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-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted
from the Aug. 29, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
A series of mass demonstrations rocked Canberra, Australia's capital, as the government prepared to pass a budget with severe cuts in social spending and new anti-union regulations. Unions and Aboriginal groups held rallies on Aug. 19 and 20. Both ended with clashes between demonstrators and police.
The Aug. 19 demonstration, called by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, targeted laws designed to weak en union power in work places. The crowd of 30,000 people included unionists, welfare groups, students and Aboriginal groups. All united against the Conservative government's plan to cut over $6 billion from the budget over the next two years.
When one group of marchers attempted to join the demonstration, cops blocked their way and grabbed an Aboriginal man. As demonstrators jumped to his rescue, about 1,000 others broke from the main demonstration and charged the Parliament building.
Carrying crowbars and sledgehammers, the militant splinter march uprooted a flagpole and used a metal barrier to smash the Parliament door down. Ministers were told to lock their doors as the angry workers trashed the Parliament bookstore.
Scores of demonstrators were wounded as cops wad ed into the crowd with batons. At least 49 were arrested. Sixty- one cops were sent to the hospital with cuts and bruises.
Among those hit most severely by the government cutbacks will be the Aboriginal people, who already represent the most oppressed sector of Australian society. For example, life expectancy for the indigenous people is 17 to 20 years less than that of white Australians.
The current budget calls for $312 million in cuts for indigenous programs over the next four years. On Aug. 16, Aboriginal leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu quit a government reconciliation committee in protest, saying, "I don't see any future unity."
"I think we ought to tell them it's a racist way of doing it," said activist Charles Perkins.
Aboriginal people called their own demonstration at Parliament on Aug. 20, the day after they had joined with the union movement in Canberra. Over 1,000 demonstrated in front of the old Parliament House, which was the original seat of the Australian government. Hundreds of others protested in Brisbane and Adelaide.
"All we want is justice in our own country," Perkins told the rally. Aborigines were the original inhabitants of Australia, before it was settled as a prison colony by the British empire. Native people were brutally repressed by the British colonists.
Demonstrators burned an Australian flag, as one called, "If you want to come and stamp on the white law and the white flag, stamp on the ashes like they stamped on ours."
As in the previous day's action, a group of about 150 people charged the old Parliament building. The crowd clashed with police, pelting them with bricks, bottles, and stakes.
Aboriginal groups threatened to build a campaign to disrupt the 2000 Olympics, scheduled to be held in Sydney.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. For subscription info send message to: ww-info@wwpublish.com. Web: http://www.workers.org)