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Racism, like sexism, is endemic in our society. It is manifested in starkly obvious ways: the racist rhetoric of Pauline Hanson and other right-wing politicians; verbal and physical abuse of people who are visibly from different ethnic backgrounds; the media stereotyping of indigenous people and particular migrant communities as lazy, violent or dishonest. But it is also manifested in more subtle ways. For example, racial discrimination in employment means that with a few exceptions, indigenous people and people from non-English-speaking backgrounds make up a disproportionate number of the unemployed and underemployed, or are employed in dirty, dangerous and low-paid jobs. Women in indigenous and migrant communities bear the double burden of racism and sexism. They face the same problems as most Anglo-Australian women, such as a lack of access to childcare, the double shift of paid work and housework, and domestic violence. But these problems are compounded by factors such as limited English skills, which makes it difficult to access information and services, and concentration in industries with little or no union presence. For indigenous women, racism has meant the loss of their land, the stealing of their children and the near-destruction of their culture. Women from indigenous and migrant communities have played and are continuing to play a strong role in the struggle against racism and exploitation. Yvonne Margarula and other Mirrar women are playing a leading role in the struggle against the Jabiluka uranium mine, for example. In South Australia, Ngarrindjeri women are continuing, with the support of their men and others, to oppose the building of a culturally and environmentally destructive bridge to Kumarangk (Hindmarsh Island). Migrant women have played a leading role in a number of industrial struggles; for example in Melbourne in 1997 where a workforce of mainly migrant women picketed the Michaelis Baley shoe factory for more than two weeks. The women stood firm in the face of management and police harassment until they won their demands for higher pay and better conditions. The women's movement must include these women and support their struggles. It needs to recognise the connection between sexism, racism and other forms of oppression, and unite to fight for a society which doesn't rely on the oppression and exploitation of the majority of people to survive. Feminists also need to recognise that for many women of indigenous or non-English speaking background, the struggle against sexism is not always the highest priority. While women from these communities recognise the sexism within their communities, and stand against it, they see their primary task as the struggle against the institutionalised racism that oppresses both women and men of colour. To characterise these women, as some feminists have, as being victims of patriarchy because they don't fight primarily against the sexist attitudes of their own men is patronising in the extreme. Another argument sometimes heard in the feminist movement is that women from Anglo-Australian backgrounds can't take up the struggles of indigenous or migrant women because we can't speak for other women. While it is obviously important that we don't dominate, silence or exclude any women, supporting the struggles of women of colour against racism isn't doing that. Finally, the struggle against racism and sexism can't be confined to Australia. Women around the world are being murdered, tortured, raped and imprisoned for standing up for their rights and the rights of others. If the women's movement in Australia builds active solidarity with the struggles of women and men against racism and gender oppression in our own country and around the world, we will be closer to building the strong, united women's movement that is needed to defend the rights we have won, and to win those we haven't.
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