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Full text of "The Evidence - Geoff McDonald
"
See other formats
(14) ric Nanaiip J we a | ny
of large tracts of watered and fertil
country, with towns, seaports, railways
roads, etc., to become one or more indet
Pendent aboriginal states or republicsf
The handing back to the aborigines of a
Central, Northern, and North West Aust
ralia to enable the aborigines to develo
their native persuits. These aborigina
republics to be independent of Australia
Or Other foreign powers. To have the righ
to make treaties with foreign powers
Including Australia, establish their ow
umanitarians
y fight for thes.
alrace. Preven
Capitalism extermina ing this rac
wen through bare-faced murder or slavery.
ors Struggle with the aborigines agains
10 0 4 Australian Imperialism!
ach Workers and oppressed peoples of a
y lands, unite! Smash Imperialism!
we ner. The Workers Weekly,24/9/193
Oye 0% end ) Absolute prohibition of the ki
$ ‘apping of aboriginal chil
yr de en 'apping aboriginal children by tł
MANET? g .P.B., whether to hire them out
not Lae ves, place them in ‘‘missions’’, gaols «
en ay xe
a ‘
x At - > S \O y
nat xe Genre
ams rrection’’ homes.
ricted right of abo
ae at Kev? a aa ee cDanaldss to their chile
sü ashe ai, on oF ne goo > ane 3 hout living in constant fear that th
“ar pi eapi BOY “ce ME Cot 6 T oor missi i ill ki
nSt, c pet? hem u ABE” aS ay ission stations will kidna
aga n siat ae at PP nem 8. send into slavery.
wrt sak à ore’ Mere ces en we X original children to be permi
çut 4 Pind es pa pee De pyar _ nd public and high schools an
S \ x
SOU Ve 0; 'l examinations
ane? 2, ace red, ce OOo ahs T SAS a
Ni à ont grace aoe TAN “cee oi ‘dation of all missions and sı
O
A ~ oN gi
eS s Ys BON ene oF of p past ged for aborigines, as these a)
O i UME We P 920) ome? an 2? O'S) ‘apons being used to exte)
age Oyane>? in Ww aay ó git? ‘aXe tiginal race by segregatin
yer as $ e h eve AN “as a saat mn of nding the young girls int
Co?” \ >
r o OP ot o paiga ne grea a
. Os oval rest ok Oe ash 0 Mano so of the aborigines
O PUSTA nes: (qo à WoE (ak pane ure. Right to establis
ae 00%? RON AC at Aw, eve wit e o S, train their ow
yer a oo ik me AAt AWE or AEs?” vildren of the aboy
nat ast © de® yer y ` Caine cedig . ofS: The Australi
ry Kerr Wit q Weve sh gsi TOP Qo, ns available sums
e gu en “a 7 i er Eo Re far nat S, to be paid in
-a yA O a $ \ ‘ Tg sa KES ittees sc
yas € AA AT c pre age = uttees compris
Hi AAN Regal go RGU grr att oe emeeastes,
Ken av c e . , my. 2 os ; | rise
cA
5
5
was the cause of many members leaving the Party. More
would have left the Party over this issue, but not knowing
how determined the Party leadership has been in this ob-
jective, they, like myself, never took the matter seriously.
We did not understand military strategy and the techniques
of psychological war. How Communists use “refugees” as a
preliminary to invasion was unknown to us. I would suggest
that in the case of land rights as discussed in this paper, the
27
from nist presa and theoretical documents of the Period
they aa S to the present to illustrate with what energ
Opposed white migration, including white
refugees from Rhodesia, while strongly advocating Asian
an coloured migration as part of their mad scheme to take
Over Australia, I do not blame people for not believing some
of the bizarre plans of the revolutionaries. That is why |
recommend the original sources should be studied. It will be
found that Communists are the greatest “racists” of all,
Communist attitudes towards immigration are quite differ-
ent to the tolerance that has been shown in the past by other
Australians.
24. Referring to mixed-bloods, Wright wrote that the CPA
policy was that they should be treated differently from full-
bloods: “All Acts and Ordinances relating to aborigines
should be excluded from them”. He added: “the Party
resolution at the (15th) Congress raised this demand as a
concrete means for eliminating racial discrimination against
half-castes”. In adopting policies already worked out by
non-Communists, he called for more housing and technical
training, so as “to make up to some extent for their lost
opportunities”. His report concluded: — |
should ensure that there will be a sufficient
number of Party members in all States and districts
‘conversant with all aspects of the probiem and able to
initiate and lead activity which will defeat the Labor
and Liberal proponents of racialism: in Australia,
rescue our Aborigine people from extinction and
secure full equality of social rights for the mixed blood
section of our population. Success in destroying racial-
ism in Australia will advance the struggle for defeating
the racialism practised against the peoples of Asia,
under the slogan of White Australia.
25. In August, 1951, the CPA held its Sixteenth National
Congress where the direction of future activity was set out
in the Communist Review, for July, 1951:
The treatment of the Australian Aborigines by Aust-
ralian capitalism is a blot on the fair name of our
nation . . . The peoples of New Guinea and Papua, of
Fiji and other islands face, at the hands of the ae
ting classes, the same danger of ruthless exploitation
28
and extermination meted out to the Australian
Aborigines. It is the duty of Australian democracy to
safeguard these native peoples from destruction at the
hands of the imperialists and ‘colonisers’.
Justice must be done to the Australian Aborigines.
In the Northern Territory and adjacent areas tribal
lands must be made secure for the surviving tribes and
every aid extended them to develop their own life and
culture, Full citizen rights must be extended to non-
tribal aborigines.
2». As has been the continuing practice of Communists,
manipulation of aboriginal organisations has been
connected with so-called “peace” movements, anti-defence,
disarmament propaganda, and the “anti-imperialist” Party
line. The further development of this strategy was launched
on the international scene in a Comintern Declaration of
1947. According to the Soviet Communist Party the pro-
jections which was followed by the international Commun-
ist movement, the world was divided into two camps. The
USA was supposed to be leading the forces “striving for
war’; while the Soviet Union was allegedly heading “the
anti-imperialist democratic camp”, pursuing “world peace”.
In my book Australia At Stake, I have explained how those
of us who were members of the Communist Party at this
time were brain-washed into accepting this false picture of
the world. The CPA used the aboriginals to promote this lie
campaign while supporting the foreign policy of the Soviet
Union. With slightly varying argumenis, full blood and
mixed blood aboriginals were being used to build the
“People’s Movement” for the “People’s Front” to be led by
the CPA. The Party slogan was for “the defence of national
independence and democratic liberty” for Australia. Under
this heading the CPA organised “anti-imperialist’ and
“peace” campaigns. Within the trade unions the same
propaganda efforts were used for the “United Front”.
Numerous other community organisations were established
or penetrated to enlarge CPA areas of influence for the
campaign. Today parallel methods are used to mislead the
Australian people about uranium mining, conservation and
environmental issues.
27. In 1951 the CPA gained control of strikes by aborigines in
Il]
Darwin demanding better clothing and food. The
Australian Workers Union”, then under Party c
supported the strikes. The CPA Guardian newspaper of 1s
February, 1951, reported: “Many Victorian trade unions
have sent strong protests . . . against jail sentences imposed
on Darwin aboriginal strike leaders”. The Guardian said.
“the brand of ‘illegality’ placed on these aboriginal demands
shows that the exploiting class will fight to the last ditch to
keep Australia’s fine aboriginal race in slavery”. Aboriginals
have never been kept in slavery, which is beside the point.
Communist reasons for supporting the strike are made clear
by the following fiction:
It is also a warning that Menzies will deny the right to
strike, and the right to picket, from ‘white’ Australian
workers also if he is able to smash their trade unions
with the Crimes Act and the Communist Party
Dissolution Act.
In 1952 the “Australian Council of Civil Liberties” published
a booklet titled Not Slaves, Not Citizens. The CPA used this
publicity as part of a propaganda drive. According to the
publication, the condition “of the Australian aborigines in
the Northern Territory” was as set out in the above title,
with a recommended programme of action claiming full
citizenship rights, health benefits, social services, etc.,
together with facilities for aborigines on ‘reserves “to
develop their own cultural and economic lite”.
