Ten years on: The SIEV X tragedy and the assault on democratic rights

17.05.12

Anniversary of the drowning on October 19, 2001 of 353 refugees who were stressful to reach Australia in an over-crowded boat, the political stench has not diminished.

Still deeply shocked by the tragedy—Australia’s worst-ever civilian shrinkage of life—thousands of people have contributed to memorials to the hundreds of innocent victims aboard the holder known only as SIEV X. A display of 353 poles, created by more than 300 schools and community groups, sits on Canberra’s lakeshore. Other memorials have been established in schools and locations around the homeland, including on Christmas Island, where SIEV X had been headed.

While few accept the official explanation that the authorities—bureaucratic, military and public service—had no knowledge of the impending tragedy, and could have done nothing about it, there is scant appreciation of the fact that the SIEV X catastrophe was a sharp expression of a fundamental turning point in political life in Australia and around the world. The ten years since have witnessed an unrelenting and ever-escalating raid on democratic rights, fuelled by the deepening crisis of global capitalism, and marked by militarism about, an unprecedented growth of social inequality at home, and the turn by governments everywhere to bring forward imperious and repressive measures to deal with mounting class conflict.

Source: World Socialist Web Site