Vote with your feet against racism
The following call by Resistance for a further nationwide secondary student protest against racism on the Wednesday before the federal election was strongly supported at many of the August 28 rallies.
We are told that because we are under 18 and cannot vote we should not have political opinions, and that it is useless for us to march against racism. But our two successful high school national walkouts proved this wrong.
They cannot frighten us into silence by pretending that these protests are disrupting our education. It is our education and our lives that are at stake. We decided to walk out of school on this issue because stopping racism is urgent. We refuse to go back to school and read about the evils of racism while it is growing unchallenged all around us.
We are making a difference: our actions have inspired hundreds of thousands of people around the country -- and overseas -- who have seen young people act as Australia's conscience on this important issue.
We must vote with our feet because we are not satisfied with empty words while the government implements its racist agenda. Even in the last three weeks it has made three more racist decisions. It began an inquiry into further cuts to Abstudy and reducing access to special programs for Aborigines. It issued a regulation preventing political refugee applicants from working. It decided to lobby to weaken the draft United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous people by excluding any reference to self-determination.
We will once again vote with our feet to make a strong stand against racism in the federal election. We will hold another national walkout against racism on the Wednesday before the election to call on all parties to actively oppose racism by supporting:
- the repeal of the Native Title Amendment Act;
- the closing of Jabiluka uranium mine;
- the restoration of full welfare rights for new migrants and reversal of the cuts to immigration;
- the restoration of the $470 million cut from Aboriginal services by the Howard government.
