may day 2008
May 8th, 2008
on monday i went along to the may day rally in brisbane. i was on my own and at a bit of a loose end because i didn’t think which union i would walk with and forgot that i was no longer in the ‘in’ (A) crowd. so i joined the stolen wages crew, and was happy to be there. literally hundreds of bystanders watching the parade clapped and cheered the stolen wages crew.
from 1904 to 1987 the Queensland Government withheld or underpaid wages earned by Aboriginal workers. The State Government has offered a settlement totaling $55million but this is only a fraction of the stolen wages. those that did get a paltry wage (set at 66% of the full wage in 1919), were required to pay for their oppression - ration and shleter fees for being forced to live in a reserve.
in february 2008 qld premier anna bligh joined with PM krudd to say ’sorry’ to the aboriginal ppl. in march bligh said that the remaining money in the fund to pay a small part of the stolen wages would go into a scholarship fund ($10M). but the amount so far paid the 5,500 ppl comes no where near reparation owed, and there are many more who have missed out entirely. if white workers had gone without pay for EIGHTY THREE YEARS there would be a national strike - it’s racism pure and simple. for a group of ppl that full expect to die 20 years before us whiteys, who live in underresourced and underfunded communities and who are only overrepresented in the prison system, it’s another insult to the multiple injuries of the past.
the mayday march indicated to me that so many whitefellas (& sheilas) support the repayment of the stolen wages, what bligh is doing is a travesty of justice and a clear case of ‘black-washing’
Categories: indigenous rights | Tags: indigenous, may day, stolen wages | No Comments
