29 October 2010

Over 500 people march for Aboriginal rights in Melbourne


Friday's rally was surely one of the most inspiring Aboriginal rights rallies Melbourne has seen in a long time! Over 500 people took to the streets to protest against the racist NT Intervention, loudly chanting 'Jenny Macklin, you disgust us, equal rights, and jobs with justice!'. 

And 'jobs with justice' was our primary demand, as protesters expressed outrage at the near slave conditions that many Aboriginal people are living under in the Northern Territory.
We demanded 'jobs with justice', we shut down the streets, we made the government take notice!

And we weren't alone, as people protested all around Australia--in Alice Springs, Sydney and Brisbane. We had solidarity messages from Perth, Adelaide and Newcastle. And of course, there was the inspriring strike of Gulrindji workers in the lead up to this National Day of Protest. Here are some of the reports from various media outlets: ABC, AAP, Crikey.


To win this campaign we need more of what we saw yesterday. We need bigger, better, and more often. Now is the time to commit to getting more involved. Come along to our special 'Jobs with Justice' meeting this Monday, where we'll talk about the rally and where to go from here.




Adam Bandt, Member for Melbourne (The Greens)
 

Adam Frogley (Indigenous Coordinator, NTEU)



David Glanz (Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective)







Stephen Jolly (Councillor, City of Yarra)



 


Kevin Bracken (Victorian Trades Hall Council/MUA)
    

Parmenio Poveda (Columbian trade unionist)






Gary Foley (historian/writer/actor/activist)





No one can do it alone, we need you to help us build a large, vibrant campaign against the NT Intervention. We want to see lots of new faces at the next meeting, with lots of ideas!
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).
Details of what's coming up:
1st November (THIS MONDAY!!)
Shannon does a short overview of the ‘Jobs with Justice’ campaign. And we discuss where to now for MAIC and the campaign. A great meeting to come to, if you’ve never been before!

8th November (NEXT MONDAY)
Join us for a rare screening of the documentary film ‘How The West Was Lost’.
In the 1940s in the north-west of Australia, a secret congress was organized by Pilbara Elders Dooley Bin Bin and Clancy McKenna, alongside white unionist and communist Don McLeod. It was an unprecedented gathering, with over a dozen interpreters present to deal with the 23 languages of the many Aboriginal groups present.

This congress decided to organize a strike in the Pilbara region to demand better wages and conditions, and to draw attention to the treatment generally of Aboriginal people in Western Australia.

On 1 May 1946, Aboriginal workers walked off the sheep stations, marking the beginning of a carefully organized strike that was to last three years. It is considered one of the most significant (and least known) political actions in Australian history, and went on to inspire the Land Rights movement of the 1960s.


After the film we will have discussion, including a reportback from Alex who just came back from the north-west of WA where unions and Aboriginal activists are uniting once more. This time it's to fight against Liberal Premier Colin Barnett’s ‘compulsory acquisition’ of Aboriginal land for a Liquid Petroleum Gas Hub.

18th November (Thursday event - special forum)
The NT Intervention:
Why Teachers and Communities are Breaking the Ban on Bilingual Education
6.30pm, James Hardie Theatre, Architecture Building, University of Melbourne


Speakers:
+ Senior Indigenous Teacher from NT Bilingual School (video link)
+ Rosa McKenna, Friends of Bilingual Learning, Ex principal of Yirrkala School
+ Mary McKernich, Australian Education Union Victoria Councilor
+ Lucy Honan, Melbourne Anti Intervention Collective

Bans on teaching in Aboriginal language for the first four hours of the school day were introduced in 2008 following the roll out of the Northern Territory Intervention in 2007. Under the guise of “closing the gap” on Aboriginal disadvantage the Racial Discrimination Act was suspended, Aboriginal community land has been seized and community organisations, jobs and access to welfare payments have been dismantled.
The attempt to decimate bilingual programs was a territory government decision, but mimics perfectly the punitive logic of the federal intervention. Communities and Aboriginal culture are being attacked for the problems caused by all governments' chronic failure to support self determination for Aboriginal people.


