
The Social Justice Network supports any attempts to dismantle the mandatory detention system. This includes supporting any attempts to dismantle any of the “hell-holes”, including Viallwood DC. If the Labor-Greens coalition has deep concerns about tax-payers money, they should work quickly to dismantle this system that causes waste of millions of dollars every year.
For media contact, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272
At last night’s ABC Lateline, the Greens joined both the Labor and the Liberals to condemn and blame the detainees for their “violent” actions that will “cost tax-payers a lot of money”. The Greens also retreated from their election promises to work on totally abolishing of the mandatory detention system to replace it with demands to cosmetically make the system looks like prettier and less inhumane.
“The Greens senator and spokesperson on the issue rightly pointed to the fact that the continued detention of thousands of asylum seekers for indefinite periods and the vague process of the rejected applications had caused desperate asylum seekers to riot inside detention centers” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson for the SJN. “But she did not give any practical steps taken by her Greens party to enforce the Labor to change these inhumane practices that causes huge losses of tax-payers money”
“Ms Hanson - Young failed to answer question about her party’s practical commitment to honour its policy on working towards abolishing mandatory detention system. From Ms Hanson - Young indications, we understood that the Greens supports convicting desperate asylum seekers for their desperate actions”
“We understand that abolishing mandatory detention system should include dismantling detention centres, including Villawood detention centre”
“It is alarming that the former Liberal PM, Malcolm Fraser, supports dismantling the “hell-holes”, when the Labor-Greens coalition government is moving to prosecute the people who work to dismantle them”.
“The citizens who voted to the Greens in the last elections on perception that they will work to dismantle this inhumane system need some explanations form the Greens officials. These voters need to hear from the Greens why they were very effective to enforce Labor to change its position on many important issues, like introducing Carbon Tax and considering changing the constitution on marriage definition to introduce same-sex marriage, but they are unable to change Labor’s position on mandatory detention issues”
“We deeply believe that the Greens is enjoying the crisis in detention system. Such crisis that depletes the Labor from progressive votes for the Greens benefits”.
The Social Justice Network supports any attempts to dismantle the mandatory detention system. This includes supporting any attempts to dismantle any of the “hell-holes”, including Viallwood DC. If the Labor-Greens coalition has deep concerns about tax-payers money, they should work quickly to dismantle this system that causes waste of millions of dollars every year.
For media contact, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
The Greens backdown on boycotting Israel: another Greens political whoring!
Marrickville council has decided last night to overturn its original decision to endorse campaign to boycott Israeli products, known internationally as BDS campaign. The motion was introduced to the council last December by Greens councilors. The decision to overturn the original one was not possible without the support of the introducing party, the Greens.
The Social Justice Network (SJN) condemns in the strongest words the Greens political whoring attitude tonight.
“The Greens had done it again. In the last few months, the Greens has sent too many conflicting messages in too many directions that the message was lost at the end” said Jamal Daoud, the spokesperson of SJN. “Three Greens councilors opposed withdrawing the original motion. While two have supported the withdrawal. The Greens deliberately misled the Australians by splitting the vote on the motion last night”
“From the first day, we knew and we expressed our pessimism of the real agenda behind the original motion. We have questioned many aspects of the motion, including its timing just few months before the NSW election”
“The draft of the motion was clear that it was designed for electoral use. The Greens had big hope to snatch Marrickville seat from Labor. They wanted to do so on a sea of Palestinian bloods”.
“The Greens political whoring has great negative impact. It divided the community, divided the movement for Palestine Freedom and demoralised the activists and community members”
“We have warned from day one of the original motion that the Greens enthusiasm for this campaign will be evaporated once the election dust settles. This is what exactly happened last night”.
“The Greens is not new for such political whoring attitude. The Greens party has backflipped on many issues in the last decade to the point that no politician or analysts know where they are really standing on issues”.
“The Greens has vowed to abolish private health rebate. This is the party’s official policy. But in fact, the Greens has voted against partially abolishing the rebate when it was introduced by Kevin Rudd’s government”.
“It also backflipped on political donations, refugees rights, selling public assets, Afghanistan war, Multiculturalism and issue of Israeli occupation of Palestine”.
The Greens mouthpiece on Palestine – Israel issue, the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine (CJPP) should come up with convincing argument if they want to keep fooling Australians on the Greens progressiveness on this issue. The CJPP should issue media release explaining what we can expect from them and their party.
We will continue exposing this highly opportunistic party on all levels. We are very concerned that continued Greens chameleonic attitude of constantly changing skin colours, will affect the communities’ faith in the political system. We have witnessed in the last decade growing decrease of marginalised communities participation in the political process. The total lack of any alternative party on issues important for large section of community will deepen this feeling of hopelessness among growing numbers of Australians.
For media contact, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272
The Social Justice Network (SJN) condemns in the strongest words the Greens political whoring attitude tonight.