. In 1954, the CPA when calling for “working class unity” to
fight “the anti-national policy of the ruling class” issued
another policy directive through an unsigned article in the
Communist Review for September of that year. The article
described aboriginal pastoral workers, stating that the
“progressive forces in Australia, led by the working class,
have also done much to save the aborigines from final exter-
mination .. .” The article said:
The idea that the aborigines are still living as hunters
and collectors has
“North
Ontro]
led firstly to an incorrect apprec-
iation of the position of the aborigines as a national
minority, Today, the great mass of the aborigines, full-
bloods and half-castes, do not live in t
ribes, but on the
outskirts and in the slums of bi
§ towns, on cattle-
stations, and on Government and Mission Settlements
30
_. a new process of national consolidation is taking
place . . . the old tribal identity is being replaced by
new ties arising from common residence, common
awareness of themselves as racially and culturally
distinct, and, above all, from consciousness of sub-
jection to a common oppression. |
A further assertion made was:
The greater number of aborigines today sell their
labour-power on farms or cattle stations .. . these
aborigines are workers, not nomadic hunters and col-
lectors. It is the mass of the aboriginal population —
the aboriginal workers and semi-proletarians — who
should receive our attention in the first place, and our
particular assistance should go to these most advanced
workers who are already moving into action.
Party members were then told the line tò be followed:
... fight against all attempts to split the aboriginal
people (into full-bloods and mixed bloods) ... and
struggle for unity of all aborigines, whatever their
physical make-up.
In considering aboriginal strikes in Port Hedland and
Darwin, it was suggested that the strikes:
... have shown that the urban and rural workers
constitute the most advanced and militant section of
the aboriginal people, ready to fight in defence of their
own interests.
With the result that:
. a correct Party leadership and co-operation fron
the white working class will lead to much wide 7
isation of these allies in the development of y
struggle against capitalism, the common «
Methods of administering reserves should be p
Governments and missions were not doing the job properiv:
.. . from a policy based on the preservation of tribal-
ism to one of the most rapid social advancement of ihe
aboriginal people and encouragement of the new
processes of national consolidation; from a policy
which accepts the less obvious segregationist and racist
approach of the ruling class to one based on the under-
standing of the national developments amongst the
aborigines and the smashing of all obstacles to
31
aboriginal unity.
In conclusion the article said:
A policy orientated on the mobilisation of the abor-
iginal people .. . requires much closer contact with
the aboriginal people, a searching-out of those issues
which the aborigines themselves are seriously
concerned about and ready to fight on. . . Our basic
demands for the aboriginal ownership of reserves, the
ending of discriminatory laws and the extension of full
civic rights to the aborigines, and the rapid raising of
their living, education, and health standards must be
carried forward not solely by general agitation, but by
struggle around day-to-day issues ... Such a re-
orientation of policy will bring into the struggle
against capitalism thousands of powerful and militant
allies. . . Such a policy will also inspire the people of
colonial countries in their struggles for national liber-
ation and strengthen their friendly relations with the
Australian working-class.
29. Those who were knowledgeable about Party policy towards
aborigines recognised an important change in emphasis. No
longer were the aborigines to be divided into two groups.
Where the CPA had a separate policy for mixed and full
bloods, “proletarian and semi-proletarian workers” to be
mobilised by the Party and the unions “in struggle against
the common exploiter of white worker and aborigine . . .”,
full bloods and those of aboriginal descent were now a single
national group. With the support of the unions and left
sections of the labor movement, the CPA was to lead this
“reserve of the proletariat”. The aborigines were no longer
just described as an “oppressed colonial people”. They had
become an “oppressed national minority”, “racially and
culturally distinct”, possessed of their own class com-
position. With more aborigines obtaining jobs and therefore
members of the “proletariat”, the CPA thought they should
be categorised as coming within the responsibility of
organised labour under CPA direction. However, the abor-
igines were to be kept as a separate group to be identified as
part of “the struggle against capitalism — the common
enemy”. By these means aborigines can be used to hold up
mining and industrial development. To be instruments of the
32
lett controlled ecology machine was fine tuned to what it is
today. Apart from hysterical and misleading propaganda
about make-believe dangers of uranium mining “the
oppressed aboriginal minority” are made out to be the
victims of the mining industry. The CPA platform of
“aboriginal ownership of reserves” along with the natural
resources coming from the earth has provided the structure
of the present day propaganda slogan “Land Rights — Not
Uranium”. With clergymen and Labor politicians used as
“front” spokespeople for the original CPA design, the facade
of respectability has been established. To go back to the
policy of 1931 we now hear the public debate concerning
“self governing communities in Northern Australia”.
33
CHAPTER FOUR
THE ANTI FREE ENTERPRISE
MINING OFFENSIVE CONTINUES
30. The CPA's policy towards aborigines was still to tie them to
31.
the Soviet Union as the leader of the “anti-colonial
struggle”. The aborigines were subjects of the “national
liberation programme” sponsored by the Soviet govern-
ment. Through these activities the name of aborigines had
continued use for CPA “peace” and “United Front”
activities. When Lance Sharkey suggests “the movements
‘or Asian freedom are more and more being led by the
‘-ommunist Parties . . .” he pictures the CPA as having the
samc leadership role for aborigines in Australia. (The Com-
xs! Review for June, 1954). For propaganda and oper-
4. crial purposes, the CPA emphasised that the aborigines
were an “oppressed national minority” and a ‘reserve of the
proletariat”. This separateness from the white population
was of vital tactical significance. They were there to be
exploited in the “United Front” and “anti-imperialism
campaigns of the CPA. ar
From 1955 the CPA press gave publicity to any incident
possible relating to aborigines. This publicity followed an
appeal to the Central Committee by the West Australian
CPA Secretary, Sam Aarons (Tribune 19th January, 1955),
describing alleged colour prejudice, calling for trade union
financial and political assistance, protests to be organised
against any case where aboriginals were evicted from
houses; “historical” information; criticisms of governments
for not being quick enough to implement policies of “full
rights to native people .. .”; charges that “. . . wealthy
34
32.
squatters, pastoral companies and mining monopolists are
furious at the advances made towards equal pay, education
and other reforms”; charges of “intrigue among public
figures in Western Australia .. . to smash Don McLeod
white leader of the aboriginal co-operative in the Pilbara”.
(Tribune, 26th October, 1955). Support for strikes by
aboriginals; condemnation of licences being issued to
pastoralists to employ aboriginals; promotion of work on
aboriginal programmes by CPA-led unions like the
Seamen's Union, Waterside Workers Federation and the
Miners’ Federation. The call was for full citizenship rights
for aboriginals. The West Australian Tribune of 28th
September, 1955, made use of an official report announcing
there was a shortage of aboriginal labour in the Kimberley
area of Western Australia. It was asserted:
. the main blow against the squattocracy can be
delivered by the growth of organised trade unionism
— a task for the whole trade union movement. With
labour scarce in the district, there is ample scope for
collective bargaining and organised action against
bosses...
In May, 1955, the Seventeenth National CPA Congress re-
endorsed the Sixteenth National Congress programme for
the peoples of Papua, New Guinea, Fiji, and the Australian
aboriginals. In 1956 the Waterside Workers’ Federation
issued a call for “full civil rights for aborigines in the
Warburton Aboriginal Reserve in W.A.” The 23rd January,
1957, issue of Tribune reported on the growing use of the
“United Nations Association”, which it had heavily infil-
trated, to build up the project of international interference in
Australian affairs by asking the United Nations to “investi-
gate the inhuman treatment of Australian aborigines“.
Renewed attempts were made to use the aborigines for the
CPA disarmament programme by claims that the plight of
aborigines was exacerbated by weapons tests in Central
Australia. An article in the Tribune of 30th January, 1957
said “if one million pounds less had been spent on the rocket
range and used instead to help the aborigines, Australia
would have more to be proud of”. The Warburton Reserve
dispute was used to appeal for support to the aborigines by
the labour movement. The call was issued for the
o
(9)
35
33.
34.
“Communist Party organisations and members to increase
their activity around this programme”.
A “Save the Aborigines Committee” was established in
Adelaide in February, 1957, to spear-head the campaign
throughout Australia. The objectives included the now well-
established protests against mining. Concessions to allow
mining should not be allowed. Allegations were made that
mining was taking place “on some of the natives’ best land”
in West and South Australia. The Guardian of 7th February,
1957 joined in the fray “... in the protest against the
government's flagrant disregard of natives’ welfare in the
interests of international, American dominated monopoly
which is getting a grip on this country”. The Tribune of 27th
February, 1957 publicised the discovery of bauxite deposits
in Cape York Peninsula. ‘““American-Australian monopolies
are moving into the aboriginal reserves on the western side
of Cape York Peninsula”. According to Tribune, “Any
minerals found in those areas . . . belong to the aborigines
and they must be developed by the government in the inter-
ests of the nation generally and the aboriginals in
particular’. The real campaign is to stop mining altogether.
If royalties are to be paid the demand for royalties is to be so
great that mining in Australia would become uncompetitive
with the countries who do not pay royalties.
Publicity against mining and allegations about aboriginal
exploitation gained considerable publicity during 1957 and
1958. The most active organisations were:
Aborigine Advancement League (Victoria)
Aborigine Advancement League (South Australia)
Council for Aborigine Rights (Victoria)
Aborigine-Australian Fellowship (New South Wales)
Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement
The above organisations were not Communist Party fronts.
