SYDNEY — Members of the Communist League and supporters of the Militant joined the Yabun Festival here Jan. 26, an annual event that celebrates the survival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures in Australia.
They set up a table where a Militant headline defending the right of Israel to exist as a refuge for Jews became a topic of debate. A number of those at the festival supported the headline, while others heatedly disagreed with it, reflecting the wider debate among Aboriginal people.
Nicole Abramowitz, a young Jewish woman, at first assumed the Militant article was anti-Jewish, because of her experience with groups that call themselves socialist.
Communist League member Janet Roth explained the League’s position and its continuity in fighting Jew-hatred that goes back to the to the leadership of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia under V.I. Lenin.
After the discussion, Abramowitz decided to subscribe to the Militant, saying, “This gives me hope as a Jewish socialist that there is another road that exists.” Being Jewish, she said, she identifies with the Aboriginal struggle.
“Workers cannot rely on ‘democratic’ imperialism to protect Jews,” Roth said. “Out of today’s struggles, working people in Israel and Palestine need to organize independently from the capitalist parties to get rid of the capitalist system. The same is true in Australia.”