“The Greens had done it again. In the last few months, the Greens has sent too many conflicting messages in too many directions that the message was lost at the end” said Jamal Daoud, the spokesperson of SJN. “Three Greens councilors opposed withdrawing the original motion. While two have supported the withdrawal. The Greens deliberately misled the Australians by splitting the vote on the motion last night”
“From the first day, we knew and we expressed our pessimism of the real agenda behind the original motion. We have questioned many aspects of the motion, including its timing just few months before the NSW election”
“The draft of the motion was clear that it was designed for electoral use. The Greens had big hope to snatch Marrickville seat from Labor. They wanted to do so on a sea of Palestinian bloods”.
“The Greens political whoring has great negative impact. It divided the community, divided the movement for Palestine Freedom and demoralised the activists and community members”
“We have warned from day one of the original motion that the Greens enthusiasm for this campaign will be evaporated once the election dust settles. This is what exactly happened last night”.
“The Greens is not new for such political whoring attitude. The Greens party has backflipped on many issues in the last decade to the point that no politician or analysts know where they are really standing on issues”.
“The Greens has vowed to abolish private health rebate. This is the party’s official policy. But in fact, the Greens has voted against partially abolishing the rebate when it was introduced by Kevin Rudd’s government”.
“It also backflipped on political donations, refugees rights, selling public assets, Afghanistan war, Multiculturalism and issue of Israeli occupation of Palestine”.
The Greens mouthpiece on Palestine – Israel issue, the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine (CJPP) should come up with convincing argument if they want to keep fooling Australians on the Greens progressiveness on this issue. The CJPP should issue media release explaining what we can expect from them and their party.
We will continue exposing this highly opportunistic party on all levels. We are very concerned that continued Greens chameleonic attitude of constantly changing skin colours, will affect the communities’ faith in the political system. We have witnessed in the last decade growing decrease of marginalised communities participation in the political process. The total lack of any alternative party on issues important for large section of community will deepen this feeling of hopelessness among growing numbers of Australians.
For media contact, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Brief analysis of NSW Election results: SJN proud of its campaign and achievements
The Social Justice Network ran 3 candidates for the NSW state election, 2011. The candidates scored the average of 2.2 across the seats of Auburn, Lakemba and Fairfield. Despite all circumstances (which we will mention later in the release), we could score this result in the first state campaign we ever participated in.
Recently, we have been receiving phone calls from people known to us and others not known to us. The tone of the callers has a mixture of joy and gloating. What is deeply depressing for us is that these callers were having Lebanese accent, and we are sure that they are Muslims.
In the election where the Liberal party started its campaign with vicious attack on Multiculturalism and Muslim community, where we saw many Liberal shadow ministers launched Islamophobic comments, to the point of demanding ban of Muslim migration for initial period of 10 years. We were deeply shocked and depressed when we saw that many “Muslim” organizations urged Muslim NSW residents to reward the Liberal party for its Islamophobic campaigns by urging them to vote for this extreme party.
In the aftermath of this campaign we should stress that we are proud of our achievements. We also very proud that we participated in aborting the agenda of some opportunistic Muslim “leaders” to get Liberals elected in the highly multicultural seats with high Muslim presence. We also very proud that we did not compromise our principles for any reason or in return for any deal.
Maybe we did not get a lot of votes. But we got our message through in this election in the targeted areas. Not only this. We left our fingerprints on this election, especially in high multicultural seats with high Muslim presence.
Despite the following facts, we did succeed in sending strong message about the lack of real multiculturalism in Australian politics:
1- Our campaign had no budget and we operated with self-funds..
2- Our campaign was subjected to vicious dirty tricks from many rival candidates, many of them has big budget to spread lies, deception and roumers about our campaigns and our candidates. We are well aware about the house-to-house and shop-to-shop campaign to spread lies about our campaign and candidates.
3- Our campaign challenged high-profile religious and community “leaders” who sold the interests and rights of their communities for individual benefits.
Maybe we did not get many votes, but we can claim comfortably and safely the highest moral ground among rival candidates and political opponents. During the many “Meet the candidate” forums and meetings, we demonstrated that we have both real commitments to social justice, and we have clear vision how to address the injustices in the society.
In this campaign we could accumulate more knowledge about how to conduct future campaigns in more efficient way. We should stress again that this was the first time we ran candidates for state parliament. And we have learnt a lot. And we have better exposure and better networks now. We should mention here that our candidates got more votes than political forces which were established long before our group and ran tens of candidates before.
When we decided to run candidates, our aim was not to win seats. We knew very well that we will not win any seat. We wanted to send a message to different sides. We wanted to send message to mainstream political groups that it is highly unacceptable to keep ignoring the lack of multiculturalism and the lack of equal representation of new migrants in decision making bodies. We also wanted to send a message of hope to marginalised groups and give them some hints about alternative way to deal with complacency of mainstream parties in racism and Islamopbohia.
With very limited financial resources, we have achieved a lot. We did not get a lot of votes. But we affected the way voters voted in this election. We are proud that we participated in:
1- Minimizing the swing to Liberals in high multicultural seats, especially with high Muslim presence.