Only a few CPA members had penetrated them. Those of us
in the CPA were told that these organisations were
“confused” and needed leadership from Communist Party
members. At the suggestion of the Communist Party |
became active in the Aboriginal Advancement League. |
addressed a considerable number of public meetings
together with Pastor Doug Nichols. Pastor Nichols was the
best known spokesman of Victorian Aboriginals. He was
36
a
35.
36.
later appointed governor of South Australia by the Don
Dunstan Labor government. |
The Tribune of 26th March, 1958 announced the convening
of the “Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement
following a conference of State aboriginal welfare groups
which had met in February, 1958 at Adelaide. The confer-
ence had made a plea for “integration” of aborigines on the
basis of “equality” and against “assimilation” which would
allegedly mean the wiping out of the aboriginal race. The
aboriginals were entitled to maintain their racial identity.
This is another type of Communist propaganda. No one in
Australia wanted the aborigines to give away their identity
or racial pride. However, the Communist Party would run a
campaign in support of the aborigines to maintain their right
to their identity when there was really nothing to campaign
about. The Aborigine Australian Fellowship of New South
Wales proposed a petition which called for the Federal
Government to take out clauses 51 and 127 from the Con-
stitution so as to allow the Federal Government to take over
responsibility for aboriginal affairs. Being a part of CPA
policy, this demand was linked together by the CPA with its
“anti-monopoly” and “anti-US imperialism”; and especially
with the Party's objections to alienation of aboriginal
reserves for mining exploration, and in support of the CPA
“anti-nuclear testing” efforts. As a special demand the CPA
advocated a social services programme for the aborigines.
While aborigines are now paid social service benefits in
excess of white people, Communist propaganda states the
aboriginals are discriminated against. This, even though an
unemployed aborigine with a wife and two children receives
more in social service benefits than an unskilled factorv
worker employed for 40 hours a week (after tax is taken
out).
The Eighteenth National Congress of the CPA in April, 1958
again endorsed earlier policies for the aborigines and issued
an appeal which was published in the Guardian on 16th
October, 1958:
The Communist Party calls upon the Australian
working class to defend the Australian aborigines — to
campaign to extend to them the rights of citizenship, to
ensure to them adequate land, to preserve the
Ei
remaining tribal lands, to prevent racial discrimin-
ation, to ensure adequate housing, health, education
and training facilities, and to allow them to decide on
their own national development.
37. In 1958 the CPA accelerated its press coverage alleging
38.
discrimination against the aborigines. The CPA front organ-
isation “The Union of Australian Women” became active in
the CPA campaign supporting aboriginal “rights” in the
campaign for unity with the “Aborigine Australian Fellow-
ship of N.S.W.” The Federal Minister for Territories was
attacked in the Tribune of 10th September, 1958, because of
statements in support of “assimilation”. The CPA attacked
his views which did not: |
harmonize with the experience of Socialist
countries. The Soviet Union and China have rescued
and developed into autonomous nations peoples who
had been forced by previous regimes into a position
comparable to that of our Aborigines.
The above statement illustrates the development of CPA
policy towards the aborigines with the perspective of
separate nationhood.
A decisration was issued in January, 1959 appealing for
complete citizenship rights for all aborigines by a number of
Melbourne people, including Shirley Andrews, a CPA
member, and Dr. Barry Christopher, another CPA member
who was active in aboriginal affairs but often criticised in
Party circles for having “non-revolutionary” attitudes
towards the aborigine “question”. A pamphlet was issued by
a branch of “the United Nations Organisation” in Queens-
land, entitled The Aborigines. and Torres Strait Islanders of
Queensland: The booklet had a combined authorship
including Dr. Alistair Campbell. The publication
announced CPA policy towards the aborigines and Torres
Strait Islanders. A conference was convened in March of the
“Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement”. The confer-
ence condemned the Federal government's policy towards
aboriginals. The CPA used its press to promote a great deal
of publicity concerning the aboriginal artist Albert
Namitjira. In 1961 the CPA front organisation, “The New
Theatre” in Brisbane, produced a play about Namitjira, by
Nance MacMillan, called “The Painter”. At the same time
38
CPA penetration increased in a number of aboriginal organ-
AalONS.,
The “State Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and
Torres Strait Islanders” combined with the “Union of
Australian Women” and other CPA front organisations in
Queensland, The CPA “peace” fronts became more active in
the general campaign. The “State Council for the Advance-
ment of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders” was estab-
lished in 1958, its objectives being to work for the achieve-
ment of social and political equality for aborigines and
Torres Strait Islanders as part of the Australian community.
Local “groups” of the Aboriginal Advancement League were
formed throughout Victoria and the League launched a fund
for the “Defence for Aborigines”. The fund was to help in
“the legal battle for citizenship for aborigines” (Guardian
22nd January, 1959). The above organisation was inde-
pendent of the CPA, although as stated above, as a union
official I spoke at a number of public meetings together with
the aboriginal Pastor Doug Nichols in support of the
League’s objects. It was noticeable how different Doug
Nichols and the other League officials were from the CPA
members who were active in promoting aboriginal
demands. The CPA members were “artificial” in their
approach, compared with the genuinely reformist spokes-
men for the League.
39
CHAPTER FIVE
OPPOSITION TO MINING
IS ALSO TO ESTABLISH APARTHEID
40. In July, 1960, the “Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders
41.
42.
Advancement League” held a conference in Cairns, Queens-
land, from which they issued a “Declaration of Rights of the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands People”. Alec Bacon,
State Secretary of the CPA, spoke at the conference
(Guardian, 11th August, 1960). He made strong attacks on
the (jueensland government and its policies towards abor-
igines. The conference declared, inter alia, that the
aboriginal and island people on settlements and mission
areas should be given the land areas, including the natural
resources, as their own property. Self government was to
coincide with complete ownership. Most other points in the
declaration were also in complete agreement with the CPA
programme.
As part of increased activity in Queensland, a branch of the
“Aborigines Advancement League” was formed in 1960. The
League’s policy highlighted equal citizenship rights for
aborigines; increased standards of living, social service
benefits, equal pay; compulsory and free education for non-
tribal aboriginals together with “the absolute retention of all
remaining reserves, with native communal or individual
ownership”.
In December, 1960, a meeting of 81 Communist Parties was
held in Moscow. The conference brought up to date the
international policy concerning the Australian aboriginals.
(See the Communist textbook But Now We Want the Land
Back, by Hannah Middleton, New Age Publishing Co., 111
40
Sussex Street, Sydney. Hannah Middleton is an official of
the Soviet protege "The Socialist Party of Australia”, which
is a breakaway from the Communist Prty of Australia. The
SPA is now working together with the CPA and the
Communist Party (Marxist Leninist) the pro-Chinese break-
away Communist Party for the achievement of their com-
bined objective of an independent nation for aborigines in
Australia). I have dealt with the 1969 Moscow conference
and Middleton's dissertation in another forthcoming book,
The Eleventh Hour. The Moscow statement, inter alia,
treated with “colonialism” the “national liberation
revolutions” in Africa, the Far East and other target areas.
The meeting asserted that “The complete collapse of
colonialism is imminent . . .”
The peoples of the colonial_countries win their inde-
pendence both through armed struggle and by non-
military methods, depending on the specific conditions
in the country concerned;
and that:
` This Meeting expressed solidarity with all the peoples
of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania who are
carrying on a heroic struggle against imperialism.
And further:
All the socialist countries and the international
working-class and communist movement see it as their
duty to render the fullest moral and material assistance
to the peoples fighting to free themselves from
imperialist and colonial tyranny.
The CPA considered itself the “vanguard” of the “struggle”
against “US Imperialism” and “colonialism” as part of the
world revolution. Revolutionary activity was applied io
Australia by the “progressive forces” in opposition to the US
government, including in its particular revolutionary task
involving the aborigines in the “struggle” against the Federal
and State Governments in Australia.
