From the archive

Rock against Racism - 24 November 2001

A DAY TO TAKE TO THE STREETS FOR A MASSIVE CONCERT OUTSIDE THE MARIBYRNONG DETENTION CENTRE

1PM TO 5PM, SATURDAY 24 NOVEMBER
MARIBYRNONG DETENTION CENTRE
53 Hampstead Road (82 tram from Ftscry Station)

Come and enjoy some of Melbourne's best bands as they donate their time & talent in a statement against racism, in the heart of Melbourne's shame... our local camp, a prison for 80 people whose only crime is to flee desperate situations.

Features Snout, Brown Hornet, Euphonia, Moondriven and many more, stay tuned for details...
For leaflet and more details, see also the RACWEST page

Phone 9689 9867 for more information

Organised by Refugee Action Collective(West)

Appeal for gifts

RAC (WEST) invites people planning to come to the Rock Against Racism on Nov 24 to bring gifts or Christmas presents for detainees and asylum seekers in our community. The gifts will be collected at the event & given to the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre to distribute amongst people in detention and those on temporary visas living throughout melbourne... any good quality toys, clothes, even movie vouchers etc etc are welcome, but please do not wrap them.

There will also be an opportunity to write messages to the detainees during the rock against racism.

Finally, although the concert is "free", we are requesting that people bring some money to donate, even if only a few coins. This is necessary because of costs incurred by the sound system, stage & council requirements.

Don't worry if you've got no money or gifts. We still hope for your company on what looks like being a fantastic day.

Posters & leaflets are available from New International bookshop in Trades Hall, cnr of Lygon & Elizabeth Sts, or the Resistance bookshop at Level 5, 407 Swanston St, Melb, opposite RMIT.

CONCERT AND PARTY TO RAISE MONEY FOR THE AFGHANISTAN REFUGEE CRISIS

Preston Town Hall
cnr High St and Gower St, Preston
at 3 pm on Sunday 25 November

Featuring fabulous musicians:
Kavisha Mazzella
Doug de Vries and Diana Clark
Borboleta
Crying in Public Places
Carl Pannuzzo
Petrunka
Phil Bywater and The Great Unwashed
Totally Gourdgeous
Tumbarumba

Tickets: $15 full, $10 conc
Drinks and Snacks available.
GROUP BOOKINGS: 9386 8456
All proceeds will go to Oxfam Community Aid Abroad's Afghan Refugee Crisis Appeal

2-3 December, Melbourne Uni Student Union
National Student and Community Conference against War and Racism

Organising Collective meetings held on Mondays, 7.30 pm, New Council Chambers, Trades Hall

Refugee activists will be involved in organising this conference, along with a really broad range of other groups. Contact Kate Davison, National Education Officer, National Union of Students, 0413 041 083 or 9650 8908, fax 9650 8906.

Asylum Seeker Fundraising Banquet and Party

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Footscray will be holding a fundraiser on 8 December at St Augustine's Parish Hall, 61 Somerville Road, Yarraville. There will be vegetarian and vegan food, music, and a bar selling drinks. For more information call the Centre on 9687 2134 between 11am and 5pm Mon - Weds and Saturdays. More details here closer to the date.

Announcements

From Australians Against Racism

MANY AUSTRALIANS DO NOT AGREE WITH WHAT AUSTRALIA IS DOING TO ASYLUM SEEKERS, DETAINEES AND REFUGEES.

Please read this and forward this statement to everyone you know who could be involved.

Note: the initiators of this action have issued an appeal for help with processing responses, and also for people with expertise in media, marketing etc. If you are willing and able to help, please send details - contact and area of expertise - to marianahardwick@bigpond.com

We are a group of Australians not associated with any particular political party or group who are deeply concerned by the mounting mistreatment of people of Middle Eastern origin in Australia and by the culture of acquiescence to this that is being encouraged by our leaders.