2- Minimizing the Greens votes, including aborting the Greens dream of wining high multicultural seat of Marrickville and minimizing the increase of Greens votes in the Legislative Council.
3- Making the low representation of Non-English speaking people in parliament an election matter.
4- We were the only political group that campaigned on true progressive platform, where progressiveness meant siding with marginalized in their fight for equality. Unlike other “progressive” groups who were preaching progressiveness but practicing regressive ideas of excluding marginalized and promote Anti-family and Anti-moral values. Such campaigns that would result in deepening marginalization by increasing socio-economic problems as a result of deteriorating social bond of families and communities, increase individualism and increase depending on substances.
Our high moral ground includes our refusal to participate in Islamophobic campaigns through high restraint in dealing with sheikh Fayez fiasco. We were more restraint in dealing with this issue (despite the fact that we do not agree with any comment or teaching Mr Fayez launched or preached) than many Muslim religious figures and Muslim radio stations, who participated in fueling these campaigns by vending fiery comments.
In the next few weeks we will take further steps to capitalize on the already achieved goals and achievements. We will announce about them in due time.
Jamal Daoud
Spokesperson, Social Justice Network
Recently, we have been receiving phone calls from people known to us and others not known to us. The tone of the callers has a mixture of joy and gloating. What is deeply depressing for us is that these callers were having Lebanese accent, and we are sure that they are Muslims.
In the election where the Liberal party started its campaign with vicious attack on Multiculturalism and Muslim community, where we saw many Liberal shadow ministers launched Islamophobic comments, to the point of demanding ban of Muslim migration for initial period of 10 years. We were deeply shocked and depressed when we saw that many “Muslim” organizations urged Muslim NSW residents to reward the Liberal party for its Islamophobic campaigns by urging them to vote for this extreme party.
In the aftermath of this campaign we should stress that we are proud of our achievements. We also very proud that we participated in aborting the agenda of some opportunistic Muslim “leaders” to get Liberals elected in the highly multicultural seats with high Muslim presence. We also very proud that we did not compromise our principles for any reason or in return for any deal.
Maybe we did not get a lot of votes. But we got our message through in this election in the targeted areas. Not only this. We left our fingerprints on this election, especially in high multicultural seats with high Muslim presence.
Despite the following facts, we did succeed in sending strong message about the lack of real multiculturalism in Australian politics:
1- Our campaign had no budget and we operated with self-funds..
2- Our campaign was subjected to vicious dirty tricks from many rival candidates, many of them has big budget to spread lies, deception and roumers about our campaigns and our candidates. We are well aware about the house-to-house and shop-to-shop campaign to spread lies about our campaign and candidates.
3- Our campaign challenged high-profile religious and community “leaders” who sold the interests and rights of their communities for individual benefits.
Maybe we did not get many votes, but we can claim comfortably and safely the highest moral ground among rival candidates and political opponents. During the many “Meet the candidate” forums and meetings, we demonstrated that we have both real commitments to social justice, and we have clear vision how to address the injustices in the society.
In this campaign we could accumulate more knowledge about how to conduct future campaigns in more efficient way. We should stress again that this was the first time we ran candidates for state parliament. And we have learnt a lot. And we have better exposure and better networks now. We should mention here that our candidates got more votes than political forces which were established long before our group and ran tens of candidates before.
When we decided to run candidates, our aim was not to win seats. We knew very well that we will not win any seat. We wanted to send a message to different sides. We wanted to send message to mainstream political groups that it is highly unacceptable to keep ignoring the lack of multiculturalism and the lack of equal representation of new migrants in decision making bodies. We also wanted to send a message of hope to marginalised groups and give them some hints about alternative way to deal with complacency of mainstream parties in racism and Islamopbohia.
With very limited financial resources, we have achieved a lot. We did not get a lot of votes. But we affected the way voters voted in this election. We are proud that we participated in:
1- Minimizing the swing to Liberals in high multicultural seats, especially with high Muslim presence.
2- Minimizing the Greens votes, including aborting the Greens dream of wining high multicultural seat of Marrickville and minimizing the increase of Greens votes in the Legislative Council.
3- Making the low representation of Non-English speaking people in parliament an election matter.
4- We were the only political group that campaigned on true progressive platform, where progressiveness meant siding with marginalized in their fight for equality. Unlike other “progressive” groups who were preaching progressiveness but practicing regressive ideas of excluding marginalized and promote Anti-family and Anti-moral values. Such campaigns that would result in deepening marginalization by increasing socio-economic problems as a result of deteriorating social bond of families and communities, increase individualism and increase depending on substances.
Our high moral ground includes our refusal to participate in Islamophobic campaigns through high restraint in dealing with sheikh Fayez fiasco. We were more restraint in dealing with this issue (despite the fact that we do not agree with any comment or teaching Mr Fayez launched or preached) than many Muslim religious figures and Muslim radio stations, who participated in fueling these campaigns by vending fiery comments.
In the next few weeks we will take further steps to capitalize on the already achieved goals and achievements. We will announce about them in due time.
Jamal Daoud
Spokesperson, Social Justice Network
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