As a result we have seen the linking of campaigns
allegedly for aborigines with ‘‘anti-monopoly” propaganda;
the CPA publicity that aborigines should be given tota!
ownership of reserves and what can be claimed as tribal
lands to have full mineral rights (which in Communist
strategy means the ability to stop all mining and industrial
41
ed to
ict i .
is not restr ijation -
ning sal
sition to mi
development). Opposition it is to stop
back prosperity in Australia; it 18 © sT
industrial development and mining In a he new gaine
i ing in t
aboriginals would mean their sharing sociated
wealth through jobs and the opportunities :
the growth of new towns which eventually provide better
menities. Aboriginals are
hospitals, schools and other a
When Australian govern-
entitled to their racial identity.
ments have advocated assimilation, it was never meant that
aborigines should breed themselves out of existence as a
race. Aborigines have the right to choose any lifestyle they
so wish. When Communists oppose assimilation and call for
separate development, it is because they want land rights
areas with aborigines separated from industrial develop-
ment. With land rights areas remaining undeveloped and
aborigines seeking to return to the “old ways’ it fits in better
with their picture of a separate nation. By this means it į
easier to make calls to the United Nations for recognition
land rights areas as a separate nation. Alternative] ;
assists the strategy of unilaterally declaring land rights * j
a separate nation. The next step is the establishment of rien
own ‘army’ as recommended in the Workers Weekly for oak
September, 1931. The separate army can be called in { :
outside in the same manner as the Marxist Mugabe Go T
ment has done in Zimbabwe by inviting in Asian + Hed
from North Korea. Make no mistake this is what it “ieee
about. The Communist Review (March, 1961) with i
author being identified only with the initials S.M. es } f
on “The Struggle for Emancipation of the Australian Abo
igines’. The author wrote: hi
t
Ph > quickening of the great struggle being waged by
the coloured people everywhere makes it imperative
thet the present position of the Australian Aborigines
should be clearly understood by all progressive people
in this country.
“S M.” examined the size, composition, location and occu-
pations of the aboriginals. He suggested that the North
Australian Workers Union and the Australian Workers
Union should “organise aboriginal workers aa" to the
North of Australia. Government policies of assimilation
were condemned as “a suk eform of racial chauvinism’. In
42
|
|
|
43.
line with CPA strategy to limit Australian government
sovereignty in its internal affairs, ”S.M.” called upon the
Federal Government to recognise the “ideals put forward for
the treatment of minority peoples” proclaimed by the Inter-
national Labor Organisation's convention 107 promulgated
in 1957. (See a later promotion of this policy of surrendering
Australian sovereignty as advocated by former Prime
Minister, Gough Whitlam, and other advocates of “one
worldism” in World Review, April, 1982 — ‘Minorities and
International Politics”, Institute of Public Affairs, P.O. Box
279, Indooroopilly, Queensland, 4068). “S.M.” claimed
aboriginal problems were “intimately bound up with pene-
tration by overseas monopolies”.
At the Fourth Annual National Conference of the “Federal
Council for the Advancement of Aboriginals’, Joe
McGuinness, Secretary of the Cairns’ Branch of the
“Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders Advancement
League”, was elected Federal President. Dr. John Keats,
from the University of Queensland, was appointed
Executive Chairman. The Queensland CPA Secretary was
again a speaker at this conference.
. A split developed in the “Queensland State Council for the
Advancement of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders”
between CPA activists and non-Communists. In August,
1961 the Council was disbanded. The CPA-led group, which
had been defeated in the debate leading to disbandment, re-
established the Council with a CPA influenced executive
being elected. The 15th August, 1961, issue of the Queens-
land Guardian condemned those responsible for dissolving
the previous organisation. The non-CPA led people were a
“faction with National Civic Council-QLP-Indusiria| Group
associations’. The group’s activities were a “warning to all
democratic, progressive people”. Its tactics “cannot prevail
over principled unity around progressive causes”. After the
split, non-Communists in Brisbane organised a new organis-
ation which was against separatism between blacks and
whites. The newly established body was called the “One
People for Australia League” (OPAL). This organisation
claimed it was the “non-Communist Aboriginal Organis-
ation” in contrast to the re-formed “Queensland State
Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres
43
; í s”. OPAL declared in favou ri
Strait Islanders rira distinct
ueensland Government's policy of
ome the policy of integration put forward by the ae
State Council and CPA activists. A convening Committee ©
establish a branch of OPAL in Rockhampton was set up in
February, 1962 (See: Rockhampton Bulletin, 10th February,
1952). The State President of OPAL addressed a public
meeting at Rockhampton. He stated:
One of the movement's objectives was t
the subversive and extensive propaganda programmes
launched by Communist influence which have over-
run previous organisations for the welfare of Abor-
1gines.
Elections for the “Queensland Aboriginal Advancement
League” were held in October, 1961. Margaret Proud was
elected an executive member of the League. The objectives
of the League were published as follows:
o counteract
(i) To assist people of Aboriginal descent to acquire
full citizenship rights throughout the
Commonwealth.
(ii) To see that all Aboriginals have a standard of
living adequate for health and well-being,
including food, clothing and medical treatment.
(iii) To ensure that all Aboriginals have equal pay
for equal work, and the same industrial pro-
tection as other Australians.
(iv) To establish a general policy for advancement of
all Australian people of Aboriginal descent
especially in the field of education.
(v) To provide benevolent relief to indigent people
of Aboriginal descent.
(vi) To see the co-ordination, where possible, of the
different groups in Queensland working on
behalf of people of Aboriginal descent.
(vii) To assist the assimilation of those Aboriginals
who wish to be so assimilated and to preserve
the traditions of those individuals and/or
groups who wish to be integrated only, and still
retain their identity. 1 together
45. In Western Australia the “Native Welfare — Coloured
with the “Association for the Advancement ©
44
4.
People”, was without Communist penetration. Likewise, in
South Australia the "Aboriginal Advancement League, with
the exception of one branch remained free of CPA control.
In 1962 the “Northern Territory Council of Aboriginal
Rights” was established in Darwin. All members of the first
executive were full blood aboriginals. The Council's
objectives were to “right for equality and speed up the
present government's policy”. The North Australian
Workers’ Union played a supportive role.
The 1962 elections for the executive of the “Queensland
State Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and
Torres Strait Islanders” led to a CPA influenced executive.
CPA policy was reflected in the Council's February 1962
“Newsletter”. It expressed opposition to the Queensland
government's policy of “assimilation”, declaring that the
objective should be “integration”. The Council distributed a
“Programme of Action” which read:
“We call for the immediate repeal of the Aboriginals
Protection Act and Torres Strait Islanders Act and its
replacement by legislation to provide for the following
principles as minimum steps in giving the Aboriginal
people and Torres Strait Islanders a position of full citi-
zenship in the most complete way.
A. FULL voting rights for all adz! aboriginals and
Torres Strait Islanders.
B. EDUCATION of all Aboriginal cnd Torres
Strait Island children to be the responsibility of
the Education Department and no other
authority.
C. SPECIAL scholarships to be provided for
children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island
descent (whether or not covered by the Acts) to
pay for fees, books and a living allowance for
secondary and university education.
D. NO segregation should be allowed on the basis
of colour in any secondary institution.
B, THE control of Missions and Government
settlements to be entrusted to committees on
which aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders
predominate.
F. TRIBAL areas now existing to be preserved for
45
a
nomadic aborigines to ensure means of sub-
sistence for these people.
THE conditions of fringe dwellers around
Brisbane and other cities and towns to be
thoroughly investigated immediately, and
special provision be made to provide homes for
these people and specially trained welfare-
workers be provided by the Government to
assist these people.
CALL on the Trade Union Movement to join in
the campaign to eliminate the intense exploi-
tation, degradation and racial discrimination
against our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island
workers and their families.
These workers to be encouraged as having
equal trade union rights, but actually encour-
aged to organise themselves with full partici-
pation in all Trade Union affairs. In view of the
fact that the vasy majority of all Aboriginal and
Torres Strait workers have been deprived of the
possibilities of learning skilled trades, the
Government should launch a large scale scheme
providing complete training in all Trades.
Objectives were to be attained by:
A
REPEAL of all legislation and award provisions
which place these workers in a less favourable
position in the community than others.
EQUAL rights to all sections of the community
with completely equal pay rights.
FINANCE and expert assistance for economic
development of Aboriginal and !orres Strait
Island communities, with full participation in all
planning and work for and by these people.
Such assistance to be under the guidance of
people properly trained and in complete sym-
pathy with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Island people.
ALL Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island
reserves, stations and traditional lands to be
made the property of those who now occupy
such lands, either collectively or individually,
46
with complete rights of ownership including
mineral and other natural resources.
5. COMPLETE educational, housing, medical and
community services at standards not lower than
in other communities.
SECTION 137A of the Social Services Act
of 1959 which excludes Aborigines considered
to be nomadic or primitive, from Social Service,
to be repealed.
Practical considerations would auto-
matically exclude such people and the section
offers a loophole for excluding other
Aborigines.
Social Service payments to Aboriginal
people on Missions, Government settlements
and cattle stations should be made directly to
the recipients and not paid in lump sums to
station owners and management owners and
management of Missions and Settlements.
47. A pamphlet The Struggle for Dignity was published in
March, 1962 by the Victorian “Council for Aboriginal
Rights”. The publication sought to depict “a picture of
Aboriginal life on a nationwide scale”. Articles by Dr.
