Melbourne Rally Stop the Intervention in Northern Territory

Melbourne Aboriginal rights solidarity rally and public meeting On Saturday 20th June supporters of Aboriginal rights in Melbourne will be marking the two-year anniversary of the Northern Territory intervention with a solidarity rally in the CBD, followed by a public meeting at Trades Hall. The events will feature live music and a range of speakers, including a woman from the Alice Springs town camps. “We have organized the rally in order to show our disgust and opposition to the Rudd Government’s expansion of Howard’s racist intervention policy, and to stand in solidarity with the Indigenous people of this country. We will also be holding a public meeting as an opportunity for people to learn more about the effects of the NT intervention and the direction the Rudd Government is taking it, the meeting will also involve workshops and planning for the campaign. The governments attempt to take Aboriginal land, close homelands, and wind-back hard-won Aboriginal self-determination will not be ignored here in Melbourne” said Joe Lorback from the Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective. “The Rudd Government’s approach to Indigenous people is dominated by hypocrisy and blackmail! With one hand they sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people, and with the other they refuse to re-instate the Racial Discrimination Act, instead expanding the policies of the intervention and forcing Indigenous people to give up their land in return for desperately needed housing and services,” said Marisol Salinas from the Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective “Jenny Macklin’s treatment of Alice Springs town camp residents is absolutely disgraceful. She has smeared Aboriginal run organizations, such as Tangentyere Council, in an attempt to take the land and control from them. Rather then acknowledging the fact that the lack of housing and infrastructure in the town camps is due to a complete lack of funding, she is instead giving total control over the town camps to the Northern Territory Government which has continually failed them” said James Brennan from the Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective Nathan Lovett-Murray, founder of Payback Records, has organized local Indigenous hip hop artists to perform at the rally. “Little G, Mr Morgz, Alter Egoz, and Tjimba and the Yung Warriors will be at the rally raising their voices against the discriminatory policies of the government, and in support of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory having control over their lives,” said Nathan. The Solidarity Rally will take place on Saturday 20th June at 12pm at the State Library, cnr Swanston & LaTrobe sts. The public meeting also on Saturday will be at 3pm at Trades Hall Meeting Room 1.