June 25: Sydney rally to stop the NT Intervention
Four years of racist shame...
Stop the NT Intervention - Self Determination Now!
Rally 1pm Sydney Town Hall - march to Belmore park for speakers and concert
- Apply the Racial Discrimination Act unconditionally
- No Income Management: not in the NT, not in Bankstown
- Land Rights not Leases
- Jobs with Justice: no work for the BasicsCard
Speakers include:
- Marie Ellis (Amoonguna, NT)
- Lee Rhiannon (Greens Senator Elect)
- Jack Johnson (Gandangara Local Aboriginal Land Council, South-West Sydney)
- Rebel Hanlon (CFMEU)
It has been four years of racism and devastation for Aboriginal communities under the NT Intervention. Rather than ‘Closing the Gap’ punitive measures designed to ‘assimilate’ Aboriginal people have made shocking social conditions even worse.
Government statistics show Indigenous incarceration rates have risen by almost 30 per cent, as schools attendance rates drop and thousands of workers are put onto Centrelink as Community Development Employment Projects shut down. There are growing crises in urban centres such as Alice Springs as large numbers move in from the bush.
Despite government claims of reinstating the Racial Discrimination Act (following its suspension in order to introduce the Intervention in 2007), large parts of the Intervention policy still do not comply with the RDA. This includes the forced acquisition of township land, powers to seize assets and the imposition of Government Business Managers. Despite the RDA supposedly being applied to Income Management, government statistics show that 94% of people in NT under IM are Indigenous.
Rather than acknowledge the failure of the Intervention, the government is threatening to extend these measures beyond their 5-year sunset clause. And Tony Abbott wants a ‘new Intervention’.
In May budget, the government announced an extension of Income Management to five marginalised areas around Australia - including Bankstown in Sydney.
An increasingly broad constituency within Australian society, including unions, NGOs, the Greens, community groups and church groups are coming out against Intervention measures and punitive welfare policy.
Aboriginal people will rally in Darwin on June 21 to mark 4 years of Intervention and launch an alternative program [ http://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/alternative-to-the-interven... ] which demands a shift from policies designed to force assimilation to self-determination, Aboriginal control and proper funding for all communities. The Stop the Intervention Collective are organising a rally in Sydney on June 25 to support this program.
Join the rally against racism and for Aboriginal self-determination!
http://stoptheintervention.org/
- ENDS -
Note: This notice is part of STICS (Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney) media coverage of the event.
For further info go to:
STICS Media Release: http://stoptheintervention.org/facts/press-releases/gillard-cannot-face-...
STICS Poster: http://stoptheintervention.org/uploads/files_to_download/Past%20Events/2...
This notice was posted by WGAR as a community service with the kind permission of Paddy Gibson ( paddy.gibson@gmail.com ) of STICS, and as such WGAR is not the author of the notice.