Alistair Campbell and Leonard Fox asserted the problems of
aborigines had to be solved through steering them towards
separation as a distinct racial and cultural group. Separation
is what Communists mean by “integration instead of assimi-
lation”. If aboriginals want to live separately from whites
that is their entitlement, but that is not the real issue, any
more than land rights as such is their ultimate objective.
Campbell stipulated:
The Government (of Queensland) has failed largely
because it poorly prepares the Aborigines for inte-
gration. The policy concentrates on the individual,
rather than group assimilation. Individual assimilation
divides the Aborigine from his own people and is
therefore resisted . . . Consequently, full and success-
ful assimilation develops only as fast as the group asa
whole is allowed to develop towards it.
In dealing with New South Wales aborigines, Leonard Fox
quoted H.S. Groves as representing the ‘‘Aboriginal-
47
48.
ill il
Australian Fellowship”: “Integration, yes, but no assimi-
lation. The intelligent aboriginal doesn’t want [to
absorbed into the white race”. Once again we may note that
no one in Australia was trying to force the aborigines “to be
absorbed into the white race”. The Communist programme
was still being furthered to wipe out the white race by mixed
breeding with Asians. This objective which has been
developing enormous hostility within the Australian elector-
ate is now being supported by Labor politicians. The
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Bill Hayden, told Asia Week,
19th August, 1983, page 7 “there's already a large and
growing Asian population in Australia and it is inevitable in
my view that Australia will become a Eurasian country .
Australian Asians and Europeans will marry one another
and a new race will emerge; I happen to think that is
sa want Mr. Michael Hodgman, Shadow Minister for
migration and Ethnic Affairs told parliament on 14th
September, 1983 how “immigration under a Labor govern-
ment had taken a radical turn to the left”. The Australian
newspaper of 15th September, 1983 reported: “Mr.
Hodgman said ‘A harsh and rigid policy for accepting new
immigrants virtually contained a bias against English-
speaking applicants’.”
In April, 1962 the Fifth National Conference of the “Federal
Council for the Advancement of Aboriginals” elected a
moderate Council. Action decided on by the Conference
called for a petition to al! State and Federal Parliaments. The
petition sought:
(i) Repeai of discriminatory legislation.
(ii) Full wages for Aborigines.
(iii) Full rights for Aborigines.
(iv) Equal education opportunity.
(v) Ownership of reserves and community develop-
ment.
The Adelaide Tribune, the South Australian CPA news-
paper, of 2nd May, 1962, reported the policy of “inte-
gration” in opposition to “assimilation” was to be promoted
by deputations. The object was to “permit the aborigines to
develop and advance as a people”. CPA influence was easily
recognisable through the Federal Council and organisations
affiliated to it. The Nineteenth National Conference of the
48
CPA held in June, 1961 emphasised CPA influence in
organisations concerned with aboriginals. In declaring the
aboriginal people to be a “national minority”, they attacked
the policy of “assimilation”, The Communist Review for
January, 1962 published the CPA approach:
| As first steps, we call for full citizens’ rights, full award
wages for Aboriginal workers especially in the
pastoral industry, preservation of the remaining tribal
lands and provision of land for those driven off the
reserves, education and training facilities, and aban-
donment of racial discrimination, and the repeal of the
infamous Aborigines Protection Acts, and encourage-
ment to the Aborigines to establish their own com-
mittees to manage their affairs.
The Communist Party stands for the right of these
magnificent people to decide on their own national
development, including their right to establish auton-
omous regions if they so desire.
40. In the Communist Review for August, 1961, J. Howe called
tor:
a twofold education programme — one designed to
eliminate for all time the remaining doubts that still
exist in workers minds regarding the dangers of the
capitalist approach (to aborigine problems), The other
programme should be designed towards showing the
Aborigine people the class nature of capitalism .. .
These ideological differences are the main reason at
present for the isolation of our Aborigine people...
from the Australian working class struggle. ~
The author stated further:
... the problems affecting our Aborigines can never
be solved by ‘do gooders’ or by our Aborigines alone.
The Australian working class, in close co-operation
with the fighting action of our Aborigines, supported
by middle class organisations, can do it.
In discussing the importance of the “Aborigines and
Islanders Advancement League” and the “Aboriginal
Advancement League’s” deliberations, he concluded with an
appeal:
If our Party, in giving socialist leadership to the
working class can, as a result of our programme, con-
49
vince the working class and our Aborigine people that
racial discrimination and chauvinism are the products
of decadent imperialism, then we are well on our way
towards full equality in our country in the struggle
against monopoly for peace and socialism.
50
CHAPTER SIX
COMMUNIST LEADERSHIP
TO STOP INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
50. Harry Stein, who was Victorian Secretary of the CPA youth
1.
organisation the “Eureka Youth League” while I was a
member, had a party responsibility to help infiltrate
aboriginal organisations. He had an article published in the
Communist Review for January, 1962. Stein, who had been
a communist operative for the whole of his working life,
claimed aboriginals “. . . are developing an understanding
of the political forms of struggle .. .” In support of this
claim he instanced the activities of aboriginals such as Joe
McGuinness, through the “Federal Council for Aboriginal
Advancement”. Others, he said, had achieved success in
1961 by participating in the “New South Wales Aboriginal-
Australian Fellowship Conference”. He outlined the impor-
tance of Communist leadership if an anti-capitalist move-
ment was to be developed armens, the aboriginal people:
The future of the struggle of the Aborigines is
integrally bound up with the struggle of the majority
of the Australian people against the common enemy,
imperialism and the monowpolists ... Only through
joint struggle can the Aboriginal people, backed by
_. . the working class of Australia, achieve their aims.
Meantime the CPA continued its work in promoting the
National Petition seeking a referendum to change the
Federal Constitution. Union officials were urged to raise
funds to help various aboriginal organisations for the
“organisation of struggle for full rights”. During the period I
was a member of the Party, from 1948 to 1960, the Party
51
52.
leadership provided us with prepared articles about abor-
iginals to be inserted in union journals under our control.
The public relations exercise continued during the 1960s.
The object was to publicise “how capitalism breeds
monopoly interests - the common enemy of all working
people”. It was along these lines that the CPA general
secretary Lance Sharkey addressed the Central Committee.
His speech was reported in the October, 1962 issue of the
Communist Review:
The shameful history of the treatment of the Abor-
iginal people and the policy of eliminating them as a
national entity, pursued by the ruling class since the
European occupation of this continent, and which still
continues, is sufficient proof that native peoples can
expect nothing but degradation and robbery from the
Australian bourgeoisie.
Barry Christophers was a CPA member very active in
organising Melbourne based aborigines. Together with
myself he was a member of a CPA front organisation of
which another Prty member, Shirley Andrews, was the
Secretary. Being a Party member and an organiser of the
Building Workers Industrial Union, I was made President of
the organisation. My position as President was short-lived.
The Party sponsored a public meeting at the Melbourne
Town Hall, using the name of the organisation to advertise
the meeting in the Melbourne ferald newspaper. A
pastoralist visiting Melbourne saw the advertisement and
decided to attend. I remember the man very well because he
gave me something of an intellectual shock which was to be
the result of my dismissal as President of the front organ-
isation. In opening the meeting I put forward the policy of
full award wages for aborigines and housing on pastoralist
leases in the Northern Territory. I could not help noticing
the hostility of the pastoralist who was sitting on the left of
the hall away from the rest of the audience. He was wearing
a blue suit with a white shirt and a brightly coloured tie. The
gentleman was rather plump and sported a thin black
moustache. He never took his hat off until he jumped to his
feet in agitation at what I had been saying. “You're like a lot
of other damn do-gooders here in the South. You dont
know what you're talking about. You're a menace to the
52
aborigines and everyone else”. He went on to explain that he
was a pastoralist himself and that award wages for all
aborigines would make their employment impossible. He
said aborigines who worked the same hours as white stock-
men were usually paid the same wages, but that aboriginals
mostly only worked odd hours and at different times when
it generally suited them. He explained that the cattlemen
supplied food and clothing to the aboriginals, their family
and groups around them. They usually went to the abor-
iginals camped on their property and asked for volunteers
when work was needed to be done. “The weekly award rate
would be impossible”, he said. As the meeting went on he
interjected several times. He left me somewhat disconcerted.
All I could do was thank him for his contribution and he left
the meeting early. I later told a group of Party functionaries
that there appeared to be something in what he said and that
we should have a complete study made of what the circum-
stances of aboriginal employment on cattle stations was
really like. I was told how “reformist” and ignorant I was on
aboriginal affairs. Then I was bluntly informed that my
services were no longer required as President of their front
organisation.
