Monday 2 July 2007

Solidarity Rally with Aboriginal Australia



No to Howard's Land Grab!
The Auckland branch of Socialist Worker has called for all anti racist and trade union groups to join with them at a protest outside the Australian Consulate this Monday July 2nd at 4.30pm, to oppose John Howard's invasion of Aboriginal lands in the Northern Territories and elsewhere.

"Forced blanket medical testing, the occupation of tribal lands by the trigger happy Australian Army and a racist Police force guilty of the murder of dozens of Black Australians in custody, and a draconian state attack on welfare and human rights is a declaration of war by Johnnie Howard on the Aboriginal people" said organiser Joe Carolan.

"We saw how little Johnnie cynically used the children of the Tampa to win an election before. Now it is Black Australian kids who are being "thrown overboard" by their families! Will Johnnie be sending the army into Sydney's leafy suburbs of North Shore if abuse was ever reported there?"

"The trade union movement in Aotearoa has a proud record of uniting Pakeha, Maori and immigrant workers to fight for their rights. Now its time for us to stand with our brothers and sisters in Black Australia. In particular, we appeal to Maori workers and community groups to rally with us, and stand up against the racism of this odious little man."

BRING ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN, TINO RANGATIRATANGA AND RED FLAGS, TRADE UNION BANNERS

PROTEST-
Meet at Britomart,
4.30pm Monday July 2nd
marching to Australian Consulate
www.unityaotearoa.blogspot.com


"I absolutely agree that this a cynical attack on Australian Aboriginals. I support protest from New Zealand Unions against John Howard on this issue. If there are these problems to address then let the Aboriginals themselves resolve them through adequate support and funding from the Australian government - instead of imposing a police state style attack on people who have had suffer the consequences of past and present racist government policy and racist attitudes. I urge all those who can attend the below to do so."

Kia kaha, kia mau tonu

Georgi Marchioni

Organiser New Zealand Nurses Organisation and Maori Worker against Howard’s Racist Attack




WHEN: Mon 2nd July 2007 @ 4:30PM


WHERE: Auckland, Meet @ QEII Square(Britomart) then head to Australian Consulate

WHY: To show solidarity to the Aboriginal communities and beneficiaries of our neighbouring Australia.


Johnny Howard discovers ‘white man’s burden’


howard hitler howard.JPG

Peter Boyle- Socialist Alliance of Australia
22 June 2007


“I’m taking control”, said Johnny Howard, with a contrived quiver of righteousness in his voice. His face was set into a familiar pastiche of horror and disgust at the degraded behaviour of lesser beings. He also conveyed a weariness — the weariness of shouldering the “white man’s burden”.

We’ve been here before. Remember the fake children overboard incident? Howard’s message then was: how subhuman of those refugees to throw their own children overboard just so they could jump the immigration queue and flood our “cultured and civilised” Australia.

Then, as now, an authoritarian “emergency” solution was presented as necessary, and a lily livered Labor opposition rushed into the shoulder-to-shoulder position.

Will Howard’s replay of this card work?

Will enough people be fooled into thinking he really cares about Aboriginal children, even after he’s dismissed the many appeals by Aboriginal leaders, health and aid bodies for urgent action to address the Indigenous health crisis?

He’s dismissed those who have been pointing to the shameful fact that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders die 17 years earlier than non-Indigenous Australians, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infant mortality is three times that of non-Indigenous Australians. He’s dismissed the modest appeal by Oxfam and the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation for spending on Aboriginal health to be increased by a mere $450 million a year.

Howard sheds crocodile tears, but how many Indigenous kids have died as a result of the Howard government’s criminal inhumanity since 1996? How many children have been abused and neglected because entire communities have been left in squalor and hopelessness?

How many would have been saved if there was a real program of positive discrimination for Indigenous people in education and employment? If there was a real Indigenous job creation campaign? How many Indigenous people have died in police and prison custody because of the failure to implement all the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody?

It’s convenient for Howard and the tough-love-sloganeering Noel Pearson to blame everything on the welfare system when it is the absence of any system to actually end the racist oppression, economic marginalisation and poverty of Indigenous communities that is the cause of these problems.

Welfare has never been able to do anything but patch and band-aid, and cannot be expected to address the real issues.

Howard’s grand solution is to send 60 cops to the Northern Territory’s remote Aboriginal settlements to end child sex abuse by banning their access to alcohol and pornography, controlling the spending of welfare benefits and thereby by forcing the kids to go to school.

What is the real record of authoritarian and paternalistic regimes and child abuse? How many commissions of inquiry into that story of institutional abuse have been buried and forgotten?

