Protests against closure of 150 Aboriginal communities

Alex Salmon reports on Protests against closure of 150 Aboriginal communities in Western Australia.

Amnesty International released a statement urging the Western Australian government not to forcibly evict Aboriginal people from the communities, as demolishing houses and denying indigenous people the right to practice their culture is a breach of human rights and international law.

Tammy Solonec, a human rights lawyer working with Amnesty International, slammed the hypocrisy of Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett for admitting that closing the communities will be traumatic for the people involved, while continuing a policy that will force indigenous people to break their connections to land and culture and force them to move to larger towns where they will have greater exposure to drugs, alcohol, violence and crime.

Destruction of a people's culture is considered to be genocide under international law.

But, if Australian Governments followed international law, they would admit refugees, restore Aboriginal land rights, not go to war in Iraq or Afghanistan, recognise the rights of the Palestinians to their own state. Such laws only applies to the official enemies of the US, not to its client states.

So why should workers fight for the right of Aboriginal communities to stay together on their ancestral land? It is about the rights of communities to determine their own future. It is about respecting the culture of others.

It is these things that will make a Communistic society viable.