Barry Christophers was often a subject of criticism by
the Party leadership over his work among aboriginals. He
was also described as having “reformist tendencies”. Unlike
myself, he was allowed to continue working with other
Communists in the aboriginal field of work. One cause of
Christophers’ trouble with the Party leadership was that he
sometimes agreed with non-Party members instead of in-
sisting rigidly on the line worked out by the CPA leadership.
He used to say it was wrong for the CPA to push non-
Communists out of leadership positions in aboriginal organ-
isations. Christophers alleged in the Communist Review
(November, 1962) that under the terms of the Western
_ Australian Native Welfare Act restrictions placed on the
movement of aboriginals who had leprosy were imposed in
the interests of the pastoralists. The CPA would seize hold
of almost anything to allege oppression of aboriginals by
Australian governments.
The January, 1963 issue of the Communist Review
published an article by Peter Symon, who is now the
manager of the New Age Publishing Company, 111 Sussex
Street, Sydney, (this company has published the most up to
date Communist training manual on the aboriginal land
rights revolution — But Now We Want the Land Back — by
Hannah Middleton, 1977), he lampooned the South
Australian government for what was then proposed legis-
lation. He said it would lead to assimilation of aborigines.
He claimed the legislation differentiated between full bloods
and aboriginals of European descent. The legislation was
deficient in that it did not provide for the promotion of
economic activity among aboriginals on co-operative lines. I
will again mention the hypocracy of Communists which is
another feature of their propaganda. While still insisting on
stopping assimilation of aborigines, they continued the cam-
paign to promote Asian migration to create the new race by
race mixing between Asians and whites. Communist efforts
to extinguish the white race continues in Australia, yet they
have no objections to the insistance by China, Japan and
other countries to maintain racial purity in those countries.
They even try to smear critics of their policy of ending the
white race as being “racists”. People who now claim the
same rights to an identity as the aboriginals or the people of
all other countries are ‘racists’ if they happen to be white
Australians.
Another author, “A.L.”, explained the CPA line,
describing the aboriginals as a “national minority”
(February, 1963 issue of the Communist Review). “A.L.
claimed:
Full identification of the Aboriginal people with the
working class, or any other section of the Australian
people, supports the view that the Aboriginal people
no longer have any specia! claims to be a national
minority. This view... is ruling class ideology.
“A.L.” asserted:
. it is possible to show... . that the Aborigines are
an indigenous minority people of common origin and
linked by remnants of an indigenous culture.
also:
Although there are individual exceptions, a most
important aspect of the life of both full and part-
Aborigines is related to the fact that they belong toa
54
self-conscious national minority with its own culture.
This factor often appears to be more important to the
Aborigines than his membership of the working class
when he happens to be working. Consequently, these
national characteristics can never be ignored even
when the very important working class aspects are
emphasised.
In addition:
The policy of assimilation envisages the complete
destruction of the tribal and. national spirit of the
Aboriginal people even though this may mean the
extinction of the Aboriginal people.
and further that:
whenever possible greater self-government in
local government affairs would be quite practicable
and in certain northern regions such as the Torres
Strait Islands and Arnhem Land, regional political
control is quite possible.
To back up the CPA estimate “A.L.” called upon a vision of
how well tribal societies are treated by the Communist
governments of the Soviet Union, China and North
Vietnam. The author stressed the importance of the
aboriginals in the CPA revolutionary scheme of things. “In
the struggle of the working people for Socialism, the
Aboriginal minority forms a natural ally . . . to obtain unity
it will be necessary for the whole working ¢.ass to campaign
for the special aims of the national minority as well as for
matters that affect white workers and aber: ines alike”. The
readers were advised that:
Local campaigns of the Aboriginal people ure growing in
effectiveness and should be assisted to develop more
intensely in all states as they provide for the political
development of the national minority.
The article concluded:
. it is necessary for those promoting the campaign
to seek out and approach the aboriginal people...
helping them to organise and to formulate their own
demands and assisting them to lead their struggle and
to build unity with the working class. In this way, the
aboriginal people will learn to see the Communist
Party as the only party consistently fighting with them
55
53.
54.
for their own demands in the spirit of international
proletarian brotherhood. Increasing numbers will join
and strengthen the Communist Party,
Normally Communist publications do not write openly in
calling upon the members to become active in working
among aboriginals. They merely set out objectives and
demands. The Party membership know that they must act in
accordance with these directions whilst at the same time the
Party can cry “Macarthyist”, “seeing Reds under the bed”,
when their activities are exposed. Sometimes they are more
explicit, as in the above article.
In April, 1963, the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advance-
ment held its Sixth Annual General Meeting in Canberra.
CPA members were well represented. CPA newspapers gave
the deliberations considerable publicity. The conference
decided upon a list of legislative demands relating to social
service benefits, wages, employment benefits, aboriginal
reserves and education. The CPA called for Trade Union
support to the demands. Emphasis was given to the CPA use
of aboriginals to oppose mining for minerals and economic
development. Alienation of aboriginal land areas such as
Mapoon and Yirrkala were given special attention. The call
was made for the return of land to the aboriginals and the
establishment of aboriginal co-operatives.
After the CPA programme for aborigines was distributed to
aboriginal organisations E.A. Bacon wrote in the
Communist Review for December, 1963 to discuss that there
was some disagreement among Varty members about the
issue of who should be defined as an aboriginal? He
advocated that: |
All who regard themselves as Aborigines, are accepted
as such by Aborigines or ure treated as Aborigines,
should be considered as belonging to the Aborigine
people, for whose rights the Party and all other pro-
gressives fight. . ,
The above definition was considered the most appropriate
for Communist politicial purposes.
In addition, Bacon cautioned against propagandising
too openly, at that stage, about the eventual independent
nation for aborigines.
. while integration with the Australian people on
56
55.
equal terms, as a people, seemed best to accord with
the needs and desires of the Aborigines at present, they
had the right to complete independence if they desired
it in the future. This is correct in principle, but it was
considered that, to raise it in a programme for present
needs might tend to create argument about a question
that is unlikely to be a practical issue for a long time to
come.
For the Party members in the know, this meant the abor-
icines were still a useful instrument for building the revol-
utionary movement. Care should be exercised in how far the
ultimate objective should be publicised. At this stage the
“united front” could be more effectively built by agitating
on behalf of an alleged “oppressed national minority”.
Nonetheless, in the Tribune of 12th February, 1964, the
CPA again spoke out more openly of their ultimate aims.
These demands are now highlighted by the manufacture of
sacred sites to assist industrial sabotage such as in trying to
close down the Roxby Downs mining enterprise in South
Australia. Tribune published the CPA draft programme and
policy towards aboriginals. CPA demands, together with
the usual misrepresentation of conditions applicable to
aborigines, included:
(i) Granting of full citizenship rights to all Abor-
IgiInes;
(ii) The right of all Aborigines to organise, and to
full trade union wage-rates and award con-
ditions;
(iii) The right to receive and control the full amount
of wages earned;
(iv) Abolition of the system of unpaid labour on
Government settlements and Missions;
(v) The right to own land, collectively and indi-
vidually;
(vi) Compensation for lands already alienated and
an end to the process of handing over Abor-
iginal lands to mining and other monopolies;
(vii) Abolition of special Aboriginal Courts and of
the dictatorial powers of Settlement and
Mission superintendants;
(viii) Repeal of all repressive sections of Acts denying
7
56.
controlled Aborigines elementary human
freedoms in such matters as marriage, move-
ment, and residence, communication, etc.;
(ix) All social services to be made known and avail-
able to all Aborigines.
Tribune reported that the “movement for aboriginal rights”:
. is becoming an organised, growing mass move-
ment, in which capable Aboriginal representatives are
beginning to take leading parts, with the working
class, through a number of trade unions, playing an
_ increasingly important role, together with other
organisations of the people.
In conclusion:
The struggle for the rights of the oppressed Aboriginal
minority is, in a very real sense, part of the struggle of
the Australian people against monopoly, for peace,
national independence, democracy and Socialism.
Whilst the aboriginals are not to be “assimilated” into the
Australian community, they are to be assimilated into the
programme for Communist power in this country.
In a supplement to the Guardian for 11th March, 1964, the
draft programme of the CPA was published for consider-
ation for the Party’s Twentieth Congress. The above
Tribune statements were reaffirmed with the claim being
made: |
The Communist Party has its own comprehensive
programme, formulated with the aid of many Abor-
igines, Communist and non-Communist.
It was suggested that aborigines shouid “control their own
affairs as members of a distinct nation2! minority within the
Australian nation. . .” Barry Christophers voiced some dis-
agreement by writing in the Tribune (18th March, 1964):
As a result of regarding the Aborigines as a national
minority and not as an ethnic minority, the draft has
given undue emphasis to a discussion on such things as
assimilation, integration, identity as a people, right to
control their own affairs, etc. a
This discussion has displaced from top priority a
discussion on their economic exploitation. Surely this
is Marxism in reverse.
