Letter

More on Marxism and Religion

25 May 2009

Dear Comrades,

I very much liked the article “On Marxism and Religion; Socialist Alternative: God Delusional Opportunists” in the Autumn issue of Australasian Spartacist. Here in Melbourne Socialist Alternative’s (SAlt’s) capitulation to religion is sharply seen in their avid support to the campaign for the restoration of a Muslim prayer room at RMIT University’s main city campus. The campaign has also been supported by the Democratic Socialist Perspective.

The old prayer room was demolished during renovations in 2007. RMIT Administration now offer Islamic students preferential use of rooms in a new “multi-faith Spiritual Centre.” But the students say the Administration has reneged on their promise to restore a dedicated prayer room. As part of a campaign that began more than a year ago, they recently held a rally, which had the support of student unions and NUS. SAlt were up to the necks of their Islamic green campaign t-shirts in building this 23 March protest, describing it as “uplifting.”

We can not know why the capitalist RMIT Administration made their apparent about-face on the prayer room. Of course, their claim to secularism is false, as illustrated by the provision of the Spiritual Centre. In response to RMIT’s argument that the Muslim community need to provide their own mosques, SAlt say they have been prevented from doing so by violent campaigns, for example in the Sydney suburb of Camden. Marxists unambiguously oppose such bigoted anti-Muslim reaction, just as we oppose every instance of anti-Muslim discrimination. In the case of Camden at least, opposition to the Islamic school was backed by the Labor prime minister that SAlt helped to elect.

As the “On Marxism and Religion” article makes clear, the SL has been forthright in opposing the capitalist rulers’ “war on terror,” a phony justification for imperialist brigandage and shredding of democratic rights at home, which has particularly targeted Muslims for victimisation and racist attack. However, it is one thing to fight against the government’s racist “war on terror,” and quite another to call on the institutions of the state—the very same state that has whipped up an anti-Muslim witchhunt—to provide resources and facilities to foster religion (be it minority or “mainstream” varieties).

The SL’s guiding principle on the prayer room question is the bourgeois-democratic demand for separation of church and state. When we say that religion should be a purely personal matter that means the state should neither intervene to discriminate against nor to promote a particular religion or religious beliefs in general. The Spiritual Centre at RMIT city campus, like prayer rooms and chapels at all other state-run campuses and universities, should be turned into spaces to facilitate scientific education of students—a good start would be a dedicated space for the study of the historic achievements of Charles Darwin. That the state-capitalist SAlt prominently promote the campaign for a Muslim prayer room at RMIT illustrates their hostility not only to Marxism, but even to the pronounced aims of the Enlightenment and the bourgeois-democratic French Revolution.

Comradely greetings,

R.N.