We believe that many Australians would not accept what is being done in their name if they had more information and less manipulation of their fears. We want to highlight shared humanity and help dissolve destructive and dehumanising 'us and them' divisions. We wish to use the mainstream media to bring out the voices of the many Australians who feel the same way as we do and to raise awareness of dissent.

Australians Against Racism is a non-profit organisation formed by us to achieve these objectives.

Independent voices of concern were printed in a two page statement with signatories in the Weekend Australian on October 6th, organised by a similar (unrelated) group of people in NSW. It is essential that the issues then raised do not fade from public view and the significance of the fact that concerned Australians are prepared to contribute and fund such statements is not ignored..

We want to raise the profile of these voices by airing a statement as a TV commercial in prime time. This statement will help to keep attention on alternative voices and the fact that many Australians are not happy with the Government and the Opposition's handling of asylum seekers and refugees. A print statement with all signatories and contributors to the commercial who wish to be named will then be sent to ministers, shadow ministers and print media, with a press release, drawing attention to the significant objection this action represents.

The 30 second TV announcement is being produced at cost by a prominent Melbourne production company which has donated its services and expertise to this endeavour. It will then require FACTS approval before going to air. We would like to run it in all states but will run it to the extent that donated funds permit soon after the election. To run the statement will require around $6,000 per airing in 60 Minutes (for example). We are negotiating a deal with a media producer/ buyer for a budget of $30,000, covering a range of prime time programs in as many major cities as contributions allow. Any excess funds will be donated to organisations such as the Australian Refugees Association in South Australia, where Woomera detainees first enter the community. If we do not receive sufficient funds to achieve this goal, all funds will be donated to the nominated refugees associations.

We are asking signatories to contribute $50, more if you wish. The statement and script follow. If you wish to be part of this please print and fill in the attached form and return to the address below.

Mariana Hardwick
Eva Sallis

AUSTRALIANS AGAINST RACISM
DRAFT TELEVISION STATEMENT

SCENE

A large passing crowd on a busy Australian city mall.

The camera zooms in on an elderly female passerby and action slows.

VOICE OVER: Maybe she came from Poland, and is a sole survivor

Crowd. Focus on middle aged white man, going the other way.

VOICE OVER: Maybe he arrived from Croatia only a few years ago

Crowd. Focus on passing young Vietnamese student.

VOICE OVER: Maybe she arrived by boat in her mother's arms.

Passing crowd.

Zoom in and reveal Middle Eastern girl. She looks lost and bewildered.

The crowd continues. ignoring her.

VOICE OVER: What would it take for you to run with your family?
What if it was you?

FADE TO BLACK

VOICE OVER (WORDS AND TEXT, white on black): HOW CAN WE SAY NO?

TEXT: Funded by [number] Australians who are against the abuse of asylum seekers.

BLANK SCREEN STATEMENT and voice: AUTHORISED and spoken by E. Sallis, Australians Against Racism, Collingwood, Victoria

DRAFT TEXT to be sent to ministers and shadow ministers' offices and all print media with a press release regarding the TV commercial and our concerns.

This week we the undersigned have funded and run a statement on primetime commercial television expressing concern and outrage at the Government's treatment of asylum seekers and the Opposition's acquiescence to it.

We do not support the Government or the Opposition in their actions and policies regarding refugees and asylum seekers inside Australia and outside Australia.

We do not agree with what is being done in our name in the national or international community.

We do not agree with deterring so-called people smugglers by creating living scarecrows. Mistreating people in order to deter others from coming directly contravenes UNHCR regulations.

We do not accept that the cost of the detention system to the Australian taxpayer is necessary or justifiable. The government has spent over $200 Million in placing people in Nauru and other parts of the Pacific and often more than $100,000 per person in detention in Australia in order to make their scarecrows. Following the UNHCR regulations and the International Refugee Convention would be far cheaper.

