Double standard
You are standing in the midst of a great crowd — two vast groups of people are in vehement opposition. Banners and flags are waved frantically; signs held aloft. What starts as half-hearted shouts and cries grows quickly into violent oaths and curses. The passion on both sides is building beyond control. A mad fury seizes the crowd. Over a thousand people swarm over the barriers. All hell breaks loose. Nine people are seriously injured and there is extensive damage to the surrounding area. Nine ringleaders are later identified on security tape as inciting violence, attacking bystanders and damaging property.
Am I describing the next major One Nation party launch? No. This riot occurred at the Ericsson Cup soccer match between Sydney United and South Melbourne on May 18, over a meaningless sporting ritual. The police and media response? Some pious tut-tutting, a few column inches of soul-searching, and on with the show. Nowhere was there the suggestion that supporters of either side should have stayed home to preserve the peace, nor that there is anything wrong with people airing opposing viewpoints. There was even some sympathy for the fact that people do indeed get passionate at such events.
Meanwhile, a series of protests against One Nation party meetings have seen a combined total of over 20,000 people voice strong opposition to Pauline Hanson and her views. The damage toll stands at five tomatoes, a dozen eggs, a few broken doorways and a handful of arrests on minor charges. Moreover, these protests go to the heart of such issues as the defence of multi-cultural values and reconciliation with the past (and present) wrongdoings, all far more important than a soccer match.
The police response is dramatic and swift, with officers present in the their hundreds to keep the two groups apart. Newspaper reports range from the apprehensive to the apoplectic, frothing about the "hoon element" and the general unpleasantness of large, noisy crowds. (AFL grand final, anyone?) The message? Responsible citizens don't protest.
The double standard is insidious and saps the resolve of people to exercise their democratic freedoms. We feel no hesitation in screaming, shouting and generally making a scene at Rosehill Racecourse. But woe betides those who stand up and shout about something that actually matters. They find themselves having to justify their "anti-social" behaviour. Really, it's far easier to maintain respectability by keeping quiet and letting it all blow over, isn't it?
Ironically, this "ostrich" attitude is the most "anti-social" of all. The way through? Don't wait for the mainstream media to approve of protests. Don't modify your behaviour to placate or appeal to the media either. Make your protest respectable through your own consistency and determination.
Sydney
[Abridged.]
Stolen children 1
As shame spreads through the community in the wake of the stolen children report, media are trying to convince us that the policy of those "far off" days was one of integration into white society, pursued with Aboriginal interests at heart.
This is a sick joke. The stolen kids were mostly sent to segregated second-rate schools; boys were trained only for menial work; girls as squatters' maids (and sex objects); Aboriginal wages were confiscated, handed to the "protector of Aborigines" and never accounted for. Missions were paid fees per head which gave them a vested interest in child abductions.
There were caring whites who adopted black children for humanitarian motives, but they were the exception.
These policies were not due to "misunderstandings" which were "accepted by everybody at the time". Recently released ASIO records of the period detail the many people and organisations who opposed official policy and exerted themselves on behalf of Aboriginal equality and independence. For this they got the full treatment as "subversives".
It is time we stopped explaining past policies away as some benign but misplaced form of paternalism. The proper term is cultural genocide.
Blackburn NSW
[Abridged.]
Stolen children 2
No one has ever called me a leftist or a socialist, but I regularly read Green Left Weekly for a point of view that any informed citizen needs to balance the guff one gets from Packer, Murdoch and their sundry friends.
Yet the above topic is not dealt with by these large combines because they have a few questions themselves to answer that are embarrassing — like where the heck were they then, and what were they doing, while the children were being taken?
Nor are they likely, even now, to upset the influential Bishops and leaders of the various churches who were instrumental in the children being stripped of their heritage. The fact is that in the days when this stealing of children started, it was the churches who pressured a small bureaucracy and a naive group of politicians into being allowed to do this evil thing, in the name of Jesus, of course.
The guilt industry is working overtime now because there is real money to be made out of situations like this. And of course, who gets it?
However, with the government having to find money for decent hospitals and schools and necessary social services, that all Australians should have to pay for the sins of the churches is just not on.
Sure, those Aborigines who suffered should be compensated, but let the compensation be paid by the group who were ultimately responsible — the churches and their congregations who encouraged this crime and sought to benefit from it financially and emotionally.
