The double meaning in the popular slogan “White Australia has a black history”, sadly, still applies to federal, state and territory government policies.
Governments may have apologised for past mistreatment but they are still destroying Aboriginal communities and stealing Aboriginal land. Official racism is as alive as ever.
The Gillard Labor government’s Ministry of Truth must be working overtime to churn out titles for programs that say the opposite of what they actually deliver.
One of its more recent creations is “Stronger Futures”, the name of the fake community consultations being carried out to justify the continuation of the racist Northern Territory intervention into Aboriginal communities.
(See Peter Robson’s excellent article in the previous issue of Green Left Weekly for an exposure of this latest insult to Aboriginal people.)
As Rebuilding From The Ground Up, an Aboriginal-devised call for an alternative to the Northern Territory intervention explained: “The NT Intervention has been a disaster for Aboriginal communities.
“Rather than ‘closing the gap’, government statistics show Indigenous incarceration rates have risen by almost 30%, school attendance is down in many places, suicide and self harm have increased and thousands of workers are being put onto Centrelink as CDEP closes down.
“There are growing crises in urban centres such as Alice Springs as large numbers of people move in from the bush.”
Perversely, the destruction caused by past racist policies is being used to justify the introduction of new racist and destructive policies. Things are so bad, goes the argument, that anything must be better.
It is a ridiculous argument, but one that feeds on despair and lowered expectations.
It’s part of a systematic brainwashing that is part and parcel of the profits-first ideological offensive we have all been subjected to for the past three-and-a-half decades.
To further enrich and empower the already incredibly rich and powerful, the expectations of the majority of people have been systematically lowered.
Expect less, don’t organise and don’t resist. That’s what they are trying to convince us to accept.
In the process the rich have gotten richer — destroying entire communities and wrecking the environment in the process — and have sent the world into an economic mess through the biggest orgy of speculation in history.
Green Left Weekly proudly resists this mindset by giving a voice to all the oppressed who are fighting back against today’s Ministry of Truth. This is a fight that can be won with your help.
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