26th January 2011 (and the weeks leading up to it)
MAIC wants to plan something BIG on this day. It is a day of mourning for many, but it is also a day of resistance! Come along to the MAIC meetings to help be a part of the organising.
 Ringo Terrick (Wurundjeri elder) and Robbie Thorpe (long time activist)

26 October 2010

TODAY!! National Day of Protest against the NT Intervention

RALLY: Friday, 29 October 2010, 5.30pm
State Library, cnr Swanston & La Trobe Sts, Melbourne

Speakers: Gary Foley (activist, Gumbainggir), Robbie Thorpe (activist, Krautungalung), Adam Bandt (Greens - Member for Melbourne), Adam Frogley (Indigenous Coordinator, NTEU), Kevin Bracken (Victorian Trades Hall Council), Stephen Jolly (Councillor, City of Yarra) 

Welcome to Country: Ringo Terrick (Wurundjeri)
Chair of Rally: Sharon Firebrace (activist, Yorta Yorta)



We demand:

+   Jobs with Justice NOT work for rations!
+   Apply the Racial Discrimination Act in Full!
+   Self determination now!

For more on Melbourne’s campaign: www.maicollective.blogspot.com   
For other actions in Australia:  www.jobswithjustice.wordpress.com

Contacts:
Sharon Firebrace  0401 414 967
Lucy Honan  0404 728 104 
Sam Salvidge  0432 803 360

Click here for MAIC's media release.

Click here for a high quality rally poster to print out. 


Worse than Workchoices

The NT Intervention promised to deliver ‘real jobs’ for Aboriginal communities. Instead, thousands of waged jobs have been lost and Aboriginal organisations have been crippled as Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) close down.[i]

Under the new CDEP scheme designed by the federal Labor government, Aboriginal people no longer receive wages. They are being forced to work providing vital services such as rubbish collection, school bus runs, sewerage maintenance, construction and aged care in exchange for quarantined Centrelink payments.[ii]

People are compelled to work 16 hours a week for $115 cash, plus $115 credit on a ‘BasicsCard’ which can only be used on ‘priority items’ in government approved stores. Aboriginal workers have described this as a return to the “ration-days’ when they were paid in food instead of cash.

Centrelink is threatening to cut off payments entirely if people do not participate. Unclear guidelines and the vulnerable position of many workers have seen cases of people working 30 hrs or more for no extra money.[iii] This is far worse than anything the Liberals inflicted on workers under Workchoices.

The Labor government committed to halving the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in a decade. But due to a continuation of Howard era policies such as the Intervention, Indigenous unemployment has drastically worsened from 13.8% in 2007 to 18.1% in 2009.[iv]

500 ‘real jobs’ created to replace some of the lost CDEP positions in remote NT shire councils face the axe next year. The Commonwealth is refusing to guarantee ongoing funding of $8.5 million per year needed by the NT government to keep the jobs.[v] Many Aboriginal communities serviced by these shires already suffer atrocious living conditions – 500 more job losses will be devastating.

The NT Intervention shames Australia. Despite recent amendments, the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) ruled in August that Intervention legislation provides clear evidence of  “embedded racism” against Aboriginal people. [vi ] The UNCERD report said living conditions had deteriorated for Aboriginal people under the Intervention through loss of land, property, employment, legal rights and opportunities for cultural development. [vii]

Rather than abandon failed policy, the government is planning to spend $350 million (over 4 years) to expand income management across the NT.[viii ] This money is desperately needed to create real jobs in Aboriginal communities and ensure the provision of basic services.

The government must act immediately to:

+   Guarantee the 500 threatened Shire jobs
+   End compulsory income management
+   End current CDEP arrangements forcing people to work for the BasicsCard
+   Turn all CDEP positions into fully waged jobs
+   Provide massive investment in job creation and service provision in all Aboriginal communities