We call for an end to all verbal vilification and dehumanising language used by both parties and their ministers and in the media when referring to people coming to Australia as asylum seekers. 'Boat people' is a demeaning term in Australian slang. Human beings cannot be 'earmarked' for various camps. Human beings cannot be 'processed', a term which should be exclusively used to refer to applications not persons. Nothing can justify the irresponsible suggestion that asylum seekers might be terrorists, or the repeated disregard for our racial vilification laws. More than 90% of detainees are found to be genuine refugees and released into the community on protection VISAS. They will have to deal with ongoing negative attitudes which have been fostered first of all by our leaders.

We call for all exploitation of recent terrible world events at the expense of the people who are most vulnerable to cease. Linking all refugees with issues of national security in order to get the public to accept dehumanising and mistreating them is immoral and self-serving.

We wish to remind all Australians that the consequences of systematic dehumanisation of one racial or religious group in a society can be horrific.

We call for closure of all detention facilities in which innocent men women and children are humiliated and incarcerated for indefinite periods of time.

We call for Parliament to repeal laws which could allow a government department to abuse human rights without being answerable to the law.

We call for transparency and answerability in all DIMA's dealings with asylum seekers. If asylum seekers are to be detained, we ask for a detention which complies with international Human Rights regulations and which is subject to scrutiny from independent legal, social and medical experts and with full disclosure and information provided both to the Australian public and to applicants for asylum.

Many of us who are financially able and have space in our homes are willing to provide for an individual or a family of people who are seeking asylum while their applications are processed.

[list of signatories by state]

Please print off and fill in the following and post with your donation to Australians Against Racism, PO Box 1109, Collingwood VIC 3066

Name
Address
Email
Name as you wish it to appear in the statement. Leave blank if you do not wish to be named.

Donation $
Please make cheques payable to Australians Against Racism or deposit electronically to National Bank BSB: 083184 Account number: 53 593-5689
Account name: Australians Against Racism.

To download the above form as aar_form.doc, please click here

Contact if you have any queries: Eva Sallis eva.sallis@adelaide.edu.au

Mariana Hardwick marianahardwick@bigpond.com

From the Gippsland group

The Gippsland branch of RAC, which meets every Wednesday at 1.00pm in Room 4N148, Monash University, Gippsland Campus, Churchill( Coordinator: Marianne Robinson, phone 5122 6320 or 9902 6320 email: marianne.robinson@arts.monash.edu.au) are interviewing local politicians this week on the subject of asylum seekers.

Media release from the Brotherhood: 18 October
Indigenous, Refugee Human Rights Still Being Violated - Judge

Human rights in Australia are being violated every day according to former High Court judge, Justice Marcus Einfeld in a public speech in Melbourne last night. Delivering the 20th annual Sambell Oration for leading welfare agency the Brotherhood of St Laurence, Justice Einfeld cited mandatory sentencing, our treatment of refugees and our treatment of children and youth as examples of such human rights violations.

Our generation has its own quite new Stolen Children saga to confront," he said, attributing this to the high incarceration rates among young indigenous people, caused by mandatory sentencing which he labelled "compulsory jailing".

He said Australia's new methods for handling refugees were in breach of international law and displayed 'arrogance' and 'ignorance'. Justice Einfeld also labelled the so-called 'War on Terrorism' a 'propaganda offensive'.

Praising the new Northern Territory government's decision to remove mandatory sentencing laws, he questioned where funding made available to help avoid deaths in custody was being spent.

"What use has been made by the Northern Territory and Western Australia of the significant federal funds - millions of dollars - made available to deal with the 300 odd recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, largely designed to avoid or minimise the incarceration of Aborigines on minor charges?" he said.

Justice Einfeld also made extensive reference to Australia's treatment of refugees. If Australia was involved in military ventures that created refugees, and then it had an ethical obligation to accept their requests for asylum, he said.

"To label them as actual or potential terrorists, because some of them come from Afghanistan, as some of our politicians and others have recently done, demonstrates breathtaking arrogance, displays appalling ignorance and plays shameful and unashamed politics," he said.