Howard’s headline-grabbing, prejudice-tapping “emergency program” is not designed to address any real social problem. It’s simply a way to press the racist button in the coming federal elections. It is the Tampa for the 2007 election.

Indigenous Australians are the football in this cynical political game — they are in for a mighty kicking if there is no resistance from those who know what is really going on.

7 comments:

Ana said...

Stop the Genocide on Stolen Aboriginal Land!

End Aboriginal deaths in Custody! Justice for Mulrunji and all killed
in custody. Implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into
Aboriginal Deaths in Custody!

Land rights not mining rights! No new mines, no new dumps!

Fund community controlled services, not troops, cops and martial law!
Social well-fair, not social control!

Aboriginal control of Aboriginal affairs! Treaty NOW!

Tamaki/Auckland Tautoko for this kaupapa:

Tia Taurere 021 311 815

Joe Carolan 021 186 1450

Kia ora whanau

Endorsements for this rally from Aotearoa to date are:

Whakaminenga o Te Paatu
Te Ata Tino Toa
Conscious Collaborations-Global Indigenous network
Mana Wahine
Solidarity Union
Socialist Worker (Aotearoa)
Human Rights Project Aotearoa
Wellington Wildcat Anarchist Collective
Aocafe (Aotearoa Cafe)

If your roopu, group or collective (from Aotearoa) would like to add
their tautoko for this rally please mail me asap uriohau(at)gmail.com

Dave Riley said...

Coral audio in flash for blogging
http://leftclickblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/new-zealand-protest-against-howards.html
Joe audio in same moe:
http://leftclickblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/new-zealand-protest-against-howards.html

Ana said...

Kia ora Joe & Crew

awesome stuff, Tamakimakaurau you rock!!!

Choice one Joe talking up the Treaty business, no treaty here in occupied Australia.

In the spirit of Indigenous Unity, Struggle & Solidarity.

Kia kaha tatou

naku noa na
Ana

Ana said...

happy birthday to your whanau Joe
Check this out,

Chur

Stop the Genocide on Stolen Aboriginal Land!
Kulin Nations 14.07.07

Full Endorsement list as follows:


Australiasia Workers Links
Black GST
Camp Sovereignty
Chilean Popular and Indigenous Network
Freedom Socialist Party,
Indigenous Social Justice Association-Melbourne
Lasnet
Ongoing G20 Arrestees Solidarity Network
Radical Women
Resistance
RMIT Student Union
Socialist Alliance
Socialist Alternative
Your Voice
3 KND
Nuclear Free Australia
International Socialist Organisation
3CR
Socialist Party
Electrical Trades Union
Plumbers Union
Union Community Alliance
Communist Party of Australia
Maritime Union of Australia
Geelong Trades and Labour Council
Moreland Peace Group
Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (Victoria)
Campaign for Women's Reproductive Rights
Indigenous Social Justice Association-Sydney
Anarchist Media Institute
IWW (Australia)
Leonard Peltier Support Group
Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby
Union Solidarity
Anti Nuclear Australia

International endorsements

Aotearoa

Te Ata Tino Toa
Conscious Collaborations - Global indigenous network
Mana Wahine
Komiti Pasifika
Solidarity Union
Socialist Worker (Aotearoa)
Human Rights Project Aotearoa
Whakaminenga o Te Paatu
Wellington Wildcat Anarchist Collective
Aocafe (Aotearoa Cafe)
Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand
Radical Youth (Auckland)
Citizens Against Privatisation (Auckland)
Imagine Native Action
Indigz

Canada

MNN Mohawk Nation News

United States

American Indian Movement
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
Freedom Socialist Party (U.S.) Section
U.S. Radical Women

Kia Kaha Tatou
Ana

Ana said...

and to that solidarity you can add

Aotearoa

Hone Harawira Maori Party MP Te Tai Tokerau
Te Ururoa Flavell Maori Party MP Waiariki
Metiria Turei List MP Green party Aotearoa/NZ


Chile

Mapuche Solidarity Coalition
People's Assembly Movement
Colectivo Avanzar - Santiago

Kia kotahi Te Moana Nui a Kiwa

Ana said...

Tamakimakaurau Tautoko for the Australian Aboriginals in there struggles for self determination and sovereignty of their lands against the Howard Racist Govt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMZq7Ov4m14

Peter Boyle said...

In this statement, Indigenous leader and Socialist Alliance (Australia) Senate candidate Sam Watson agrees with Maori Party MP Hone Harawira that PM John Howard is a racist bastard.