see www.maicollective.blogspot.com for sources referenced 

 ________________________________
How to support:
We seek:
1.      Your public endorsement of the ‘Jobs with Justice’ statement (your name will be printed in the Australian unless you state otherwise);
2.      A donation of at least $100 to help with the cost of publication.
3.      Help advancing support for the statement through potentially
supportive organisations.
Please email your endorsement to jobs.w.justice@gmail.com or phone
Marlene Hodder from the Intervention Rollback Action Group (Alice
Springs) on 08 89525032.
Please forward your donation to:
Intervention Rollback Action Group
PO Box 8488
Alice Springs
NT 0871
Or by direct deposit to:
Bendigo Community Bank
A/c Name: Intervention Rollback Action Gr.
BSB No: 633-000
A/c No: 134 157 049
Please send a notice to jobs.w.justice@gmail.com when you have made a donation.
Many thanks for your ongoing support.
___________________________________________
Look out for the ‘Jobs with Justice’ statement published in today’s The Australian with the help of organisations and people across the country including:
Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement Inc, Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia (ALSWA), Aboriginal Support Circle – Older Women`s Network, Aboriginal Support Group Manly Warringah Pittwater Amoonguna Community Council Inc., ANTaR Armidale, Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, Australian Nursing Federation, Australian Services Union (SA,NT,ACT&NSW branches), Brisbane Aboriginal Rights Coalition, Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association, Communist Party of Australia, concerned Australians, Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, Ethnic Child Care Family and Community Services Cooperative Ltd, Greens (NT & NSW), Gurindji stop-work meeting (October 20), Hoeroa Robert Marumaru (Maori ethnic community Brisbane), Intervention Rollback Action Group Alice Springs, La Perouse Botany Bay Aboriginal Corporation, Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union, Leichhardt Council, Liberty Victoria, Maritime Union of Australia, Melbourne Unitarian Church Mutitjulu Community Aboriginal Corporation, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission, National Association of Community Legal Centres, National Tertiary Education Union, Ngoppon Together Inc, NSW Aboriginal Land Council, Peace & Social Justice Network VRM Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia (AYM office Qld) Socialist Alliance, Socialists Alternative, Solidarity, Solidarity Choir, South Coast Labor Council, Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney, Tangentyere Council, The Greek Orthodox Community of NSW  Ltd, The Network of Immigrant and Refugee Women of Australia Inc, Tribal Warrior, Unions NT, UQ/QUT Students for Indigenous Rights, Urapuntja Aboriginal Corporation, Women for Wik, Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom
Prof. Jon Altman, Gil Appleton, Assoc. Prof. Barbara Baird, Prof. Larissa Behrendt, Judith Gamper, Vivi Germanos-Koutsounadis OAM, Dr Peter Gibson & Cathy-Anne Grew, Don & Estelle Gobbett, Rev. Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra OAM,Marcia Guild, Brian Johnstone, John Leemans, Ian MacIndoe, Jeff McMullen, Wendy McMurdo (Greens Councillor Hornsby Shire), Sandra Milne, The Hon Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC, George Newhouse, James Oaten, Christine Olsen, Linda Pearson, Stephen Sewell, Rachel Siewert (WA Greens Senator), Associate Professor Gracelyn Smallwood, Warwick Thornton,Anne Vadiveloo, Sam Watson, Bethany Wheeler, Alexis Wright, Josephine Zappia

22 October 2010

'Our Generation' is launched to a packed Capitol Theatre in Melbourne

It was an amazing and inspiring night in Melbourne! The launch of the Our Generation documentary filled out the Capitol Theatre. 500 people in attendance! 
All of MAICs posters and leaflets were snapped up, with people keen to get more of their friends, family and workmates involved in the campaign.

This Friday's rally, part of the National Day of Protest against the NT Intervention, is looking to be an absolute corker! 

But now's the time to step it up a grear. The last week leading up to a rally is crucial. To make the rally as big and as successful as it can be, we need to make sure EVERYONE knows about it. More posters and leaftlets are available to be picked up from outside New International Bookshop. Lets plaster the city with them! And go to our Facebook page and invite everyone to the rally. Copy the text below and email all your friends. Send a viral sms around with the rally details and 'pass it on' at the end. Think creatively!

If you're interested in getting more involved in MAIC, we welcome folks to come to the weekly meetings:  every Monday at 6.30pm at New International Bookshop in Trades Hall (cnr Lygon and Victoria Streets). 

This Monday, we'll be talking over the Jobs With Justice campaign (an introduction for beginners about what this part of the Internvention is all about). We'll also be preparing for the upcoming rally. And we'll perhaps look a bit ahead to what sort of things MAIC can do in the future. Bring your ideas and enthusiasm!


NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST THE 

NORTHERN TERRITORY INTERVENTION



Jobs with Justice NOT Work for rations!

Apply the Racial Discrimination Act in Full!

Self determination now!


RALLY: 5.30pm, Friday, 29th October at the STATE LIBRARY, cnr Swanston & La Trobe Sts, Melbourne

Contact:    Sharon 0401 414 967 or  Lucy 0404 728 104
www.maicollective.blogspot.com
 www.jobswithjustice.wordpress.com


Come along to our next meeting on Monday night, 6.30pm at the New International Bookshop in the basement of 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.

19 October 2010

Banner Painting

Meredith from MAIC is inviting anyone interested to join her for some banner painting for the upcoming National Day of Protest against the NT Intervention.


Get in touch with someone at MAIC to express interest, and find out when and where!  

Or call Alex on 0406 685 43 if you get stuck, or want help painting your own banner closer to you.

