Blacks Call on All Workers to Stop Work July 14

IS AUSTRALIA A RACIST COUNTRY?

THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN MYTHS...

*”We Are The Freest Country In The World”?

--while the Black Nation of Australia has been systematically subjected to cultural destruction, suppression and actual genocide? From an estimated 300,000 at the time of Cook’s landing, the Aboriginal population was reduced to about 50,000 at the turn of the century. Blacks were shot, poisoned and massacred, all under the sanction of the law.

Today, while Blacks constitute 2% of the Australian population, they make up more than 50% of the prison populations in Queensland and West Australia and more than 80% of the female prison population. They are in fact political prisoners struggling against a White system which is both racist and capitalist.

THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD STOP WORK AND MARCH ON JULY 14...

*”We Are The Richest Country In The World”?

--riches in part gained by theft, rape and murder of the original Black inhabitants by White invaders. Today land occupied by Aboriginals for thousands of years is taken from them and given to foreign companies. No section of White Australia is as poor as the Black community which has living conditions comparable to the worst in the world.

THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD STOP WORK AND MARCH ON JULY 14...

*”Australia Is The Best Country In The World To Live In”?

--if you’re white? But if you’re Black and live at Wattle Creek, Palm Island, Alice Springs, Brewarrina, Port Pirie, Redfern or South Brisbane, you’re a second class citizen and subjected to political, police, economic and cultural persecution. The Queensland Aborigines Act of 1971 prevent people returning to their families and friends once they have left their reserve, contains penal clauses enforceable by reserve managers and the director, and appears to maintain incredible restrictions on the lives of all Aborigines which before applied only to “assisted” Aborigines.

In Central Australia and parts of Queensland, the Aboriginal infant mortality rate is up to 12 times the national average for white infants. This is murder under the definition of the NSW Crimes Act S 18(1) (a), for the White racist governments by both their acts and omissions show reckless indifference to human life. Black soldiers have been sent to fight a white colonial war against yellow men in a far-off land, while the Blacks are not even free at home. Aboriginal war veterans from World War II fought for a country that is selling them out.

THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD STOP WORK AND MARCH ON JULY 14...

*”With Golden Soil And Wealth For Toil...”?

--if you’re Black, there is no soil, golden or otherwise, while the only toil available is menial, unskilled and poorly paid, last to be hired, first to be fired. Aborigines are used as cheap labour in the North under the so-called “slow-worker” clauses. In NSW country areas, up to 90% of men are unemployed, as are nearly all Black women...

THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD STOP WORK AND MARCH ON JULY 14...

MORATORIUM FOR BLACK RIGHTS

*”The Mateship Country, The Fair-Go Country, For WE Are ‘Young And Free’”?

--but the “WE” doesn’t include Blacks! --and often not even Southern European migrants. Foreign owned consortiums like Comalco, Nabalco and Vesteys throw Blacks out of their tribal lands and destroy their sacred sites, with government approval..

THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD STOP WORK AND MARCH ON JULY 14...

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WHITE WORKERS PRIDE THEMSELVES ON THEIR MILITANCY IN THE STRUGGLE FOR HIGHER WAGES AND BETTER LIVING CONDITIONS BUT TO BE MILITANT FOR SIMPLY SELFISH ENDS WITHOUT BEING MILITANT FOR THOSE MANY TIMES WORSE OFF IN OUR OWN COUNTRY IS MORALLY INDEFENSIBLE

This is another reason why your should stop work and march on July 14...

The above call to all workers to stop work and march on National Aborigines Day, Friday July 14 has been signed by the following Blacks: Lyn Thompson (secretary, NSW Lands Board), R. Lawson, C. Clark, W. Nichol, Kevin J. Gilbert (Editor ALCHURINGA, vice-chairman, NSW Lands Board), Sandra McGuiness, R. Bellear, F. Burns, Billie Craigie, P. Harrison. The Moratorium for Black Rights was endorsed by the annual conference of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Straits Islanders (FCAATSI), held in Alice Springs in Easter. This call was drawn up only two days before publication. Further signatures will be collected and added. The Moratorium for Black Rights has also the full support of the Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra, which has agreed to act as national coordinating centre for the Moratorium.

NINGLA A-NA (“WE ARE HUNGRY FOR OUR LAND”) - THE MORATORIUM FOR BLACK RIGHTS DEMANDS:

1) ABSOLUTE OWNERSHIP OF ALL PRESENT RESERVES AND LAND HOLDINGS ON WHICH BLACKS ARE NOW LIVING TO BE PLACED IN THE HANDS OF THOSE BLACK COMMUNITIES

2) The right and power of Black communities to determine their own destiny

3) Full compensation to the Black community for the seizure of land, exploitation and genocide practiced over the past 180 years

4) Full employment for all Black workers at award rates

5) Decent housing and no evictions

6) Black studies and culture in education

7) End to all discriminatory legislation (eg. Queensland Aborigines Act)

STOP WORK JULY 14

printed and authorised by L. Thompson, Box K703, Haymarket, PO, Sydney-2000.