AUSTRALIA
250,000 march against racism
By Greg Butterfield
On May 28, at least 250,000 people marched in Sydney,
Australia, in support of a treaty acknowledging the rights of
Aboriginal peoples. The protesters also called on Prime
Minister John Howard to make a formal apology for decades of
racist abuse of the country's Indigenous population.
"It sends a clear message to the government," said Evelyn
Scott, a chair of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation
who is of Indigenous descent. "It's the people's movement."
(News.com.au, May 29)
Black, Asian, Pacific Islander and white protesters
marched two-and-a-half miles across the Sydney Harbor Bridge,
virtually shutting down Australia's largest city for nine
hours. Many carried the red, yellow and black Aboriginal
flag. Overhead airplane sky writers spelled out the word
"sorry."
"Sorry" refers to the demand of Aboriginal people and
Torres Strait Islanders for a government apology for the
kidnapping of more than 100,000 Indigenous children between
1910 and 1970. The children were torn away from their
families and placed in white homes.
Aboriginal people make up about 386,000 of Australia's 19
million people. Like Native people in the United States, they
have been subject to genocide by a white settler regime. They
are the poorest sector of society, the most likely to lack
health care, and the most likely to be thrown into jail.
The movement grew out of the response to a 1983 police
killing. John Pat, a 16-year-old Aboriginal youth, was
brutally killed by five cops in rural Roebourne. The police
were acquitted of all charges and returned to duty.
Public outrage caused the Australian Parliament to create
a Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation in 1991. The council
was charged with "healing the racial rift of two centuries."
More than 200 public hearings were held throughout the
1990s.
The result of the council's work is the "Declaration
Towards Reconciliation," which calls for the adoption of a
treaty recognizing Aboriginal rights, culture and history as
a first step toward "a united Australia that respects this
land of ours ... and provides justice and equity for
all."
Indigenous organizations pre sented the treaty May 27 at a
rally called Corroboree 2000, after the Aboriginal word for
"sacred ceremony."
Prime Minister Howard's Conservative government has
rejected the idea of a treaty. "A treaty is not something
very appealing to the government because it implies two
nations," Howard told the Sydney Morning Herald.
When Howard appeared at Corroboree 2000, he was roundly
booed. Hundreds turned their backs on him and chanted, "Say
you're sorry, prime minister."
Australia's imperialist ruling class, a junior partner of
Washington and London, does not want to acknowledge the
existence of an oppressed nation within its borders, just as
the U.S. ruling class refuses to acknowledge that African
Americans are an oppressed nation. Austrailia is aggressively
intervening in Timor, Fiji, Cambodia and other oppressed
Asian-Pacific lands under the guise of upholding "human
rights."
Howard will be hard-pressed to keep up this façade.
Sydney hosts the Summer Olympics this year, and Aboriginal
groups and their allies have promised to use the world media
presence to focus attention on their struggle.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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