Week of action against mandatory sentencing

Week of action against mandatory sentencing

The socialist youth group Resistance has called a national week of action to demand that the federal government overturn mandatory sentencing laws in the Northern Territory and Western Australia and apologise to, and fully compensate, the stolen generations.

The week of action was launched with a spirited protest by high school students and others at Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, as Prime Minister John Howard planted a tree at the Corridor of Oaks on April 7 (see page 4). High school walkouts and rallies will be held on Friday, April 14, in Sydney, Newcastle and Canberra. Actions are also planned in Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Darwin, Lismore, Wollongong and Hobart (see the Activist Calendar on pages 30-31 for details).

The actions will enable the growing anger of young people against the Howard government's racist policies to be organised into a force that can help have the laws overturned.

Resistance high school member Dani Barley, one of the organisers of the April 7 protest in the Blue Mountains, told Green Left Weekly, "Aboriginal affairs minister John Herron's claim that the stolen generations were a myth highlights the entrenched racism of the federal government. Not only does it refuse to act to abolish the mandatory sentencing laws, but it has also indefinitely postponed the sham reconciliation process and now denies there were any stolen generations!

"Two years ago, tens of thousands of high school students took to the streets against the racism of Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party. Now Howard is implementing most of Hanson's policies! It's time to take action again."

From GLW issue 401