Wollongong NSW
[Abridged.]
Aboriginal land claims
The moral bankruptcy of the Northern Territory government has been demonstrated once again by the refusal of Lands Minister Mike Reed to allow the transfer of Mt Doreen station to Aboriginal interests, allegedly because the land would then be claimed under the Land Rights Act NT and become Aboriginal land.
Given that land claims can no longer be made under the act, the government's actions can only be described as racist. This attitude is further compounded by the Chief Minister's continual ranting over native title and his stated intention to have the Land Rights Act amended.
Given the attitude of the NT government and previous remarks by ministers about Aboriginal land being unproductive, there is a very real danger that attempts will be made to make the land alienable, that is, available for the development by non-Aboriginals, with or without the consent of the present holders. In the national interest, of course.
Alawa NT
Aboriginal 'justice'
Another brain wave of the Queensland government — "Aboriginal JP to jail own criminals under test plan" — is just another vicious plan to control the Aboriginal people. It is a repetition of what past governments did during the last century, recruiting Aboriginals to put down Aboriginals who were becoming troublesome — another example of the conquerors using the conquered to put down the conquered.
Brisbane
[Abridged.]
Environment and overseas students
A rather dangerous and socially harmful move towards politics of difference has recently re-emerged. Myths, stereotypes, political wedges and xenophobia may begin to replace tolerance, trust and the special Australian philosophy of a "fair go" for all. There are clear attempts to place sets of people "outside" some perceived mainstream.
One group often singled out is Asian people. According to some, these people (presumably even more than other migrant groups) are supposed to be posing a threat to our "fragile environment". However, research that I have undertaken offers strong evidence to the contrary.
Rather than being disrespectful of environmental issues, many overseas people are kept totally ignorant of the damage being inflicted upon them within their own countries and it is not until they travel overseas that they realise the beauty of air much less polluted than that which they have been forced to accept as a daily fact of life.
As director of studies at an English Language Intensive Courses to Overseas Students college in Sydney, it is one of my tasks to place students according to their proficiency in appropriate level English classes.
Interviews conducted over two-years from 1995 with 134 students ranging in age from 13 to 37 and nationalities including Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Thai, Hong Kongese, and Indonesian indicate that Asian students of English appreciate Australia's "clean air" and "beautiful natural environment".
Recently it was reported that in Beijing, China, environmental authorities are concealing disturbing statistics about the city's air quality because they fear the truth may damage the capital's image, drive away foreign investors and lead to public outrage. The sulphur dioxide in the air averaged more than three times the World Health Organisation standard (Sydney Morning Herald, 24/1/97).
Many governments have turned their backs on their own ecology, as well as ignoring the relationships between humans and the land. These governments make it a policy not to inform their populations of damage being done.
Those people who come to Australia deeply appreciate the "cleanliness" they perceive in our environment. There is little perception that the Australian government (both state and federal) quite often pursues the same ruthless policies of environmental destruction and pollution as theirs.
Sydney
[Abridged.]
The Spartacist League
Since the July 26 crackdown on the Indonesian democracy movement and the arrest and trial of numerous People's Democratic Party (PRD) members, the Spartacist League have attempted to lecture the PRD in revolutionary strategy, printed misinformation in the Australasian Spartacist, and played no positive role in the solidarity movement here.
The latest edition of AS claims that the PRD does not support a free East Timor. In fact, the PRD is the only Indonesian party to call for a free East Timor. The Spartacists claim that pro-Megawati members of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) destroyed the PDI headquarters during the July 1996 riots, repeating the lies of the Suharto government. Green Left Weekly readers are well aware that pro-Suharto agents attacked the offices of the then pro-Megawati PDI.
The Spartacists also attended the Resistance-organised Sydney rally as part of a national day of action for democracy in Indonesia and freedom for East Timor on May 24. There they harangued the Fretilin activists in attendance, calling them "petty-bourgeois", and attempted to drown out other activists with chants of "For a workers' republic of Australia, as part of a socialist Asia". Their actions annoyed and alienated many people who came to support the rally.
Instead of disrupting and making sectarian criticisms from afar, genuine left groups make sure they find out the facts, present them truthfully and actively support all efforts to build a stronger East Timor and Indonesian solidarity movement.
Paul Howes and Wendy Robertson
Sydney
[Abridged.]