En Passant

The Australian flag on Invasion Day: To burn or not to burn?

Despite burning the Australian flag not being a crime, a heavy-handed police reaction has helped the authorities and the media to vilify and prosecute peaceful Australia Day protesters in Sydney, I write in Independent Australia​. To read the article click here. The Australian Flag on Invasion Day: To burn or not to burn?

‘The Australian Government plan to Shut Down Aboriginal Peoples Communities and Homelands so on June 1st access to Parliament House will be Shut. Commonwealth Avenue Bridge will be closed.’

ANZAC Day, the supposed symbol and celebration of the ‘nation’ denies this most obvious truth – Australian society was founded on the genocide of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and that genocide continues today. Let’s unite and fight to stop the brutal war against Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders now.

We have come of age, and our politics have come of age. Aboriginal people can manage our own affairs, on our own terms. We are ready to treaty…can you Close that Gap Julia?

A treaty, recognising prior ownership and sovereignty, paying the rent to the indigenous owners of the land and allowing Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders to run their own affairs is a set of systemic solutions to the systemic problems of dispossession and disempowerment, systemic solutions to the past and ongoing genocide against the indigenous peoples of this country.

That would require an attack on capital in Australia and its interests. Labor won’t do that. Far better from the point of view of Gillard as the captain of the second level of capital to pick Nova Peris to open the batting in the battle for the Senate than actually take on capital to address the real issues. Nova Peris will be a willing accomplice to Gillard’s anti-Aboriginal agenda.

The Invasion Day protests, the burgeoning Idle No More indigenous peoples’ movement in Canada which is spreading across the globe, the campaigns against the Intervention and deaths in custody, all offer an alternative approach to winning better lives for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. They are movements from below, not machinations from above. That way lies the future, not one bum on one seat for a Gillard puppet in the Senate.

There are many Indigenous freedom fighters white settler society ignores; fighters who in a less racist society would be honoured for their stance and the courage of their resistance. Where are our monuments to these fallen heroes?

The only remarkable thing about the protest, if you consider the sheer scale of the inequality and hardship and lies suffered by Aboriginal people, is actually how peaceful it was, besides the actions of police. Channel 9 recorded Tony Abbott as saying from the inside, “I think it would be very easy for that glass to be smashed”. I must admit, the same thought crossed my mind and probably a few others. But it never actually happened. The only damage done was to Gillard and Abbott’s pride, and the sanctimonious propaganda of “Australia Day”. Seeing Gillard flee in shame was one of the highlights of my life, and a general feeling of jubilation was in the air as Gillard’s shoe was displayed as a symbol of our victory. This is the kind of reception which should greet Gillard wherever she goes.

If all this setting upon and intimidation and violence at the Invasion Day demonstration are true, why have there been no arrests? Maybe because the police on the ground – not liars sitting hundreds of miles away – know the truth. There was no violence by protesters. If all this setting upon and intimidation and violence at the Invasion Day demonstration are true, why have there been no arrests? Maybe because the police on the ground – not liars sitting hundreds of miles away – know the truth. There was no violence by protesters.

But don’t let racist stories as part of a racist agenda of continued dispossession and genocide of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders stand in the way of the truth.

These two disgraceful articles are just a further indication to me that racism is systemic and entrenched in Australian society and its institutions, including the media.

A good first step is telling the truth. As George Orwell put it, that is a revolutionary act.

But in the end only a mass struggle of Aboriginal people and their millions of supporters can challenge the systemic racism of Australian capitalism.

The duality of racism in Australia means that when Abbott inflames racist tensions by attacking refugees he lays the groundwork for more and more brutal attacks on our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters, including the Tent Embassy.

We need more and bigger demonstrations for Aboriginal sovereignty and land rights to make the point that they are central to addressing Aboriginal genocide and dispossession. It is time for a treaty.

It is time for a real fight back to shake the systemic racism of Australian capitalism to its core.

‘If you don’t fight you lose.’