In addition:
One of the Party's vices has been to underplay the role
of non-Party people (especially those unsympathetic
to the Party) in progressive thought and action.
A corollary to this is the rush of overestimating
the importance of the Communist Party in the struggle
for Socialism.
He disagreed with the CPA claims:
In actual fact the Party has taken an active interest in
Aborigines only since the early 1950s.
As was the case when I was a member of the Party,
Christophers was made unpopular inside the Party for what
he believed to be wrong political exploitation of the abor-
iginals. As we have seen in previous pages, the CPA was
active in aboriginal affairs right back to the 1920s. From
1950 onwards the CPA carried out widespread penetration
of aboriginal organisations previously established by non-
Communists. The CPA sought to take the credit for what
reformists had done through these organisations prior to the
1950s.
57. The CPA leadership at the Twentieth Congress again
asserted that the aborigines were a national minority. A
scribe “David” from Victoria, published his views in the
Communist Review of September, 1964, in endorsement of
the CPA view:
The term national minority, provided it is adequately
defined, serves the purpose of highlighting the national
characteristic of the Aboriginal people who, although
not a nation, have the potenti of becoming one and
have political demands character stic of a national
movement. To use some other tere: such as ethnic or
racial group, provides an incoriplete volitical descrip-
tion and may assist the Australian capitalists in their
desire to eliminate the Aboriginal minority as a
separate culture and psychological group with political
demands of its own.
In addition “David” claimed:
The socialist states have shown that when the motive
of exploitation is removed, national minorities can be
granted considerable autonomy within a nation. It is
then possible for the national minority to develop as a
group within a nation without the need for complete
59
58.
national independence. With the abolition of capitalist
exploitation the need for an artificial uniformity of
culture and administration vanishes. This allows the
free development of national culture and national
administration on the basis of co-operation and
equality between nationalities . _ .
Where Communists forecast “when the motive of
exploitation is removed . . .” it means the conquest of the
state by Communists. Only in a Socialist state ruled by
Communists can exploitation be ended — that is the Marxist
theory. At the same time the wordage is sufficiently general-
ised to allow the Party to repeat the “Macarthyist” trigger
word as a defence when it suits them. By describing the
aborigines as a “national minority” they can be used as part
of overall propaganda to attack the white people of
Australia as “racist”. The whites are holding in oppression
the “national minority”. The aborigines are a colonial
people to be liberated from the white imperialists. The
aborigines can be utilised as part of the overall “united
front” for peace and democratic rights, against capitalsim,
for “self determination” and to impose a guilt complex on
the Australian people as part of the psychological war
against Australia. The word “racist” is as useful in the
Communist armoury as “Macarthyist’.
Barry Christophers came under attack in the Communist
Review of October, 1964 through sn article by E.A. Bacon
wherein he sets out the CPA policy:
In advocating self-determinat:2n, we do not strive for
artificial separation of the Aborigines from the Aust-
ralian people as a whole. On the contrary, we fight for
complete equality for them. At the same time, we
recognise their own special needs ... If they, or a
section of them, prefer to live alone, we must support
their right to do so.
CPA responsibilities were:
_. . to the dispossessed Aboriginal people, a colonial
people in our very midst, who are also, in the main,
underpaid, under-privileged workers.
Bacon stressed CPA involvement:
The nationwide, organised movement which binds
Aborigines together more and more closely, and in
60
which our Party is playing a part of great significance
He forecast a Communist success:
By whole-hearted support for the special needs and
rights of these oppressed peoples, as well as for the
needs they have in common with others, the Party and
the working class will win them as a powerful
component of the struggle of the Australian people for
democracy, against monopoly, for peace and social-
ism.
Bacon makes the CPA designs to use the aboriginals in the
struggle for Communist power clear enough for anyone.
_ What has been quoted in the booklet, fully substantiates the
material presented in my book Red Over Black. Communist
critics, and a few others, have charged that I had made no
attempt to document my serious charges from official
Communist sources. This book is my answer. The series of
extracts from Communist papers reveal a consistent pro-
gramme designed to fragment Australia. They confirm my
central thesis in Red Over Black: Australia is faced with a
major security and defence threat. The very future of
Australia is at stake.
61
Communist Party’s Fight for Aborigines
DRAFT PROGRAM OF STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY
Pull Keonomic, Political and Social Rights
The aboriginal race, the original
inhabitants of Australia, are among the
most exploited subject peoples in the
world. Not only are inhuman exploita-
tion, forced Labor and actual slavery
forced upon the Aborigines, but a cam-
paign of mass physical extermination is
being and has been carried on against
them, until today less than 60,000 full
bloods have survived the murder drive —
out of the million or more who inhabited
Australia less than one and a half cen-
turies ago.
Such gentle British colonising devices as
“Abo shooting hunts’’, poisoning of the
only water holes in the desert country,
cyanide in the meat, and strychnine in the
flour, police shooting parties, burning the
bush over their heads, segregating sexes, ~
kidnapping the children — particularly
females — and putting them to work hun-
dreds of miles away from their race and
parents, killing off the game on the ter-
ritory inhabited by Aborigines, thus starv-
ing them to death, arresting without any
warrant or for that matter, any cause
whatever, ‘he most virile men in the tribes
(after killing off the aged and infirm) and
forcing the arrested to work with chains
around their necks on Government roads
and for station owners, issuing licences to
any capitalist desiring to employ ‘‘unlimi-
ted numbers of natives without pay for an
indefinite period’’, setting up organis-
ations of crawlers and kidnappers, known
as “‘Aborigines Protection Boards’’ to
enslave the remaining members of the
tribes, and ‘‘Mission Stations’’ under
dope-peddlers to muster the youth so that
they can be sold into slavery — such truly
British methods were used, and are still
being used to enslave the Australian
aborigines and to totally exterminate the
race so that the crimes of British and
Australian imperialists may be covered
up.
NO POLITICAL RIGHT
The Aborigines have no political,
. social, Or economic rights, no right to
have property; they are denied education,
or to have schools of their own; intellect-
uals from among the Aborigines are not
allowed to practice their professions; the
tribal customs and arts are stifled; wages
are not to be paid to Aboriginal workers
excepting to the amount of 10/- per week,
but the Government gets 5/-of this
amount for the A.P.B., and no wages at
all to be paid by holders of licences.
Although subject to all the penalties of |
the capitalist criminal code in the courts
of justice (7?) Aborigines have no status
therein, and their evidence is inadmissible
in ‘‘mixed’’ cases.
Police accusers have the right (and `
exercise it) to beat and even shoot the
accused until they plead ‘‘guilty’’ to
whatever crime the police desire to place
upon them,
Individuals who expose the maltreat-
ment of aborigines, or who discover the
burnt remains of whole tribes, and
dernand inquiries, are officially threat-
ened with death, and transported. (Rev.
in 2) |
E.R.B. Gribble, 1926 massacre.) When
inquiries are held into police murders of
aborigines, and the inquiries are remark-
ably few, police only are put on the In-
quiry Commission (exposure of Constable
Murray, 1928-9), and always find the
massacres ‘‘justified’’ because the victims
“did not stop when the King’s name was
called out to them’’ — this, despite the
fact that they cannot understand English.
WOMEN PERSECUTED -
The women of the aboriginal race are
subject to terrifying experiences — there
is no protection of them, despite the
“ordinances” that appear on the statute
books. Not only are they the legitimate
prey of the station owners, gcvernment
officials, but the so-called ‘‘protectors of
the aborigines’’ have been proved to have
raped the women without any action
being taken. The tribal natives who object
to this practice are murdered for their
objections, but should one native be suc-
cessful in preventing his own murder and
succeed in killing the station owner, then
‘‘drastic steps’ are taken, not only
against him, but against the whole tribe,
which is thereupon exterminated by an in-
furiated meb led by the mounted con-
stabie ‘‘protectors’’ of the aborigines.
Mothers and fathers have no right to their
own children, and police, A.P.B. rats, or
Others appointed, may kidnap them at
any time, in any place, without the know-
ledge of the parents, and hire the children
out as slaves, gaoi them on fake charges,
Or put them in ‘‘homes’’ of correction.
This happens every day in all parts of
Australia, nei only to full-blooded
aborigines, @ui to Salf-castes as well.
Aborigines (full or half-caste) who take
part in politics are subject to the vilest of
terror, denied the right to live, and threat-
ened with ther cnildren being taken from
them, and they themselves with being
gaoled foi “cattle stealing’’ or any other
charge that may be considered necessary.