Referring to the September 11 attacks in the United States, Justice Einfeld said no political cause could ever justify deliberate unprovoked killing of innocent men, women and children. But he said it was necessary to attack the root causes of crime, such as poverty, injustice, inhumanity, intolerance and hate.

"The current so-called war against terrorism is nothing of the kind. It is propaganda offensive to appease a nation in fear and grief, not least because its power has not saved it's people and territory from mortal attack and tragedy, and because of the belated recognition that power alone can and will never do so."

Justice Einfeld called for Australians not to be "paralysed by fear or apathy into ditching our traditional morality and kindness" and called for "major attitudinal change by leaders in government and the community".

Brotherhood Executive Director Father Nic Frances hailed Justice Einfeld's speech and called on an incoming federal government to show the political will necessary to tackle the issue of human rights violation occurring in Australia.

"This country could be leading the world in showing care for all its citizens," said Fr Frances. " Instead we are evoking world criticism, and spending the budget surplus, on trying to avoid our international human rights obligations by forcing small island nations to take asylum seekers, whose claims are more than likely to be assessed as genuine and who will end up in Australia anyway.

"Now with a promised troop deployment, it seems even more necessary to accept some sort of an obligation to the innocent people who will inevitably be displaced in the this conflict."

The full text of the 20th Annual Brotherhood of St Laurence annual Sambell Oration, 'Wake up Australia, the new world order: the human dimension', by Justice Marcus Einfeld, is available from: www.bsl.org.au. For more information, contact Helen Westerman, Media Officer, Brotherhood of St Laurence, on (03) 9483 1371 or mob: 0413 948 535.

CD "Scattered People"

Received 29 August from Chris Gibbings(chrisgibbings@email.com):

Asylum seeker CD wins music award

Simon Monsour and Brian Procopis have received the award for Best Producer at the 2001 Sunnie Awards of the Queensland Recording Association for their work on the album "Scattered People". It is a fitting reward for the efforts of two hard working, humble and generous people. It is also a great tribute to their talent. Their efforts came out of Simon's home studio and yet beat a field including some of the most well equipped production studios in Queensland.

The album evolved out of refugee claimants (asylum seekers) in Brisbane coming together to sing - finding and sharing their 'common ground' - their brokenness, their resilience, their frustrations and their hopes for the future. Songs were written and performed. Friends of the Refugee Claimants Support Centre contributed their songs as well and the CD was launched in late 2000.

One of the songs "Labarik Sira Hotu" has become well known in East Timor as the song used by the United Nations in their advertisements to encourage people to vote in the August 2001 elections. Afonso Corte Real, a Timorese Australian, was nominated for a Sunnie Award for this song.

The Scattered People CD was also nominated for the Sunnie Award for Best Album - Folk/Ethnic/Other.

Tragically, some members of the choir have been refused protection in Australia and have been forced to return to the countries from which they had escaped. We all fear for their safety. The Refugee Claimants Support Centre Choir has since disintegrated, its members demoralized, disempowered or deported. But their voices and their spirit carry on in this CD.

Many refugee claimants in Australia are denied work permission, language classes, access to health services and basic financial support while they undergo a prolonged wait (often years) for their fate to be determined. As legislation becomes increasingly harsh, the Refugee Claimants Support Centre struggles with extremely limited resources to provide assistance. We rely entirely on donations and fund-raising activities for the money to provide emergency relief assistance to clients. All profits from the sale of the Scattered People CD go to projects that assist refugee claimants. You can buy the CD from: the Good Shepherd Trading Circle (in Brisbane and Melbourne, I think), the Refugee Claimants Support Centre (in Brisbane, Tel: (07) 3357 9013, email: refugees@ecn.net.au), or the Scattered People website online http://www.brisbane-stories.webcentral.com.au/scatteredpeople You can also listen to the CD on this website.