Gurindji strike against Government Intervention: “History is being repeated here”

On Wednesday 20th October Gurindji workers and residents from the remote Aboriginal communities of Kalkaringi and Dagaragu will stop work and stage a protest against the NT Intervention.

Gurindji leaders are saying that the closure of the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP), local government reforms and the seizure of land and assets under the Intervention have had a devastating impact on the community. The Labor government promised to phase out remaining CDEP programs and transition Aboriginal workers into ‘real jobs’ but instead hundreds have been forced onto income management and local services are struggling or have collapsed.

Dagaragu is the site of the original Wave Hill walk-off, where Gurindji stockman went on strike against Vesty’s station to fight for equal wages and the return of traditional homelands. The Gurindji people have a proud history of standing up for Aboriginal rights. They say that since the Intervention these hard won rights have been stripped away.



Protest spokesperson John Leemans says the community is sick of being bullied by the government and wants control of local employment, housing programs and Aboriginal Land handed back to the community:

“Prior to the Intervention we had nearly 300 CDEP workers employed in municipal services, construction and maintenance roles. When the government took over and abolished the community council and CDEP everything came to a halt. We went two years without regular rubbish collection because the truck was seized. Houses and buildings are in desperate need of repair but there’s no funding for workers or materials.”
“If you go out to Dagaragu you’ll see the evidence these cuts have had on our people. Everything we built has gone - the old CDEP office, the brick making shed, the nursery, the health clinic, the old family centre. Soon we may lose the bakery. Houses that are now under Territory Housing control are overcrowded and falling apart. The damage is just overwhelming.”

“We now we have around 40 workers left on CDEP and training programs. Many are working 35 hour weeks but under the new laws they’re working for nothing but a Centrelink payment. It’s worse than working for the dole, because half goes onto the BasicCard and can only be spent at approved stores. History is being repeated here, with our people forced to work for rations again.”

Representatives from trade unions and residents of neighbouring communities will join with the Gurindji people on October 20th.



Many Gurindji will also travel to Alice Springs to join national rallies on October 29th calling for ‘Jobs with Justice’ for Aboriginal workers and an end to the Intervention. These protests are being supported by numerous organisation including Unions NT, the CFMEU, Tangentyere Council and the National Association of Community Legal Centres.

“The government has got to listen to the Australian people, the churches, the unions, the UN. Everybody around the world is condemning this intervention and the government can’t ignore the world. They have to demolish this law”, concluded Mr Leemans. The protest will begin outside the store at Kalkaringi at 11am on Wednesday October 20

Contact:
John Leemans on 0438 345 155

Endorsements are flooding in for 'Jobs with Justice'

LATEST endorsements: 

ANTaR Victoria, Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement Inc, Australian Nursing Federation, Australian Services Union (SA/NT) Concerned Australians, Ethnic Child Care Family and Community Services Cooperative Ltd, Greens NSW, Intervention Rollback Action Group, LHMU (NT), Liberty Victoria, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission (NATSIEC), National Association of Community Legal Centres, National Tertiary Education Union, Socialist Alliance, Tangentyere Council, The Greek Orthodox Community of NSW Ltd, The Network of Immigrant and Refugee Women of Australia Inc, Unions NT, Women for Wik, Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF), CFMEU, National Tertiary Education Union, 3CR, RMIT University Student Union...


Add your organisation now!
The Intervention Rollback Action Group in Alice Springs is requesting support for a statement demanding 'Jobs with Justice for Aboriginal workers' that will be launched on October 29 with protest rallies around the country.

The statement highlights the serious breaches of workers' rights and massive increases in unemployment that have taken place under the NT Intervention. We are aiming to print it in 'the Australian' newspaper on the day of the launch. The cost of the public notice is expected to be around $11,000.

The closure of Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) has been one of the main tools used by government to push through their current agenda of assimilation. Without access to proper employment programs in their own communities, the pressure builds up on Aboriginal families to move away.

Similarly, without access to the funding and workers previously provided by CDEP, many Aboriginal organisations are suffering drastically reduced capacity.

Recent revelations of widespread starvation in Aboriginal communities provided to an NT government child protection inquiry underscore the complete failure of the NT Intervention to address acute social problems.

Unless the resources currently being spent on discriminatory bureaucracy can be redirected to employment opportunities and programs based in Aboriginal communities, the well-being and living conditions of Aboriginal people in the NT will continue to sharply deteriorate. Please follow the links provided in the footnotes to the attached statement, or get in contact if you require any more information about these issues.

