Newsletter date: 23 July 2015
Contents:
* News Analysis: Stefan Armbruster, SBS News: Aboriginal activist enters Australia without passport
* Bio: Stefan Armbruster - Brisbane-based correspondent, SBS World News
* Policy Statement: The Guardian (The Worker's Weekly): CPA policy statement - NO to paternalistic recognition
* About Us - CPA: An introduction to the Communist Party of Australia
* News Analysis: Susan Price & Jacob Andrewartha, Green Left Weekly: Students of Sustainability conference a success
* Bio: Susan Price - Green Left Weekly
* Bio: Jacob Andrewartha - Green Left Weekly
* About GLW - the need for alternative media: https://www.greenleft.org.au/about
* Support GLW: https://www.greenleft.org.au/
* WGAR Background to the Aboriginal Sovereignty Movement
WGAR News Public Google Group: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB#!forum/wgar-news
WGAR News - Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)
- News Analysis
SBS News: Aboriginal activist enters Australia without passport
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/07/21/aboriginal-activist-enters...
22 Jul 15: "An Aboriginal activist has legally entered Australia at Brisbane international airport despite refusing to use an Australian passport. ... Carrying a self-styled Aboriginal passport, Nganyaywana man Callum Clayton-Dixon has also recently entered and departed the Solomon Islands. Mr Clayton-Dixon, chair of the Aboriginal Provision Government (APG), told SBS that he arrived in Brisbane from Honiara on June 30. ... "I just kept on insisting I’m an Aboriginal person returning to my country on my Aboriginal passport, and this is the travel document I’m choosing to use." ... " By Stefan Armbruster
- Bio
Stefan Armbruster - Brisbane-based correspondent, SBS World News
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/author/stefan-armbruster
" ... He was born in Germany, grew up in Australia, and worked for a decade in London for the BBC and other broadcasters. Since joining SBS in 2007, he has won a number of radio and television media awards for his coverage of Aboriginal, Torres Strait islander and multicultural issues."
- Policy Statement
The Guardian (The Worker's Weekly):
CPA policy statement - NO to paternalistic recognition
http://www.cpa.org.au/guardian/2015/1694/04-cpa-policy-satement---no-to-...
22 Jul 15: "Starting in 2007 with former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard, the Australian government has been pushing for constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Both Labor and Liberal Parties support recognition.
In May 2015 community support, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, for a YES vote in a referendum on recognition had reached 72 percent, even though the exact proposals to go to a referendum have not yet been decided.
While the Communist Party respects the support for Indigenous rights that lies behind these community views, we ask why we should trust a recommendation from the government of a capitalist state interested not in morality, democracy and human rights but in controlling land and resources for profit making. ...
Vote NO: Many years ago Charles Perkins called for a treaty written into the Constitution which covered issues of the prior ownership of land, sovereignty, compensation for land lost, and recognition of the customs, laws, languages and sacred sites.
The current proposals go nowhere near this. If the words used in the proposals were to assist in achieving these rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the Communist Party would advocate a Yes vote. Until they do, the Communist Party will campaign for a NO vote in the referendum.
However, a NO vote is not enough. Most Aboriginal spokespeople are saying that recognition that is simply symbolic is not acceptable. The CPA will also campaign for Indigenous land rights and sovereignty to be recognised. ...
The way forward: The focus must be on national land rights legislation, ending the NT intervention, protecting isolated communities, Aboriginal self-determination and Aboriginal representation in Parliament. ... "
- About
About Us - CPA: An introduction to the Communist Party of Australia
Why we exist; the ideas we believe in
http://www.cpa.org.au/about-us/02-an-introduction-to-the-cpa.html
"The Communist Party of Australia believes there is a way to overcome Australia's economic and social problems. To do this it is necessary to change the direction of politics in Australia and, eventually, to replace the capitalist system with a socialist one. The Communist Party is a party of activists who work in trade unions, peace and environmental groups, solidarity organisations and a variety of other community movements as well as running campaigns in the name of the Communist Party. The members of the CPA work to eliminate unemployment, poverty, injustice, homelessness, racism and war. ... "
Students of Sustainability conference - Adelaide:
- News Analysis
Green Left Weekly: Students of Sustainability conference a success
https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/59518
18 Jul 15: "... Held on Kaurna land at Flinders University, from July 8 to 12, ... One of the strengths of the conference was that it included a number of presentations in plenaries and workshops by Aboriginal activists from around Australia and from West Papua, including Aunty Sue Coleman-Haseldine (Kokatha-Mula woman from Ceduna), Bogaine Spearim (Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance), Marianne Mackay (Nyoongar Tent Embassy) and Ronnie Kareni (West Papuan independence advocate). The opening plenary featured local Aboriginal custodians including Uncle Bunna Lawrie ... Uncle Kevin Buzzacott ... and Karina Lester ... Informative sessions were held about the responses to attacks on Aboriginal communities and land rights, ... " By Susan Price & Jacob Andrewartha
- Bios
Susan Price - Green Left Weekly
https://www.greenleft.org.au/taxonomy/term/1267
Jacob Andrewartha - Green Left Weekly
https://www.greenleft.org.au/taxonomy/term/6253
- About
About GLW - the need for alternative media
https://www.greenleft.org.au/about
"In these days of growing media concentration, Green Left Weekly is a proudly independent voice committed to human and civil rights, global peace and environmental sustainability, democracy and equality. By printing the news and ideas the mainstream media won't, Green Left Weekly exposes the lies and distortions of the power brokers and helps us to better understand the world around us. Green Left Weekly, launched in 1990 by progressive activists to present the views excluded by the big business media, is now Australia's leading source of local, national and international news, analysis, and discussion and debate to strengthen the anti-capitalist movements. It is both a hard copy and online publication. ... "
- Donate to GLW
Support GLW
https://www.greenleft.org.au/
https://www.greenleft.org.au/donate/details
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- Background
WGAR Background to the Aboriginal Sovereignty Movement
https://indymedia.org.au/2014/12/24/wgar-background-to-the-aboriginal-so...
(last updated: 15 July 2015)
- - -
WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)
About WGAR News:
https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB#!forum/wgar-news
Subscription to 'WGAR News' is free.
'WGAR News' monitors the media, including alternative media, focusing on:
* The Freedom Summit's National Freedom Movement;
* the Australian Federal government intervention into Northern Territory (NT) Aboriginal communities;
* Plans to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in Western Australia (WA), South Australia (SA), [and Northern Territory (NT)?];
* Treaties with Aboriginal Sovereign Nations of Australia;
* the Aboriginal sovereignty movement and the Aboriginal tent embassies;
* Justice Reinvestment, Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal Deaths in Custody;
* Aboriginal land rights and mining;
* Suicide and self-harm in Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander communities;
* Removal of Aboriginal children and the continuing Stolen Generation;
* Aboriginal peoples and the impact of the Australian Federal Budget;
* Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing;
* other Aboriginal rights issues; and
* upcoming Aboriginal rights events around Australia.
'WGAR News' gives priority to grassroots Aboriginal voices and grassroots voices in solidarity with Aboriginal peoples' rights.
The role of 'WGAR News' is to facilitate the voices of others, and as such, 'WGAR News' rarely writes its own articles.
'WGAR News' publishes information and opinions from a wide range of sources.
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