National Protest on 29th of October. It's all coming together!

Currently, we are busy organising with activists around Austrlia, for a National Day of Protest against the government's racist NT Intervention. We have a poster designed and its about to go off to the printers. Keep an eye out on street poles for it soon. If you're not seeing any, that means we need more help putting them up!

We are also making plans to have a banner painting day, we're gonna be printing t-shirts, we are putting a bulletin together with lots of facts and figures. And we have plans for leafletting and stalls and all sorts of stuff.

But! We could do so much more if you were involved. Seriously. So why not come along to our next meeting on Monday night, 6.30pm at Trades Hall? Or drop us a line at melbourneaic@gmail.com to ask us what you can do in your community to support the event.

We are trying to get as many Aboriginal organisations, community groups, unions and workplaces to support this action as possible. There is a 'jobs with justice' statement that you can get signed. We need money to get an ad in the paper, and we want your logo on our stuff. Imagine if you were working under the conditions that people like Peter Inverway were working in? $4/hr plus a ration card to work on a construction site. That's exploitation. It's racist. It's barbaric.

It's people on the ground that make these actions a success. So grab some posters and leaflets from outside the New International Bookshop to put in your workspace, so as many people know about it as possible. It's a great way to get a conversation happening and spread the word to people who might not ever think about Aboriginal politics.

Let's make this protest a big one and show the government that the Aboriginal rights struggle is not going anywhere.

Stop the racist NT Intervention - "Jobs With Justice now!"

Friday, 29 October 2010

5.30pm, State Library of Victoria (cnr Swanston and Lt La Trobe Streets)

Help us organise the National Day of Protest

Exciting news for the campaign!

Gary Foley, a legend of Aboriginal rights activism, has agreed to support the National Day of Protest against the racist NT Intervention. Gary Foley will be speaking at the rally on Friday, 29 October 2010, 5.30pm at the State Library of Victoria (cnr Swanston and Lt La Trobe Streets).

Gary Foley (centre), with members of The Clash (l-r, Paul Simonon and Joe Strummer)

We encourage anyone interested in achieving justice for Aboriginal people in this country to support their local action. Currently, there are actions planned in Alice Springs, Sydney and Melbourne (note: the Melbourne protest has shifted dates and now ALL PROTESTS around the country will be taking place on 29 October 2010).

Not only does MAIC want you to come to the rally, we want you to tell as many people as you can about it. And if you are especially committed and have the time--we would love you to join us at the organising meetings (every Monday, 6.30pm at Trades Hall).

http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/indexb.html

MAIC Response to Re-elected Gillard Government

Media Release -- 7 September 2010

The appalling state of Aboriginal affairs has been thrust back into the spotlight with the formation of the new Government.

The announcement of the re-election of the Gillard Government saw Aboriginal self-determination and employment at the forefront of negotiations.

The MP for Lyne, Rob Oakeshott stressed the disadvantage that Indigenous people experience in areas all around Australia. The MP for Kennedy, Bob Katter, is also on record as being highly critical of the state of Aboriginal housing, the lack of self-determination and dearth of employment opportunities for Aboriginal people in rural areas.

The ‘Wild Rivers’ policy was a controversial issue for the Independents and is a policy that reaffirms the broader crisis in Aboriginal affairs. The focus on market driven policies and punitive individualism has only seen ‘The Gap’ between white and black Australia widen.

Noel Pearson, Director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership, has been an outspoken mouth piece for the right-wing ideas implemented by successive governments. Though used as prop for parliamentarians on both sides of politics, his views are widely discredited amongst Aboriginal Australia. Mr Pearson’s punitive approach has been shown to have failed, with clear negative outcomes across the board when resources have been withdrawn from vulnerable Aboriginal communities. 

The Northern Territory Intervention was one of the most significant issues at the last election in 2007. Three years later, the conditions of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory have degenerated even further.

Spokesperson for the Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective (MAIC), Mr Alex Ettling said “There has been no accounting for the disaster that the Intervention has had on Indigenous people in Northern Territory”.

Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective (MAIC) is campaigning for the scrapping of the Intervention and an increase in funding and self-determination for Aboriginal communities. Mr Ettling says “If the Government is serious about improving the conditions of Aboriginal people in Australia, they need to shift away from the racist paternalism that has creeped back into Aboriginal policy making”.

Mr Ettling said “We support ‘jobs with justice’, rather than the arrangements under the Intervention that have seen people like Peter Inverway, a construction worker from Kalkarindji working for $4/hr plus a ration card”.

MAIC opposes the system of welfare quarantining which is punitive, ineffective and a racist throwback to the 1950s. MAIC also condemns the abolishing of bi-lingual education which is undermining Aboriginal culture. MAIC demands Aboriginal communities in the Out Stations and Homelands be fully resourced and serviced, and an end to the ‘hub towns’ policy. Furthermore, MAIC supports the full application of the Racial Discrimination Act to the Intervention laws to allow them to be challenged in the High Court.

On October 30, there will be a protest in Melbourne against the racism of the NT Intervention. This will be part of a national protest that weekend, with demonstrations planned for Alice Springs, Sydney and Perth.

www.maicollective.blogspot.com 

Plans galore! MAIC is making stuff happen. But we need more people to help--we need you!

Come along to the MAIC meetings. We have plenty of things to talk about, and we want to make stuff happen! We need your zeal--seriously. This is the time to step up the activism and get hands on.

Tonight, Shannon will be discussing a detailed letter that Aboriginal Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has sent to anti-Intervention activists. We'll be going through it all, so we're up to speed.

Also on the agenda:

+ MAIC's planned conference about the cuts to bi-lingual education 

+ The national protest in support of Aboriginal rights planned for late October

+ organising some sort of event at Melbourne Uni?

+ doing some stalls to get the word out there?

+ putting together a bulletin with information about the NT Intervention?

+ something that you want to get happening?

Hope you can make it! And by all means, spread the word, and bring yr mates.

Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective (MAIC) meets every Monday, 6.30pm at the New International Bookshop (NIBS). The bookshop is easily found in the basement of the Trades Hall building (Lygon and Victoria Streets, Carlton)