CHANGE
THE NAME! CHANGE THE DATE!
TREATIES
NOT “RECOGNISE”!
26-01-16
– As we surge deeper into the 21st Century, the Australian political
establishment has not yet dealt with its 18th Century history – the
founding of white Australia by the invading British colonialists and the
resulting genocidal war against the Aboriginal people. This war lasted 150
years and formed the basis of “Australia” as we know it today. The exact
numbers of Aboriginal people who perished in this war as well as from the deadly
impacts of colonisation are not known, but some estimates are as high as one
million. January 26, 1788, and the landing of the first colonialists in what is
now New South Wales, was essentially the first shot fired in a horrific
slaughter which scarcely speaks its name. Yet January 26 is the day which the
Australian capitalist class marks as “Australia Day”. Australia is one of the
only countries in the world to have its national day marking a hostile
invasion. Zionist Israel is another.
It
is miraculous that some Aboriginal people survived, and continued to survive to
this day. From children stolen by government forces, to being expelled from
ancestral lands, to being herded into missions, to being unjustly incarcerated,
to deaths in custody, the abuses from Australia’s rulers have continued, almost
unabated. The theft and removal of Aboriginal children from their families was
government policy for 60 years.[1]
Between 1990 and 2008, an average of 14 Aboriginal people died in custody each
year.[2]
Despite every injustice imaginable being perpetrated against the oldest living
culture on earth, the Australian rulers insist that the day which marked the
start of all of the injustices be marked, even celebrated, as the national day.
This grotesque practice cannot be anymore insulting to the Aboriginal people,
and to all those with a shred of humanity. Working people should join with
Aboriginal people in placing the simple demand that, at the very least,
“Australia Day” must be moved to another day – any of the other 364 days of the
year would suffice.
In
2008, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered an “apology” to the stolen
generations. At the time it united many indigenous people and their supporters.
Now, many have turned against it, as it became obvious that in essence it was
lip service with nothing material behind it. In fact, Rudd went on immediately
to continue the former Howard government’s military intervention in Northern
Territory Aboriginal communities, rule out any form of compensation, and refuse
to countenance moving Australia’s national day from January 26. In a similar
way, the “Recognise” campaign – a move to recognise Aboriginal people within
Australia’s national constitution – appears to be another attempt to forever
sideline the movement for basic rights to somehow offset the oppression of
Australia’s traditional owners. The Recognise campaign has been tasked to
Reconciliation Australia – a body with an even handed sounding name, but with
sinister backers. Its website proudly announces that its “supporters” include:
the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (!), and corporate vandals such as
BHP Biliton, Lend Lease, QANTAS, Rio Tinto, Woodside and the Commonwealth Bank.[3]
With backers such as these, a who’s who of the capitalist elite, Reconciliation
Australia is hardly going to break any establishment norms. With the appalling
disparity in life outcomes between indigenous and non-indigenous people in this
country, be it in health, education or employment, “Constitutional Recognition”
will do little but justify continued inaction on an intolerable situation. As
renowned Aboriginal rights advocate Chris Graham wrote: “Constitutional
Recognition is a poor man’s treaty. It is another national apology, without
compensation.”[4]
Ironically,
perhaps the only way to properly “recognise” Aboriginal people as the original
inhabitants and custodians of the land is with the concluding of a national
treaty, or a series of treaties. The act of concluding such treaties places the
current Australian government, the modern day representative of the colonial
power which established it, in the position of acknowledging that what we now
know as Australia could not have been founded without the violent dispossession
of the original owners. It is not automatic, but it would establish a precedent
which would go far beyond the Mabo and Wik High Court decisions.
The
Aboriginal people themselves, despite their often heroic political resistance
which is demonstrated around the country, will be hard pressed to win such a
demand on their own. The indigenous people must be joined by the organised
Australian working class, the body which, if sufficiently organised and politically
led, has the power to lend significant weight to all battles against the
millionaire class. The Trade Unions have the resources, and the interest, to
assist the Aboriginal people win their liberation as part of the struggle in
leading workers against the onslaught of capital. On occasion in the past, some
Unions have assisted the Aboriginal struggle. For example, it was marching
Unionists in August 1996 which came to the aid of Aboriginal fellow
demonstrators marching on the Federal Parliament. It was the MUA which
primarily came to the defence of Palm Island hero Lex Wotton, who was charged
with “riot” for justifiably rising up against yet another black death in
custody. Yet these instances have been few and far between, not least due to
the conservative and self-serving Union officials which preside over almost all
Unions today.
While
workers should give scant regard to the constitution of a capitalist state with
regard to indigenous peoples (e.g. Australia), it is another story entirely
when it comes to the constitution of socialist state. Indeed, socialist states
in our region accord equal status and even special support for the maintenance
and development of the culture of indigenous peoples, regardless of how small
their numbers may be. For example, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam recognises
53 indigenous peoples within Vietnam, and its constitution states that all
indigenous peoples (referred to as “ethnicities”) have the right to speak and
write in their language, and to promote their culture.[5] The People’s Republic of China unites 55
indigenous peoples outside the majority Han people. Under its constitution, all
minority nationalities are entitled to appropriate representation on the
Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the highest organ of
state power in the world’s most populous nation.[6] The
recognition and promotion of indigenous peoples and cultures in these cases has
only been possible out of the waging of a successful workers’ revolution which
has established a socialist republic. A
socialist republic – the collective rule of the working class – has no material
interest in the suppression of indigenous peoples. In fact, they are needed as
equal partners. Not so for Australian capitalism, which has been built and
maintained via the continual denial of their prior custodianship of the land.
The oppression of the indigenous peoples can thus be finally ended by the
overthrow of capitalist rule and the establishment of indigenous/non-indigenous
workers’ power.
TREATIES
NOT “RECOGNISE”! FOR A SOCIALIST
REPUBLIC OF AUSTRALIA!
MARXIST-LENINIST GROUP (MLG)
PO BOX
66 NUNDAH QLD
4012
Ph: 0421 408 692
W:
www.ML-Group.blogspot.com.au
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