STARVATION RATIONS
In N.S.W. the scale of rations of
Aborigines is 3/10 per week for adults
and 1/10 for children — little more than
half that granted to white workers —
which is just part of the general drive
against the aborigines to make their stan-
dard of living considerably lower than
that for other unemployed workers, and is
part of the drive to exterminate the race.
Under the regime of the social fascist
Labor governments, Federal and State,
the victimisation and exploitation of the
aborigines are intensified and repressive
measures on the part of the police are
encouraged. The Scullin government
recently raised the scale of ‘‘wages’’ for
the aborigines, but in the same ordinance
takes 50 per cent of these ‘‘wages’’ for
itself, whilst in no way enforcing payment
to the aborigines.
Hitherto, the conditions of the Aborig-
ines have not been considered, by workers
in the revolutionary movement, and the
rank and file organisation set up by the
aborigines was allowed to be broken up
by the A.P.B., the missionaries, and the
police, but henceforth no struggle of the
white workers must be permitted without
demands for the aborigines being cham.
pioned; no political campaigns without
political programs applicable to our
fellow exploited — the aborigines —
being formulated.
The fifty thousand aborigines in the
Federal territories, the few hundred in
each State, and the tens of thousands of
half-caste workers in each State and the
territory must be mobilised around the
program of demands outlined below. The
white workers in unions, and in other
mass Organisations, the intellectuals,
scientists, and humanitarians; must all
unite with the Communist Party in a
common fighting front against
murderous, rapacious imperialism, and
help win back for the natives of Australia
part of their native country and commen
rights as human beings.
The Communist Party, speaking in th
name of white and black workers 9
Australia, demands:— ~ Ra
(1) Full and equal rights of all abor-
igines — economically, socially, and poli-
itically — with white races. f
(2) Absolute politicai freedom for
aborigines and haif-castes; right to
membership in, and right to organise,
political, economic and cultural organis-
ations, ‘‘mixed’’, or aboriginal. pak’ iP
articipate in demonstrations and public
ee Australia as full
affairs. Right to leave
| Sa, Removal of all olor resine ta Da
aborigines OF half-castes, 1n F ellectuals,
tc. Aboriginal inte
sports, € not to be prevented
school teachers, Etc., of the ‘color
from practising because
r ám ; š to
ae Cancellation of all licenses
rpi" ithout pay. Cancel-
employ borinn res and forced labor
sa from aborigines, ze a
time wo
at full wages for als slave and one
(6) Pron per through the Jra
labor, whe tures, missions, OF otherwise,
in ensation for all previously em-
loyed. sonal release from gaol of
á 6) Uncondivola half-castes, and no
all abore is until aboriginal juries can
(var and decide e AbOrigi Protection
hear ane ition of Aborigines Protecti
(7) F yo Capitalism’s slave recruiting
r
>e and terror organisations against
nes and half-castes,
laimi (ù
|
Napping of aboriginal chil
+» Whether to hj
Slaves, place them in “
correction” homes.
_ (9) Full and unrestricted right of abor-
iginal and half-caste parents to their child-
Cen ving in constant fear that the
F.D., 1ssion stations will kidnap
them to send into slavery.
(10) Aboriginal children to be permit-
ted to attend public and high schools and
to sit for all examinations.
(11) Liquidation of all missions and so-
called homes for aborigines, as these are
part of the weapons being used to exter-
minate the aboriginal race by segregating
the sexes and sending the young girls into
Slavery.
(12) Full right of the aborigines to
develop native culture. Right to establish
their own schools, train their own
teachers, for the children of the abor-
igines and hali-castes. The Australian
Government to make available sums of
money for such purposes, to be paid into
and controlled by committees comprised
solely of aborigines and iaif-castes, —
{135 Unempioyed acarigines to De pais
sums not iess than other workers as uni-
employment wy
workers to have the 7-Rour day, 2-Gay
-
s¢ = a | ord
mit fata 2 TES ie Cee Fe ie i Sef
ae ohh bd Ate ere $. LIEI Y bia
week, with pay at the same rales as otae:
races, | woe
(14) The handing over to ine aborigines
of large tracts of watered ana ienne
country, with towns, seaports, railways,
roads, etc., to become one or more ince
pendent aboriginal states or republics,
The handing back to the aborigines Ox ail
Central, Northern, and North West Aust-
ralia to enable the aborigines to deveiop
their native persuits. These aborigina:
republics to be independent of Australian
or other foreign powers. To have ihe righi
to make treaties with foreign powers,
including Australia, establish their own
army, governments, industries, and in
every way be independent of imperialism.
Workers, intellectuals, humanitarians,
scientists, anti-imperialists, fight for these
demands for the aboriginal race. Prevent
Capitalism exterminating this race
through bare-faced murder or slavery.
Struggle with the aborigines against
Australian Imperialism!
Workers and oppressed peoples of all
lands, unite! Smash Imperialism!
The Workers Weekly,24/9/193}
% p N 4
PETT:
Build the Workers’ Defence
RALLY AGAINST FASCISM
The immediate task confronting the
working class is the building of workers’
self-defence corps. In the combating of
the Fascist menace, which now is taking
shape and form before our eyes,
exposures and agitation are very necessary
in laying the basis for action. Talking
about it will not get the workers very far.
What is needed now is men capable of
organising. The Workers’ Defence Corps,
which has been allowed to become mori-
bund, must be immediately activised. A
greater campaign than any that has yet
been carried on must be unloosed at the
factory gates, amongst the unemployed,
in every section of the working class. The
organisational forms of the Workers’
Defence Corps must be popularised
amongst the broadest masses.
The Communist Party will throw every
ounce of its energy, every speaker, every
fighter, every Organiser, into the
campaign to recruit the workers into the
self-defence organisations. Meetings must
be called in every district for the purpose
of discussing the menace of the New
Guard and other Fascist outfits. The com-
bined committee elected by the unions,
the C.P. the UWM. the A.L.P., etc,
must become active and launch a broad
campaign amongst the masses.
The united front must be organised of
the entire working class to present an iron
barrier to the insolent advance of the
Fascists.
Forward to the struggle against
Fascism.
Against the bosses dictatorship, for the
dictatorship of the working class.
UNITED FRONT
AGAINST FASCISM
A united front meeting was held in the
Manchester Unity Hall at Newtown,
Sydney, on Sunday, 20th. The hall was
packed to overflowing by the workers,
who were keenly desirous of acquiring an
understanding of the menace presented to
the working class by the New Guard.
The speakers, Com. Clifton, of the
A.L.P., and Com. Sharkey, of the Com-
munist Party, dealt with Fascism in many
of its aspects.
The history of the dictatorships in Italy,
Poland, Jugo-Slavia, etc., was presented
to the audience, and Com. Sharkey
described his impressions of the Fascists
and Fascism gained whilst travelling
through Italy in 1930.
At the end of the speakers’ addresses a
keen discussion ensued, in which speakers
insisted that the time for talking had
gone, and what was needed was organ-
isation and the building of workers’ self-
defence corps.
A, motion was put to the meeting de-
manding the disarming of the New Guard
bandits, and the arming of the workers,
and was carried unanimously amidst great
enthusiasm. The singing of the ‘‘Red
Flag’? «concluded a most successful
meeting, which showed clearly that the
militant working class is eager to fight the
Fascist menace by every means within its
power,
The Workers’ Weekly, 24/9/1931
è
fy
i *
p TAY ' 3
MARTDAN
MINISTER FOR ARORNIGINAL AFFAIRS
CANPERRA, ACT 2600
2 5 OCT 198
TO: AVD.P. BRANCH SECRETARIES, AS ADDRESSED
Pear Comrade,
A central pärt of the Government's concern with Aboriginal
Affairs is the need for adequate communication and under-
standing between Governments, Aboriginal People and the
wider community.
It 1S important that Branch members are able to be fully
informed on these issues: and Government policy. A range
of resources including films such as "Lousy Little Sixpence"
and the film banned for showing overseas by the Fraser
Government ("On Sacred Ground"), to name but two, are avail-
able, and I invite your Branch to participate in our public
awareness programme.
We are intending that the implementation of Labor Party
policy objectives in Aboriginal Affairs be largely achieved
in the lifetime of the first Hawke Government. There is
unfortunately in the broader white community, misunderstand-
ing about Land Rights, Sacred Sites and Aboriginal relation-
ships with the land. I believe that A.L.P. Branches should
be at the forefront of activity in communicating to the
wider community on these issues. l
If your Branchis interested to participate in this programme,
then please contact Bob Sercombe who is attached to my office
at 4 Treasury Place, Melbourne, (Tel. 654 2543), who will be
available to assist Branches in regard to Aboriginal Affairs.
Yours fraternally,
La Mew |
(Clyde Holding)
After reading this book, order copies for your friends.
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