Pressure is mounting for change. As highlighted in this statement, the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has recently issued another strong condemnation of NT Intervention. And in the recent federal election, strong Greens candidates Barbara Shaw and Warren H Williams outpolled both Labor and Liberal in Aboriginal communities in Central Australia standing on a clear anti-Intervention platform.

The call for support for the 'Jobs with Justice' statement came from a major conference held in Alice Springs in July. Aboriginal community leaders, human rights activists and union members and representatives from across the NT and Australia all pledged support. Other early endorsements include the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU) NT who cover many Aboriginal workers affected by the Intervention and Aboriginal leaders such as Barbara Shaw and Larissa Behrendt.

This letter is requesting:-

1.      Your public endorsement of the 'Jobs with Justice' statement;

2.      A donation of at least $100 to help with the cost of publication. Please email your endorsement to jobs.w.justice@gmail.com<jobswithjustice@gmail.com>or phone Marlene Hodder from the Intervention Rollback Action Group (Alice Springs) on 08 89525032.

Please forward your donation to:
Intervention Rollback Action Group PO Box 8488 Alice Springs
NT 0871

Or by direct deposit to:
Bendigo Community Bank
A/c Name: Intervention Rollback Action Gr.
BSB No: 633-000
A/c No: 134 157 049

Please send a notice to  jobs.w.justice@gmail.com
& jobswithjustice@gmail.com ; when you have made a donation.

Many thanks for your ongoing support.

in solidarity,
Intervention Rollback Action Group Alice Springs








Has your organisation supported the following statement? Do it now! 
Stop the NT Intervention – Jobs with Justice for Aboriginal workers
Worse than Workchoices
The NT Intervention promised to deliver ‘real jobs’ for Aboriginal communities. Instead, thousands of waged jobs have been lost and Aboriginal organisations have been crippled as Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) close down.i
Under the new CDEP scheme designed by the federal Labor government, Aboriginal people no longer receive wages. They are being forced to work providing vital services such as rubbish collection, school bus runs, sewerage maintenance, construction and aged care in exchange for quarantined Centrelink payments.ii
People are compelled to work 16 hours a week for $115 cash, plus $115 credit on a ‘BasicsCard’ which can only be used on ‘priority items’ in government approved stores. Aboriginal workers have described this as a return to the “ration-days’ when they were paid in food instead of cash.
Centrelink is threatening to cut off payments entirely if people do not participate. Unclear guidelines and the vulnerable position of many workers have seen cases of people working 30 hrs or more for no extra money.[iii] This is far worse than anything the Liberals inflicted on workers under Workchoices.
The Labor government committed to halving the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in a decade. But due to a continuation of Howard era policies such as the Intervention, Indigenous unemployment has drastically worsened from 13.8% in 2007 to 18.1% in 2009.[iv]
500 ‘real jobs’ created to replace some of the lost CDEP positions in remote NT shire councils face the axe next year. The Commonwealth is refusing to guarantee ongoing funding of $8.5 million per year needed by the NT government to keep the jobs.[v] Many Aboriginal communities serviced by these shires already suffer atrocious living conditions – 500 more job losses will be devastating.
The NT Intervention shames Australia. Despite recent amendments, the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) ruled in August that Intervention legislation provides clear evidence of  “embedded racism” against Aboriginal people. [vi ] The UNCERD report said living conditions had deteriorated for Aboriginal people under the Intervention through loss of land, property, employment, legal rights and opportunities for cultural development. [vii]
Rather than abandon failed policy, the government is planning to spend $350 million (over 4 years) to expand income management across the NT.[viii ] This money is desperately needed to create real jobs in Aboriginal communities and ensure the provision of basic services.
The government must act immediately to:
  • Guarantee the 500 threatened Shire jobs
  • End compulsory income management
  • End current CDEP arrangements forcing people to work for the BasicsCard
  • Turn all CDEP positions into fully waged jobs
  • Provide massive investment in job creation and service provision in all Aboriginal communities.
________________________________
[i] There were approximately 7500 CDEP participants receiving wages in the NT before reforms that came with the Intervention. See Altman, J. Neo-Paternalism and the Destruction of CDEP, Arena90, September 2007 athttp://www.federalintervention.info/docs/issues/Altman_Paternalism.pdf
[ii ] See Gibson, P. Working for the BasicsCard in the NorthernTerritory, Jumbunna Indigenous House of  Learning UTS Briefing Paper at http://www.jumbunna.uts.edu.au/publications/pdf/JIHLBP12.pdf
[vii] A full copy of the UNCERD report is available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/co/CERD-C-AUS-CO-15_17.doc
_____________________________________



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