Anti-racism protests at Olympics planned
BY JENNIFER THOMPSON
SYDNEY — Amidst a media fear campaign about supposed terrorists' plans to violently disrupt the September Olympic Games, an alliance of groups is gathering in Sydney to plan peaceful protests to highlight the appalling state of Aboriginal rights and living conditions, and other human rights issues, during the games.
There are divisions between Aboriginal political leaders over the protest plans, partly due to the divide and rule strategy pursued by the Sydney Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (SOCOG). However, it now appears that there will be at least one major protest action on September 15, the day of the opening ceremony.
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy, presently in Victoria Park next to Sydney University, will be the rallying point for a September 15 protest. The action has so far been endorsed by the embassy, Aboriginal Tent City, Indigenous Social Justice Association, Indigenous Students Network and Anti-Olympic Alliance (AOA).
Aboriginal groups from other South Australia, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia are expected to join the embassy, which is centered around a fire built from the ashes of the fire at the Canberra Tent Embassy established in 1972 to demand land rights.
Arabunna elder Kevin Buzzacott and his fellow marchers from Lake Eyre in South Australia, where there has been a strong campaign against uranium miner Western Mining Corporation's exploitation of traditional lands, are expected to join the Tent Embassy campaign.
Demands
The key demands of the September 15 protest will be: an end to mandatory sentencing; a treaty and real land rights; an apology and compensation to the stolen generations; and funding for social justice, not the Olympics. Events will commence with a rally at 10am at the Tent Embassy, which has become a focus for grassroots organising.
The symbolic appeal of the Sydney Olympic Park at Homebush Bay for putting Australian governments' records on indigenous rights in the international spotlight, has made the venue attractive for a peaceful protest coinciding with the opening ceremony. Some indigenous organisations are planning to walk to Homebush from the Tent Embassy on September 15.
Negotiations are also under way to secure permission for another rallying point closer to the Sydney Olympic Park precinct for those protesters unable to spend the day walking to Homebush.
There have been disputes over what form indigenous rights protests at the Olympics should take and some of these have spilled over into the establishment media. Much has been made of a decision by SOCOG to give the tender for a cultural pavilion inside the Homebush Bay site to a group associated with the Aboriginal Metropolitan Land Council, a "grassroots militant organisation". According to the August 7 Sydney Morning Herald, NSW Olympics minister Michael Knight had decided that the MLC needed to be brought inside the Olympic process and locked into an arrangement forbidding any protests at Sydney Olympic Park.
However, MLC chairperson Jenny Munro has announced that the MLC will hold a protest on September 15 in Sydney city to draw attention to indigenous rights. It has also announced that a chain of peaceful protesters will be holding placards on the route from Sydney Airport to Homebush in the days before the opening ceremony, and that a final city protest will be held on September 29. Plans for a festival in Redfern, long a focus for Aboriginal political organisation, are also being drawn up.
'Violence'
Accompanying SOCOG's manouevres has been a media campaign about the possibility of violence and terrorism directed against the Olympics. Sydney Morning Herald articles have mentioned unnamed "violent" British anarchists who'll be traveling to Melbourne for the September 11 World Economic Forum protest and then on to Sydney for the Olympics. It also lists home-grown "danger" organisations, including Greenpeace (ironically the organisation that worked with SOCOG to give Sydney 2000 it's stamp of approval as "the Green Olympics"), Australian survivors of the Maccabiah Games disaster in Israel, and the AOA, which is helping the Tent Embassy organise the September 15 protest.
The Sunday Telegraph has also run false and inflammatory stories about protest plans. AOA has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to a peaceful protest.
The media scaremongering has run parallel with the passing of a plethora of draconian new security laws that give greater power to state and federal police, and Olympics security volunteers. The latest is the federal Defence Legislation Amendment (Aid to the Civilian Authorities) Bill which has been passed by the House of Representatives and is now before the Senate. The bill allows the prime minister, defence minister and attorney-general to call in the military on local civilian activities where "domestic violence" — which could be anything from strikes and demonstrations to riots and terrorism — is occurring or "likely to occur" and will affect commonwealth interests.
The federal government would not be required to consult with state governments and permission may be withdrawn from peaceful lawful protests at any time, making them illegal and fair game. The new powers given to the military exceed police powers and include the right to: shoot to kill "where necessary" without fear of prosecution; detain people without a formal arrest or charge; and seize and search persons, places, vehicles or personal belongings without a warrant.
The bill has been supported by the Labor Party, which has resurrected an old canker by claiming the law was justified because the Defence Act 1903 needs to be amended to deal with situations like the 1978 bombing of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, for which three Ananda Marga members were framed and imprisoned. Security forces' interested in boosting their own standing have long been suspected of carrying out the bombing but governments have repeatedly refused to reopen inquiries into the matter.
However, the greatest immediate "threat" seems to be coming from South Sydney Council, against the Tent Embassy. The council, led by a newly elected "independent" mayor, applied on August 17 for a NSW Land and Environment Court order to evict the embassy from Victoria Park. Judge Cowdroy has issued orders to that effect against the embassy and its elder Isobel Coe, but suspended them until August 23, when the parties will reappear in court.
The Indigenous Students Network has responded by calling a solidarity "Sleepout for Sovereignty" on August 18-20. Supporters of the embassy should contact the council to express their views. To get in touch with September 15 protest organisers, call Vicki on 9514 1155, Kim on 0401082527 or Kate on 0425209374, or visit http://www.cat.org.au/aoa.