Regardless of which major party, or coalition of parties, forms government after the July 2 election one thing we can be certain of is that the struggle for a people's movement will still be as necessary as ever, writes Ken Canning.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights
"A strike for the freedom of any oppressed peoples is a strike for freedom for all people. The road to equity and justice for my people requires smashing the stranglehold the Liberal National coalition and Labor have on political decision making in Australia."
Suicide by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was a rare occurrence in pre-colonial times. Now, Aboriginal children are eight times more likely to commit suicide than non-Aboriginal children.
To win our struggle we have to build a broad, strong and powerful people's movement. We have to join together and fight for all our freedom.
Sam Watson: "There are challenges facing the Aboriginal rights movement in 2016. We are under concerted attack, just like the trade union movement. We urgently need to come together and unite in solidarity with each other."
Real self-determination will require radical changes in current approaches that largely fail the First Peoples: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities themselves should be at the forefront of driving these changes.
On the weekend of July 18 and 19 there was another round of right-wing Reclaim Australia (RA) protests. The stated aim of RA and its offshoot, the United Patriots Front (UPF), was to defend what they call “Australian values” from the threat of “Islamicisation”.
The Socialist Alliance stands in full solidarity with the burgeoning movement against the forced closure of remote Aboriginal communities in WA.
The far right Islamophobic “Reclaim Australia” movement burst onto the streets in what was the biggest racist mobilisation since the Cronulla riots, in 16 places across Australia on April 4.
On Saturday April 4, a far right mob calling themselves "Reclaim Australia" are hosting a series of rallies around Australia in order to promote anti-Muslim bigotry
"The NSW and other state governments are also to blame for the latest shameful and outrageous results of the Closing The Gap Report tabled by PM Tony Abbott in federal parliament today," said Sharlene Leroy-Dyer the lead Socialist Alliance candidate for the Legislative Council in the upcoming March 28 NSW elections.
Joseph Elu, chair of the Torres Strait Regional Authority, told Radio National’s PM on January 5 that the islands that have been home to Indigenous people for thousands of years are “being inundated”, right now because of climate change.